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mysimas's review
Generally I drop things because of the author’s writing style, when it doesn’t draw me in for whatever reason.
Here, Fierro actually does a good job with that. It’s just that the subject matter is a complete miss for me — I simply don’t want to read about a Mean Girls clique spiced up with moth invasion, cancer-inducing factories and upper-lower class friction.
Here, Fierro actually does a good job with that. It’s just that the subject matter is a complete miss for me — I simply don’t want to read about a Mean Girls clique spiced up with moth invasion, cancer-inducing factories and upper-lower class friction.
monicabhills's review
3.0
Different, interesting but crass. I'm still uncertain about how I feel about this book. I didn't love it but I wanted to find out what would happen. The ending left a lot to be desired.
darbylane's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Murder, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Body shaming and Homophobia
sarahsbookshelves's review against another edition
I absolutely loved the opening of this book...and it included quite a hook. But, I quickly got bored after that.
emzconklin's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Racism, Gun violence, and Sexual violence
bookishmama89's review
3.0
um the end of this book definitely took me by surprise. That sh*t was some thing else. What a strange, sad story. to have so many lives end. so many stories to tell and so little time. this book was something indeed
writerrhiannon's review against another edition
4.0
Read my review here:
https://ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2017/09/3-mini-reviews-gypsy-moth-summer-party.html
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I received no additional compensation.
Full of dualities, The Gypsy Moth Summer, is a novel bursting from the pages, just like the gypsy moths in the story. Both sides of an island point fingers at the other, while big issues like privilege, race, and cancer are woven into every islander's life. Fierro builds up the tension and integrates the metaphor of transformation into every chapter. I would describe The Gypsy Moth Summer as West Side Story meets Mean Girls meets Erin Brokovich.
https://ivoryowlreviews.blogspot.com/2017/09/3-mini-reviews-gypsy-moth-summer-party.html
Disclaimer: I was given a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I received no additional compensation.
Full of dualities, The Gypsy Moth Summer, is a novel bursting from the pages, just like the gypsy moths in the story. Both sides of an island point fingers at the other, while big issues like privilege, race, and cancer are woven into every islander's life. Fierro builds up the tension and integrates the metaphor of transformation into every chapter. I would describe The Gypsy Moth Summer as West Side Story meets Mean Girls meets Erin Brokovich.
thislifebetweenpages's review
4.0
"For now, they are young and beautiful, pure muscle and unblemished skin. They are in love— a faith that makes them tease death. They swing out over the sea cliffs clutching a tire tied to a tree; drop two tabs of acid and swim to the end of the ferry landing and back; drag race down the wrong side of the causeway at two in the morning; fly headfirst toward danger, deaf to their mothers’ warnings— Be careful— all to win a bet. To prove they are what they feel. Immortal."
The Gypsy Moth Summer by Julia Fierro is a kaleidoscopic tale of the inhabitants of one island during the devastating gypsy moth invasion of 1992. Alternating between narratives of the young and old, Black and white, the rich in East Avalon and the poor in the West, Fierro paints a vivid picture of the struggles felt across every generation of Avalon. Peppered throughout with moth references and entomological insight, the development of the moth mirrors the building tension on the island until it culminates in one explosive finale- like the first flight of the moths.
"On an island, time can freeze, but that summer the islanders felt a change coming. East and West agreed: there was a yawning divide between old and young. Yesterday and tomorrow. The new generation of Avalonians worshipped at the altar of MTV; didn’t fear the Bomb; heard the slogan “Be All You Can Be” and thought not of defending his or her country but, instead, imagined their future selves waiting to hatch like the moth eggs tucked in the crook and bend of every tree on the island."
Maddie Pencott LaRosa, recently initiated into the elite group of girls at school, quickly falls victim to the pressure of her peers and the temptations the drugs, drinking, and sex. In an attempt to escape the troubles of her life at home- a depressed mother, abusive father, her childhood best friend’s brain cancer- she loses herself in the vortex of summer. But one evening, everything changes. Maddie begins to learn what real love is and what it costs to maintain it in the isolated despair of Avalon.
"How could she tell him the truth? That she was worried her cousins would see them and tattle to her dad, who’d beat her. Because he was a racist. Because we all are, she thought."
At the start of the summer, Leslie Day Marshall returns the island with her husband and two children in tow and she doesn’t bat an eye at the whispers, glances and shuffling of feet as her old friends and neighbors repress their shock- Mr. Marshall is Black. The prodigal daughter of one of Avalon’s most prestigious families, she has returned to fight the establishment of Grudder Aviation for one heartbreaking reason that becomes clear as the story unfolds. This should be cause enough to ruffle the feathers of the Avalon elite, but by flaunting her Black husband she has also forced them to face their ingrained prejudices rooted in the starkly white history of the island.
"And she too wanted to believe in a sense of order, divine providence or whatever— a sign— linking the arrival of Leslie Day Marshall’s family and the metamorphosis of the island, overnight, into a nest of ravenous pests."
Julius Marshall has been uprooted from his home, taken from his beloved garden, and replanted among the elitist citizenry of Avalon. Haunted by the voice of his father and his constant preaching on the differences between black and white, Julius struggles with finding a place for himself and for his family. Afraid to reproduce in his son what his father bore into him, Julius focuses on reviving the sprawling garden of their new home- putting his Harvard degree in Landscape Architecture to use and getting lost in his own thoughts.
"Should he warn Brooks? He’d leave it be, for now. Last thing he wanted was to become his father, his son’s only inheritance a fear that keeps him from living life, taking risks, seeing the world in all its spectrum, not just black and white. That line from his favorite Baldwin essay was in his head: You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger."
Bearing witness to it all is Veronica, Maddie’s grandmother and wife to the former Grudder Aviation president, who remembers Avalon as it once was. Veronica is not without her own secrets, however; her husband’s severe dementia, his emotional and physical abuse and her own failing battle with breast cancer. In an effort to secure her family’s legacy, she collects the young and those not yet beaten down by the island like pawns in a game using each as she sees fit until the shocking conclusion.
The Gypsy Moth Summer is a poignant examination of one communities destruction: by the moths, the pollution of Grudder and its very inhabitants ruthlessly tearing each other down.
"Let the men and women of Avalon Island, East and West, play make believe—pretend they control life and death, war and peace, their kings and queens and workers and servants and country, and the warbirds they bring to life with aluminum and steel, baptized by fire. Let them believe—for one last night—they are immortal."
www.readvoraciously.com
The Gypsy Moth Summer by Julia Fierro is a kaleidoscopic tale of the inhabitants of one island during the devastating gypsy moth invasion of 1992. Alternating between narratives of the young and old, Black and white, the rich in East Avalon and the poor in the West, Fierro paints a vivid picture of the struggles felt across every generation of Avalon. Peppered throughout with moth references and entomological insight, the development of the moth mirrors the building tension on the island until it culminates in one explosive finale- like the first flight of the moths.
"On an island, time can freeze, but that summer the islanders felt a change coming. East and West agreed: there was a yawning divide between old and young. Yesterday and tomorrow. The new generation of Avalonians worshipped at the altar of MTV; didn’t fear the Bomb; heard the slogan “Be All You Can Be” and thought not of defending his or her country but, instead, imagined their future selves waiting to hatch like the moth eggs tucked in the crook and bend of every tree on the island."
Maddie Pencott LaRosa, recently initiated into the elite group of girls at school, quickly falls victim to the pressure of her peers and the temptations the drugs, drinking, and sex. In an attempt to escape the troubles of her life at home- a depressed mother, abusive father, her childhood best friend’s brain cancer- she loses herself in the vortex of summer. But one evening, everything changes. Maddie begins to learn what real love is and what it costs to maintain it in the isolated despair of Avalon.
"How could she tell him the truth? That she was worried her cousins would see them and tattle to her dad, who’d beat her. Because he was a racist. Because we all are, she thought."
At the start of the summer, Leslie Day Marshall returns the island with her husband and two children in tow and she doesn’t bat an eye at the whispers, glances and shuffling of feet as her old friends and neighbors repress their shock- Mr. Marshall is Black. The prodigal daughter of one of Avalon’s most prestigious families, she has returned to fight the establishment of Grudder Aviation for one heartbreaking reason that becomes clear as the story unfolds. This should be cause enough to ruffle the feathers of the Avalon elite, but by flaunting her Black husband she has also forced them to face their ingrained prejudices rooted in the starkly white history of the island.
"And she too wanted to believe in a sense of order, divine providence or whatever— a sign— linking the arrival of Leslie Day Marshall’s family and the metamorphosis of the island, overnight, into a nest of ravenous pests."
Julius Marshall has been uprooted from his home, taken from his beloved garden, and replanted among the elitist citizenry of Avalon. Haunted by the voice of his father and his constant preaching on the differences between black and white, Julius struggles with finding a place for himself and for his family. Afraid to reproduce in his son what his father bore into him, Julius focuses on reviving the sprawling garden of their new home- putting his Harvard degree in Landscape Architecture to use and getting lost in his own thoughts.
"Should he warn Brooks? He’d leave it be, for now. Last thing he wanted was to become his father, his son’s only inheritance a fear that keeps him from living life, taking risks, seeing the world in all its spectrum, not just black and white. That line from his favorite Baldwin essay was in his head: You can only be destroyed by believing that you really are what the white world calls a nigger."
Bearing witness to it all is Veronica, Maddie’s grandmother and wife to the former Grudder Aviation president, who remembers Avalon as it once was. Veronica is not without her own secrets, however; her husband’s severe dementia, his emotional and physical abuse and her own failing battle with breast cancer. In an effort to secure her family’s legacy, she collects the young and those not yet beaten down by the island like pawns in a game using each as she sees fit until the shocking conclusion.
The Gypsy Moth Summer is a poignant examination of one communities destruction: by the moths, the pollution of Grudder and its very inhabitants ruthlessly tearing each other down.
"Let the men and women of Avalon Island, East and West, play make believe—pretend they control life and death, war and peace, their kings and queens and workers and servants and country, and the warbirds they bring to life with aluminum and steel, baptized by fire. Let them believe—for one last night—they are immortal."
www.readvoraciously.com
abookishaffair's review
3.0
In "The Gypsy Moth Summer," the characters are struggling not only with a bug infestation but a chain of events that threatens to upend all of their lives. There is Maddie, a teenage girl trying to fit in at school and falling in love with someone that her family doesn't approve of. He is Brooks, the son of Leslie, a woman returning to Avalon Island after being all but banished because of her own relationship with her African American husband, Jules, who just wants to save the gorgeous, unruly garden at Leslie's family home. The island is also home to Grudder Aviation, which has been the economic engine of the island but may also now be causing diseases on the island. And these are just a few of the story lines that the author tries to tackle in this ambitious book. There is a lot going on in this book!
This book has a huge cast of characters, mainly Maddie's family (to include grandparents) and Brook's family. Maddie's family represents the old guard of the island. Her grandfather is one of the major players in Grudder Aviation and may have had a hand in the factory now causing diseases. Her grandmother is torn between duty and honor and she cannot decide what is more important or if she can atone for what she feels is her part in what is happening on the island. Brook's family represents Avalon Island's new future. His parents play a prominent role in the major event/ turning point of the book. A big cast like this can be problematic when there is too little space to thoroughly explore the characters as is the case in this book. For instance, Maddie's parents (mother in particular) have some pretty interesting issues that are never fully addressed and left me with a lot of questions.
While the story lines are interesting and the author's words are often gorgeous, my attention became too divided by the sheer number of story lines and the book did not feel cohesive. All of this being said, the writing is good. The author has a great way of writing very vivid scenes that kept me in the story. I liked how each chapter began with a connection to the gypsy moths that play another character in the book. I would love to see what else the author does in the future!
This book has a huge cast of characters, mainly Maddie's family (to include grandparents) and Brook's family. Maddie's family represents the old guard of the island. Her grandfather is one of the major players in Grudder Aviation and may have had a hand in the factory now causing diseases. Her grandmother is torn between duty and honor and she cannot decide what is more important or if she can atone for what she feels is her part in what is happening on the island. Brook's family represents Avalon Island's new future. His parents play a prominent role in the major event/ turning point of the book. A big cast like this can be problematic when there is too little space to thoroughly explore the characters as is the case in this book. For instance, Maddie's parents (mother in particular) have some pretty interesting issues that are never fully addressed and left me with a lot of questions.
While the story lines are interesting and the author's words are often gorgeous, my attention became too divided by the sheer number of story lines and the book did not feel cohesive. All of this being said, the writing is good. The author has a great way of writing very vivid scenes that kept me in the story. I liked how each chapter began with a connection to the gypsy moths that play another character in the book. I would love to see what else the author does in the future!