This story was close to a 5 for me. Its overall effect had me wrapped up in a nostalgic haze, and every so often I would put the book down just to lose myself in daydreams of Shorecliff or various tangents within the storyscape.It’s a great portrait of what happens when you have a family, predominantly made up of a large group of teenagers, together in the middle of nowhere for a summer. Lusts, feuds, friendships, and general shenanigans ensue that may seem petty to an outsider, but take on significance within a family dynamic. Yes, there are a lot of names to keep track of, but if you regularly read historical fiction, this family tree is nothing complicated; and yes, our narrator is surprisingly naïve for a 13-year-old—even if it is the 1920s—but he is too endearing for me to take any serious issue with that.Instead, my one issue was a style one. DeYoung’s narrator, Richard, is ‘writing’ as an adult reflecting on the past. I’m not a huge fan of this convention, as it can easily lead to telling the reader what they should expect, and can feel a tad theatrical. When handled delicately, it creates anticipation, but DeYoung writes with a heavy hand when it comes to foreshadowing and from the first page we are set up to expect some dramatic event. And as others have noted, the “shocks” elicit little response.Strangely, there was enough material to work with—the events could have been mined for bigger results—but everything seemed toned down, especially in the afterword that neatly tidied up any of the more shocking storylines. For a story in which I used so much of my imagination, I would have liked a little leeway at the end to continue using it, and I think I could have envisioned an end that would have delivered far more satisfactorily on the dramatic promise that seemed to lurk throughout the prose. In the summer of 1928, 13 year old Richard is very excited to spend the summer with his crowd of older cousins, aunts, and uncles in a huge vacation house on the coast of Maine. He is a lonely only child and wants badly to be a part of everything that is going on. But as the youngest he is often left out of activities and especially conversations. He has become very adept at eavesdropping and tries to use his ill-gotten information as a way into the cousins' inner circle. He also has a very active imagination and uses that to create scenarios of ideal relationships in his mind. However, by the end, he finds himself the center of disaster and has to learn how his actions can have very ugly consequences. While reading this, I remembered those times when I was young and in the company of adults - how I tried to understand what was being discussed but often finding I was clueless as the sub-text and innuendos sailed over my head. At times I felt Richard seemed younger than 13 given his enthusiasm and lack of maturity. But I decided that perhaps that was due to the era - 13 year-olds are, sadly, more jaded now.
What do You think about Shorecliff (2013)?
This book dragged for me a bit until the last couple of chapters. I think it could've been cut down.
—big wane
