A Midsummer's Nightmare packs in a summer's worth of page-turning drama, the third smartly written book by Kody Keplinger (The DUFF (The Designated Ugly Fat Friend); Shut Out).
Narrator Whitley Johnson wakes up the morning after her high school graduation in a stranger's bed with her worst hangover ever. The stranger is sweet, and he asks Whitley for her number, but she dismisses the previous night as another "drunken hookup," believing she just wouldn't make a good girlfriend. Whitley packs for a summer at her TV anchorman father's condo by Kentucky Lake, away from her mother's endless tirades about his poor life choices and casual relationships. Whitley anticipates a summer of mixed drinks and advice for college from her father. Instead, she learns that he's moved to Hamilton, Ill., to lead a life better suited for his age with his new fiancée, Sylvia, and her kids, 13-year-old daughter Bailey, and her son, Nathan--the stranger from the graduation party.
Keplinger's novel explores an unorthodox relationship between almost stepsiblings through the eyes of a teen whose temperament and witticisms bring to mind Samantha Kingston from Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall--hard to love with potential for redemption. Whitley exhibits loner behavior--"friends are a waste of time"--but can reject social overtures only for so long if she's to turn this nightmarish summer around and discover her true worth. --Adam Silvera, assistant, Books of Wonder, New York