#SRC2015 The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek

Week of May 11: The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek

Destination: Escape to the Northeast

For a few secret months, 15-year-old Sam enjoys the unexpected attention of Suzie. However, at the end of the summer, Sam’s world unexpectedly shatters when Suzie moves away. Watching her parents’ marital troubles escalate, Suzie takes on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers and plans an early escape to college. Suzie misses Sam and her closest friend, Bella. It is not until years later that a chance meeting with Sam’s older brother reunites the trio, causing Suzie to confront her past, as well as her friends.

I really LOVED this book. I loved that it followed a group of friends through the good, bad and ugly times. There is so much heart, honesty and truth in the pages of this novel. This is a coming a age story that focuses on a group of friends as time ebbs and flows. I love that there are no loose ends upon finishing the novel and that the novel highlights the ups and downs of family, love, friendship. The story made me both ache for the times of high school and college while simultaneously making me happy those times are long gone. I laughed, cried and felt connected to the characters. I felt a deep sense of wanting things to work out while watching them all make mistakes...both little and big. In the end I felt satisfied that they were all going to be ok...that things would work out. My heart is both a little broken and happy at the same time...but isn't that life?

     About Robin

She is the author of The Summer We Fell Apart (HarperCollins 2010) which was chosen as a Target Breakout Book. The Summer We Fell Apart was also published in Turkey by Artemis Yayinlari. Her non-fiction work has been published at The Weeklings, The Nervous Breakdown and collected in The Beautiful Anthology, Writing off Script: Writers on the Influence of Cinema, and The Weeklings: Revolution #1 Selected Essays 2012-1013. Her short fiction has appeared in 52 Stories, Five Chapters, Sun Dog, The Southeast Review and Literary Mama among others.  Robin has received three honorable mentions in Glimmer Train's Family Matters and New Fiction Writer's contests as well as an honorable mention for the Tobias Wolf Fiction Award.

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