Review: A Midsummer's Nightmare by Kody Keplinger

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorcé dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancée and her kids. The fiancée's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother...at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together.

Filled with authenticity and raw emotion, Whitley is Kody Keplinger's most compelling character to date: a cynical Holden Caulfield-esque girl you will wholly care about.

My Review:

Between The DUFF and Shut Out, my favorite Kody Keplinger book had been The DUFF.  Now, I think my favorite Kody Keplinger book is A Midsummer's Nightmare.  Everything about it, from the story to the characters to the cameos, was awesome.  I absolutely loved this book!  

POSSIBLE SPOILERS


First, there was the protagonist, Whitley Johnson.  She is a character who is rather broken by her parents' divorce, but she pushes away the people who care about her.  After the divorce, she began to act out by partying and sleeping around, but her mom didn't even notice, and she only saw her dad in the summer.  She always loved spending these summers with her dad.  This summer, she goes to visit him and he has a fiancee and she has two children.  Throughout the book, Whitley really grew as a character.  She realized it was okay to let people in her life be close to her.  


Then there were the secondary characters.  Her mom was not in the book very often, but she needed to work on being a better parent.  She was just depressed and angry about her divorce with Whitley's dad, so she stopped noticing Whitley.  Then there was her dad who didn't really know how to be a dad.  When Whitley visited him in the summer, he often drank with her and acted more like an older brother.  He had cheated on her mom, but no one had told Whitley that.  Overall, he was okay, but he made a lot of mistakes.  Then there was Sylvia, Whitley's soon-to-be stepmother.  She really seemed to care about Whitley so I liked her.  Next was Bailey, Sylvia's thirteen (almost fourteen) year old daughter.  She was a sweet kid and it would be impossible not to like her (as Whitley realized).  Finally, there was Nathan, Whitley's future stepbrother and one-night-stand from graduation night.  He was an awesome guy.  I loved him as a character, and I loved how he ended up helping Whitley.


Next, there were the characters who had been in other Keplinger books.  First, there's Harrison.  I can't call him a cameo because he has a much larger role in this book than in The DUFF.  He became Whitley's best friend, and they had a good relationship.  I liked the Bianca and Wesley cameo since it showed that they were still together.

Overall, I loved this book.  Read it if you like YA contemporary.  

Katie