Thursday, March 31, 2016

REVIEW: The Summer the World Ended by Matthew S. Cox

*** (3) out of 5 stars

I must say that I really liked the main character, Riley, even though she came off as a bit one-dimensional and somewhat unbelievable to me.  But I got SO tired of listening to her whine through the entire book.  Granted, she had every reason to do so: her mom dies, then she gets dragged away from her one and only friend, and shipped off across the country to live with a rather odd dad whom she hasn’t seen in years.  I’d be crying and whining the entire time too!  But it got real old real fast having to listen to (read about) it constantly.  And the fact that there was very little to no other action occurring in the book certainly didn’t help.  I felt as trapped in this story as the people she meets feel trapped in the isolated little town she moves to with her father. 

Most other reviews I’ve read talk about the astonishing twist near the end; which I did find interesting, but actually wasn’t all that surprised by.  Maybe just because I’ve seen and read quite a bit about mental health issues, I started wondering about certain things quite early on.  But there were explanations that could be made for many of the things Riley encountered, so things could have gone either way.

And it was pretty much a fairy tale ultimate ending; with things seeming to work out almost too well in the end.  Having worked in foster care, it seemed almost unbelievable how smoothly everything went.  Although it was nice to see Riley finally somewhat happy! 

Overall, it was not a bad read at all, but I just couldn’t past the incessant whining!


I received an electronic copy of this book free from the author and Choosy Bookworm in exchange for an honest review. 

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