Perennials

by Mandy Berman

"Rachel and Fiona meet at Camp Marigold, in the lush hills of the Berkshires when they are pre-adolescents: girls who are on the cusp of young-adulthood, insecure and curious in equal turns about sex, desperate for recognition and a sense of belonging to something greater than themselves. Rachel is a tough, feisty girl from Manhattan; Fiona a more reticient girl from the suburbs, always in Rachel's shadow. Together with their families, lovers, fellow counselors and campers the two will navigate the transition from girlhood to womanhood, learning who they are and who they want to become. Perennials is a beautifully distilled love song to the pains and pleasures of growing up. Full of wit, insight, and a piercing emotional keenness, Perennials will transport readers to a world of forests and lakes, birdsongs and campfires, where nothing ever changes and everything does over the course of a single summer."--

• ISBN10: 0399589317
• ISBN13: 9780399589317
• Publish Date: 6 June 2017
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Imprint: Random House
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

This book was not bad. It was actually an interesting character study, which presented snapshots of all these different people. The people were very different from each other, but they were connected through Camp Marigold.

My general issue is that I cannot accept this as a YA book. Yes, there were characters in this book who fit the age for upper YA, and maybe they did get the most page time, but there were all these other characters, who had entire chapters dedicated to them, and were unrelated to anything going on between Rachel and Fiona. In fact, some of the chapters were dedicated to peripheral adults, and they shared some very adult problems from very adult perspectives. I am in my 40s, so I appreciated reading these chapters. I found them to be a provocative look into these people's lives, and the issues they were dealing with. However, I felt like it took the focus off of Fiona and Rachel, and I was expecting their story.

I am ok with character studies and no plot, but this was a sad slice of life. I do tend towards books that are a little lighter or at least are laced with hope, but this on was imbued in woe. And then the ending was so abrupt. I was hoping to get a little bump there, but it just sort of ended.