Review Detail

Two years ago, when Joy, Tali, Luce, and Zoe were fifteen, they were inseparable. Now, at seventeen, they barely talk. A reunion at the summer camp they attended brings them back together and one click from the photo booth camera later, they find themselves back in time to that summer when they were fifteen. When they were all still best friends. Now they have to try to recreate that summer and the photo that was taken at the end of that year in order to, hopefully, get back to their own time.

This book was a fun read that ended up bringing back lots of memories of making friends during summer camp. It was told in alternating POVs from each of the four girls, some of them I liked right away and others took some time to grow on me, but I liked how different each of them were and it was sad to see how far they’d drifted apart in the two years.

Zoe and Joy were the ones I liked right away. With Zoe, she was a sci-fi lover and had a bubbly personality. Joy was shy and a peace-keeper. They had traits that I could easily identify with and drew me to them. Luce was a perfectionist and Tali came across as self-absorbed at first but both grew on me after they were sent back in time and more was revealed about them. Each girl had reasons for being the way they were and being forced to relive that last week of summer camp in their fifteen-year-old bodies but with their seventeen-year-old minds made for some amusing predicaments. It also made for some huge revelations for each girl.

It was fun to see the girls try to recreate the events of that summer. For the picture they were sure they needed to reproduce, Zoe needed a fencing medal, Joy needed a tiara, Tali needed a boy’s boxers, and Luce needed a certain merit badge. It was nice to see them able to enjoy themselves every now and then and remember that they were friends and camp was a fun place for them.

I thought the author juggled the multiple POVs very well. Each girl had such a distinctive voice that I was never confused as to whose chapter it was or which girl had which storyline. And each girl did have her own storyline to go along with the overall plot of trying to get back to their own time. There was definite growth in each girl throughout the book and I loved that they were realizing that growing up didn’t have to mean growing apart. I almost didn’t want them to return to their time where they could fall back into the habits that broke them apart in the first place.

This book has been called ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants for the new generation’ and I can agree with that. The only thing that was a little off-putting, for me, was that there were times the girls seemed younger than the seventeen or fifteen they were supposed to be. I could get over that easily enough though since some kids act their age, some act older, and some act younger. It wasn’t a big thing and didn’t spoil my enjoyment of the book at all.