Book Review: "Speaking of Summer" by Kalisha Buckhanon
“Speaking of Summer” by Kalisha Bukhanon
Synopsis: On a cold December evening, Autumn Spencer’s twin sister, Summer, walks to the roof of their shared Harlem brownstone and is never seen again. The door to the roof is locked, and the snow holds only one set of footprints. Faced with authorities indifferent to another missing Black woman, Autumn must pursue the search for her sister all on her own.
With her friends and neighbors, Autumn pretends to hold up through the crisis. But the loss becomes too great, the mystery too inexplicable, and Autumn starts to unravel, all the while becoming obsessed with the various murders of local women and the men who kill them, thinking their stories and society’s complacency toward them might shed light on what really happened to her sister.
In Speaking of Summer, critically acclaimed author Kalisha Buckhanon has created a fast-paced story of urban peril and victim invisibility, and the fight to discover the complicated truths at the heart of every family.—Counterpoint Press
Rating (out of 5): 4
Review: Momo’s continuing her streak of library finds! I found this in the New section at my local library and was intrigued by the cover blurb. I definitely went into this thinking it would be a more standard mystery than it was, but I did enjoy this quite a bit.
The story is non-linear, which definitely contributes to the plot in a major way, but it can be a bit of a struggle to figure out exactly what is happening, and that hampered my enjoyment a bit for the first 100 pages or so. I really enjoyed reading about Autumn, and felt connected to her throughout—her rage at the system for ignoring her sister’s disappearance, her struggle to hold onto her friendships, work, and health while desperately looking for her sister.
I will say that I guessed the twist before it happened. I wouldn’t call the twist disappointing, per se, but it does turn the central issues of the book on their head a bit. I really liked the direction it was taken in, but it took me a while to adjust from the book I expected to the book I was reading. Unfortunately, to stay spoiler-free, I can’t really elaborate more than that!
Watching Autumn struggle back to herself in the latter parts of the book, with the help of a really great therapist, was heartening. Also, seeing the friends that showed up for her through her time of need was additionally wonderful.
I’d be remiss in mentioning that the Black experience is not my own, and I appreciate the difference in access to appropriate care and treatment is very starkly different from my privileged position. I look forward to educating myself more about this issue.
Tl;DR: If you go into this one expecting a standard mystery/thriller, you will be disappointed. I found this book an excellent exploration of the intersections of race, mental health, and childhood trauma, but it is not at all a straightforward mystery. The first 100 pages or so are a bit slow and hard to follow, but it picks up significantly from there.
If you liked this; try:
“Red at the Bone” by Jacqueline Woodson
