Review: Invincible Summer by Hannah Moskowitz

Summer.

It’s the season of innocence, fun, laughter, all the things it means to live. For Chase McGill, summer is his constant in his ever changing life. When everything is falling apart, he feels he can always count on summer to be there. Taking place over four summers at his family’s beach house, Chase finds that even his summers can not go untouched by change. It is during those summers that he looses friendships, his innocence, and his ideals of a family.

I don’t usually read a lot of contemporary novels. Most just don’t seem to fascinate me like fantasy or paranormal does.

Though, maybe this may have something to do with the fact that I have the attention span of a gnat. Any who, this book really spoke to me. I could entirely relate to Chase and what he was going through, mostly due to the fact that I myself have experienced it. I cried because the emotion was that raw for me.

The setting was entirely convincing. I could picture the beach, the boardwalk, shops, the sand, and the beach house. Hannah Moskowitz made me feel the summer.

The characters were also well written. By the time the novel was halfway done, I could easily tell who said what without being told. They were pretty realistic for the most part. However, there are two things that bothered me. (1) Chase and Noah quoting Albert Cumas. One or two quotes here and there I could believe. But these teenagers were, at times, quoting paragraphs. Word for word. I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact they would actually do that on summer vacation. I don’t even remember attempting to use that part of my brain during summer break. But I just let that slide and went with it. But then Gideon, their deaf, younger brother asks Chase to read him some Cumas as a bedtime story. At age 8. At that point, I’m like, “C’mon!” (2) At times Chase didn’t feel like a male POV. Most notably when it came to the relationship with his older brother Noah. He seemed a bit clingy at times. However, it was refreshing to read a male POV. Those two issues are relatively small and the book is still a really good read. I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from the book that really spoke to me:

When you’re grieving, the times you’re happy are so much more tragic than the times that you aren’t. Because being happy feels fake and it feels temporary and it feels meaningless. And hating being happy is a shitty way to live.