The Drowning Summer by Christine Lynn Herman | Spoiler-Free Review

"The dead called to [Mina's] family, and her family answered them, guiding ghosts from this world to whatever came next." 

The Drowning Summer by Christine Lynn Herman is a YA paranormal fantasy that was published this last week, on April 19, 2022. This book follows two teenage girls: Mina, who comes from a family of mediums; and Evelyn, a girl with a troubled past. Six years ago, three teenagers washed up on the beach, drowned, with sand dollars over their eyes. To save her father - the only person of interest for this bizarre and macabre case - Evelyn asked Mina for her help to summon a spirit. Now six years later, Evelyn and Mina are forced to with with the consequences of their actions. The three spirits of the Drowning Summer are restless, and there's another spirit lurking behind them, one that may be more dangerous than anyone has realized. 

I thought this book was fun. It has the right amount of intrigue for a YA novel, it's not too scary, and the romance is pretty cute. Oh, did I mention that this has a Sapphic romance? Because it has a Sapphic romance. 

"Evelyn met Mina’s gaze, and there it was again. That feeling. Like the moment between jumping off the rocks and hitting the ocean—exhilaration and nerves and no turning back now."

My favorite thing about the novel was the environmental factor. A lot of what the girls were dealing with -  both paranormal and regular teenage stuff - could be seen as allegory for climate change, or just outright said "this is about climate change." It's a clever literary agent that I wouldn't have expected to be used in the way it was. I really liked that. 

One thing I had a problem with was its predictability. Unfortunately, this book fell into the classic YA plotline, especially the whole "Big Reveal" thing. You know, when the protagonists finally think they won against the big bad, but then there is a second reveal that shows just how wrong they were, and now this actual big bad is someone they don't think they can win against. I know that books are meant to have a certain amount of predictability in order for them to feel familiar to us as readers, but this was a little much, in my opinion. 

Having read Christine Lynn Herman's other books, The Devouring Gray and The Deck of Omens, I found this book rather lackluster. She definitely has a more straightforward and plain writing style here, maybe because she got a lot of backlash with her flowery, purple prose from her duology. I, personally, liked her writing then, so this was a little boring for me. But that is just my opinion, of course, and shouldn't deter you from picking this book up. 

I recommend this book to people who like environmental stories, books about ghosts, and anyone who wants to read about two girls falling in love. 

I gave this book a three out of five stars, and a score of 5.71 on CAWPILE.