There’s something about summer that makes me look forward to reading more light-hearted contemporaries. With its cute summer-fun-loving cover, The Year of Living Awkwardly made its way onto my summer reading list.
Chloe has a fun voice and sense of humor that takes me back to my teenage years, back when everything was supposed to be simple, but wasn’t because of teenage awkwardness.
This book reads just like a diary entry. Many of the entires are short and filled with thoughts as they come to Chloe. While there are consistent themes, like family, friendship, and romance, there are also many smaller subplots following Chloe’s journey into sophomore year, and they get resolved at different times. This is great in that it reflects actual life, but it was a bit harder to read as a book because I wanted to have a unifying plot to follow.
That said, I enjoyed seeing Chloe’s growth as she takes the lessons that she learned freshman year. She still has much to learn, but she’s grown more mature and is capable of handling issues that were overwhelming to her as a freshman.
I especially like how Chloe comes to realizations about what is important in life. Such as finding meaning in the role she’s given, being a true friend when others won’t be, and learning to love people who are hard to love. Lastly, she learns that romantic love isn’t all about the sparks and the immediate physical attraction or even about looking for someone higher up on the social hierarchy. What’s important is finding someone who genuinely cares about you and will be by your side.
Content: mature sexual content (MC keeps thinking about herself in terms of her virginity; mentions of blow jobs, hand jobs, people having sex, making out in public places); some language; homosexuality; MC speaks / journals against her best friend’s Christian beliefs. There is also a teacher in a relationship with a student’s father.
Comparable Titles: Sophomore Year is Greek to Me by Meredith Zeitlin
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Author: Crystal
A story girl at heart, Crystal is a bibliophile who can easily spend the day immersed in a good read. She writes under the name Kristy Wang. You can follow her writing adventures on X and Instagram @_kristywang.
Sophia Rose says
I find summer is a great time for light contemporary YA stories, too. I like the coming of age aspect of this with her learning some truths on her road to adulthood like about being a friend and choosing character over looks or status.
Crystal says
Summer just has that feel for light contemporary stories. I love coming of age stories; it’s my favorite part of YA stories!