Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler

 You know how sometimes you think about something you once really loved, but now you're just kind of embarrassed that you were into it?  Like that guy in college? 

(His name was Larry. I thought he was cool. It broke my heart when he starting dating one of my friends. They got married and he is chronically depressed, underemployed, and my former friend is sort of chronically unhappy.)

 Or the music you listened to in high school?

(I listened to Nelson's After the Rain album on repeat. I listened to it recently on Spotify and it 1) messed up my algorithm and 2) wasn't nearly as good as I remember it being.)

Or maybe it's the hobby you once did for hours and hours?

(Ever try to make one of those woven potholder things as an adult? It's not fun.  But we must have had a hundred of them when I was a child. My parents put up with a lot, didn't they?)

I feel like maybe that's where I'm at with YA literature. I just can't deal with these teenagers anymore and I think it's me, not them.

Twenty Boy Summer by Ockler tells the tale of Anna whose dear friend and very new boyfriend Matt recently died. Frankie is Anna's best friend and just so happened to be Matt's sister, but Matt and Anna hadn't yet told Frankie that they were dating before he died.  Anna misses Matt, feels like she's hiding things from Frankie, and Frankie is acting out because she's in mourning.  Meanwhile, Anna and Frankie go to California with Frankie's parents and decide it will be the Absolutely Best Summer Ever by flirting with twenty boys over the course of the vacation.

The Good:  Man, that cover is great. I love sea glass, I love the sea glass metaphor running through the book, I love the whole thing.  Maybe it's a bit literal with the story, but I don't even care.  

The Bad:  Look, I get that Frankie's parents are dealing with real trauma, but the parenting in this book is beyond irresponsible. You're sending teenage girls in your care out to who knows where all day long and not even watching over them at night when they also sneak out?  I know that my parents were helicopter parents before that was a thing, but my parents knew where I was every second of every day and the freedom these girls had was not a thing in the 90s and it's definitely not a thing in the 2000s.  Dumb.

The Meh: Basically everything else. I mean, the characters seems like hormonal, impulsive teenagers.  Getting over the death of a loved one is hard during those years and I'm absolutely positive that this book will resonate with teenagers going through something similar. But...I'm too old to sympathize with these girls. Put your fucking big girl pants on and deal with it.  Behave responsibly, communicate effectively, and try to live a life your friend would want you to live.  Sheesh.  I think I'm just over the age limit at which YA reaches me.  

I would maybe recommend this to a teenager girl going through a traumatic time, but that's about the extent of my recommendation.