SUMMER WITH SUNIL

Two transgender teens find romance during summer vacation.

Sixteen-year-old trans boy Dominic is trapped on a boring vacation in tiny Liverpool, Nova Scotia, with his parents. But his summer takes a positive turn when he meets the captivating Sunil, a genderqueer teenager who’s staying in the beachfront cottage next door. The two soon develop a friendship—and maybe something more. Dominic spends the first quarter of the book being bored, and readers can’t blame him. The few conflicts that arise belong almost exclusively to Sunil, and even the climactic scenes feel small. Dominic’s character arc is flat, and any areas for potential growth (such as a comment that his mother isn’t “disabled or anything” due to her multiple sclerosis) don’t pay off. The prose succeeds at being accessible to reluctant readers but is otherwise unremarkable and is dotted with cliched phrases and tediously detailed descriptions. With that said, readers specifically looking for a fluffy romance about transgender teens might find something to appreciate in this story: Dominic and Sunil’s relationship is gentle and charming, and they are easy to root for. The novel also contains a much-needed depiction of teens who both know that they are queer and are still figuring some things out. Dominic is white, and Sunil is biracial, with a white dad and South Asian mom.

Sweet but substanceless.