Title: Invincible Summer
Author: Hannah Moskowitz [twitter]
Genre: Contemporary
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Format: eBook
Source: Publisher (via Galley Grab)
Parental Advisory: sex, drugs, alcohol, language, death
Teachable Moments: sibling rivalry, grief, sexuality

“I want to feel sad about this and I do, in a way, but a bigger part of me than I’d like to admit is relieved.  I don’t regret kissing Bella, but it does feel like something I did when I was a lot younger.  It feels like a conversation we never finished, and I think it’s been too long to pick it back up.  It’s not the grates situation, but it’s not as if Bella is my girlfriend, so maybe it’s better for both of us to just let it go.  We’re not fourteen anymore.”

Describing Venus (from publisher):
Noah’s happier than I’ve seen him in months.  So I’d be an awful brother to get in the way of that.  It’s not like I have some relationship with Melinda.  It was just a kiss.  Am I going to ruin Noah’s happiness because of a kiss?

Across four sun-kissed, drama-drenched summers at his family’s beach house, Chase is falling in love, falling in lust, and trying to keep his life from falling apart.  But some girls are addictive.

How Mars & Venus Don’t Meet:
This was not the “sun kissed summer” book I was expecting.  I was hoping for a quick romp on the beach with a little romance and some fun in the sun.  Maybe some palatable angst in between.

So.not.what.happened.

The bulk of this story was about dysfunction.  Family, relationship….you name it, it had problems.  Most specifically, the brotherly “love” triangle.  That storyline was completely lost on me.  Don’t get me wrong, I get that brothers share things.  Sometimes even girls.  But more times than not that is over time — one summer one brother is with her then slowly the other takes over.  But in this case, it was almost incestuous.  I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that either boy would be accepting of the other being intimate with Melinda at the same time.  There is dysfunction and then there is just kinda yuck.  This fell on the side of both, but on the side of yuck far more.

Moreover, I couldn’t quite figure out what about Melinda was so appealing to either boy.  Well, outside of sex that is.  She was broken (as I suppose each of them were) and crass and there wasn’t much about her personality that made her likable.  It would have been better for me as a reader to see a girl with softer edges, someone worth rooting for.  Then I could have seen where the two brothers could be drawn to the same girl and would have wanted to see them both fight for her.  But this girl didn’t have any qualities that brought her to that level. The fact that she was a fixer upper should have been somewhat appealing.  It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing that she had problems but from this reader’s point of view someone like that has to have something redeemable about them and Melinda didn’t.  Furthermore, Chase threw away the opportunity to be with a girl with real potential to provide a stable and loving relationship.  I just didn’t get how he could so easily disregard that chance so that he could try to be with the girl he knew his brother was in love with.

Yuck.

Oh, and the use of Camus as a plot element?  It aged the characters way beyond their years.  I don’t know any kid that age that quotes philosophy that much, let alone tries to shape actions in their lives around it.  Now had they been song lyrics from say Eddie Vedder or Kurt Cobain, that would have made it more realistic.  That I could have seen.

Invincible Summer is not without it’s high points though.  The best parts of the story revolve around a sudden tragedy.  The depth of emotion and the strength of each boy’s reaction stirred a sadness in me and came close to saving the book.  Had this event happened earlier and been the central focus of the story overall I suspect I would have enjoyed Invincible Summer.  Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be.

I’ll also add that Moskowitz’s writing is the kind I am most attracted to.  It’s descriptive enough to give a feeling for time and space but not flowery in it’s prose and her dialogue is straight-forward.  I appreciated that she wasn’t all about having characters talk just for the sake of hearing their own voices.  Because of this I would certainly consider giving her work another try.

Maybe your Mars & Venus Align:
My inability to get into this book should not be the only thing you hear.  I’d much prefer you end on a positive note.  Please visit these reviews to get more information and make a more informed choice:

Chick Loves Lit

Phoebe North