The Summer of Impossibilities

Don’t you just love summer? It’s almost the end of April, school is starting to wind down, and it’s almost time to break out those summer books! I recently read The Summer of Impossibilities by Rachael Allen (thank you Netgalley and ABRAMS Kids for the Advanced Reader Copy!), and think this will make a lovely summer book. It deals with a lot of things that teens struggle with, and cumulates with beautiful friendships.

The Characters

One of the things that stands out to me in this book is the characters. Their situations are all different, but many teens will find someone they resonate with.

Skyler – She loves playing softball, but suffers from juvenile arthritis. She’s afraid to tell her parents that she’s in pain. They have so many expectations for her–plus, they’re having some problems of her own.

Scarlett – Sky’s twin sister, she’s having some problems of her own. She’s not sure how to deal with her boyfriend. She’s also recovering from cutting, and at times feels like she’s broken.

Amelia Grace – She likes girls, but she also wants to be a youth pastor. When she’s accidentally outed, her church doesn’t want to allow her to be a youth pastor anymore. Amelia has to figure out if there’s any way to be the person she wants to be without giving up part of who she is.

Ellie – Ellie has been homeschooled for most of her life and has difficulty making friends.

The Story

These girls’ parents were best friends as teens and started the Southern Belles’ Drinking Club (SBDC) when they were teenagers. When Sky and Scarlett’s parents are having difficulties, they call up their old friends and spend the summer at their lake house together. The girls know about each other, but haven’t seen each other in years. They end up starting their own SBDC (drinking is optional: Ellie is a Muslim) and make a pact to do something impossible over the summer. Each girl’s impossible thing has something to do with their struggles.

Conclusion

The Summer of Impossibilities is such a sweet friendship story, and is perfect for summer reading. Do the girls all achieve the impossible? Well, I’m not going to give away the ending, but I will say the girls like how their summer resolves and grow as people in the process.

The main down side to this book was that the characters tended to have similar voices. Sometimes I’d have to flip back to tell who’s POV the story was coming from, or I’d tell which character was speaking by their unique situation. The story is told from four points of view, which can be incredibly difficult to write, especially when you’re writing characters of the same gender and age (I’ve written a story with 3 POVs before, and it helped that they were either different genders or ages). However, POV issues aside, it was a lovely book I think will make a great summer read.