Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner Book Review
“I can’t tell you what, quite yet, but I can tell you that for me, getting honest, not hiding, being real, and figuring out how to love myself, or at least you know, tolerate myself in the body that I had, has been the best decision of my life.”
(pg. 24)
About
Author: Jennifer Weiner
Genre: New Adult Contemporary
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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.
Review
Spoilers Contained Below
To those soaking up the summer,
It wouldn’t be summer without a book that literally has the words summer in the title, am I right? 💛 So I just had to pick up this book because I saw it going around on bookstagram.
Truth be told, I didn’t read the synopsis before reading the book, so going into it, everything felt fresh and surprising and honestly, the book was nothing like I thought it would be? In a good way or a bad way?
Sort of both.
Let’s start with the good. I highly enjoyed Part One of the book. And frankly, if that was the whole book, I would have been satisfied because part one had a whole different feel to it and I loved the direction and plot it had. Part one talked more about fashion and body positivity, two of my absolute most favorite topics as someone who has struggled in her own body and skin and what to adorn it with. It’s crazy because before I picked up this book, I wrote another blog post, that should be up by now, called Size Does Not Matter (I’ll link it below), and then I started reading Big Summer and it talked about exactly what I wrote about in terms of fashion and body.
“It’s not fair for designers to relegate an entire group of women to shoes, handbags, and scarves because the powers that be decided they were too big or too small to wear the clothes.”
(pg 12-13)
This really stuck with me because a lot of fashion companies will dictate what a person wears by the size or the price when fashion should be accessible and made for all. I mean, when I think about it, we are told we have to either fit size small, medium, large, x-large, or now, plus-size clothes. But honestly? Not everyone is going to fit those sizes perfectly and the sizes themselves aren’t perfect. I know there are some tops I try on where it’s too tight near my stomach area and too loose in my chest area, or how there are some jeans that hug my legs nice, suck in my thighs too tightly, all the while being too loose at the waist. Not all clothes are made to fit everyone. They are created with this ideal that a person is a certain way and that we have to “fit” the clothes, when the clothes should fit us—-we shouldn’t have to be the ones conforming. And I think that price also plays a big role in how expensive clothes are more personalized, higher quality, etc. and it leaves those who can’t afford it with clothes that don’t flatter us right simply because we might not have the means to afford higher paying outfits. And it’s wrong.
“Once I’d started searching out clothes that fit and looked good on the body I had instead of the one that I wanted, I had discovered the feeling Leela Thakoon was talking about.”
(pg 14)
I could highly relate to everything Daphne said here. When I felt bigger in my own skin, I did everything to hide that. I was like her and wore the navy blues, the blacks, and other darker colors. I wore the baggy clothes. I understood Daphne. Unlike Daphne, I actually did drastic changes to myself to “fit” in or to feel good enough to wear clothes I wanted to. But now that I am in a healthier place—mind and body—-I chose clothes that make me feel good and fit the body I’ve worked for and not the other way around.
The clothes should fit you, not you fit the clothes.
And to me, fashion has become such a source of happiness in my life. It’s been my expression, it’s been my armor, it’s been my love, it’s been something that taught me how I could love myself.
Going off of how I said that I felt like I had to change my body, Daphne was constantly surrounded by people who made her feel the need to do so too. Because if people were never ridiculed for our bodies or if there were more body types in the media, it makes me wonder if we would all still feel the need to shame ourselves to change?
Hmmm 🤔.
But sadly, we don’t live in that type of world. We are shamed. We are told things that skinny is pretty or that we have to be a certain size to be accepted or to “fit in.” I was told it. Daphne was told it.
I really wanted to hug Daphne in what she experienced growing up as a bigger girl. And honestly, I could never fully understand what she went through because when it comes to body shaming and body journey’s, they are all different—-what I went through was different than Daphne’s.
We did have one thing in common though, prudish grandmothers 🤪. I don’t blame the grandmother because she probably grew up in a different germination where she was taught all these toxic ideals, and the grandmother herself was a curvier woman, and she wanted to save Daphne from the pain of getting hurt. But she was just putting even more toxic ideals in Daphne’s head. Because eating too much can be unhealthy, but swinging all the way around and cutting everything out and claiming this food or that food is bad, is also not healthy. Balance is key. Moderation is key. A middle ground is key. It doesn’t have to be all black or white or all or nothing.
The Grandma was really doing Daphne dirty by making her walk around the whole neighborhood before eating and then telling her all these things like you should leave your plate full by pushing yourself away from the plate, or starting Weight Watchers.
I couldn’t believe that the Grandma actually told her:
“Get used to being hungry. . . if you get hungry, that means you’re winning.”
(pg 111)
That’s such a sick mindset to teach a kid. That’s like basically telling Daphne to starve herself because she would be “winning.” There is nothing winning about that.
“The damage had been done.”
(pg 117)
Daphne’s parents came home eventually and they figured out what the Grandmother was doing and got mad at her for trying to change Daphne. I really respected Daphne’s parents and how they loved their daughter for who she was and they always made her feel beautiful in her own skin. I mean, all parents should do that—-love their kids as they are. Sure, parents have a right to be concerned about their kids if their kids are in a worrisome level of eating a ton of junk food, not getting up and moving, or sitting on the couch all day. But Daphne was anything but worrisome with the way she ate and the way she constantly moved. And this brought up the idea of how a lot of people think that just because a person is bigger that they must be lazy. They must not exercise. But Daphne was active and she ate modestly and cleanly. It had nothing to do with her lifestyle, but sometimes people are just born a certain way and it’s in their genetics to be a bit bigger. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that because all bodies are beautiful and I wished society would see it that way. Skinny shouldn’t be an expectation.
I also really didn’t like how Drue was so rude to Daphne about her weight and how they all “pitied the fat girl.” Like that’s a bunch of loaded garbage and when Daphne went off on her at the club where the guy was being an absolute prick to her, I was like Daphne GO OFF!!! 👏🏼👏🏼
Daphne was honestly hanging around the wrong people. If Drue was really her friend she would love Daphne for her and not “pity” her weight. And let’s talk about the guys Daphne would meet. THEY WERE GARBAGE. I would like to thoroughly step on the face of the man who took one look at Daphne, made a sorry excuse to go get her a drink, and instead walked straight out the bar! That’s BEYOND rude!!! 😡 I don’t understand boys—-because that’s what he was—-and how they can be so judgmental and superficial. Have they ever heard of a heart? Yea, you love with that and not your eyes. IDIOT.
I was really glad when Daphne said screw all of them and their expectations. When she did, she learned to love and accept herself as she was and I was beyond proud of her for that.
“Right then, at my desk, I decided that I was done with it. I was going to eat to nourish myself, I was going to exercise to feel strong and healthy, I was going to let go of the idea of ever being thin, once and for all, and live my life in the body that I had. And I was going to drop a hundred and seventeen useless pounds right that minute by vowing to never see True Lathrop Cavanaugh ever again.”
(pg 36)
Preach it sister!!! 👏🏼😆 Like, YES! You love your body and you drop your no good friend. If she feels sorry for you, then let her feel sorry, that’s her own fault. You have nothing to be sorry for!
As much as Drue sucked as a friend, if it wasn’t for her and that video, Daphne wouldn’t have found a platform to be an influencer for the plus-sized community.
One of the other truest things I loved about this book was the influencer aspect. I watch a lot of influencers myself and it’s always so interesting how they can make videos, post photos, or do sponsorships and make a living all at the touch of a fingertip or the click of a thumbnail. It’s so interesting because it wasn’t even a job title ten years ago, let alone five. A lot of people might think influencing is easy, but it’s not and I give high credit to anyone who is an influencer because it’s basically like being the production, the camera crew, the creative director, the executive producer, the editor, and the actor/actress for your own production. That’s a lot of work. Throw in being on social media all the time, taking all these photos, tagging all these accounts, setting up posts, and all the other things that go behind the scenes, it’s a lot of work. Is it as hard as being a doctor? Heck, no. But is it hard? Heck, yes. So don’t discount the influencers.
I really liked seeing Daphne’s perspective in how she would show just enough to seem real because that’s what everyone wants from people they follow online. I know with the people I follow, I love seeing their lives and to know that there’s someone out there who’s normal and who shares similar interests or struggles I go through as a person. Because with celebrities, there’s this pedestal where you know you can’t ever be like them or come close to living a life like them. So celebrities lack a lot of reliability. But influencers? They’re everyday people who do everyday magic in front of the camera and behind the camera. And seeing a normal person on the screen makes you feel seen, heard, and less alone. It’s also easier to relate to real people rather than actora/actresses because those are just characters. Influencers are real people. I know some influencers struggle between the identity that they have alone and being this other person off screen——how to merge the two or which one is the real person. And that’s hard when the person on camera should be the person off camera, but that person might not always know who that is. And, again, so much respect for influencers.
But I understood where Daphne was coming from. Because even if she looked perfect and brave online, she had her insecurities, her faults, and her mistakes. She was human.
Being an influencer can also mean having a target on your back.
“When you’re a hammer everything looks like a nail. When you’re angry, everything looks like a target. There are a lot of angry people in the world. And these days they’re all online.”
(pg 298)
Which is true. First rule of being an influencer/having a social media presence: Don’t EVER read the comments.
The majority of the time, there will be the utmost supportive, nice comments. But then there will be those who are angry and who are hurt, who want to take their anger and hurt out on you. And it’s not your fault, you were just unfortunately the person they wanted to lash out on—-you were the nail and target they saw. So they attack. And it sucks how influencers, or just people in general, online get hated on or picked a part. It’s usually never about the person and what they did wrong, but the hate and anger that festers in someone’s heart.
Speaking of someone who had anger in her heart, let’s talk about Drue. Drue gave me PLL, Alison Dilaurentis vibes. She was this perfect, beautiful, stunning, rich girl who seemingly had it all. Everyone wanted to be her friend, but most importantly everyone wanted to be her. Daphne had kind of a toxic relationship with Drue because she wanted to always be around Drue because that would make her “pretty by association.” And I get that. I’ve been there. I had friends growing up who were beyond prettier than me, and yes, I found myself drawn to their sparkly light, wanting to be near them or be closest to them because I unconsciously knew that if I was their close friend, then maybe people would like me or that my friend’s pretty would rub off on me. It didn’t. It won’t. And it’s not the friend’s fault to blame for that. Some people are naturally beautiful.
But even the most beautiful, put-together person has his/her own hardships.
Drue’s dad was a lying skunk who was the baby daddy for all these kids. The mom was getting divorced and was crazed. Drue saw more house workers than her actual parents. Ultimately Drue was lonely. She wanted her dad to love her and to be proud of her. She wanted to have a normal family. It hurt my heart how much that one day with Daphne and her dad meant to Drue. It was the best day of Drue’s life because she was with a father-figure and her friend, doing something families would do. Drue didn’t have that. And it’s interesting how Daphne always put Drue on a pedestal—-rich, pretty, got into the best university, and traveled the world. But at the same time Drue put Daphne on a pedestal because Daphne had spunk to own up to her body, Daphne was bold, Daphne got into college by her own means, and Daphne had a family. Sometimes we take for granted a lot of the things we have in life that might be as glamorous as a big house or all the money in the world, but a big house and money doesn’t equate to happiness. It kind of reminds me of the song Beautiful People by Ed Sheehan.
Even though Drue had her faults and was mean to Daphne as a kid, I don’t think she was all that bad a person. She was hurting and lonely. She only acted the way her parents modeled it and she acted out of a place of insecurity so others could feel as low as her. What I liked though, was how she tried to make amends. She tutored, she left money for her unknown siblings, and she left money for Daphne without her knowing it. Because that highlights how she wanted to change and maybe she was.
Because Drue grew up with a lot of instability, it made sense why she had a hard time creating meaningful relationships. Her parents didn’t have one, so it set the stage for how she created relationships. There’s some psychological term I learned, but I don’t remember 😂. But Drue went from one guy to another so quickly because she just wanted to fill a void her dad left—-the love the dad didn’t give her. I also felt it came from a place of wanting what was best from a guy because maybe then, she thought, her dad would be proud of her. There was a lot going on underneath the surface with her actions and I wanted to hug her or give her a hug and say, you need therapy 😅. Gosh gracious knows, if she had therapy she would have turned out differently. Because maybe then she would have had the support to understand her actions, emotions, and relationships in her life to progress as a person.
I found it really sweet how Drue liked the least-Drue person: Aditya. He gave me older man, beer-belly, nerd-ish, very calm, and sweet guy. He seemed like a good fit for Drue because he was humble and didn’t expect anything from her. He seemed like the type of guy who could bring her back to earth amidst all the crazy in it. And I loved how happy she seemed when she was with Aditya at the baseball game or when they would cook together. That was true love and who she should have married. But because Aditya wasn’t the type of person who her dad would approve of, they both knew it wouldn’t work. I respected Aditya for giving Drue her space after breaking things off, and I respected him even more for trying to see her before her wedding to make sure she was okay and how he went to her funeral. It showed how he still loved her.
I swear, she should have married him.
Freaking Stuart and Corina. What a bunch of players. Their love really is dumb and complicated if you ask me. I mean, if he really loved Corina, he wouldn’t have dropped her for Drue in the first place. But nnnnoooooo, he went crawling back like the dumb, conflicted boy he was. 😅
I guess, now’s the time to get into what I didn’t really like about the book; the not-so-good.
I really felt like part two and three were just off. That’s not to say I didn’t like it, I just didn’t like it as much 😂. I don’t know, I really thought this was going to be a body positivity, mend a friendship, with a hint of a summer romance book. It really wasn’t. Because all of a sudden there’s a murder 🙈.
I’m sorry, why the heck is this book called Big Summer? She sure did have an eventful summer. But calling it Big Summer, really didn’t fit the vibe for the book, you know? Big Summer gives me beach, it gives me romance, it gives me ice cream. It doesn’t give me murder! 🤪 Yea, so I don’t know. I just felt the title was a bit misleading. If I read the synopsis, I would have known, but I didn’t because I like being surprised. I was surprised.
Drue’s murder just seemed weird too. I get it, everyone hated her. But did she deserve to be murdered? No. That makes that person worse than Drue. Because people wrong others, doesn’t mean you should wrong them. The best revenge is showing how happy you are without them or after they tried to hurt you. Truly. Just move on, let go, and be happy.
I had no clue who would murder Drue. I didn’t.
At first, my thoughts went to Nick, duh, because he wasn’t in bed with Daphne the next day and then he was gone. Then there was the whole mystery of how he wasn’t on the guest list, how he wasn’t on the internet, and what his real name was. Those were all red flags if you asked me. I still don’t understand why he hid in a closet the next day. Just seemed weird. Then my thoughts kind of drifted to Darshi because it was too coincidental that she would be in Boston the night Drue got murdered. But then Nick would be too obvious. So I just thought it might be Darshi, but I was like, why would she do it?
Then something else rubbed me the wrong way. It was the moment Leela called Daphne after Drue was murdered. I know fake when I hear it!!! 😂 She was SOOOOO FAKE! Leela kept asking “How are things?” and making her voice super high with her saccharine shock. Of course, she’s not real and wasn’t talking in real life, but I heard her. FAKE. And then she said:
“Do you need me to send you something to wear for the funeral?”
(pg 188)
THE ACTUAL FREAKING HECK?????!! WHO THE HECK CALLS YOU WITH A FAKE DONKEY VOICE AND ASKS IF YOU NEED A DRESS TO YOUR FRIEND WHO-WAS-MURDERED??? 😖
Honestly, that was disrespectful.
Leela said all the platitudes of I’m sorry, and what can I do for you. Blah, blah, blah. But Daphne just lost her friend, heck she was the one who found her friend and Leela was more cornered about giving her a FREAKING FUNERAL dress than actually being there for Daphne.
That didn’t sit well for me.
So in the back of my mind, I was like, it’s Leela.
I don’t know why
I don’t know how
I don’t know if
I just know that girl is FAKE.
So everyone’s on this whole goose trip pointing fingers at Stuart and Corina, and then Emma (Drue’s half-sister), and then Aditya. I didn’t believe for a second that Stuart and Corina did it. Sure, they sound like they hated Drue’s stinking guts, but they didn’t give me the vibe that they would kill her for it. They sounded to consume with the story where they would get more publicity and money and I think that’s what they would have liked—not to kill her. Then Emma was suspicious and it was kind of creepy how she had all these photos of Drue, but I get it. She just wanted to know her half-sister. The gun in the glovebox? Kind of weird 🤪 because if I’m being honest, if you’re walking alone at night to your car after work, you really don’t need a FREAKING GUN. Sis, ever heard of a pocket knife . . . or I don’t know pepper spray? A GUN? Sis, that’s not it. 😂 You do NOT need such a weapon. I guess, yes, it would make sense because she is a young woman and in certain places, yes, maybe she would need that level of protection, but I don’t know, I don’t think having a gun on hand like that is in any ways safe.
Then there was Aditya, which I thought, yea right. He loved her. He wouldn’t kill her.
Then I thought about Nick again. I didn’t care for the whole Daphne-Nick relationship. It just didn’t seem like the biggest deal in the book. Sure, Nick was a good guy, but I don’t know, I wasn’t for the romance they had. I did respect how he didn’t care about how she looked. So he won that for me. I liked how in the end though, they try to keep their relationship open and to still be together. That’s sweet because Daphne needed a man who loved her for her and understands what she does in her job. I liked the conversations, hard as they were, about her being an influencer and always needing to be on her phone. Because Nick wasn’t on the internet, he couldn’t understand that.
I also think Nick’s backstory was a bit strange. I don’t know. It just seemed unnecessary. I didn’t understand the prologue at all until later, so it didn’t really feel fitting to the storyline. I also think the book would have been okay if Nick wasn’t Drue’s half-brother because it just seemed like a weird thing to throw into the mix; that he was the baby from the prologue and that his mom was murdered. The mom being murdered also didn’t make sense to me. Like why the mom? What did she ever do? Was it Robert who did that? I don’t know, I just think the story didn’t need that whole extra backstory to Nick. But it was fine, I guess.
But at the end, when Daphne’s walking around the park, she had this epiphany of the yearbooks back in Emma’s room. And it made me wonder how the HECK did she even circle to those thoughts, you know? The yearbooks in that scene mattered, but I don’t remember her looking at the picture of Leela, whose actual name was Kamon Cahroenthammawat. Like who? 🙈 I’m sorry, we didn’t even know Kamon was in the running for perpetrator until that moment. It felt mixed up. But heck, at least, I was right! It was Leela! Something was off with her.
What’s funny is how in every murder mystery, the murder always finds him/herself in the home of the person who figures it out right when the person who figures it out figures it out. Like how did Leela even know Daphne knew it was her? How did she even know to go to her house and that Daphne would be there? 🤔 Also something funny is how all evil villains have to give their evil spiel of the why, the how, and what they did because gosh knows they think they’re getting out of the situation clean. They are not. Like evil villains, stop talking, they’re trying to stall and distract you.
Thank goodness, Nick came and saved Daphne because Leela do didn’t anything even more crazy. Honestly, Leela was on a revenge streak—-she came from a place of hurt to hurt others. She let her anger fester. I understood why Leela was angry and why she wanted to hurt Drue, but at the end of the day, could she really say she was happy she did it/that she could live with herself for that? I don’t think so. Because the revenge idea seems good, but it won’t bring healing. It absolutely won’t. What Leela needed was a formal apology and some therapy to heal. Things never have to be fixed with violence and pain. Never.
After Leela was revealed as the murder, I kind of tuned out because that’s all I really wanted to know 😂. But I liked how Daphne finally replied to the person who asked her how she was brave all the time. Daphne wasn’t, but she would always try and I think we all try to be brave.
In the end, I really didn’t think Drue deserved what happened to her. Did she do bad things? Did she hurt others? Yes. But there was so much that built up in her that she put out onto others. It didn’t make her a bad person, just a product of her environment. She deserved better.
Her friendship with Daphne wasn’t always the kindest or deserving, but I liked how Daphne saw the good in her and tried to be there for her. I think Daphne really did find her peace with Drue and the friendship she had—she would always love her. I do mourn with Daphne in all Drue could have been on her path towards changing. I really do.
“Where she has gone? And who is there to say?
But this we know: her gentle spirit moves
And is where beauty never wanes,
Perchance by other streams, mid other groves;
And to us there, ah! she remains
A lovely memory
Until eternity;
She came, she loved, and she went away.”
(pg 284)
For all the good and the parts I didn’t really like about this book, it truly was a complex story with a lot of topics covered, influencing, social media, complex friendships, family, mystery, and self-love. It all jumbled together at points, but it made for a story where we can all take certain parts and relate to it.
Anyway, what was your favorite part of the book? Least favorite part? Anything I mentioned that you want to discuss more about? Who did you think did it? What are your summer plans? It better not be what happened to Drue 😅. Let me know below in the comments as I love hearing from you all 💕
I hope you have a beautiful day whenever and wherever you might be reading this.
And as always, with love,
Rating
3.34 Full Bloom Flowers
Characters: I love Daphne’s confidence and her poise. She has such a strong, understanding heart. The other characters in this book have a lot of depth to them that explains their actions.
Plot: The book is divided into parts and part one seemed like a whole different book compared to the last two parts. I thought some of the plots of the book didn’t mesh well for my liking, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good book to read.
Writing: I honestly, love and respect the way Jennifer Weiner describes scenes because it really makes you feel like you’re right there in the scene. I also love how descriptive she is in a way we all understand and have experienced.
Romance: The romance wasn’t as strong as I would have hoped for, but it’s not really a contemporary book.