Absorbed

A book to read and share that reminds you how specific a time era can be to your growing up, but how truly universal growing up is. This gifted book was a great read and a glimpse at a summer past.

This book was a real surprise for me. I thought it was going to b a cutesy rom.com I realizing the 90s in a movie montage mashup of now classic summer movies my own youth, granted I was a little older than Stacey and her friends, but this book was so much more than I thought. This was high school as I remember it, the world of simmering passions, high feelings, confusion, uncertainty, and all the insecurities and fears that a person can conceive. I saw a lot of myself in Stacey and her friends and also in their classmates and rivals. Literally this book will transport back and leave you reflecting on what you survived. Luckily for most of us, these sad and tragic events the Stacey must experience are ones that will only play out in fiction, however the power and nuance of Jaime Townzen's writing comes from.bringing us along for every feeling, thought, and conversation that just captivated me. This was a true bildungsroman that covered so much more than just growing up, but showcased how Stacey fights to become the woman she is in the process of becoming during this one summer in 1996.

This is a powerful female coming of age story that will make you nostalgic for the 90's and make you think how much of looking back at that era is so powerful because the distance and pop culture.