Who Knew Age Would Matter So Much?

I just finished reading The Last Summer (of You & Me) by Ann Brashares (author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants). I'm not sure why I have so much to say on this subject but I do!

The 3 main characters are in their early twenties but the way they think, act, and feel seems so much older. I just can't decide if Brashares meant for them to be old souls in young bodies or if she just miscalculated the age and should have been writing about 30 year olds.

The love story between Paul and Alice is powerful and built up to the explosion point for the reader so when they finally consummate it you're on the edge of your seat begging for it to happen. But she's 21. It's like an oxymoron to me. In one sentence she is described as an innocent virgin, in the next the mother he never had. So good job on complexity, that's for sure.

I liked the story itself I just felt discombobulated while reading because it didn't fit together. It's very melodramatic and one of the main characters dies which of course is totally sad. The way it's dealt with by the family makes the parents feel like the children and vice versa. I'm all for the unique, creating new paths, and inverting responsibilities of characters but I just want it to be systematic. I didn't like feeling like one second I was reading about a little girl and the next an old woman in her rocker on the front porch.

Then again, maybe Brashares is a genius because I haven't been able to stop thinking about what I think about the book since finished it last night!

For more and to submit what you think of this book, http://www.book-club-queen.com/the-last-summer.html