Summary:
From the author of Spontaneous comes a ‘90s mixtape of a young adult novel that delivers a summer romance with an unearthly twist.
Summer, 1994. Trevor can barely wrap his mind around the fact that he and his friends have graduated high school. And yet there’s no rush to get to college—he’s living one night at a time. Riding shotgun from party to party, windows down, music up, his focus is entirely on his crush, the enigmatic Sarah.
When Sarah proposes a mission to swim in every pool in town before summer ends, Trevor jumps at the chance. Soon they’re sneaking into backyards at night, splashing, floating, and savoring their fleeting youth. But when they hear about a mysterious natural pool hidden deep in the woods, everything changes. This new place has a strange pull—and once they dive in, reality begins to shift in ways they can’t explain.
Review:
This started out as a sweet and simple coming-of-age story—one last nostalgic summer with friends, late-night drives, and a teenage boy quietly pining for the girl he can’t quite reach. But then came the eerie “in-between chapters” from the POV of a girl we don’t know, and that’s when things got really interesting. They were unsettling and strange, and the deeper I got into the book, the more they pulled me in as I tried to figure out how they connected to Trevor’s story.
When the group finally found the hidden pool in the woods, everything shifted. The atmosphere grew haunting and surreal, and I had so many questions: Were they dead? Was this purgatory? Did time stop at the pool or in the outside world? The story became something completely unexpected—a clever blend of summer nostalgia and mind-bending mystery.
It’s rare to find a YA novel that captures both the thrill of teenage freedom and the creeping unease of something otherworldly lurking just out of sight. This one did, and I was hooked until the final page.
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Trigger Warnings: Underage drinking, brief sexual content, grief, implied death/mortality themes.
Disclaimer: Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Publisher: PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group | Penguin Workshop
Publication Date: April 29, 2025