Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

I’m pretty disappointed by how in love I wasn’t with Big Summer. After Weiner’s last book, Mrs. Everything, I was eager to pick this one up and even pre-ordered it.

So what didn’t I love about it? To me, it felt like an episode of The Bachelor meets My Big, Fat Fabulous Life meets As the World Turns, as though maybe Weiner was perhaps fishing for a movie deal because everything in the book played out so well to be put into a quick B-list movie.

I also felt like there was something missing; while I appreciated the background into Daphne’s history with her health, the remainder of the characters lacked depth.

If anything, Big Summer puts a whole bunch of emphasis on how obsessed society can be with social media, and how far we’re willing to go for likes, follows, and comments, and how much of what’s out there is only perhaps a sliver of what our realities actually are. Weiner did a great job putting everything into perspective, if anything.

My rating: ★★★½/5 stars