Speaking of Summer is Kalisha Buckhanon's second novel. Set in present-day Harlem, it's the story of one woman's desperate search for her missing twin sister.
It's been months since Autumn Spencer last laid eyes on her twin sister Summer. It's believed that Summer leapt to her death from the roof of her apartment building, but her body was never found. The police did a cursory investigation, but nothing ever came of it, and Autumn still has no idea what really happened to her twin.
Autumn can't understand why the world at large seems so utterly disinterested in what she regards as her sister's disappearance. Her online research shows that black women and girls go missing almost every day from cities across the country with little to no intervention from the police, and Autumn can't bear the thought of never knowing what happened to the person she loved best in the world – so she launches an investigation of her own..
But Summer seems to have disappeared without a trace. No one Autumn talks to is able to give her any clues as to what might have caused Summer to take her own life or to just take off, and instead, her friends and acquaintances urge Autumn to try to stop dwelling so much on the past. Even Autumn's lover, who once dated Summer, doesn't understand her driving need to locate her sister, regardless of whether she's dead or alive.
It's hard to say much more about the plot without spoiling things, but I shall say that Speaking of Summer takes a deep and unflinching look at some of the perils faced by many of today's black women. Parts of the novel are deeply distressing, but the issues the author brings to light are issues we all need to learn more about. The content is often quite shocking, but in a way that feels exactly right for the gravity of the story.
I admit to having figured out the truth about Summer pretty early on in the story. I'm not sure if the twist was super obvious, or if it just felt that way because of the large amount of thrillers I read. Whatever the case, my being aware of the truth didn't ruin the story for me. Part of this novel's power comes from watching Autumn do battle with her own inner demons as she tries to uncover the secrets she's sure Summer had been keeping from her, and watching her come into her own is as delightful as it is profound.
As much as I want to put this book into the hands of everyone I know, I'm very much aware that the story it tells isn't one everyone will be able to stomach. Portions of the book are very dark, and there are several references to both emotional and sexual abuse. The descriptions aren't necessarily graphic, but the author doesn't sugar-coat things for her readers either. Instead, she uses her words to paint starkly vivid pictures of the life of her heroine, a life that is far from sunshine and rainbows.
I'm normally drawn to fast-paced thrillers, stories that cause my heart to race as the characters draw ever closer to some kind of grave danger, but the slower pace of this particular book worked surprisingly well for me. The plot isn't propelled forward by the kinds of intense twists and turns that fill the pages of many of today's thrillers. Instead, we spend much of our time inside Autumn's head, learning about her past as well as her present, feeling the wide range of emotions she experiences as she searches for a truth we aren't sure she really wants to know.
If you're looking for a thriller with a literary feel, Speaking of Summer is a book you should add to your want-to-read shelf as soon as you can. It's powerful in a way that's hard to put into words, definitely a story for our times.
Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
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Sensuality: Subtle
Publication Date: 07/2019
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