Review Detail

This book is so beautiful and so real, I just can't tell you how good it is. I wasn't sure what to expect from the description and actually, I don't think the description is an accurate portrayal of what Invincible Summer is really about. It's about family, growing up, making mistakes and grief. A girl is just a small part of this story.

Over the course of four summers, Chase and his family undergo an evolution of change and he and his brothers and sisters discover the bonds that will forever bind them. One of the (many) reasons this book resonated with me so much is because I feel like I've lived aspects of this story. Like Chase, I experienced summers at the beach with my family and how it changed every year little by little until nothing was ever the same as it was in the "old days" when we were young. That's growing up, and, as Hannah Moskowitz shows us, it's sad, too.

Chase is such an easy character to get behind because Hannah doesn't just tell us what's happening, she tells us what Chase is thinking. And Chase is not perfect, not by a long shot, but his portrayal is so real, it's like I was a part of this story and ultimately a part of this family.

This is is a tragic story and while reading, I felt like what happened to these characters also happened to me and by the end I was crying along with them, feeling their losses as mine. It's that good.