Thank you St. Martin’s Press, #partner for the advanced copy of The Girls of Summer in exchange for my honest review. I borrowed the audiobook from the library.
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Macmillan Audio
Published: June 6, 2023
Summary:
“That place has been my whole life. Everything I thought I knew about myself was constructed in those few months I spent within touching distance of the sea. Everything I am is because Alistair loved me.”
Rachel has been in love with Alistair for fifteen years. Even though she’s now married to someone else. Even though she was a teenager when they met. Even though he is twenty years older than her.
Rachel and Alistair’s summer love affair on a remote, sun-trapped Greek island has consumed her since she was seventeen, obliterating everything in its wake. But as Rachel becomes increasingly obsessed with reliving the events of so long ago, she reconnects with the other girls who were similarly drawn to life on the island, where the nights were long, the alcohol was free-flowing and everyone acted in ways they never would at home. And as she does so, dark and deeply suppressed secrets about her first love affair begin to rise to the surface, as well as the truth about her time working for an enigmatic and wealthy man, who controlled so much more than she could have ever realized.
Joining a post #MeToo discourse, The Girls of Summer grapples with themes of power, sex, and consent, as it explores the complicated nature of memory and trauma––and what it takes to reframe, and reclaim, your own story.
My thoughts:
Don’t be fooled by this gorgeous cover…this is not the romantic, summery read you want it to be. And how it’s a debut it beyond me!
This book, with its lush writing that transports you to Greece, so easily shows the tricks our memory can play on us as well as the lies we tell ourselves just go get by. Told using a dual timeline, we follow Rachel when she is seventeen on a holiday to Greece with her friend Caroline where she meets an older man and starts a secret romance. Now, sixteen years later, Rachel is married to Tom and has come back to the island, only to find out she is still haunted by all that happened that one summer.
This is not always an easy read, with the heavy themes such as abuse, trauma and consent. It’s thought-provoking and very timely and is one that I have not stopped thinking about, even though I read it a while back. Sometimes, it’s easier to lie to ourselves than accept the truth of what really happened.
Audiobook
I decided to listen to this one and thought the narrator, Annabel Scholey, did a great job with the narration. Her pacing was spot on and she infused just the right amount of tension and emotion into her voice as needed.
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