luce (cry baby)'s Reviews > This One Summer
This One Summer
by
by
luce (cry baby)'s review
bookshelves: artwork-i-love, lgbtqia-side, reviewed-in-2021, disappointing-reads, graphic-novels-and-comics, 5-so-so-reads
Nov 18, 2021
bookshelves: artwork-i-love, lgbtqia-side, reviewed-in-2021, disappointing-reads, graphic-novels-and-comics, 5-so-so-reads
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2 ½ stars
Compared to Skim, This One Summer makes for a rather milquetoast affair. That is not to say that is bad but I did find the story and characters to be bland and very much been-there-done-that. This could have worked if the narrative had presented us with a more compelling protagonist than Rosie who is a painfully generic teen who yearns to be seen as one of older teens and not a kid. Every summer she and her parents stay at a lake house in Awago Beach. There she reconnects with Windy, her childhood friend, who is a year younger than she (a fact which rosie is low-key embarrassed by). Rosie’s parents are going through something and Rosie acts like an entitled brat. She begins renting horror films in order to impress a boy who is clearly a bad egg, going so far as to slag-off other girls. Windy, however one-dimensional, was a much more likeable character. Rosie’s angsting, however ‘understandable’ given that her parents are fighting and she’s currently traversing those painful & awkward teen years, still irked me. She elicited very little sympathy on my part. Whereas the story in Skim never bored me, here I found many scenes to be redundant and repetitive. There was something vaguely moralistic about the ending too and Rosie’s ‘growth’ didn’t entirely ring true. Still, the illustrations, while a bit more conventional than Skim, are lovely and if you are a fan of the Tamaki duo, well, you should consider giving this one a chance.
2 ½ stars
Compared to Skim, This One Summer makes for a rather milquetoast affair. That is not to say that is bad but I did find the story and characters to be bland and very much been-there-done-that. This could have worked if the narrative had presented us with a more compelling protagonist than Rosie who is a painfully generic teen who yearns to be seen as one of older teens and not a kid. Every summer she and her parents stay at a lake house in Awago Beach. There she reconnects with Windy, her childhood friend, who is a year younger than she (a fact which rosie is low-key embarrassed by). Rosie’s parents are going through something and Rosie acts like an entitled brat. She begins renting horror films in order to impress a boy who is clearly a bad egg, going so far as to slag-off other girls. Windy, however one-dimensional, was a much more likeable character. Rosie’s angsting, however ‘understandable’ given that her parents are fighting and she’s currently traversing those painful & awkward teen years, still irked me. She elicited very little sympathy on my part. Whereas the story in Skim never bored me, here I found many scenes to be redundant and repetitive. There was something vaguely moralistic about the ending too and Rosie’s ‘growth’ didn’t entirely ring true. Still, the illustrations, while a bit more conventional than Skim, are lovely and if you are a fan of the Tamaki duo, well, you should consider giving this one a chance.
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Reading Progress
October 20, 2021
– Shelved as:
to-read
October 20, 2021
– Shelved
November 10, 2021
– Shelved as:
tbr-soon
November 16, 2021
–
Started Reading
November 17, 2021
–
Finished Reading
November 18, 2021
– Shelved as:
artwork-i-love
November 22, 2021
– Shelved as:
lgbtqia-side
November 22, 2021
– Shelved as:
reviewed-in-2021
November 22, 2021
– Shelved as:
disappointing-reads
February 23, 2023
– Shelved as:
graphic-novels-and-comics
February 23, 2023
– Shelved as:
5-so-so-reads