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A review by bizzybee429
Freefall Summer by Tracy Barrett
2.0
1.5
When I saw the cover and blurb of Freefall Summer, I thought it was going to be a story like Heather Demetrios’s [b:Bad Romance|29102896|Bad Romance|Heather Demetrios|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1475530166s/29102896.jpg|47434524], in which I mean I thought it would be a gritty observation on the effect an unhealthy relationship can have on a teen. I was wrong. I could tell by the time I was about five chapters that this was not a book about abusive YA relationships, and next I believed that this novel would romanticize relationships between a high-schooler and an adult (and yes – even though Denny is only eighteen, he is an adult) but I was wrong again (kind of). Thankfully. What Freefall Summer actually is is exactly what you would think from only looking at the cover: a YA romance that might not be super deep, and might be cliché, but is really easy to read. One difference between Freefall Summer and other YA romance’s is the inclusion of some questionably amoral content.
The characters and plot in Freefall Summer were taken right out of some classic YA contemporary cookie-cutter tropes: cute, innocent, blonde female has a dad who is nice but kind of controlling, and she also has a boyfriend who is nice but kind of controlling (and who bores her); aforementioned cute, innocent, blonde female meets a new boy, they deny their feelings for each other, she tries to decide if she should break up with her nice but kind of controlling boo, drama ensues. I’ve read it before and I’m sure I’ll read it again. One thing better in Freefall Summer was the addition of some fun subplots and facts about sky-diving. I now really want to go sky-diving. I thought it was kind of weird how obsessed Clancy’s dad was about sky-diving, but we all have our quirks.
But, unfortunately, not only was the plot cliché, but it was also realllllllly slow. It was easy-reading, so it was fine for me, but I didn’t feel that the plot really got going until I was about 60 percent in. So much about the blurb and the first few chapters promises that Clancy’s lies would bring her life crashing down but they really….. didn’t???? I mean, some stuff did happen because of her choices, but there really wasn’t any giant emotional scarring going on for anyone involved. It was disappointingly dull in the drama department. I was sitting there waiting for everything to get started and then, before I knew it, the book was over.
If you’ve read the blurb, you know that Clancy falls in love with this guy who is a freshman in college, and leads him to believe that she, too, is eighteen. This is literally the main plot of the novel, and yet their relationship was completely underdeveloped and lacking in chemistry. In literally any other book, a relationship between an eighteen year-old and a high schooler is either romanticized (hate this) or challenged consistently throughout the novel (good, it should be), and Freefall Summer kind of falls into the first category, but, honestly, Clancy and Denny’s relationship was so bland and undeveloped that there wasn’t really any content to romanticize off of. The one passage that I did highlight pertaining to their relationship is this:
Yeah. Weird. Not okay. And yes, Clancy was an idiot for lying, but, more importantly, Denny was an idiot for not putting the pieces together because there were some pretty obvious clues being dropped that Clancy was underage. When it comes down to it, the age discrepancy was really not challenged enough, even for such a weakly written romance.
My main problem with this book, though, is the demonizing/flatness of Theo and, more importantly, the acceptance of cheating. Theo was by no means a perfect boyfriend, but I felt as though his main purpose in the novel was to show that Clancy needed someone “mature” who “treated her like an adult” as a boyfriend, which brings us back to the inevitable problematic romanticizing of a statutory relationship. Which in itself is not okay, but Freefall Summer took this to a whole other level, and what really pissed me off is the way this book portrays cheating. Clancy is literally emotionally cheating on Theo with Denny for a good 60/70 percent of the novel, but when it is revealed that, Clancy, and the book, uses this as a way to excuse Clancy’s emotional cheating, and implies that emotional cheating is an okay thing to do.
She even kind of admits that she’s emotionally cheating on Theo, with this passage: ”Also, I figured if I took [Denny] To Manuelito’s, no one who saw us would be suspicious, because if I was cheating, I wouldn’t be so public about it.” Uhhhhh. No. While reading, I just figured that Clancy would go through character development and realize that she was completely projecting her own cheating onto Theo and that she’d realize emotional cheating, even if you are planning on breaking up with your significant other, is wrong, but she never does. The book never challenges Clancy’s own cheating, rather, it does the opposite in Clancy’s projecting onto Theo, when she sees a picture of Theo with another girl and automatically assumes he’s cheating on her.
Like, girl, seriously. You just spent three chapters thinking about Denny and talking to your BFF about Denny and now you’re getting pissed over your boyfriend’s picture with another girl? Like???
There was also a kind of disturbing conversation between Clancy and her best friend Julia where Julia tries to convince Clancy to “play games” with Theo.
That whole conversation just made me really uncomfortable?? Idk. It’s just totally wrong to put forward the idea that telling your significant other things for the purpose of making them jealous or territorial is an okay and healthy thing to do in a relationship.
All in all, Freefall Summer is a a kind of typical YA romance read, but, at the same time, it’s slightly more problematic than most. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, really. It puts forth some not-so-good themes about statutory relationships and cheating.
I was provided an eARC by NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.
When I saw the cover and blurb of Freefall Summer, I thought it was going to be a story like Heather Demetrios’s [b:Bad Romance|29102896|Bad Romance|Heather Demetrios|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1475530166s/29102896.jpg|47434524], in which I mean I thought it would be a gritty observation on the effect an unhealthy relationship can have on a teen. I was wrong. I could tell by the time I was about five chapters that this was not a book about abusive YA relationships, and next I believed that this novel would romanticize relationships between a high-schooler and an adult (and yes – even though Denny is only eighteen, he is an adult) but I was wrong again (kind of). Thankfully. What Freefall Summer actually is is exactly what you would think from only looking at the cover: a YA romance that might not be super deep, and might be cliché, but is really easy to read. One difference between Freefall Summer and other YA romance’s is the inclusion of some questionably amoral content.
The characters and plot in Freefall Summer were taken right out of some classic YA contemporary cookie-cutter tropes: cute, innocent, blonde female has a dad who is nice but kind of controlling, and she also has a boyfriend who is nice but kind of controlling (and who bores her); aforementioned cute, innocent, blonde female meets a new boy, they deny their feelings for each other, she tries to decide if she should break up with her nice but kind of controlling boo, drama ensues. I’ve read it before and I’m sure I’ll read it again. One thing better in Freefall Summer was the addition of some fun subplots and facts about sky-diving. I now really want to go sky-diving. I thought it was kind of weird how obsessed Clancy’s dad was about sky-diving, but we all have our quirks.
But, unfortunately, not only was the plot cliché, but it was also realllllllly slow. It was easy-reading, so it was fine for me, but I didn’t feel that the plot really got going until I was about 60 percent in. So much about the blurb and the first few chapters promises that Clancy’s lies would bring her life crashing down but they really….. didn’t???? I mean, some stuff did happen because of her choices, but there really wasn’t any giant emotional scarring going on for anyone involved. It was disappointingly dull in the drama department. I was sitting there waiting for everything to get started and then, before I knew it, the book was over.
If you’ve read the blurb, you know that Clancy falls in love with this guy who is a freshman in college, and leads him to believe that she, too, is eighteen. This is literally the main plot of the novel, and yet their relationship was completely underdeveloped and lacking in chemistry. In literally any other book, a relationship between an eighteen year-old and a high schooler is either romanticized (hate this) or challenged consistently throughout the novel (good, it should be), and Freefall Summer kind of falls into the first category, but, honestly, Clancy and Denny’s relationship was so bland and undeveloped that there wasn’t really any content to romanticize off of. The one passage that I did highlight pertaining to their relationship is this:
”Do I wish now, knowing everything that happened next, that I’d told him I was in high school and only sixteen? Everything would have been different. Most people would say that everything would have been better.
And maybe it would. But even so, if I had it all to do over again, I know I’d let him go on thinking I was a college student and eighteen years old.”
Yeah. Weird. Not okay. And yes, Clancy was an idiot for lying, but, more importantly, Denny was an idiot for not putting the pieces together because there were some pretty obvious clues being dropped that Clancy was underage. When it comes down to it, the age discrepancy was really not challenged enough, even for such a weakly written romance.
My main problem with this book, though, is the demonizing/flatness of Theo and, more importantly, the acceptance of cheating. Theo was by no means a perfect boyfriend, but I felt as though his main purpose in the novel was to show that Clancy needed someone “mature” who “treated her like an adult” as a boyfriend, which brings us back to the inevitable problematic romanticizing of a statutory relationship. Which in itself is not okay, but Freefall Summer took this to a whole other level, and what really pissed me off is the way this book portrays cheating. Clancy is literally emotionally cheating on Theo with Denny for a good 60/70 percent of the novel, but when it is revealed that
Spoiler
Theo cheated on her while he was away at campShe even kind of admits that she’s emotionally cheating on Theo, with this passage: ”Also, I figured if I took [Denny] To Manuelito’s, no one who saw us would be suspicious, because if I was cheating, I wouldn’t be so public about it.” Uhhhhh. No. While reading, I just figured that Clancy would go through character development and realize that she was completely projecting her own cheating onto Theo and that she’d realize emotional cheating, even if you are planning on breaking up with your significant other, is wrong, but she never does. The book never challenges Clancy’s own cheating, rather, it does the opposite in Clancy’s projecting onto Theo, when she sees a picture of Theo with another girl and automatically assumes he’s cheating on her.
Spoiler
And it doesn’t matter that he was – it still doesn’t justify Clancy’s own cheating.”Even though Cynthia’s jump had been awesome, it wasn’t enough to distract me from the picture of Theo. Why was he hugging that girl? Okay, maybe they were celebrating a hard climb or something, but th way she was leaning into him and he was squeezing her looked too cozy somehow.”
Like, girl, seriously. You just spent three chapters thinking about Denny and talking to your BFF about Denny and now you’re getting pissed over your boyfriend’s picture with another girl? Like???
There was also a kind of disturbing conversation between Clancy and her best friend Julia where Julia tries to convince Clancy to “play games” with Theo.
”It might be really good for your relationship with Theo if you dropped some hints about Denny. [sic] Even if you’re telling the truth, there’s no harm in making Theo think there is something going on.”
“I don’t see why, and besides, it’s childish to play games.”
“Oh, but playing games is fun! Why do you think they call it playing? Everyone does it anyway, and besides, it works.”
That whole conversation just made me really uncomfortable?? Idk. It’s just totally wrong to put forward the idea that telling your significant other things for the purpose of making them jealous or territorial is an okay and healthy thing to do in a relationship.
All in all, Freefall Summer is a a kind of typical YA romance read, but, at the same time, it’s slightly more problematic than most. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone, really. It puts forth some not-so-good themes about statutory relationships and cheating.
I was provided an eARC by NetGalley in exchange for a complete and honest review.