ABSORBED

A young woman comes of age during the summer before her senior year in high school in Townzen’s YA novel.

The summer of 1996 is momentous for Stacey Chapman. Heading into her senior year at Mesa Valley High School, a town a couple of hours inland from the OC in California, she doesn’t take much pride in being a straight A student, serving as president of the debate team, or winning a statewide art competition. Stacey and her mom aren’t getting along, and she might want a more-than-platonic relationship with her best friend, Gabe. She also has a longstanding crush on Jessie, a recent high school graduate who is one of the other lifeguards at The Plunge, the community pool where both teens work. Throughout the summer, Stacey struggles to remake herself into someone more like the other lifeguards, who she perceives to be more perfect and generally cooler than she is. Jessie shows interest in her, but her long hoped-for date with him ends in a sexual assault. Dealing with feelings of guilt, self-recrimination, and isolation, Stacey’s personality changes alarm those who love her. A tragedy at the Plunge brings an early end to the season but brings the lifeguards closer. Stacey comes to better appreciate the importance of her relationships with Gabe and her mother, who urges her, “Don’t let other people determine how your life turns out.” In her fiction debut, Townzen deftly uses the music Stacey loves (played on CDs, of course) and other cultural touchstones (like the premiere of the movie Independence Day and the Atlanta Olympics) to evoke the summer of 1996. Stacey is a believable adolescent character whose insecurities keep her from appreciating her talents. Her teenage angst is universal and will resonate with young readers of any era; altogether, this is an absorbing read.

Relationships memorably ebb and flow over hot summer days in a Southern California town.