Twenty Boy Summer

I first thought that Twenty Boy Summer was just another happy summer story. But I guess I was totally wrong.

We were introduced to Anna Reiley, a sixteen-year-old girl, conservative and shy, a best friend of the happy-go-lucky Francesca 'Frankie' Perino. Together with Frankie's brother, Matt, the three of them were inseparable. But then something happened, and their life was turned upside-down.

This book really bring us to take a break from life, think about it, and cherish every moment like it's the last. For me, it was very touching because I can totally relate to the story, about heartbreak, loss, betrayal, moving on, it all happens in our teenage years, the same way it happened to Anna.

The character is, I think, were perfectly distinguishable. They each have their own unique personality, and the way they deal with problem, with life, with grief, was beautifully told it became the part of the story flawlessly.

Overall, I really love this book, and it's very recommended for you who loves tearjerker, contemporary novel. Get your tissue ready, cause you're gonna need it. ( )

Fifteen-year-old Anna Reiley had her greatest, most secret wish fulfilled on her birthday when her best-friend-who’s-a-boy Matt kissed her. Although Anna is ecstatic that something is finally happening between her and the boy she’s loved forever, it’s also a complicated situation: Matt is Anna’s best friend Frankie’s older brother, and the three of them are a trio of best friends with a lot of history. Matt asks Anna to keep their new relationship a secret until he can tell Frankie himself, and she reluctantly agrees. When tragedy strikes and Matt dies, Anna is stuck with a secret that she feels obligated to keep from her broken-hearted best friend.

A year later, the two girls are heading off to Zanzibar Beach with Frankie’s parents for a three-week vacation. Frankie is determined to help Anna lose the albatross around her neck (a.k.a. her virginity), and so she cooks up a plan for them to meet 20 boys in hopes that at least one of them will be the vehicle for said virginity loss. Anna isn’t so keen on the plan, but she feels trapped by her secret. What she doesn’t plan on is finding a boy that she might maybe could like a little bit, and if she can like someone else, does that mean she’s forgetting about Matt?

Sarah Ockler’s novel is so good that it makes me wish her publisher had chosen a better title. It’s not even that the title is bad, because it isn’t, but it evokes images of a breezy, fluffy summer read. Anna and Frankie’s journey is not breezy, and it’s certainly not fluffly. The book is the kind that sucks you in and doesn’t let go until you’ve finished the book and have been reduced to a breathless, blubbering mess. It is that good.

Anna narrates the story with an intensely personal style and provides keen observations in a straightforward way. The book provides one of the most honest portrayals of grief, friendship and loss this reader has ever seen. Ockler’s prose is beautiful, her descriptions of the ocean are pitch-perfect, and the book is full of beautiful sentences that beg to be turned into quotes.

One could argue that there is nothing more heartbreaking than first love barely realized before it’s cut short by tragedy, and that’s exactly what’s at work in this story. Matt and Anna have only a few pages together at the beginning of the novel, but Ockler’s talented enough to structure this so that the reader is immediately connected and invested. Even though the ghost of Matt lives on in both of the girls, the loss that is felt is almost palpable.

When Matt dies, the reader immediately understands the predicament that Anna finds herself in. Should she protect Frankie from what Matt never got to tell her, or should she try to explain how she feels about him? What’s more, is there even anything to tell? Because Anna is working so hard to protect the fragile Frankie, she’s never able to fully deal with her own grief.

Anna’s narration provides the reader with a full array of the complexities of her emotions. Her secret is eating her up inside, but she keeps it in, choosing instead to write one-sided letters to Matt in her journal. Anna’s dilemma when she meets cute boy Sam on vacation is clear as well: if she can have feelings for Sam, does that mean she forgets about Matt? Is there a statute of limitations when it comes to cheating on a ghost?

It’s not just the character of Anna that is so wonderful in this story, though. Frankie is also full of depth and flaws and is yet sympathetic. The drastic changes she undergoes after the death of her brother present themselves in her behavior and physical appearance, as well as her tendency to boss Anna around. But it is also visible in her inability to say what she means or wants to say—she literally cannot say what she means because she is forever making up and misusing words. It is these kinds of details that make the story so real.

One final detail worth mentioning is how Ockler handles the summer romance of Anna and Sam. Sam is a sweet, cute boy who is kind to Anna. Their slow-building attraction and tender interactions with each other are the epitome of a summer romance, and the fact that they both know that their relationship ends with Anna’s vacation lends a realness to the story that many other YA novels often choose to avoid.

Ockler’s book is one that moved me so profoundly that I ordered my own copy as soon as I finished it. I intend to recommend this book to nearly everyone I know. I cannot wait to see what Ockler has in store for readers next.
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really a 3.5 - better than average chick lit for teens ( )

The book Twenty Boy Summer by Sara Ockler is about best friends Frankie and Anna who go on vacation to California for a month during the summer. Frankie challenges Anna to see if they can get 20 boyfriends over their vacation. But there’s a problem, Anna is in love with a boy named Matt and is scared to like anyone else. Matt is Frankie’s dead brother who died in a car accident the last summer when him and Anna had a secret little relationship going,
Twenty Boy Summer was really good! It had lots of surprises and things you didn’t see coming. I really like the describing words the author uses like “Sparkly” and “Gorgeous” and other pretty words like that. I also enjoyed how a lot of it is about Anna and Frankie’s friendship and how it grew. I’d give this book 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it to any teenage girl. ( )

I debated long and hard whether I should read this. When I saw my library had it, I decided I may as well go ahead and make the reservation. But when I got it, I put it off. For days. Weeks. It seemed too fluffy and the idea of reading about two girls who planned to meet twenty boys in the hope of a summer fling just didn’t appeal to me, even with the backstory of the best friend’s dead brother. Imagine my surprise when I finally opened it and found it to be a story about so much more than that.

Ironically, Frankie and Anna don’t reach twenty boys. They don’t even reach ten. Where I assumed I’d see Frankie dragging Anna through a myriad of boys, Anna making loads of mistakes along the way which she then regrets, I instead got something meaningful. Witty. Don’t get me wrong, there were mistakes. But it was less a superficial account and more a journey of losing someone and then learning how to let them go. We only get to see Matt, Frankie’s brother, for a short time at the beginning, but it was enough to make me feel his absence when he died. I also felt sorry for Anna, who’d been in love with him. Unknown to Frankie, the two of them had been together. Matt planned to tell Frankie when they were on holiday, but death intervened – leaving Anna on her own, holding on to a secret that’s crushing her.

‘I never say anything about him.
I just swallow hard.
Nod and smile.
One foot in front of the other.
I’m fine, thanks for not asking.’

Each thing that reminded her of Matt while she was in California, each thing that made her sad, made me sad too. Anna’s a pretty strong girl. At the same time as hiding her pain, she has to keep an eye on her best friend and pretty much go with what she wants in order to prevent a breakdown, and also just to see Frankie happy. That doesn’t mean I didn’t disapprove of her actions sometimes – there were definitely times when she shouldn’t have let Frankie walk all over her, and there was one decision she acted on that she really should have put off for a few years, regardless of the fact that it worked out OK. But it was moving to see all the emotional turmoil, her fear of forgetting Matt and everything they’d shared.

Sam, the guy Anna ended up falling for in California, didn’t fail to capture a piece of my heart. He wasn’t one of those guys who only want girls for one thing and then abandon them. He matched her pace and got her to see things beyond what her eyes allowed; he got her to imagine and really feel. He stopped her the one time she was in danger of getting too drunk and when he found out about Matt, he didn’t leave. He stood by her and supported her and gave her some really sensible advice. Sam was just a really sweet guy. I think I would have been happier if the two had made arrangements to see each other again afterwards. But their parting was without drama, it was real and it was a sweet end to the perfect summer romance. Sarah Ockler has definitely done a great job with her teen characters. Anna and Frankie each have their own realistic journey and I was glad when they opened up at the end. Frankie’s parents, however, left a somewhat unresolved issue. I agreed with her when she said to Anna she wanted them to act on her behaviour, to do somethinginstead of just be wilfully blind. I would have liked to see them grow, too.

Ockler has created here a perfect blend of light and dark, humour and meaning. Her writing created moments of thought and reflection, observation and feeling. I tried to pick a quote as an example but then I realised that it all sort of came together, scenes and sections that merged to create a particular image or tone. The messages and themes behind the book have been portrayed really well, as have the personal journeys and realistions. Her writing was so vivid it was like I was right there with Anna. It was just...beautiful.

Overall, Twenty Boy Summer is not the silly and superficial read I was expecting. Beyond the title lies the story of a girl who struggles to move on while caught up in the past and afraid of letting go; a girl who forces her best friend to admit that she’s not fine and that she, too, needs to move on. It made me laugh and it made me sad. Honest and raw, it was really a sweet read that touched my heart.

This review is also posted on my blog. ( )