by Kristi R. Johnson
The summer of 2020 can probably best be described as both too short and way too long. Having to spend a summer mostly inside and away from other people due to a pandemic is certainly a bummer, but as an introvert, I can say I was not too upset by it. I think what I miss the most about the “old normal” is being able to go to a book store and not worry about occupancy limits. It is weird out there, but I attempted to stick with my summer tradition of reading as much as I can.
I decided to go ahead and dive right into the difficult subject matter of My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. A young girl attending a well-respected boarding school enters into a relationship with her teacher, which ends in her expulsion and him keeping his job. Years later as an adult, she must come to terms with what happened to her, reconciling her memories with the facts. With Nabokov’s Lolita constantly looming in the background, this is a frustrating story for several reasons, the first of which is that this kind of stuff happens all of the time outside of fiction. Russell handles the subject with decency and grace, but I still recommend readers to proceed with caution.
Readers have been asking for more Hunger Games since the third book came out, so on the surface, Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a dream come true. But I am pretty sure what readers did not ask for is a plot line that focuses solely on Coriolanus Snow, the boy who would grow up to be president of Panem, and would serve as the main antagonist for Katniss Everdeen. That is what we get in the Hunger Games prequel. We follow young Snow as he mentors the female tribute from District 12, over 50 years before Katniss will volunteer as tribute. Learning about the early years of the Hunger Games, as well as the lore was fun and all, but hearing the story from Snow’s point of view is almost painful. And there is a love story, but it does nothing for the overall plot.
Elizabeth Acevedo is back writing in verse with Clap When You Land. Camino and Yahaira are sisters, but they have never met. In fact, they do not even know the other one exists until a plane crash takes their father away. He split his time between Brooklyn and the Dominican Republic, spending the majority of his time in one, and only the summers in the other. Now that he is gone, the truth is revealed, and Yahaira decides to reach out, perhaps attempting to cross a distance that may be too great. As someone who has always struggled with poetry, both in writing it and understanding it, a novel-in-verse is incredibly impressive to me. And it is a great story too! I cannot recommend it enough.
My first nonfiction book of the summer came from Phuc Tran in Sigh, Gone as he chronicles his young life as the son of Vietnamese immigrants. Growing up as the Asian punk rock/goth kid in small town Pennsylvania is hard enough. What made it even harder for Tran is the lack of understanding that came from his father. With the help of a core group of skater friends that are more than willing to come his aid against all racism, and the books he falls in loves with from the local library, Tran navigates a childhood full of questions about identity. If I had one issue with the books Tran picks to help tell his story, it would be the lack of diversity represented among the authors. Other than that, anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, or that their own family is against them, will relate to Tran’s story.
I enjoyed Lisa Wingate’s previous novel, Before We Were Yours, so it was an easy decision to pick up The Book of Lost Friends. In the post-Civil War south, the now free Hannie embarks on an adventure with Lavinia and Juneau Jane. Both are the daughters of Hannie’s former master – though one is illegitimate – and all three girls quickly find themselves in over their heads as they make their way through Texas. Over a 100 years later, Benedetta Silva is struggling during the first few days of her job at a poor rural school in Louisiana. Completely out of her depth, Benny decides she is not giving up, and instead comes up with a project to get her students more interested in their own history. Unfortunately, the town of Augustine is not too interested in new ideas, or new residents with big ideas. It can be difficult to properly tell two stories in one book, even if they are connected, but Wingate pulls it off, while maintaining the same amount in interest in both stories.
Unfortunately, this year’s San Antonio Book Festival was canceled due to the pandemic. Samantha Mabry, author of Tigers, Not Daughters, was scheduled to make an appearance to speak about and sign her book. Set in and around modern day Southtown in downtown San Antonio, the Torres sisters dream of one day escaping the home where they live with their needy and dependent father. After the oldest sister, Ana, dies after falling out of the second-story window, life inside the Torres house becomes even more impossible. Jessica is all anger and rage, only submitting to her abusive boyfriend; Iridian has decided to retreat from the world and into her books and writing; and young Rosa remains committed to helping animals, even the dangerous hyena that is rumored to be terrorizing the area. I liked reading a story that was set in my old neighborhood, but something about the overall narrative was disjointed. And because the chapters switched between the three remaining sisters, I was inevitably more interested in one more than the others.
Riot Baby by Tochi Onyebuchi has the twin blessings of being mercifully short and beautifully written. Born during the LA riots of the 1990s, Kev is given the nickname of Riot Baby, though it will be years before he understands what that means. His sister Ella is born with extraordinary power, but it is something that is never quite named in the book, though it is clear she could level cities through her rage over the injustices against black people in the U.S. When Kev is incarcerated, Ella periodically visits and attempts to show him what they could manage together and the revolution they could cause. My only complaint is that the book may have been too short, and I wanted to spend more time with Ella during her travels, watching her experiment with her powers.
I felt the need to have at least one epic reading adventure this summer, so I picked up The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. There are revenge fantasies, and then there is what takes place in the 1100+ pages of this book. Young and ambitious Edmond Dantes has his entire life turned upside down when he is wrongly accused of a crime and thrown in jail. He loses the promotion to captain of a merchant vessel that he was about to receive; the love of his life that he was mere minutes away from marrying; and of course, his freedom as he is put in a cell by himself and labeled a dangerous criminal. But with the help of a fellow inmate, and with unwavering determination, he is able to reclaim his life, and take revenge on those who wronged him. This book may be long, but it is certainly worth reading.
My second nonfiction pick for the summer was Hollywood Park by Mikel Jollett. Some may know Jollett as the frontman for the band The Airborne Toxic Event. Having spent the earliest part of his life in one of America’s most infamous cults, Jollett and his older brother are rescued by their mother. While this is certainly a positive move, it soon becomes apparent that his life will get worse before it gets better. Splitting his time and attention between a needy and manipulative mother, and a father who has fought hard to overcome his own demons, Jollett masterfully relates what it is like to spend a lifetime fighting against what seems to be a destructive destiny.
10 Things I Hate ABout Pinky is the third book in Sandhya Menon’s Dimple and Rishi series, and it continues the trend of fun and cute romance during the difficult but formative teen years. Pinky is a proud social justice warrior, always eager to champion even the smallest of causes, especially if it annoys her severe and serious mother. Samir could not be more different, having been homeschooled his entire life and used to planning his days through detailed lists. But when his summer plans fall through, he finds himself agreeing to one of Pinky’s ridiculous schemes, which puts these two clashing personalities in close proximity for the entire summer. Will they kill each other? Or will they both manage to learn enough about the other to become more than friends?
If there was an award for the most anticipated novel of the summer, I am fairly certain it would go to Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Noemi is used to the carefree life that comes with being young, wealthy, and attractive in 1950s Mexico City. But when a distressing letter arrives from her cousin, Catalina, Noemi must head to a small town in the Mexican countryside to make sure she is okay. What Noemi finds is the failing estate of the family her cousin married into. The husband, Virgil, seems nice enough, if a little intense, but other members of the household put Noemi on edge. Well, all except Francis. The longer Noemi stays in the house, the more she begins to experience weird dreams and see things that should not be possible. As she learns more and more about the family, the house, and even the surrounding city, she is able to slowly put together how much danger she and her cousin are in. I will say that I expected more from this novel. It is certainly original, and creepy, and interesting. But something about it felt like stories we have all read before.
So there they are. The summer of 2020 has been a strange and intense one, and I know that some who are normally avid readers have been having a hard time sitting still long enough to read a book. Maybe it is the general sense of anxiety that has settled over everything, or even the feeling that we should all be doing…more. Either way, I am glad I still carved out some time to read. Hopefully next summer will be a little less restrictive and a little more joyful.
OLLU's Academic Center for Excellence 