INVINCIBLE SUMMER

Every summer, Chase knows what to expect: time in the sand with his siblings, the company of the girls next door and the occasional fights between his parents. Between 15 and 18, his life shifts each summer, as his parents divorce, he loses his virginity and his siblings drift away from one another. Attempting to tell the story over four summers is admirable, but the voices, characters and drama are all flawed. Chase never develops as an authentic male voice, caught in a mix between teenage girl and older professor: Some of the language choices, as when he refers to his younger sister Claudia as “sexualized” and describes his neighbor’s expression as “her rape face,” jar. Younger brother Gideon’s deafness seems more like an attempt at depth than anything else, and the ASL conversation pieces add unnecessary bumps to a rocky narrative. The sexual relationship that older brother Noah and Chase have with Melinda, the girl next door, borders on dysfunction. Moskowitz’s second novel is more sand-in-shorts-irritating than engaging beach-blanket read, a sad follow-up to her powerful debut, Break (2009). (Fiction. YA)