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The Last Summer of the Camperdowns
By Elizabeth Kelly
(Liveright Publishing Corporation, Hardcover, 9780871403407, June 2013, 383pp.)

The Short of It:

Money, greed, power and a young girl by the name of Riddle.

The Rest of It:

It’s 1972 and twelve-year-old Riddle James is not at all pleased over what the summer holds for her. Her father Godfrey, affectionately called Camp, is running for Congress and her mother Greer, a once famous actress, is the all too present figure in Riddle’s world of horses and fox hunts. With the pressure of running for office, Riddle’s father finds himself consumed with the process, and Riddle’s mother Greer spends her days being Greer. This includes open criticism of her daughter, Riddle and anyone she comes in contact with. What Riddle doesn’t anticipate, is witnessing a murder. Cape Cod’s idyllic location is literally shattered by what she witnesses and her decision to keep it to herself is even more shocking.

Things get really juicy when Michael Devlin, a friend of Camp’s dating back to their time fighting in WW II, threatens to uncover a secret that could jeopardize Camp’s campaign for office. The situation is especially touchy because Devlin was once engaged to Greer, which has always caused animosity between the two men so when Devlin’s son goes missing, Camp is the first person Devlin suspects in his son’s disappearance.

This book is all parties, glitz and glamour with a lot of nastiness thrown in. At first, I despised this family and could not remember a more miserable bunch since the time I read Wuthering Heights. At the half way point though, they started to intrigue me. Riddle is a great character. At twelve, she’s somewhat innocent to what is going on around her but at the same time, she possesses an edge. Probably due to the fact that she spends all of her time surrounded by adults and not kids her own age.

I can’t say that this is your typical summer read. Many might pick it up for its Cape Cod setting, thinking it’s an easy breezy read. It is definitely not that. But if you like being around wealth and all the joys and problems associated with it, then you’ll enjoy the setting as there is plenty to sink your teeth into. But what you’ll enjoy most is Riddle. She’s charming, wise beyond her years yet untainted by the idiocy around her. And dare I say it? You might enjoy the numerous jabs that Kelly takes at high society in general. The names of these characters were almost too much for me at one point, Greer, Gula, Godfrey and Gin? But in the end, they fit.

If you want something a little different to end the summer with, this might be a good choice for you. It’s a lot more complex than I thought it would be, and who can resist a Cape Cod setting? No one.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

Reconstructing Amelia
By Kimberly McCreight
(Harper, Hardcover, 9780062225436, April 2013, 400pp.)

The Short of It:

Is it possible to know everything about a person? What if that person is your own daughter? For Kate Baron, she thought she could answer these questions without hesitation, but when disaster strikes and so many questions are left unanswered, she’s forced to admit that she doesn’t know her daughter that well after all.

The Rest of It:

Critics everywhere have said that Reconstructing Amelia is the next Gone Girl. After reading both, I have to disagree because I thought Reconstructing Amelia was quite a bit better and overall, handled a little more realistically as far at the plot itself, but I still had some issues with it.

Without giving it all away, I can tell you that Kate is a type A personality. She’s a very successful lawyer, raising a teenage daughter by herself. She’s a concerned parent but routinely unavailable for Amelia even though they have their weekly movie nights at home. Amelia is a good student and is sensible for the most part, but when she is chosen to join a secret club at school, her judgement goes out the window and she ends up in quite a bit of trouble, Trouble, that she tries to handle on her own. When she is accused of plagiarism, Kate can’t believe it. Amelia would never cheat. As Kate makes her way to the school to discuss the incident, She’s more mad than anything, but when she gets there, the news she is given is even more horrible than what she imagined.

I must tell you that this book has a very Young Adult feel to it, even though it’s not being marketed to that audience. To me, books in that genre tend to take everyday acts and blow them completely out of proportion. Granted, a lot of what happens to Amelia is horrible but it’s a tad overdramatized and there were times where I just wanted to shake the girl. The same can be said of Kate. She’s the adult in this equation and yet, she had a very young feel to her. I didn’t completely buy her character and she frustrated me because she truly seems so clueless at times.

However, what I think McCreight nailed is how quickly things can get out of hand and how awful kids at that age can be to one another. The presence of social media has made bullying a 24/7 act and the unrelenting nature of that type of bullying makes it nearly impossible to escape from. I felt the desperation of these characters and how hopeless such a situation would be but it bothered me that Amelia continued to make bad choices right up until the end.

Criticism aside, it was a page turner. I read it while reading two other books and I found myself giving this book a little more attention than the others. But if you are at all annoyed by DRAMA and in that I mean teen drama, then this may not be the book for you. There is lots of drama and some language, although the language did not bother me at all. Nor did the conversations about sex which were actually pretty tame. The actions of some of the adults in the book will infuriate you so be prepared for that but overall, I felt it was an impressive debut.

Source: Borrowed
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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