Saturday, July 20, 2024

The Summer Club

The Summer Club by Hannah McKinnon
7/23/24; 336 pages
Atria/Emily Bestler Books

The Summer Club by Hannah McKinnon is a highly recommended domestic drama. I'm recommending this as a title for older YA readers. Certainly the subject matter is for a more mature teen, but the teens in this novel are the focus.

The exclusive Mayhaven Club offers members golf, tennis, a beach, and restaurant. Ned Birch is the president of Mayhaven, which basically means he's the general manager who handles the running of the club, although the board of directors, especially Dick Delancey, like to have their hands in it too. His wife, Ingrid, has started working as a realtor again. Their two children are Darcy, 17, and Adam, 15. Darcy is working as a summer camp counselor at Mayhaven. She was an excellent golfer well on her way to earning a college scholarship for it, but she suddenly announced she was giving up golf. Ned has set up a job for Adam, who is neurodivergent, at Mayhaven using his strength with numbers.

Moving in next door to the Birches is Flick Creevy, 17, his mother, Josie, and stepfather, Stan. Stan likes to flaunt his wealth with noisy pool parties and the huge RV now in the driveway. Coming from NYC and a working class background, Flick is doing his best trying to understand this strange, new life in a Massachusetts suburb. He gets a job in the kitchen at Mayhaven and gets a first hand look at the difference between being on the inside or the outside.

This isn't really a beach read full of rollicking summer fun. Topics handled in the plot are a bit more serious than that. The big secret Darcy has will be very apparent for astute readers to pick up on and it is clear that the story arc is going to result in revealing it. In spite of the predictability of the plot, the writing is very good and the overall message at the end is positive.

The narrative is told through chapters from the point-of-view of Ned, Darcy, and Flick and they are the characters who are the most fully realized and portrayed with more than surface characteristics. They all experience growth as characters. For teens, Darcy and Flick are sympathetic characters displaying insight and wisdom. Thanks to Atria for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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