Coyote Summer by Laura Koerber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When an event in your life imbeds itself in your head, will there ever be a time you can forgive yourself.

Ben is a preppy kid who is a bit shy and vulnerable but he wants to fit with the popular kids and strives to be accepted. Although he is friends with Clint, Ben’s parents are trying to keep up with Joneses and loves that their son is friends with the congressman’s son, but this friendship will be put to the test one night.

As they attend a party, everyone is getting drunk and stoned but as the night goes on Ben sees Claire, a girl who he has a drunk conversation with and when she excuses herself after a while he decides to go to the bathroom where he stumbles upon a scene which makes him sick. He sees Claire totally out of it and Clint assaulting without her knowledge or consent. As Ben wrestles with the scene in front of him he tries to step in and stop the heinous crime that has happened. After that night Ben can not get the scene out of his head and always wonder if he could have done more to help.

Roll forward and Ben and Clint are still friends but the past has come to haunt both of them, can Ben stand up for himself or will the past eat him up forever?

I have to start off that this is not normally a genre I read and was wondering if I would be able to read the book due to the contents, but I am glad in a way that I persisted and got through it. I have two say that I feel this book is of two halves, the first half through the trials of the assault and the heartbreak around that, with the soul searching from Ben knowing that he needs to disconnect from Clint with his toxic nature. The second half of the book was a bit out there and although the feeling of the book did not change, I felt this was a strange turn of events within the story.

Aside from this I really enjoyed the book and although some people may be put off by the content of rape it was written with care and my heart went out for Claire. Although I had a hard time relating to Ben and his turmoil, I did understand the elements which got him to that point and that the soul searching in the end helped him become who he wanted to be. Although this is not normal for me I did enjoy the story and would read other books by this author.

Reviewed by Angela Shirley