Summer Sisters

by Judy Blume

When Victoria Leonard answers the phone in her Manhattan office, Caitlin's voice catches her by surprise. Vix hasn't talked to her oldest friend in months. Caitlin's news takes her breath away--and Vix is transported back in time to the moment she and Caitlin Somers first met, back to the casual betrayals and whispered confessions of their long, complicated friendship, back to the magical island where two friends became Summer Sisters.Caitlin dazzled Vix from the start, sweeping her into a world of the Somers family--a world of privilege adventure and sexual daring. Vix's bond with her summer family forever reshapes her ties to her own, opening doors to opportunities she had never imagined--until the summer she falls passionately in love. Then, in one shattering moment on a moonswept Vineyard beach, everything changes, exposing a dark undercurrent in her extraordinary friendship with Caitlin that will haunt them through the years.A riveting exploration of the choices that define our lives, of friendship and love, of the families we are born into and those we struggle to create, and a story for every woman who has ever had a friend too dangerous to forgive and too essential to forget, Summer Sisters will keep you listening--and remembering.

• ISBN10: 0440295726
• ISBN13: 9780440295723
• Publish Date: 4 May 1999 (first published 1 January 1998)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Imprint: Dell Publishing Company
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

Summer Sisters wasn’t bad, but I feel like it could have been better.

Vix and Caitlin have a relationship that is simple and complicated all at once. Vix just falls into it, really. Caitlin decides she likes her, and that’s all it takes. Because Caitlin always gets what she wants. She’s the wild child, Vix is her shadow.

The book spends a lot of time in their teen years, which is part of its weakness. I thought it would have been more interesting to explore their relationships after high school and college, but it seemed like Blume was more comfortable writing them as teens.

I had a hard time suspending disbelief when it came to Vix’s family. I can sorta buy her parents letting her go off across the country with a family they don’t really know, but after a family tragedy, her family basically disappears from her life. It was weird.

I also didn’t really care for the little one-two page pieces from the point of view of minor characters. Sometimes they added a different perspective, but more often than not they were just noise.

Overall this wasn’t a bad read — I never felt like putting it down for good — but I think it could have been a lot better.

[mitabird]

2.5 stars