Saturday, April 24, 2021

Summerlost by Ally Condie

 Cedar is dealing with the death of her father and brother when she goes to spend the summer with family in a town called Iron Creek.  In this town they have a Shakespeare Festival each summer, and Cedar meets a friend, Leo, who encourages her to get a job selling concessions at the fair.  While there, Cedar and Leo get caught up in a mystery about an actress from the festival who died more than a decade earlier under suspicious circumstances.  As they dig into the actress's past, they take risks that put their future at the festival at risk, but that help Cedar face her own personal grief.

I came across this book as I was putting together a list of Utah authors.  It was very popular when it came out, but I never got around to reading it.  It was a fun for me to read because of its Utah connection.  The "Summer Lost" festival is clearly inspired by the Cedar City Shakespearian festival.  My children participated in a festival workshop there one summer and got a chance to go through the underground tunnels between buildings, and see the hall of portraits and the costume shop described in the book. I thought Cedar's memories of her autistic brother were nicely blanced.  She loved him, but didn't deny that living with him was sometimes difficult. This is a nice gentle summer read. (2017, 272 p.)

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