Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno, Book Review

“On the island of By-the-Sea you could always smell two things, salt and magic”
~ Summer of Salt.

If there is something else that I love other than books, it’s the whole wide ocean. Seriously that’s my dream! Sitting by a beach , writing or reading.
So naturally, I was really excited to read this. I went into it expecting a feel good read set on an island with a little magic and some romance.
I did get all those things but this book was so much more.

The book deals with the serious issues like sexual assault and what it does to the victim, how it emotionally destroys them to an extent that they can not even share it with the people closest to them.

Another thing is the representation. This book has a lesbian character, an ace girl and another character who hasn’t figured out her sexuality yet.
And the best part is it doesn’t seem forced or shoved into your face in the name of representation. It simply is.
The story does get a little predictable but the writing is really something.I was taken by it and the depths it took me to.

Here are some of my favorite quotes for instance.

“Because there was nothing in a girl’s history that might negate her right to choose what happens to her body.”

If only everyone saw it that way!

“I knew that he would use that gun, because that is what small, scared men did: they used things more powerful than themselves to make up the difference. They hid behind weapons of mass destruction: big guns and bigger bombs.”

This quote hit me hard because its just so true. Only a coward does that. Strong men do not need them to make themselves feel superior.

“I was tempted to tell her that babies born on By-the-Sea tended to always smell like salt, always crave the ocean on their skin, always look for the full moon or North Star to guide them home.”

I am not born on by the sea. But I might be one of the babies.

So,what do you think about Katrina Leno’s Summer of Salt? Let me know in the comments below.
I was totally awed by it .And it was just interesting to see an amalgam of fantasy (more of magical realism) with the – oh so real issues of the world.
The only thing I think that could be better was the romance between Georgina and Prue. It just seemed on the surface, or maybe there just wasn’t much of it in the book as I would have liked.

My Rating : 4/5 stars