Book Review: "Big Summer" by Jennifer Weiner
“Big Summer” by Jennifer Weiner
Today, we’re doing something a little different — both Shannon and Elizabeth read this new release, and rather than fight over who got to do the review, we decided to do a joint one! (this isn’t the first time that’s happened, tbh) We hope you enjoy hearing both of our perspectives of this great summer read!
Synopsis: Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn't spoken one word to Drue in all this time--she doesn't even hate-follow her ex-best friend on social media--so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer, Daphne is rightfully speechless.
Drue was always the one who had everything--except the ability to hold onto friends. Meanwhile, Daphne's no longer the same self-effacing sidekick she was back in high school. She's built a life that she loves, including a growing career as a plus-size Instagram influencer. Letting glamorous, seductive Drue back into her life is risky, but it comes with an invitation to spend a weekend in a waterfront Cape Cod mansion. When Drue begs and pleads and dangles the prospect of cute single guys, Daphne finds herself powerless as ever to resist her friend's siren song.
A sparkling novel about the complexities of female relationships, the pitfalls of living out loud and online, and the resilience of the human heart, Big Summer is a witty, moving story about family, friendship, and figuring out what matters most. - Atria Books
Shannon’s Rating: 3.5
Elizabeth’s Rating: 4
Trigger warnings: infidelity, mean girls, diet culture*
Shannon’s Review: I usually love Jennifer Weiner books (“Mrs. Everything” was one of my favorites of last year), which is why I wanted to review “Big Summer.” But, this one didn’t quite do it for me tbh. A few reasons why:
The crime at the novel’s center threw me off. For some reason it seemed out of left field for Weiner, and turned into a bit of a whodunit.
I felt the emphasis on Drue’s “poor little rich girl” character was a cliche. Her family is extremely wealthy, yet she never sees her dad and craves his attention—where have we heard that before? (Everywhere.) Daphne’s family comes from more modest means, yet she has all the love in the world…the juxtaposition was nothing new to me and frankly I didn’t have much sympathy for Drue.
Daphne’s body positivity influencing was a tough one. After always feeling inferior to her thinner richer friend, an incident with Drue in their late teens helps change Daphne’s perspective. She starts her body positive YouTube and Instagram accounts, and her mentality was very much “fake it til you make it.” At times she seemed defensive that her Instagram account was really about “community,” while also wanting to have enough sponcon to quit her nannying job. I don’t have much patience for many influencers, and Daphne’s content/captions came off trite to me.
That said, I didn’t not enjoy this book. There was a lot to like, like Daphne’s relationship with her dad. Reading about their food adventures in NYC (exploring local cuisines in different neighborhoods of Queens and Brooklyn) made me especially nostalgic for New York (despite the fact that I’m quarantining here). The examination of female friendship was fascinating; I don’t think I would have let Drue back into my life if I were in Daphne’s shoes. Why build a life you love and let such a toxic person back in? It was almost similar to “Mean Girls,” except that Daphne never seemed to have the realization that Drue was a mean girl.
While I think Weiner has better books, this was a fun departure in a setting I’m not too familiar with (Cape Cod), which was fun to read about. Definitely a good, quick summer read despite coming in at nearly 400 pages.
Elizabeth’s Review: Hi, my name is Elizabeth, and this is the first Jennifer Weiner book I’ve read…ever. I’m not sure why, but I’ve never picked up her books in the summer — and I’d like to rectify that soon, as they seem to be perfect pandemic reads. Quick, funny, engaging, and with just enough substance (but not too much for my scattered mind). I impulsively added this one to my Book of the Month cart, and I am so glad I did.
I’m having a hard time summarizing the plot in a way that makes sense and doesn’t regurgitate the plot synopsis, but to channel SNL’s Stefan, this book has a little bit of everything: mean girls, weddings, internet virality, friendship, hot boys, tequila — oh and a murder investigation. Our main character is Daphne, an aspiring body-positive influencer* who agrees to be in her frenemy Drue’s wedding; of course, that would be a boring story, so we get a hot dude interlude and a murder to complicate matters. Daphne, trying to clear her name and figure out what happened to her childhood friend, teams up with hot dude Nick and her roommate Darshi to solve the crime.
We are spoiler-free around here, so I’m not going to give away the big twist, but I was surprised at who actually committed the crime. What was the most interesting to me was the connections that Jennifer Weiner made between mean girls, internet culture, and our current like-obsessed society. As Drue and Daphne’s story unfolded, the reader is really given a lot to think about, especially around Instagram-vs-reality.
Female friendship can be so complicated, and I loved seeing that play out between Daphne, Drue, and Darshi. I really felt for all the characters, and while I was never quite as much a mean girl as Drue or outcast as Darshi, I could definitely connect to their motivations. It was so interesting, at least to me, to combine that with the social media influencer angle. I feel like I shouldn’t judge people “doing it for the ‘gram” - hello! we have a book blog! - but I do. I’ve read a few books recently dealing with influencer culture, and this was one of the best portrayals of it I have read.
Of course, this is a summer beach read — the cover gives that away — so there was never any doubt in my mind that this would end with a neatly wrapped up bow, with Drue’s murder solved and Daphne and Nick happy together. I guess my only quibble with it is how quickly it was resolved; I know Daphne, Darshi, and Nick are smart, but they solved this thing in like 12 hours. In my opinion, they must have been teleporting around New England to even make the transportation work. To me, the ending just felt a little rushed — Jennifer Weiner spent so much time creating a backstory and explaining the incident, and it felt like she sped up the end just so she could be done writing. And I say that, with the book being 354 pages.
Even with that feeling, I’d still recommend this one, especially for this moment. It will make you think, it will make you laugh, it will make you reconsider instagram, and in my case, it will make you reconnect with some of those “lost” childhood friends after looking at high school prom photos.
TL;DR: An engaging summer read that’s a good escape during the pandemic. Entertaining looks at influencer culture and female friendship, with a mystery to boot.
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*Daphne has definitely internalized diet culture and misogynistic messaging about female body size, and at times, I felt it was a little hard to be in her head — tbh, it may have been too close to home — but I did want to flag that for people who may have suffered with body-image issues in the past.
