Well, this post is really late. I finished the book last Wednesday and then I had a workshop Thursday - Sunday. Now I'm back and giving you my thoughts on Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler. The main characters Anna, Frankie, and Matt are best friends and they’ve spent all of their life together. One year on Anna’s birthday her relationship with Matt evolves into something else, something “other.” They decide not to tell Frankie until Matt and Frankie’s family go away on vacation. Matt and Anna continue sneaking out at night to talk to each other and continue their secret romance. Their romance tragically ends when Matt literally dies of a broken heart. This changes their lives forever and throughout the book Anna is thinking of before and after Matt's death.
After Matt's death Frankie becomes more flamboyant and attention seeking in public while she breaks down in private with Anna. Anna is conflicted about how she should act because no one else knew about her relationship with Matt whereas Frankie is Matt's brother and has a right to grieve for a long period of time. She’s constantly tempted to tell Frankie everything and is haunted by Matt’s affect in her life. Anna cannot fathom a life with another person by her side, but Frankie decides that it’s time for Anna to have a summer fling. Frankie proposes that since they are on vacation in Zanzibar Bay for about twenty days they should meet a new boy each day.
SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK! SPOILERS! CONTINUE SCROLLING IF YOU READ THE BOOK!
Throughout the book the effects of a death is shown and you see that it is not only tearing apart Frankie's family but her friendship with Anna too. Matt’s death changed Frankie so much that Anna thinks they wouldn’t be friends if they had just met, but whispers of the "old" Frankie keeps Anna by her best friends side. This book explores consequences of keeping secrets or feelings bottled up for a long time as well as grieving the loss of a loved one. Anna has kept this secret from Frankie for a long time and is consumed by the need to spill to her. Anna has almost become obsessed with Matt and telling Frankie. She is constantly thinking about Matt and because of this she fears that starting a new relationship will wipe him from her memory and she doesn’t want to lose him again. Anna also has this tremendous guilt from not telling Frankie about her relationship with Matt, Frankie’s brother. Throughout the beginning Anna just wants to “fix” her friendship with Frankie and she just wants the "old" Frankie back.
Frankie's family is trying so hard to go back to “normal” and be “okay”, but no matter how elaborate of a facade they put on deep down they’re not okay and something as small as spilling a Diet Coke can cause someone to burst into tears. The next morning after this incident Frankie and her family talk about how they are trying but it's going to be hard. Later in the book Frankie confesses to Anna that she just wants her mom to get angry or yell at her or something. “‘I know you think she’s so cool and everything, but sometimes I wish she’d just -- I don’t know, get mad. Yell. Call me out on my lies. Be disappointed. She doesn’t even care’” (184).
Anna is so fixated on not forgetting Matt that any boy that she’s attracted to or interested in she manages to convince herself otherwise out of fear of forgetting Matt. Despite this, Anna can’t get one boy she met out of her head: Sam. Pretty quickly she gets over her adamance about not forgetting Matt in favor of seeing Sam again. As Anna and Frankie are hanging out with Sam and his friend Jake more of Frankie’s "old personality" starts showing through. One night after a party Anna finds that Frankie read her journal. Her journal with all of her letters to Matt. Frankie has a typical teenage girl reaction and in the process confesses to still being a virgin. Then she whips the journal into the ocean and Anna dives in after it. After giving up the search she is on the beach sobbing and heartbroken.
Now that Frankie knows Anna’s secret and violated Anna’s personal thoughts, everything is falling apart. Anna doesn’t know what to do and isn’t sure if she even wants to save her friendship. Anna and Frankie put on their smiles and tough it out in front of Frankie’s parents playing that nothing is wrong while secretly exchanging nasty looks. Anna finally confides in Sam telling him everything and I mean everything. Sam tells Anna that she already lost Matt and she shouldn’t let what happened cause her to lose Frankie too.
In the final chapters of the novel you see Anna and Frankie start to reconcile and when they are talking Anna realizes that there is no “old” Frankie and “new” Frankie just Frankie. Frankie gives Anna Matt’s old blue sea-glass necklace and Anna realizes that it’s going to be okay when she isn’t overwhelmed by tears. And the novel ends with Frankie and Anna sharing a moment and you know that their friendship isn’t over forever and they will survive this tragedy.
I really enjoyed reading this book but it didn't make me go "I HAVE TO READ THIS RIGHT NOW!" I wasn't up all hours of the night reading it, but I thought it was a really nice story and I liked the characters and the general theme of the book. I would definitely recommend this book if you like similar books or if you want to try something new. The next book on my TBR is Saving Juliet by Suzanne Selfors and after that I hope to read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green.
I will leave you today with a quote from one of the classics, Scooby Doo. "Let's do what we do best Scoob, eat."
