Summer Girls in Review

Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan

#Contemporary #YA #RomCom #WLW

CW: Child Abuse/Control, Car Crash, Using the Phone While Driving, Miscommunication Trope, Lack of Communication Trope, Bi-Phobia, Homophobia, Classism, Gentrification, Cursing, Minor Injury, Drowning, Mentioned Child Death, Toxic Relationships, Breaches of Trust

5/5

After giving Jennifer Dugan a second chance last year, I'm committed to reading all of her books. With the success of Some Girls Do, I was under the impression that a lot of other folks were committed to reading all of them as well. How did I end up with Summer Girls so fast? There was a waiting list, but it has been continuously short. If you're into bi rep, sapphic love, or enemies-to-lovers, you'd be missing out if you don't read this novel. If you've been waiting for summer, now is the time!

Birdie gets into a lot of trouble with her parents when she crashes her cheating boyfriend's car at a family event, especially thanks to it being while she was filming for social media. Her dad is exceedingly rich and doesn't care about the money aspect, but he worries that his daughter will turn out like her mother, a wannabe-Kardashian. He decides that she'll be spending the summer with him. No driving, no social media, and she must get a job. She's also being given a babysitter, Cass. Cass is a local girl and a lifeguard. She has a rule, "No Summer Girls". Birdie is the epitome of a "Summer Girl". Although this is true, they played with each other as kids, their dads are friends, and maybe Birdie isn't as much of a monster as her mother. Will the summer leave these girls crashing or might they settle each others' turbulent waters?

Sometimes it's easy for me to forget that I'm approaching 30 and that the teens in my beloved YA novels have grown up in a world where social media and smartphones have always been around. I got my first smartphone when I was almost out of high school and TikTok didn't even exist until my 2nd year of college. Summer Girls may have taken an extreme example of what it's like to be raised on social media, but it's eye opening to see what things have come to. Birdie's mother has essentially been mining her daughter for content since Birdie was born. This is something that really happens and why I avoid watching any videos with children in them unless I trust the person posting them. It takes the elite-girl archetype to a whole new level, as Birdie and her social group aren't just elite in their own community, they're elite on a potentially global scale. Now, this book doesn't say "social media bad", Dugan shows us how social media can be used for good. Birdie finds a way to use it to make the world a better place, and as a bonus, make Cass happy.

Summer Girls and a number of Dugan's books are a great place for bi representation. Birdie, Cass, and Cass's best friend, Bentley, are all bi. In fact, Cass and Bentley came up with the "Summer Girls" rule together after mutually crushing on one that didn't deserve either of their attention. I appreciated throughout the novel how realistic the differences between queer acceptance was in Birdie's world vs Cass's. Cass's community is facing gentrification, poverty, and other consequences of a capitalistic society, but they have each other's backs. Most of her friends are queer and her parents fully accept her. Her community is pretty accepting of queer people. Especially these days, marginalized groups look out for one another. We need each other. In Birdie's world, it's not nearly as safe to be out. She was in the closet for the most part, especially thanks to the reactions of those closest to her. Notably her mother was excited that Birdie could still "choose a boy". With the way queer celebrities are treated online, it's quite realistic. 

One thing I noticed is that Summer Girls relies heavily upon the lack of communication trope. These girls do not talk to each other about the things they need to be discussing. I think they have good chemistry, I think Cass is well written and Birdie is very well written, I think their love timeline makes sense. This communication issue was quite frustrating, though. Cass kept making assumptions, her friends were far too eager not to hear Birdie out, and neither of them pushed each other to talk enough. It's important that I point out that they're teenagers and will absolutely make mistakes, but the audience deserves a heads up on that one. I do think how the "big fight" is handled makes up for it. All I'll say is that they don't give up on each other.

Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan is a great new release that I recommend getting your hands on. You'll be swept away to a world with nighttime beach bonfires, black tie galas, petty drama, a rich girl becoming a leftist, surfing lessons, and cheating boyfriends getting their comeuppance. You won't want to miss this summer vacation!