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

This is the story of a summer, a summer unlike any other in Ben O’Rourke’s life and one which will change his life forever and one which is brought back to him while he makes a phone call 36 years after it occurred. Ben is the typical white prep school privileged boy who has gotten into an Ivy League College and is in a group of friends who are the same and made to grow up and live lives like their privileged parents

It is the summer of 1983 and Ben has just graduated from high school and is going to parties with his friend Clint and the rest of the guys he hangs out with, but this one particular party, Ben has been getting stoned and drunk, he talks to people, one girl in particular, Claire talks to him longer than most, so while searching for her to tell him where the bathroom is, he accidentally falls upon something which is as distasteful to him as anything could be, but in his current state is nothing that he can do anything to help the girl involved, apart from to lock a door and hope for the best. After attending mass and trying unsuccessfully to concentrate on it, Ben decides to call his sister when he is alone in the house and ask for advice about the situation he cannot stop thinking about, but he is basically told to forget it ever happened and move on with his life, but when he finds out that it is Claire, he is even more disgusted with those involved.

As the days move ahead and graduation and homecoming are looming, thoughts turn to that and the holiday to Europe he is going on with his family, but Ben is still trying to avoid the girl, especially when their schools are collaborating on the school events and when they are both over, Ben, Clint and their friends head to another wild party, but when Clint leaves him on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere after to make his own way home. As he is trying to walk around, he experiences some unusual things and blames the things he sees on all the drink and drugs he consumed at the party, fortunately, he is saved from walking any further when he is picked up by two siblings, Puppy and her brother in a beaten up old truck, it turns out he was trespassing on their land, so he apologises and offers to pay for the petrol they used to take him home.

The next time he talks to Clint, it turns out that he wants to go and buy some flowers for his mum, so he agrees to go and so they go out of town to get them and it turns out that the girl who picked him up works their and the way Clint behaves around her is awful, makes Ben come to the realisation that maybe it isn’t a good thing to be friends with Clint if he treats him and others in that way. It is after this that Ben decides not to go on holiday with his family and that he needs the time to become used to being on his own instead, they aren’t happy about it but they agree and this is where Ben’s real summer starts.

This coming of age romance is a whirlwind of emotions and experiences which are well worth reading as you experience everything with Ben and relive the summer which changed his life.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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