My rating: 3 of 5 stars
From the Fall 2013 VPL Book Sale.
Read in June 2014.
Victoria (Vix) is a lower middle class / working class kid in Santa Fe. Caitlin is the popular new kid in school. At the end of the year (6th grade), Caitlin asks Vix to spend the summer with her at her father’s summer home. Eventually, Vix’s parents agree to let her go.
Vix is the oldest of 4 kids. Her youngest brother has muscular dystrophy. Caitlin has a brother, Sharkey, who doesn’t talk much and hums. Also a dog. They live with her father, Lamb, year-round. (Lamb is short for Lambert. Sharkey is also Lambert. He was going to be called “Bert” but his toddler enthusiasm for sharks saved him fro
m that fate.)
Lamb’s summer home is on Martha’s Vineyard. At first, Vix thinks Lamb is struggling with money because the house is rundown and filled with shabby furniture and it smells. But obvs. he’s a trust fund kid. (He’s Lambert III, Sharkey’s IV.) Lamb and his sister were raised by their imperious and racist grandmother after their parents were killed whilst drunk-driving at age 25. Good times.
Vix makes it through the summer, unlike Caitlin’s past guests, and keeps returning year after year. After the first summer, Caitlin tells Vix she’s going to private school. Lamb and his new wife, Abby, arrange a scholarship for Vix at Caitlin’s school.
Caitlin and Vix are bffs during the summers (“summer sisters”) but during the school year C ignores V. Of course. Vix does well at school. She gets into Harvard, though she suspects it is less her grades and more her connections. Caitlin gets accepted at Wellesley, but goes traveling instead.
There are boys. Natch. Sharkey turns out well (my favorite bit!). V’s family falls apart. C is an asshat. Not sure why, really. That was my main quibble. I guess some people just are. No reason.
The Remainder Table 