YA Review: The Summer of Broken Things

The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Published: April 10th, 2018
Genre: Contemporary YA
Binding: ARC
Page Count: The inside cover says 400, goodreads says 393, and mine has 387, with acknowledgments up to 393, so you know. Around 400.
Part of a series? Standalone.
Got via: They sent it to me for review consigderation, but I swear it's not as late as it seems.
Amazon / Book Depository / Indiebound

Summary (from goodreads): Fourteen-year-old Avery Armisted is athletic, rich, and pretty. Sixteen-year-old Kayla Butts is known as “butt-girl” at school. The two girls were friends as little kids, but that’s ancient history now. So it’s a huge surprise when Avery’s father offers to bring Kayla along on a summer trip to Spain. Avery is horrified that her father thinks he can choose her friends—and make her miss soccer camp. Kayla struggles just to imagine leaving the confines of her small town.

But in Spain, the two uncover a secret their families had hidden from both of them their entire lives. Maybe the girls can put aside their differences and work through it together. Or maybe the lies and betrayal will only push them—and their families—farther apart.

Review: I think Margaret Peterson Haddix's writing talent carries this book through some things I found problematic. There are places where I have things to complain about, but overall her writing carries it for me into an enjoyable reading experience. Not that I'll let that stop me from complaining! Or being thorough, we could call it, I suppose. That does sound much better.

Plot Talk: This isn't one of those books with a really exciting plot for me to talk about, and I'm going to sound terrible saying it, but let's give it a shot. Two girls, Kayla and Avery, go on vacation with Avery's dad for the summer. This arrangement isn't really either of their ideas, but Kayla is excited because otherwise this is something that could likely have never happened for her. They hang out, some hijinks happen, and then a big secret is revealed and the rest of the book is pretty much dealing with the fallout of that reveal. I'm probably going to reveal that secret during the PG-13 and Complaints sections, as it becomes very relevant in those, so if that bugs you, skip those.

I do wish a little bit that there had been a bit more stuff going on towards the second half. Avery's POV especially can get a bit annoying, because she's pretty much just moping around for a bunch of the book. It didn't bother me much while I was reading, but I could see it bothering people or some people seeing it as boring.

I dunno, I kind have mixed feelings on the plot because I appreciate quiet books, but I also see where things could have been different.

Characters: Characters are pretty strong in this book, although at times the depth can be lacking somewhat.

Avery can get a little annoying. She's very spoiled and privileged, and is pretty unaware of her privilege. Honestly it's pretty satisfying watching her grow out of that bubble and have people call her out for being a jerk. She's fourteen. She needs that now and then to grow up.

I think Kayla's character is pretty great. She's not thin, and she's poor, and the rep on both of those is okay. She uses the label fat, but she is definitely a small fat. She can buy clothes at Target when she doesn't have access to her suitcase/clothes and doesn't mention going to the plus size section/bad selection there, Avery calls her "chubby", and she doesn't need a seatbelt extender on the airplane, or even think about it. This could, perhaps, be the effect of a thin author writing a fat character, and not being aware of that type of thing, but it comes across as her not being very large for a fat person.

Overall it's pretty positive. Kayla has body issues, but it's not over-exaggerated, and she gets more confident as the book goes on. Avery especially says some things that are fatmisic, but Kayla does call them out eventually, and whenever you're in her POV, you see that she doesn't agree or think it's okay. I didn't know there was fat rep of any kind in this, so I was surprised, but I didn't hate it. I do think it reads a lot as a well-meaning thin author writing fat rep. She does a decent job, but there are just things that didn't read as authentic as they could have for me.

This is going to go slightly into spoiler territory, but it's important to mention. Avery's dad is also fat, and it's nice to see more than one fat character, but since he has a major health emergency at one point in the book, I think it really would have been nice to see more fat adults who are healthy as "has heart problems" is something that's stereotypical for fat characters and it wasn't my favourite part.

Both Mr. Armisted and Kayla are also shown as being quite out of shape/easily winded and overall there's some attitudes about how fat people exercise and eat that I wasn't too fond of. It's kind of something I expect from thin people. I do very much like how Avery was called out for food policing and making other people feel guilty about eating and overall I wouldn't say avoid it, but just be a bit cautious going in.

And going off that, part of the reason that falls down, is because characters outside of Avery, Kayla, and their parents, aren't very well fleshed out. They're not bad or anything, but you don't really know a lot about them. At times it makes the book feel pretty isolated, if that makes sense.

PG-13 stuff: It tackles some heavy stuff, including Kayla's father getting in a serious car accident when she was very young and the condition that left him in, a parent having a heart attack, surrogacy, poverty, divorce, and it talks about the history of Spain including wars, terrorist attacks, and the Holocaust, with the girls visiting a Holocaust museum. There's also some talk about rape culture, in a way that I thought was great and very responsible.

Overall, while it tackles some heavy subjects, I think it's done in a way that's responsible and generally well-handled, but I don't want to act like this is a super fluffy book and then surprise someone reading it on my recommendation.

Cons, complaints, bad stuff, etc.: Like I said, characterization on side characters can be lacking. I also question if some of how the surrogacy stuff could be seen as offensive to people who are adopted. There's a weird focus on Avery being 100% genetically her parents', and not really a lot of acknowledgment that sharing DNA doesn't make you automatically family. Like, Avery's mother would still have been her "real" mother if she'd been born with an egg donor, and that would not have made an egg donor her "real" mother.

I actually liked that they used the term "gestational carrier" and think that's a term we should use way more often (it's non-gendered too!), and I appreciate the research that went into those parts, but at some points I do think it fell down.

The book also lacked queer characters severely, and for a book set in Spain, there's a lot of white people as the main characters, and not really a lot of prominent characters who aren't white.

Last, I found Kayla's father's condition a bit confusing. The book never names it, and I'm not familiar enough with that kind of thing to understand what was being implied. I think having a bit more of a definitive name and explanation would have helped me understand more.

Cover comments: The cover is gorgeous. I've seen art of this type online before and there's something really pleasing about how neat everything is. It also looks really summer-y and appealing, and I appreciate that the cover isn't pure white. Even in person, it's a bit off-white. That hides stains a bit more, and it looks better on my blog, because it stands out against the white background.

It's the little things, you know? Simple but effective cover.

Conclusion: While this is not my favourite book from the author (and I've read a bunch), I think it's solid. I read most of it outside and that was great. It was really warm and sunny and the book was all summer-themed and it felt really nice. I was honestly shocked by the plot twist.

I think this book does something really interesting in having alternating POVs between a character who is 14 and a character who is 16. While it's not middle grade, I think that would increase the appeal for readers who are looking to read up from middle grade, while also appealing to older readers. I think it makes the audience wider, and the contrast between the two MCs is very interesting.

Again, not my favourite, and I think it had some problems, but I continue to want to read every book Margaret Peterson Haddix ever writes. Her writing just works for me. Your mileage will vary on that, but I think this is a good one regardless. Not perfect, but very enjoyable, and I liked the message that families come in many forms, and come to be in many forms. Solid three out of five roses, and I think kids will like this one, honestly.



Other notes:

- Avery. When you mix oil and vinegar, you get salad dressing. That isn't a good metaphor for things that don't mix well!

- Although in the theme of the book I SUPPOSE it does work out because they do end up friends and all.

- But still! That's salad dressing!

- I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I can't remember what it was.

Peace and cookies,
Laina