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Summary: Amazing book about friendship
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. I have read the book 4 times and each time I have read it, I finished it the day I started. You can really relate to the characters because they are very realistic. Everyone knows someone who is like Caitlin and Vix. It is a great story about friendship and love.
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Summary: Great story...unbelieveable friendship
Review: Reading a Judy Blume novel is like a refreshing spring day after a long, hard winter. SUMMER SISTERS reminded me why I held her young adult novels so dear to my heart. This book stirred many feelings inside of me. I was rooting for Vix, then cursing Caitlin, then cursing Vix for putting up with Caitlin. I laughed out loud (Dingleberry Award!), but was sad at the end. I really enjoyed this novel. A great work by an even greater author.
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Summary: An entertaining, heartwarming, thought-provoking book.
Review: I loved this book. I wish that Judy Blume would write more books geared to adults. I think that she does a wonderful job of capturing the intricacies of the friendship between two girls. Reading this book made me want to call all of my old girlfriends. The characters were each unique and interesting. I absolutely loved the integration of the thoughts of specific characters throughout the book. Please, please, please turn this story into a movie. And, please Judy Blume, write more for all of us who have grown up with you!
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Summary: You know it's good when the characters still linger with you
Review: I read this book over the weekend and totally fell in love with Vix & Caitlin. I truly adored their friendship as so many of us can relate to the strange bonds of young friendship. I can't wait for Judy Blume to introduce us to yet another adult book!
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Summary: Brilliant.
Review: One of the best books I have ever read. I hope they make a movie- maybe a sequel? I couldn't get enough of it. Marvellously written. I loved it. A must read.
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Summary: A happy, touching story of friendship. I loved it
Review: The best book i have ever read. I suggest you and all your friends read it. You wont ever regret it.
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Summary: Heartbreakingly wonderful
Review: Judy Blume is a national treasure. She won over my children, and now she has won me over with her wonderful prose. In "Summer Sisters" Caitlin is an antihero, but who wouldn't love to be her? Vix is the ballast in this story; and I am happy that she found someone to love in the end. This book is absolutely wonderful, and I was heartbroken at the end. I would recommend this to anyone to read.
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Summary: I thought that it was a captivating and realistic story
Review: I read all of Judy Blume's novels as a teenager and was curious to see how she would fare with a book for adults. My high expectations were not disappointed with this realistic portrayal of female friendship and first love and the difficult transition into adulthood. I have read some reviews by other readers and I can't understand how you could not adore this book or be disappointed with the ending. I feel that the ending was consistent with the characters of both girls. I was glad that Vix didn't end up with Bru. Their differences are made clear throughout the story and if he loved either of the girls, how could he end up marrying someone else so soon - not to mention getting her pregnant? I felt that the incomplete ending made it more realistic. Lots of things happen in life that we don't fully understand or want to accept. I look forward to more adult novels from Judy Blume.
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Summary: Once a Judy Blume fan.. Always a Judy Blume fan
Review: I have read Judy Blume books since I was a pre-teen, I am now 25, starting with ARE YOU THERE GOD IT'S ME MARGARATE. I did'nt know that Judy wrote books for adults, but lo and behold, she does and she did not let me down. The relationship between these two friends reminded me of a friendship I had growing up. The experimentation. the confidences. What an awsome book. Once a Judy Blume fan... Always a judy Blume fan.
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Summary: Are you there Judy? It's me, curious
Review: What in the world happened here? Did somebody kidnap Judy Blume and take her hostage while some imposter churned out this trite, banal, utterly forgettable story? I'd like to think that was the case, given the fact that Judy Blume was one of my all-time favorite childhood authors. After all, this is the same woman who wrote "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" and "Then Again, Maybe I Won't". Granted, Judy's adult novels were never of the same caliber as her children's books, but at least they occasionally managed to rise to the level of entertainment. Unfortunately, "Summer Sisters" doesn't even live up to that small concession. All right, so even great authors have their off days, and Blume has stumbled in the past before with clunkers like "Iggie's House" and "Forever", but never before have any of her novels been so long, so convoluted, so simplistically written and so BORING all at the same time. Initially, I was willing to give Judy some slack since, as I mentioned before, she DOES have a talent for storytelling--in children's books. Therefore, I was willing to overlook the moldy, way tumultuous summers and their friendship goes through many changes" blah blah blah. I was willing to overlook the constant, annoying references to songs and topical events that are supposed to remind readers of what year they're in. (This in itself is a bad sign, since Blume's best novels have a timeless quality, but never mind.) I was even willing to ignore the fact that Judy occasionally got her timelines wrong (for instance, she makes a reference to "90210" long before the show made its debut). However, there are only so many annoyances I will put up with in a single book, and "Summer Sisters" is chock-full of them. At the top of my list of peeves is the plot. As the story begins, Victoria "Vix" Leonard, a quiet girl who keeps her innermost thoughts and feelings to herself, is an elementary school student in New Mexico. She is approached out of the blue one day by Caitlin Somers, the daring, sophisticated new girl who's the instant hit of the school. Even though the girls are nearly strangers to each other, Caitlin has singled out Vix to fly out to Nantucket with her as her guest for the entire summer (Plot Contrivance #1). Vix's parents agree to let Vix go on this all-expense paid trip, even though Vix's mother is obsessed with social class differences, and neither she nor Vix's dad have ever met Caitlin's father, who will be the girls' guardian for the summer (Plot Contrivance #2). At first, Vix and Caitlin have very little in common, but before you can say "The Power", they soon become intimate friends in every sense of the word (Plot Contrivance #3). For some reason, Caitlin's family is so enamored of silent, nearly uncommunicative Vix that they continue to fly her in every summer, at their expense, even when Caitlin's not there(!), and proceed to pay for Vix's private school tuition, and sponsor her scholarship to Harvard, etc. etc. (Plot Contrivances #4, #5, #6, and I lost track after #10). To make matters worse, Vix and Caitlin have less depth than the paper they're written on and are not so much characters as cliches. Caitlin, the rich, frivolous, "bad" girl, is supposed to be a vulnerable, waif-ish creature underneath her devilish antics, but I didn't see it; frankly, she came off as nothing more than a spoiled, obnoxious twit. Vix, the serious, working-class "nice" girl, comes off as bland and listless; apparently Blume decided that "character development" in this novel would be limited to physical attributes. Which brings us to the next peeve. Almost every line of dialogue, with few exceptions, consists of sexual comments, sexual come-ons, or childish, smutty sex jokes. In "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret", Margaret and her friends exhibited a normal, healthy curiosity about puberty and sex; in "Summer Sisters", the curiosity is transformed into a pathological obsession. Unfortunately, it's not even exciting enough to be sexy in a sleazy way; it's boring, monotonous, and an obvious attempt to cash in on the pre-teen audience, so they can underline the key passages in Blume's latest "naughty" book. In that sense, the story is in much the same mold as "Forever". Bear in mind, though, that even "Forever" had 1 or 2 redeeming qualities that detail, and it was mercifully short compared to this 400-page yawner. Another problem with the book is that it's densely populated with characters who are so sketchy that they make Vix and Caitlin look like a Renoir. One of these characters dies, but Blume doesn't allow the reader to get to know this character; therefore, no emotion is involved. The girls and their families go through their required "changes", but again, who cares? Certainly not me, and believe me, I tried. Even characters who are supposed to be "important", like Bru, are simply described as "tan" and "sinewy" with "dark eyes". How is it possible for anyone to care about this character, or to feel heartbroken for the girl who pines over him? Blume's most annoying habit is changing "voice" at the end of each chapter and giving minor characters a paragraph or two for thoughts and comments. It's obvious why she did this; it saves her the trouble of creating a heartfelt, three-dimensional character. I would like to know what happened to Judy's old method of letting the characters and dialogue create the story; hopefully it will return in her next book. The writing doesn't flow naturally, either; Blume has opted to narrate this story in a choppy, disjointed manner. Dialogue is eschewed in favor of awkward phrases such as "They talked for hours about the meaning of life". Most notably, "Summer Sisters" lacks warmth. If Blume didn't care enough about these people to give them personalities, how can the reader be expected to feel anything for them? I'm still puzzled as to why Judy Blume thought it was necessary to create Sharkey, Lanie, Lewis, Dorcet, and The Countess. As characters, they're anemic at best and serve no apparent purpose. But the final insult to readers is that Blume doesn't even bother with any of her customary humor in this novel. Throughout the book, I never laughed once; I couldn't even squeeze out a polite chuckle. From beginning to end, I is to go back to the library (or your daughter's bedroom) and read "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret". It's truly awe-inspiring to realize how much heart and soul Judy put into that book, and what a breakthrough novel it was for pre-teens. "Summer Sisters" reads as if a randomly chosen teenager attempted to imitate Blume's other "adult" novels; it knows the words, but not the music
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