Girlfriend for the Summer

In Ten Things I Hate About You, Patrick (Heath Ledger) tries to impress the girl (Julia Stiles) by bribing the marching band to play while he sings "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" over the stadium loudspeaker as he saunters down the truly massive stadium seats during a combined (?) track/soccer practice.

In Netflix's The Prom, Emma "brings attention" to her cause "her own way" by singing an original song on YouTube that racks up 7 million hits overnight.

Now, both of those are movies, so some over-the-top-ness (and visual interest) is required to keep things interesting. But there's a reason I cry every single time I hit that scene in The Prom (on my literal dozens of rewatches) and the scene in Ten Things I Hate About You elicits a chuckle (mostly at Julia Stiles' absolute waterfall of tears), and it's not just my gay little heart empathizing with her plight. It's because I can absolutely see a heartbroken teen pouring herself out in song on the internet much more than I can the detached cool loner type slipping the AV kids money to sing a Frankie Valli song.

Girlfriend for the Summer, a YA book about teens (you've been warned) feels like an experience teens might actually have. (Despite the cover art making the main characters look like they're 30. In the 1970s.) The "big public outpouring of love" is simple, brave and absolutely keeping in line with the character going out on a limb.

I know many of my reviews have a throughline of "groundedness" and "reality," but to me escapism requires verisimilitude. A suspension of disbelief is all well and good, but the characters have to be internally coherent and jibe with the rest of the universe, or it all feels a little pointless. 

It's why you'll likely never see a recommendation for those "billionaire orders bacon at diner and falls in love with waitress" books on here - everyone knows all billionaires are ovo-vegetarian.

Girlfriend for the Summer starts with two comphet straight girls meeting and discovering how much they enjoy each other's company without even realizing why. I can't even rightly call it a slow build, but it's a slow realization and rationalization process (for one of them, at least). Reading this book feels like slowly slipping yourself into a warm pool on a hot summer's day - it shifts from pleasant to wonderful so seamlessly you don't even realize it till you're already in.

If you're not into YA, you may want to give it a pass. There's definitely teen angst (not an inordinate amount for me, but I know some people don't like reading about it). I don't lo-o-o-ve the social power dynamics that come into play between the two at times, but band geek Colby does show backbone and realize her worth at several points, while Mia is appropriately cognizant and honest about her more problematic behavior and actions. I also think the struggles and how they're overcome are beneficial especially to YA readers (but also us older folk as well).

The title, Girlfriend for the Summer, holds a promise with an explicit restriction (it's over in August). I think books tagged as romance, specifically YA books, tend to carry with them similar baggage. It's about teens, romance is all well and good but there's no guarantee of forever. Often we're left at the end with the promise of finality but with the knowledge the characters still have their lives left to live.

But in the same way (this really doesn't count as a spoiler alert) Colby and Mia decide they don't want to be girlfriends just "for the summer," so too do romance books in general (and this one in particular) go beyond that limitation. Because while it is about the story, it's also about the feelings the story inculcates in the reader, how it impacts us. In that way, this book still resonates beyond the last page.