Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz

Title: Invincible Summer

Author Hannah Moskowitz

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Rating: 4 stars

---May contain some spoilers!---

Chase and the rest of McGill family (his parent, his older brother Noah, his younger sister Claudia, and his younger deaf brother Gideon) always spend summer at the beach together with the Hathaway family. Noah always had a summer fling with Hathaway's oldest daughter, Melinda, and Chase always be the one who act like oldest brother. But things doesn't always stay the same and as they grew older, more problems starting to show up: ranging hormones, puberty, school, and parents. Trying to keep his brother Noah stayed with their family, helping his parent took care Gideon, keeping eye on the more-mature younger sister, Claudia, while pressing his sexual interest toward Melinda, Chase took the changes in one huge gulp and felt devastated by it. This is not a book about romance, this is about a boy who grew up in somewhat dysfunctional family, forced to be mature before his age, and finally learned that no matter what happened, family always comes first.

The cover and the blurb were misleading. I thought it was a summer romance story, but I was mistaken. I was completely blown away by the ending and ended up giving this book 5 stars at Goodreads, however after I remember all the details and my reading progress, I have to drop one stars. That doesn't mean the book sucks though, quite the contrary, this book is awesome. The characters are interesting; the connection between them were real although the bromance between Noah and Chase made me lift my eyebrow a bit. I felt in love with Gideon, Chase's deaf brother, half-amused half-cringed by Claudia's attitude, and curious about what would happened between Chase, Noah, and Melinda.


However, as much as I love this book, there are some parts that bores me; one of that was Camus quotation. One or two sentences would be fine, but I felt like they practically remember every bit of the book. It was hard to believe that three teenagers who are not a bookworm capable of doing that. The best part must be toward the end on the book. It torn my heart into pieces and it made me cried. The author did a great job in exploring the tragedy; one moment I was reading casually and the next moment my heart was thumping heavily and then, when my fear was confirmed, tears were falling from my eyes. The emotional turmoil that happened within the family was almost unbearable. I could felt the sadness and anger in Chase's heart and the guilt that hanging over Noah's head.

This is a must-read book for those who love family stories and coming-out-of-age stories. Don't be discouraged by the label tragedy; you'll miss some interesting stories.

Lynossa

Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz