My Summer Friend

by Ophelia Rue

Charismatic college student Ed Grey’s life is a carousel of one night stands until inheriting his childhood home after his grandparent’s untimely death. As summer arrives, he moves in, reliving his past as a quiet, shy, loner by day and obsessively watching for his childhood crush Elise through his telescope by night. The fragile shell of his identity begins to crack after she doesn’t recognize him during a chance encounter and falls in love with the caricature he has invented. As he becomes entangled in a complex web of lies a small metal box abandoned in the garage waits to be discovered. The secret it contains changes everything. My Summer Friend is a modern American love story that offers a glimpse into the psyche of a disturbed young man.

58 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 4, 2018

About the author

01000011 01101000 01100101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01101001 01100111 00100000 01100010 01110010 01100001 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01101101 01100001 01110010 01110100 01111001 01110000 01100001 01101110 01110100 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001101 01111001 00100000 01101110 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01001111 01110000 01101000 01100101 01101100 01101001 01100001 00100000 01010010 01110101 01100101 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01100101 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110100 01110111 01101111 00100000 01110101 01101110 01101001 01100011 01101111 01110010 01101110 01110011 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100100 01100101 00100000 01100101 01111001 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01101110 01110100 01100001 01100011 01110100 00101110 00100000 01001101 01111001 00100000 01100001 01110011 01110100 01110010 01101111 01101100 01101111 01100111 01101001 01100011 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110011 01101001 01100111 01101110 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101101 01101001 01100100 01100100 01101100 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100111 01100101 01110010 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100111 01110010 01100101 01110111 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100011 01101111 01101111 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100101 01101101 01100101 01110010 01100111 01100101 01100100 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101001 01101101 01101101 01101111 01110010 01110100 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110011 01110111 01100001 01110010 01101101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100110 01101100 01101001 01100101 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101001 01111010 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110011 01101111 01101101 01100101 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110111 01100101 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100101 01101110 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100011 01101111 01100011 01101111 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110010 01100101 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01101101 00101110 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100001 01110100 01110100 01110010 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110000 01101100 01100001 01101110 01100101 01110100 00100000 01100001 01100011 01100011 01101111 01110010 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01101101 01101001 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010 01110011 00101110 00100000 01001101 01101111 01101110 01100001 00100000 01001100 01101001 01110011 01100001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110000 01101001 01100011 01110100 01110101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01100101 0111

Reviews

[Miranda Reads]

"To Elise I was transparent. That’s the kind of thing I would write in my journal, if I was the kind of pussy that kept a journal."

Ed Grey lived the most during the summers, when he can be with Elise - the one normal thing in his life.

He's had a hard life - his parents were rather absentee, school was never a place to look forward to and even now, when you'd think things would finally get better, life has taken a serious turn for the worse.

The screen read mom. “Hey is everything ok? It’s 2:30 in the morning here.” Everything was not ok. My grandparents, the people who raised me, were dead.

And Ed seems to have an...odd...way with dealing with life's struggles.

"I would do my mourning in private. For now I was focused. No laughing, no boners, no laughing, no boners. The second part got a little harder to accomplish when a young woman knelt down at the caskets."

Soon, he is thrown into an alternative school where he finds himself slowly withering away...except for the summers where Elise is there and doesn't know of what he has to deal with.

But how long can he keep her shrouded in darkness? What if he falls into that darkness?

This was an interesting read. Ed always surprised me with his thoughts and actions. He definitely had the scornful and sullen teenager-thing down to a T.

"Get out of the rain retard. It’s just rain. It’s not symbolic. You’re not being deep or clever. It’s meaningless."

The story was told through alternating time skips across Ed childhood and teen years that slowly paints a picture of his life and how it revolves around Elise.

I wish this one was longer so that we could get a better feel for Ed's character and those extra pages would allow him to grow and change during the story.

In addition, I think the book would have been more well-rounded if we had more time with Elise there, so we can see the interaction between her and Ed rather than hear Ed's thoughts revolving around her constantly.

Finally, and this could be just cause I'm older now, but I found Ed's perspective wearisome. If the book was longer and Ed had more of a chance to develop, I think I would've been able to tolerate him better.

Definitely an unique book!

I received a free copy from the author in exchange for an honest review


YouTube | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Snapchat @miranda_reads

[The Sassy Bookworm]

Unfortunately, I couldn't read this one because the file I got from Amazon had a font that was TEENY TINY with no way to make it bigger...

[Aly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book because it could hit close to home for a few people. to me this book had mystery and thriller and a little suspense as well. Boys can be creepy sometimes but girls can be too. This book kept me reading all the way through. *This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.*

[Rebecca Hefner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first book by Rue and it won't be the last. Her writing is raw and gripping. I felt like I was inside Ed's head and boy, let me tell you, it's creepy. But it's also real. Ed talks like we talk. His inner dialogue was so funny that I literally LOL'd a few times. We see Ed's past through flashbacks and begin to realize why he's as messed up as he is. It's actually a sad commentary on how many children and teenagers fall through the cracks and end up unable to lead normal lives as adults. Also, the author has pictures throughout the book! They supplement the story very nicely. Also, the writing is so creative. There's one point where Ed spirals and the emotions he's feeling literally "spiral" on the page. It's pretty cool. The ending is oh-so-shocking and heartbreaking. It drudged up emotions inside that were visceral. I highly recommend this novella. Due to the pictures, if you have a black-and-white Kindle (as I do) I'd recommend reading on the Kindle for iPad app (as I did). Then the pictures and creativity will be given full justice.

[Amy Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great read

This is my first read by Rue, and after reading My Summer Friend, I am a fan. Rue writes an interesting and raw story, bringing intriguing and facade building characteristics to Ed. He's one of those characters that has a lot of layers to him. He is rebuilding his life, but not necessarily in a good way. He starts on a thrilling path of obsession and lies. It's a great novella that tells an intriguing story. I look forward to reading more by this author.

[M.E. Aster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an intriguing read told in a back and forth manner that kept me guessing and interested right up to the ending that I never saw coming. It was told in a gritty fashion that made the main character seem very real, allowing you to feel everything he felt. I really enjoyed it.

[B.A. Ellison · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars!

If the editing wasn't sloppy and there was a little bit more development, I would have happily given this 90-minute read a 4 star rating. At it's best moments, I really connected with the struggles of the main character trying to win over a childhood crush throughout their high-school years. Although, thankfully, I have never had to attend a Juvenile camp as the main character does. The exposition of these scenes are provided to the reader through chapter sections that flip back and forth between his upbringing and his present summer. I also really enjoyed the personality of this book, all the little insults and comments that the main character expressed to other characters he had to interact with were great and funny for sure!

The book lost its stars for me with what I would describe as shoddy editing. I will say that the book was far from unreadable, but a characters name changes from Mark to Mike in between chapters, there should be a lot more commas for sentence structure than there are, and occasionally words are missing or misspelled slightly. As short as this book is, these errors didn't stop me from enjoying the book, but as everything in the story was actually wrapping up pretty well they certainly swayed my rating significantly. It could have at least used a precursory edit from a professional, or just a few more drafts from Rue herself, as several of the errors are quite clearly in plain sight and wouldn't seem hard to fix from having re-read a few more times before release.

The imagery and relationships between characters is well explored, and I really enjoyed some of the scenes at the mental camp, and between Ed and his bullies. Elise I liked as a love-interest, and was an affable side character, but still couldn't just quite shine on her own without being spied on through the protagonist. It would have been good to spend more time with her. Lastly, the reveal at the end seemed like a twist thrown in at the last moment rather than a surprised layered into the plot organically for the lovers to not be able to be together at the end, after everything they went through. Overall, I enjoyed my read and was able to connect with it. I think Rue has talent and a strong voice they could come into with more practice and writing, so I hope what I see next from Rue will be a longer piece with more characters, development and better editing. Good luck, Rue.

[Lizzyg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! As close to a modern Catcher in the Rye as there is.

[Eddie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, funny, devastating, modern, perfection.

[KT Crandley · Rating 1 out of 5]

no

[Hunter · Rating 1 out of 5]

“You’re there only child!” was a line in this novella

[Johnny Swanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and highly recommend it. Coming in at 60 pages it is a fast afternoon read that will satisfy while indulging your reading desires. Ophelia has penned a story that is as beautiful as it is tragic... Written with a cynical styled cleverness, Ophelia has created a character deserving of both our admiration and pity.

This is the first book that I have read written by Ophelia Rue but it will not be my last.

Please go to www.meetawriterreadabook.com for the full review and interview with the author. ✌❤