]Twenty Boy Summer, a YA novel about two girls struggling to come to terms with the death of their best friend, hits like a most beautifully wrapped ton of bricks. Frankie and Anna are best friends, journeying on a spectacular trip to California. Last year Frankie’s older brother Matt spend a dazzling month secretly dating their best friend Anna before Matt died of an undiagnosed heart problem.
The book starts out describing how lucky the girls were to have survived the accident (Matt was driving when his heart gave), then proceeds to reveal what a misnomer “survival” is. Even a year later Frankie’s family is torn apart by their loss, and Anna, having sworn to keep her relationship with Matt a secret, is devastated at not being allowed to properly mourn her own loss (or even understand what exactly she’s lost).
So the girls make a plan to meet twenty boys in their quest to lose their virginity and leave their heartache behind. But their search only triggers all the fears and emotions left behind, particularly as Anna is terrified that moving on will make what she had with Matt less special.
Twenty Boy Summer is beautiful, heartbreaking and a raw read through and through. While there are very few surprises here, and the plot is all character and angst driven, it speaks, very strongly, to anyone who has lost someone they love and has gone through the mourning process. This is not a fluffy, light-hearted fictional read, or even a fiction tale with serious, dark undertones. Twenty Boy Summer bears a resemblance the nineties film My Girl and the Katherine Paterson book The Bridge to Terabithia, set after the landmark character deaths and in a teen setting. Soulful and beautiful it’s a must, but difficult, read.
Contains: Sex, frank talk about sex, frank talk about death and loss
Recommended for: 14 & up (firm)