SuitabookThe summers
Iva-Marie Palmer
- Reading
- If bereavement or romantic conflict may feel personal, read alongside the young person and pause after family or relationship turning points. Discuss what characters choose, rather than assuming their choices are endorsed.
- Themes
- Grief and returning home: Kate and her sisters return to the family’s Cape Cod beach house after their mother’s death and a three-year absence. The return appears to place grief beside familiar summer memories and new family circumstances.
- Romance and sisterly conflict: Kate has a long-standing crush on Ryan, who was involved with her older sister Eliza, and Kate considers pursuing him when the family reunites for Eliza’s wedding. The situation foregrounds competing loyalties and the difficulty of separating romantic desire from an existing sisterly history.
- Growing self-awareness: Kate is described as wanting to write, while one reader notes that she becomes better able to see beyond herself towards the end. The story may connect creative ambition with Kate’s changing understanding of other people.
- Worth knowing
- The book includes the death of Kate’s mother, romantic rivalry involving a sister’s former boyfriend, secrecy around a relationship, and reported stalking of a former girlfriend. The ending and consequences are unclear.