Review: September Girls

September Girls by Bennett Madison
Genres: Young Adult
Published by Harper Collins on May 21st 2013
Format: Paperback (352 pages) • Source: Purchased
Goodreads •

When Sam's dad whisks him and his brother off to a remote beach town for the summer, he's all for it-- at first. Sam soon realizes, though, that this place is anything but ordinary. Time seems to slow down around here, and everywhere he looks, there are beautiful blond girls. Girls who seem inexplicably drawn to him.

Then Sam meets DeeDee, one of the Girls, and she's different from the others. Just as he starts to fall for her, she pulls away, leaving him more confused than ever. He knows that if he's going to get her back, he'll have to uncover the secret of this beach and the girls who live here.

Review: Oh man. I have so many things to say about a book where barely anything happened plot-wise. Jesus. I saw this cover at the bookstore and the synopsis seemed like something right up my alley. I could see that it was a paranormal-esque book based on the description, but didn’t know what was up with these ~*girls*~ (wasn’t that supposed to be the point of the book? Figuring out the secret of the beach and the girls?). INSTEAD it was completely ruined for me by someones Goodreads shelf. Sad face. I also noticed people referencing it in their reviews, so maybe it was common knowledge and I’m just a little slow? Regardless, I went into this book already knowing what it was leading up to. There were a lot of mixed reviews…There was a pretty serious sexism-related debate between reviewers though, and oddly I agreed with both sides. Check here for a review that the book was sexist and here for one that didn’t think it was. Frankly, both perspectives are worth exploring–especially if for some reason you still want to read the book after this review.  I absolutely never wanted to sit down and read this book because I dreaded it. I’m too stubborn to stop reading a book though. If it had been on my shelf for years, I may have stopped, but I JUST bought this one a few months ago and was determined to finish it. At any rate, this book was so effing slow. I’ve said this before about books, but this is truly the worst I’ve read in terms of plot speed. Literally nothing happens in this book until 250 pages in. I wish I could have read the first 20 pages, skipped the next 200, then picked up again. I wouldn’t have missed anything plot-wise and I actually may have enjoyed the book. The story had too much background information and too many parties/unnecessary scenes. Sam would literally wake up, go to the beach, hope to see DeeDee, go home, think about his boner, watch TV, and go to bed. Beyond the speed of the book and the lack of substance/events, the book was so awkwardly sexual. This kid was constantly referencing his boners and sex and jacking off and the girls’ bodies. I got secondary humiliation and cringed every time he did this. Sam was a really boring main character and referenced his idiot sexist friend Sebastian too much for essentially no reason. His brother Jeff was even worse than Sebastian (at first). I really, really hated him (at first). Overall the characters were masochistic and not likeable for the vast majority of the book. The girls weren’t any better. DeeDee was confusing and Kristle really didn’t affect me either way. The only characters I enjoyed were the parents. Surprising, right? Because Sam spent the entire book bitching about them. The dad was trying so hard to get his shit together and try new things when the mother left. His kids constantly avoided him left him alone, and just overall treated him like poo. I felt bad for the dude. The mother, who left the family to head to “woman land” was the stereotypical extreme feminist, which made me frustrated. I’m sick of people feeding into that stereotype and alienating feminists. Is it such a bad thing we want equality??? Anyways, she seemed like an odd lady that I totally would have chilled with. SO, once I finally made my way there, the end was okay. The middle 75% of the book was so dull and uneventful; I really think this book could have been a successful 150 page novella. The plot started coming together FINALLY and it was actually a pretty decent concept. This book could have been so, so much better. I wish I had an author friend who I could share the plot summary with and have them rewrite the book entirely different. I guess I’m glad I finished it though, because I was able to think hard about some of the sexism/feminism contradictions. I don’t recommend reading this book, clearly.

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