A Midsummer's Nightmare (Hamilton High)

by Kody Keplinger

Whitley Johnson's dream summer of shopping, partying and tanning on the beach has just turned into a nightmare. Because Dad didn't tell her he doesn't live by the beach anymore, or that he's no longer a bachelor. He's picked up and moved to a tiny, lame town called Hamilton and gotten himself a fiance. A fiance whose son just happens to be what's-his-name from last week's drunken graduation party one night stand. Just freakin' great.
As if the summer couldn't get worse, Dad seems to forget Whitley's even there. She doesn't fit in with his perfect new country club family, and Whitley does what any kid lucky enough to go all summer unsupervised does: she parties. Hard.
So hard that she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a younger future step-sister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't 'do friends') and a smoking hot, sweet guy who isn't her step brother (yet) and who actually seems to care for her. It will take all three of them to convince her that they're not phoneys, and to get Whitley to get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

From the author of The Duff - now a major film starring Bella Thorne, Mae Whitman and Alison Janney, out in DVD in Summer 2015.

• ISBN10: 1444916866
• ISBN13: 9781444916867
• Publish Date: 6 February 2014 (first published 1 January 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Hodder Children's Books
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Angie]

I wasn't sure about A Midsummer's Nightmare in the beginning. Whitley is a hard girl to warm up to, but it's all part of the journey. When it starts, Whitley has just woken up in some guys bed after a night of partying. She never plans on seeing him again, since she's heading off to her dad's for her last summer before college. She certainly doesn't expect him to have the same exact plans, since he's her father's fiancee's son. Awkward.

A Midsummer's Nighmare is stepbrother Romance before stepbrother Romance was a thing. Minus the angst. Well, there's definitely teenage angst, because Whitley is going through some things, but the romance is actually really slow and sweet. In fact, Whitley spends most of the book having drunken hookups with everyone except for her future stepbrother, Nathan. This, of course, gets her into some major trouble. And I don't mean with her father.

Whitley's constant partying is a main focus of the story. She drinks to excess to basically avoid life. It takes her awhile to realize exactly what she's doing, but she does get to the root of the problem with a little help from her friends. She's been consistently pushing people away for years, and the only person she wants to be close to is her father, but this summer is different. He's been too busy. He doesn't even notice when her drinking gets out of hand. Needless to say, those two needed to have a serious conversation.

Ultimately, A Midsummer's Nightmare is more about Whitley's connection to her family, both old and new. Her partying ways were an attempt to cover up some real hurt, when what she really needed was somebody to really see her and listen. She got that in the last place she expected, with her new stepfamily. The hot boyfriend was just a bonus. If you can get past Whitley's bad attitude in the first third or so, this is one great read.

[ellieroth]

Publicado originalmente: El Extraño Gato del Cuento

Tengo una cosa muy rara con los libros de Kody Keplinger, al principio, sin pensar mucho me agradan y aún así me deja esa sensación de incomodidad que no puedo sacarme y es mejor pensar bien lo que quiero decir antes de publicar algo, ya me pasó con The Duff, no es que ahora piense distinto pero me hubiera gustado pensarlo un poco más y decir más cosas que quizá las diga ahora con este libro.

Sexo y padres disfuncionales.

Creo que antes de que el boom New Adult y que se denominará propiamente New Adult, Kody Keplinger ya traía libros juveniles dónde el tema predominante era el sexo y, es como que la marca de la autora, tanto así que cuando anunció publicaría un libro middle grade muchos, bueno, me incluiré, nos asustamos bastante. ¿Por qué? Porque Kody habla abiertamente y con bastante naturalidad del sexo en personajes jóvenes. Sé, créanme sé, que en la actualidad el sexo se experimenta desde edades muy (a veces demasiado) tempranas. Y en el momento en que leía A Midsummer's Nightmare salía de leer de amores para siempre y dónde todas las protagonistas sólo experimentaban el sexo con su único y verdadero amor. El libro me tuvo entre pensar "esto está bien, debemos aceptarnos" pero también "no estoy acostumbrada a esto, me siento incómoda". ¿Es normal sentirse así? Salí de mi zona de comfort, asumo que es normal.

No sé si será coincidencia pero si han leído los libros de Kody, como que culpa a la madre de muchos de los problemas de la protagonista, no directamente sin embargo ellas tienen a ser parte importante de las decisiones un tanto "rebeldes" y drásticas que toman; en The Duff una madre ausente y aquí el estereotipo de madre divorciada y amargada. En cierta forma es algo que no me gustó del todo, las protagonistas obviamente tienen Daddy Issues, A Midsummer's Nightmare es básicamente de todo lo que trata.

Incómodo

Una de las cosas que he mencionado muchas veces en varias reseñas es lo resentida que soy, lo difícil que se me hace perdonar a los personajes cuando hacen algo con lo que no estoy de acuerdo, aquí tanto Whitley como su padre no son exactamente personajes a los que les tenga mucho aprecio como personas/personajes. Dije al inicio que terminé el libro con una sensación de incomodidad, eso es porque Whitley y yo somos extremadamente diferentes, ella es la típica chica fiestera con la nunca voy a conectar, tanto en los libros como en la vida real y la relación con su papá, bueno, fue demasiado necesitada por parte de ella al final.

En conclusión, lo que pienso ahora sobre el libro y lo que pensé el año pasado no ha cambiado mucho, al menos según mis notas guardadas: Me gustó que Whitley llega a madurar en algún momento, me gustó como la autora implemente el cyberbullying, algo mucho más común en la actualidad (es un libro de 2012 así que no es taan antiguo). Me gustó también cómo Kody se las arregló para que yo no odiara a la nueva familia de Whitley, por lo general tiendo a tener mucho resentimiento a las nuevas cosas, y no lo negaré, las tuve al inicio pero al terminar el libro creo que estuve molesta con las personas indicadas y mi personalidad influyó en que yo no perdonara a algunas personas o conectara con ciertas acciones.



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[jeannamichel]

Whitley has always enjoyed the summers, when she took a break from crazy mom and got to stay with dad in his trendy bachelor pad. That is all about to change. After a night of crazy partying, Whitley wakes up with someone she doesn’t even remember the name of. She blows the whole thing off like no big deal and is determined to start the summer right. Instead, her father surprises her with a new fiancée and the fiancée’s kids. One of the kids happens to be that guy that she slept with, what was his name again? With such a great start to the last summer before heading off to college, how can this summer get any worse?

Kody Keplinger is awesome. I have looked out for her books, ever since falling in love with The DUFF in 2011. Being so young, Keplinger knows how it is to be a teen in today’s society which gives her books such a modern, original feel. After reading her books, I have a feeling that I know a part of who she is and that is why I was so compelled to interview her last year. (You can see the awesome interview HERE.) She truly is a fantastic writer and I hope to be reading many of her books in the years to come.

As for A Midsummer’s Nightmare, I am still trying to process it all because it was such a fast read. First off, I love companion novels. I was not aware that this novel was a companion novel to The DUFF until I was immersed in Whitley’s world. Companion novels can sometimes give you glimpses of characters that you knew and loved from the previous novel and I loved saying hello to Wesley and Bianca. However, the main character was not my favorite. She was such a party animal, drinking is her safety net, and “I don’t care about anything” attitude was definitely a total turn-off for me. Her narration did not bother me, which surprised even myself because I could not relate to her at all. Still, Keplinger made her audience interact with the book because the entire time, I was responding to every plot twist, every turn.

The plot was a page-turning adventure of an awful summer. I felt sorry for a lot of characters, going through such a summer. One thing that I found odd was the forbidden love aspect. As much as Whitley changed through the course of the summer, I could not quite see her relationship with Nathan working out. The whole thing was very cute, but also very weird and I am still not sure how I feel about the romantic relationship.

The ending was adorable. I always love to see the journey of a character’s transformation and I believe that Whitley changed a lot and gained a lot from the awful summer. The ending puts the reader in a hopeful sense for the main character. A Midsummer’s Nightmare is a cute read for the beach and makes you want to devour every other work of Kody Keplinger.

[Amber]

Really liked this. It lost a star because the MMC frustrated me and I still didn't like him at the end.

Full review here: http://booksofamber.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/a-midsummers-nightmare-by-kody-keplinger.html

More awesome work from Kody Keplinger. As usual, she is able to perfectly capture a teen lifestyle and mould it to fit the deeper issue at hand.

Whitley is suffering from her parents' divorce, and she is dealing with it by acting out as a cry for help. In the summer before college, she's going to spend the summer with her dad... and his new family that she knew nothing about.

I loved Whitley so much, just like I love all of Kody's main protagonists. I did find her to be annoyingly judgemental at times, particularly when she was at a party held by one of Kody's other MCs. Besides that, I loved her and her relationship with her new step sister and her step mother, which had both positive and negative moments. I wasn't a huge fan of her gay best friend, as he seemed very stereotypical and I feel he could have been fleshed out a bit more.

Nathan is Whitley's love interest and her soon-to-be stepbrother. If you were reading my updates on Goodreads then you will know that I didn't like him AT ALL. He was a horrible person and he was a bastard to Whitley. I'm sorry, but I could not root for the two of them after he flipped out over stupid things and called Whitley a whore. No thank you. I'm not a fan.

Aside from him, I really did like this book. I absolutely love Kody Keplinger's writing, and while I didn't love this book as much as I loved The DUFF, I still really, really liked A Midsummer's Nightmare.