Review Detail

Taylor Edwards has a habit of running away. When things stop going her way, she checks out. Running has always been second nature to her, something she could depend on to keep her from dealing with bad things. But when her dad finds out that he has stage IV pancreatic cancer, 4 months left to live, and a dying wish of spending one last summer at the family’s lakehouse, Taylor has to teach herself that running away causes more problems than it solves.

Over a three month period, sophomore novelist Morgan Matson writes a story about family. More than anything else, Second Chance Summer is a story about family and what it looks like when disaster strikes. For me, everything else was secondary.

It’s a rare, rare thing where a book impacts me when I find the characters unremarkable. In that way, Second Chance Summer is an anomaly. I wouldn’t, however, go so far as to call these people unremarkable, but they weren’t my all-time favorites. Taylor, as a protagonist, didn’t stand out too much, though I really enjoyed her parents, her older brother, and her ex-best friend, Lucy. Don’t get me wrong—Taylor is a completely well-rounded realistic person, and I liked her a lot.

At the same time, instead of falling in love with the characters, I fell in love with how they interacted, and with the little scenes that spoke to me on a personal level. Taylor’s relationship with her dad was absolutely perfect, and there was one scene with her mom that brought tears to my eyes. (Okay, well, there was more than one scene that made me cry.) The rekindling of Lucy and Taylor’s friendship was well-done and realistic also. In the end, Second Chance Summer became a very personal book, and I really identified with Taylor—not with who she was as a person, but with how she fit into her family unit.

The story, in and of itself, is simple, though also with too much going on, in my opinion. First, there’s the overarching plot having to do with Taylor’s dad and the family coming together. And then there’s a side plot that I really didn’t care for. Apparently, five summers ago, Taylor did something terrible that really hurt her best friend (Lucy) and crush (Henry). So for half the book, Matson keeps the reader in suspense, and we’re left wondering exactly what this awful thing Taylor did was. And then we find out that it wasn’t a big deal at all, and that Taylor and her friends were being rather melodramatic about the whole experience.

There’s just something that irks me very much when an author withholds information, obviously trying to make some sort of big reveal. Invariably, I’m disappointed. Because look, what Taylor did was uncool, but it wasn’t serious enough to merit the crazy amount of buildup Matson had, especially considering that Taylor’s dad is, you know, dying of cancer in the meantime. It was a subplot that really did not need to be included in the book.

So, obviously, Second Chance Summer was not perfect, but it was really, really wonderful for me, if perhaps a bit forgettable. If I rated on feelings alone, this would likely have just squeezed in with a 5 star rating. I don’t rate that way, though. But in the long run and in spite of a few issues, this book was very touching and meant a lot to me. The focus on family was very refreshing, and Morgan Matson is, in my opinion, a promising author whom I look forward to hearing more of.