Book Review: Night Owls and Summer Skies

I know it’s not summer. It’s actually officially winter now, but I just read Night Owls and Summer Skies from my tbr list.

Night Owls and Summer Skies by Rebecca Sullivan follows 17 year old Emma Lane during her summer after high school. Her father is dropping her off at her mother’s house a few hours away for the summer. Emma goes begrudgingly as she’s not particularly close with her mother. One of the problems? Emma is gay and her mom refuses to believe it. With no other choice, Emma decides to make the best of the situation only to find that immediately after with her mom, she is dropped off at a summer camp while her mom goes on vacation with her new husband.

As if that wasn’t problematic enough, Camp Mapplewood is a camp Emma went to as a kid and had a horrible experience. That horrible experience is the cause of years of anxiety, depression, and the onset of phobias that she has worked through with therapy, medication, and living with her dad instead of her mom. Now she has to be back there without any notice.

The summer brings along a lot of surprises and growth for Emma in the form of self-reflection, friendship, and love.

I enjoyed this book and while I found the dialogue sometimes a little hard to follow, I think it’s really relatable especially for teenagers. You don’t have to be gay to understand or relate to Emma and the things she goes through as a teen. And whether you have a crush on a girl or boy, those early and exciting days of liking someone, especially as teenager, are relatable for anyone.