The Summer We Forgot By Caroline George

Summary

Some memories are better left forgotten.

Darby and Morgan haven’t spoken for two years, and their friend group has splintered. But when the body of their former science teacher is found in the marsh where they attended camp that summer, they realize they have more questions than answers . . . and even fewer memories.

No one remembers—or no one is talking.

The group of reunited friends suspects that a murderer is stalking the coastal highway 30A, and they are desperate to recover their memories as quickly as possible . . . before their history they can’t remember repeats itself.

Everyone has a secret.

As tensions rise and time runs out, Darby and Morgan begin to wonder if they can believe one another . . . or if they can even trust themselves.

Positives

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

Look out, we have a new favorite book coming through.

This book is brilliant. It channels the vibes perfectly. The setting is so vivid and real, I could picture it immediately even though I live in the country of Indiana and have never been to Florida ever in my life.

The book expertly gives us a group of flawed teens who make huge mistakes and bad choices. Teens that anyone, any age can relate to, because we’ve all made huge mistakes and bad choices. It has a beautiful message hidden in the dark waters, reminding us all that no matter what we’ve done or been done to us, we get to choose where we go from here.

But the real killer here is the plot. (Yep. I just made that joke.)

When I told my sister the premise of the book, she teasingly guessed what the twist would be. I laughed and said, no, that was way too out there, that couldn’t be the answer.

IT WAS.

I didn’t see the twist or the culprit coming from ANYWHERE. This is the sort of book that made me want to immediately read it again to figure out what I missed.

Honestly, from the prose to the plot to the characters, this is the kind of book I aspire to write. I definitely will be returning to it again and again, not just to read, but also to study and learn from. It’s that good.

And much to my despair, her next book, which looks equally amazing, doesn’t come out until September.

Negatives

This book does have two instances of mild language, along with several words of that weird sort that aren’t language but aren’t really polite either. While I whited out the two language instances, none of the other words were enough to worry me.

The teens in this book do make some poor choices, for both good and bad reasons, and sometimes get away with it. I never got the vibe that the story was saying “well, they were solving a murder, so it’s okay” but some readers may want to be aware of the lack of consequences portrayed.

Conclusion

The Summer We Forgot is exactly the opposite. You can’t forget this book, even if you tried. And why would you want to?