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The Last Summer of Ada Bloom
In a small country town during one long, hot summer, the Bloom family is beginning to unravel. Martha is straining against the confines of her life, lost in regret for what might have been, when an old flame shows up. In turn, her husband Mike becomes frustrated with his increasingly distant wife. Marital secrets, new and long-hidden, start to surface—with devastating effect. And while teenagers Tilly and Ben are about to step out into the world, nine-year-old Ada is holding onto a childhood that might soon be lost to her.
When Ada discovers an abandoned well beneath a rusting windmill, she is drawn to its darkness and danger. And when she witnesses a shocking and confusing event, the well’s foreboding looms large in her mind—a driving force, pushing the family to the brink of tragedy. For each family member, it’s a summer of searching—in books and trees, at parties, in relationships new and old—for the answer to one of life’s most difficult questions: how to grow up?
The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is an honest and tender accounting of what it means to come of age as a teen, or as an adult. With a keen eye for summer’s languor and danger, and a sharp ear for the wonder, doubt, and longing in each of her characters’ voices, Martine Murray has written a beguiling story about the fragility of family relationships, about the secrets we keep, the power they hold to shape our lives, and about the power of love to somehow hold it all together.
When Ada discovers an abandoned well beneath a rusting windmill, she is drawn to its darkness and danger. And when she witnesses a shocking and confusing event, the well’s foreboding looms large in her mind—a driving force, pushing the family to the brink of tragedy. For each family member, it’s a summer of searching—in books and trees, at parties, in relationships new and old—for the answer to one of life’s most difficult questions: how to grow up?
The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is an honest and tender accounting of what it means to come of age as a teen, or as an adult. With a keen eye for summer’s languor and danger, and a sharp ear for the wonder, doubt, and longing in each of her characters’ voices, Martine Murray has written a beguiling story about the fragility of family relationships, about the secrets we keep, the power they hold to shape our lives, and about the power of love to somehow hold it all together.
280 pages, Paperback
Published April 7, 2020
31 people are currently reading
1037 people want to read
About the author
Martine Murray
17 books56 followersMartine Murray, a native and a current resident of Melbourne, Australia, is an accomplished author with a variety of other talents and interests. She has studied film making at Prahan College, painting at the Victorian College of the Arts, and movement and dance at Melbourne University. She began writing as a method of keeping track of all of her activities. She explains, “I was writing in journals a lot while I was in art school. I also used to write on my canvasses or write on etchings and make tiny stories that weren't really stories, they were more like sketches of moments.”
Soon enough, Martine had authored and illustrated the gentle, funny, and gloriously playful books such as The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley (Who Planned to Live an Unusual Life). In the story of twelve-year old Cedar B. Hartley, the young heroine befriends the son of a circus family and coordinates a local circus to raise money for the community's dog operation. The book has won a number of awards, including NYPL 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, Book Sense 76 Children's Pick, it was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the year Award, shortlisted for New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, and won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Books.
Martine Murray is currently enrolled in Professional Writing at RMIT and plans further study in screen writing and short story.
Soon enough, Martine had authored and illustrated the gentle, funny, and gloriously playful books such as The Slightly True Story of Cedar B. Hartley (Who Planned to Live an Unusual Life). In the story of twelve-year old Cedar B. Hartley, the young heroine befriends the son of a circus family and coordinates a local circus to raise money for the community's dog operation. The book has won a number of awards, including NYPL 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, Book Sense 76 Children's Pick, it was shortlisted for Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the year Award, shortlisted for New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, and won the Patricia Wrightson Prize for Children's Books.
Martine Murray is currently enrolled in Professional Writing at RMIT and plans further study in screen writing and short story.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
June 24, 2020
This is another mediocre, Switzerland read for me that I didn’t passionately enjoy it because of some irritating characters of the book but it is still above the average and great start for the first adult novel of popular children/YA books Aussie author Martine Murray.
The book‘s story takes places in Melbourne, centered on dysfunctional and estranged family members of Bloom family:
Martha: depressed, restless, resented, criticizing mother, drifted apart from her husband, allured by a man from her past and her husband Mike mostly resented from his wife’s attitudes but he doesn’t fight for his marriage as well.
And three children feel the tension at the house but their reactions are so different from each other.
The elder ones are adamant to get away from there to start their own paths. The elder child, Tily is planning to leave for Melbourne University to open up herself the different opportunities of life as the middle child, Ben still discovers his manhood, putting himself into a toxic spiral, making mistakes. And the observant, nine years old Ada watches her family members’ imminent change in front of her eyes, still holding onto her lovely childhood memories and her own innocence, rejecting the change.
The book may be a little shorter to fasten the pace and keep the interest of the readers alert. Maybe this was just for me but I found Ada’s parents a little dull, boring and I couldn’t relate with them which meant I didn’t enjoy reading their parts of the story.
Overall: Writing is still promising, emotional and unique. I enjoyed to be part of little Ada’s world.
But at some parts the story became repetitive, slow burn, uninteresting for me. So I’m giving my three stars. I still want to read more adult books of the author because I can sense her talent from her story-telling, word choices and especially young adult parts of the story worked well for me.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Tin House Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange my honest review.
The book‘s story takes places in Melbourne, centered on dysfunctional and estranged family members of Bloom family:
Martha: depressed, restless, resented, criticizing mother, drifted apart from her husband, allured by a man from her past and her husband Mike mostly resented from his wife’s attitudes but he doesn’t fight for his marriage as well.
And three children feel the tension at the house but their reactions are so different from each other.
The elder ones are adamant to get away from there to start their own paths. The elder child, Tily is planning to leave for Melbourne University to open up herself the different opportunities of life as the middle child, Ben still discovers his manhood, putting himself into a toxic spiral, making mistakes. And the observant, nine years old Ada watches her family members’ imminent change in front of her eyes, still holding onto her lovely childhood memories and her own innocence, rejecting the change.
The book may be a little shorter to fasten the pace and keep the interest of the readers alert. Maybe this was just for me but I found Ada’s parents a little dull, boring and I couldn’t relate with them which meant I didn’t enjoy reading their parts of the story.
Overall: Writing is still promising, emotional and unique. I enjoyed to be part of little Ada’s world.
But at some parts the story became repetitive, slow burn, uninteresting for me. So I’m giving my three stars. I still want to read more adult books of the author because I can sense her talent from her story-telling, word choices and especially young adult parts of the story worked well for me.
Special thanks to NetGalley and Tin House Books for sharing this ARC with me in exchange my honest review.
September 16, 2018
4.5★s
“The moonlight had crept in and bathed everything in eerie shining tones. Everything that looked so familiar during the day was now hiding its true self in a cloak of shadow. Something monstrous lurked in that sort of stillness. It was getting ready. Ada didn’t like it.”
The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is the first novel for adults by award-winning Australian author, Martine Murray. It’s 1982 and the Bloom family (Mum, Dad, three kids and the dog), living in Wattle Gully in country Victoria, feels a bit like it’s coming unstitched. Mike sells insurance and provides for the family but his wife’s coolness sees him tempted elsewhere.
Martha is feeling her age: “…arthritis… it was the first sign, a harbinger of the degradations of age. She had arrived on that other side of life where bodies start to undo” and a visit from their past crystallises her dissatisfaction with life: “What had gone was the expanse of possibility, the space of unlived potential, the feeling of being hurled through endless days like a bird goes through the sky, unburdened, hungry, oblivious and free. And now all that energy had collected its wild memories and unrolled itself into the sedate, solid form of a weatherboard-enclosed family.”
Seventeen-year-old Tilly is aware of the looming prospect of sex and acutely conscious of her unease socially: “Talking at parties was hard work – you had to wear your party self, that pretend sort of lively shining self, and the effort to conjure it showed through like a dirty mark on a pale-coloured dress.”
Fifteen-year-old Ben, meanwhile, may be his mother’s favourite, but has Mike concerned: “Ben’s self-assurance was unsettling. It was as if he knew the ropes so well he didn’t need to use them anymore. He was too well wired for his own good – all savvy and charm and not enough truth. He was almost the opposite of Ada, in whom truth burned so bright it made her fierce.”
Ada, nine, “…was so dramatic, so convinced by her own imaginings”, a girl who named trees (William Blake) and wallabies (Emily Dickinson) in her piece of the bush, and was burdened by secrets that wanted to spring from her tongue (Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny, and the Other Secret she’d recently seen in the middle of the night). “Ada always looked into things too deeply. She was a child with the soul of an animal, a nose for anything that was off, for the emotional weather of a situation.”
Murray’s Wattle Gully easily evokes the typical small country town of the era, as do her characters. Ada and Tilly are particularly endearing and their dialogue when together often demonstrates their love and Ada’s nine-year-old wisdom: “’I just wanted to forget myself…’ ‘You can’t forget yourself though, because when you wake up, there you are again.’ ‘That’s the problem.’” But the Blooms do have secrets and the behaviour of some during this hot summer is rather disappointing. Will the family survive intact?
Murray’s descriptive prose is lovely, often exquisite: “…it was such an awful day, so hot and muggy the air would sweat if it could. The sky had been drained of its blue, and now was scorched a dirty pale colour, a colour that couldn’t even announce itself” and this novel for adults proves that her literary talents are many. A wonderfully heart-warming read.
“The moonlight had crept in and bathed everything in eerie shining tones. Everything that looked so familiar during the day was now hiding its true self in a cloak of shadow. Something monstrous lurked in that sort of stillness. It was getting ready. Ada didn’t like it.”
The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is the first novel for adults by award-winning Australian author, Martine Murray. It’s 1982 and the Bloom family (Mum, Dad, three kids and the dog), living in Wattle Gully in country Victoria, feels a bit like it’s coming unstitched. Mike sells insurance and provides for the family but his wife’s coolness sees him tempted elsewhere.
Martha is feeling her age: “…arthritis… it was the first sign, a harbinger of the degradations of age. She had arrived on that other side of life where bodies start to undo” and a visit from their past crystallises her dissatisfaction with life: “What had gone was the expanse of possibility, the space of unlived potential, the feeling of being hurled through endless days like a bird goes through the sky, unburdened, hungry, oblivious and free. And now all that energy had collected its wild memories and unrolled itself into the sedate, solid form of a weatherboard-enclosed family.”
Seventeen-year-old Tilly is aware of the looming prospect of sex and acutely conscious of her unease socially: “Talking at parties was hard work – you had to wear your party self, that pretend sort of lively shining self, and the effort to conjure it showed through like a dirty mark on a pale-coloured dress.”
Fifteen-year-old Ben, meanwhile, may be his mother’s favourite, but has Mike concerned: “Ben’s self-assurance was unsettling. It was as if he knew the ropes so well he didn’t need to use them anymore. He was too well wired for his own good – all savvy and charm and not enough truth. He was almost the opposite of Ada, in whom truth burned so bright it made her fierce.”
Ada, nine, “…was so dramatic, so convinced by her own imaginings”, a girl who named trees (William Blake) and wallabies (Emily Dickinson) in her piece of the bush, and was burdened by secrets that wanted to spring from her tongue (Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny, and the Other Secret she’d recently seen in the middle of the night). “Ada always looked into things too deeply. She was a child with the soul of an animal, a nose for anything that was off, for the emotional weather of a situation.”
Murray’s Wattle Gully easily evokes the typical small country town of the era, as do her characters. Ada and Tilly are particularly endearing and their dialogue when together often demonstrates their love and Ada’s nine-year-old wisdom: “’I just wanted to forget myself…’ ‘You can’t forget yourself though, because when you wake up, there you are again.’ ‘That’s the problem.’” But the Blooms do have secrets and the behaviour of some during this hot summer is rather disappointing. Will the family survive intact?
Murray’s descriptive prose is lovely, often exquisite: “…it was such an awful day, so hot and muggy the air would sweat if it could. The sky had been drained of its blue, and now was scorched a dirty pale colour, a colour that couldn’t even announce itself” and this novel for adults proves that her literary talents are many. A wonderfully heart-warming read.
July 8, 2020
Why isn't this better known and more loved? I thought it was tremendous. Evocative, sensuous writing, and characters I truly cared about. Ada is nine and in the stiflingly hot Australian summer of 1982 she is trying and failing to keep her family's secrets. Each chapter moves point of view to a different family member: her unhappy mother, her sister who is exploring life, her guilty father, and her girl-obsessed brother. They each play a part in a terrible event that happens towards the end of the book, but it is Ada who carries the story, and it was Ada I fell for. A very likely contender for one of my favourite books of 2020.
February 3, 2019
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**3.5 stars**
The Last Summer of Ada Bloom by Martine Murray. (2018).
During one long hot summer in a small country town, the Bloom family unravels. Martha is living a life of regret and struggling with her monotonous housewife lifestyle and an unnerving visit with a man from her past. Mike is frustrated with Martha's distance and tempted by her flirty friend. Teenagers Tilly and Ben are growing up and ready to move on, while 9 year old Ada is holding onto her childhood innocence that will soon be wrenched from her as old and new secrets rise to the surface with devastating effect.
This is the first novel for adults by a popular children/young adult novel writer. Ada is the common thread in this book, connecting all of her family even though she is starting to feel a bit left behind by her older siblings. The book itself is about family relationships, secrets held and the way certain secrets and events have the power to change everything. For me I think I would have liked it if rather than skimming across the five family members, there was more detail and focus on each of them (although that obviously would have made the book much longer than what it is). I did find the characters quite authentic and believable in their actions. The book is beautifully written and the author has a way with words so the imagery is easily imaginable. I didn't really overly get into this novel myself, but I can see why others would really appreciate it.
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**3.5 stars**
The Last Summer of Ada Bloom by Martine Murray. (2018).
During one long hot summer in a small country town, the Bloom family unravels. Martha is living a life of regret and struggling with her monotonous housewife lifestyle and an unnerving visit with a man from her past. Mike is frustrated with Martha's distance and tempted by her flirty friend. Teenagers Tilly and Ben are growing up and ready to move on, while 9 year old Ada is holding onto her childhood innocence that will soon be wrenched from her as old and new secrets rise to the surface with devastating effect.
This is the first novel for adults by a popular children/young adult novel writer. Ada is the common thread in this book, connecting all of her family even though she is starting to feel a bit left behind by her older siblings. The book itself is about family relationships, secrets held and the way certain secrets and events have the power to change everything. For me I think I would have liked it if rather than skimming across the five family members, there was more detail and focus on each of them (although that obviously would have made the book much longer than what it is). I did find the characters quite authentic and believable in their actions. The book is beautifully written and the author has a way with words so the imagery is easily imaginable. I didn't really overly get into this novel myself, but I can see why others would really appreciate it.
August 13, 2020
3.5 Stars
May 25, 2020
This novel appealed to other readers more than me. The mother came off as whiny and self absorbed to me. When the daughter, Tilly, aces all her exams and gets accepted into university. Martha is so outraged that she is leaving and not grateful enough that she tells her not to come home ever again. Really supportive parent.
It goes on like this because Martha is dissatisfied with her life and everyone around her pays the price. It's a coming of age story about her daughter, Ada, but Martha just oozes everywhere with her unhappiness. I guess I wasn't in the right mood.
It goes on like this because Martha is dissatisfied with her life and everyone around her pays the price. It's a coming of age story about her daughter, Ada, but Martha just oozes everywhere with her unhappiness. I guess I wasn't in the right mood.
April 1, 2020
So this honestly isn't the type of book I normally go for (though I've been trying to read more of, especially lately) but I really enjoyed it!!
This book is very character driven and follows the five members of the Bloom family. While I did, initially, have trouble keeping everyone straight, once I figured out who is who, I ended up really enjoying following this family. And I did end up engaging more with some rather than others. I particularly enjoyed Ada and Tilly. Don't even get me started with Mike and Martha (two people who I didn't respect as people or parents). But I definitely enjoyed following their lives and seeing the different choices they made over one summer, some they could not come back from.
This is also one of the most poetic books I have ever read. I ended up marking so many passages! The writing is absolutely beautiful and I think that's one of the things that initially drew me into this story.
Overall, this was a wonderful book that I'm so glad to have read! Thank you so much to Tin House and their Galley Club for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book!
This book is very character driven and follows the five members of the Bloom family. While I did, initially, have trouble keeping everyone straight, once I figured out who is who, I ended up really enjoying following this family. And I did end up engaging more with some rather than others. I particularly enjoyed Ada and Tilly. Don't even get me started with Mike and Martha (two people who I didn't respect as people or parents). But I definitely enjoyed following their lives and seeing the different choices they made over one summer, some they could not come back from.
This is also one of the most poetic books I have ever read. I ended up marking so many passages! The writing is absolutely beautiful and I think that's one of the things that initially drew me into this story.
Overall, this was a wonderful book that I'm so glad to have read! Thank you so much to Tin House and their Galley Club for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book!
August 22, 2019
I knew from the opening sentence that I was going to enjoy this book. The author writes beautifully and sensitively. Her words evoked again that strange wondering feeling of being young and knowing that life would not always be carefree and handling responsibility sometimes with gravity and sometimes with derision. I believe we were all a bit of Ada once.
I had the time set in my mind much earlier. It was somewhat a shock when I realised the story was set 20 or so years on. Maybe I was dreaming about my own childhood. But I think I liked that the time and setting slowly came into focus as the book developed.
I’ll have to get a copy of this book to underline my favourite pieces of prose. There were far too many to copy out.
I had the time set in my mind much earlier. It was somewhat a shock when I realised the story was set 20 or so years on. Maybe I was dreaming about my own childhood. But I think I liked that the time and setting slowly came into focus as the book developed.
I’ll have to get a copy of this book to underline my favourite pieces of prose. There were far too many to copy out.
April 17, 2020
This is a long review, so TL:DR: it's a beautifully written examination of innocence lost by the Bloom family, and 10 year old Ada in particular, during a long, hot Australian summer.
I will tell you right off the bat that any review I write of this book will not do it justice. I am particularly fond of coming-of-age novels, and have been since reading To Kill a Mockingbird all those years ago; so you can imagine that when I discovered that the main character, Ada, has hints of Scout Finch about her, that this book would be a surprise to me and something I enjoyed.
Set over one long, hot, dry summer in a small Australian town, it centers on the Bloom family, Martha and Mike, the parents, and Tilly, Ben, and Ada, their three children. The novel is book-ended by scenes at an old windmill that Ada finds at the beginning of the novel, and the symbolism of that is an example of the careful and thoughtful way the author has crafted her writing. Secrets are slowly revealed, and the innocence of each character is lost in some way by the end of the story. Though not always an easy read, nevertheless, this book is one I closed with a satisfied sigh, grateful to have been immersed in its pages for a little while.
The novel is light on plot, but is instead a deep examination of a family on the verge of falling apart, the slimmest strands holding them together. Ada is around 10 years old, and her life is set "just so." She roams the area around her house, with their three-legged dog, PJ, poking things with sticks and conversing with the trees she has named William Blake and Emily Dickinson. But things are changing in the family, and one act of betrayal will set in motion a narrative where cracks are revealed in all of their lives.
I loved the character of Ada Bloom. Her thoughts are beautifully rendered, and she's the best part of the book, other than the outstanding writing. Her older sister, Tilly, is also fully-developed, and reading the ups and downs of their relationship is something else I really enjoyed. Ben is less developed, but the fact that he's his mother's favorite plays an important role in one of the unexpected twists in the novel.
Speaking of mothers, Martha was my least favorite character, and I wasn't much of a fan of the dad, Mike, either. They are deeply flawed characters, selfish and self-absorbed, and sometimes it was hard to read their stories. But each of the characters has a chance to examine deep crevices inside themselves, and they process the events of the book in a way that was understandable, if not completely satisfying.
I mentioned the writing, and here is where I will fall short in my review. I cannot write like this author does. I haven't read many that I would say can. My advanced reader copy (courtesy of the library marketing department of W.W. Norton) is highlighted, underlined, and dog-eared. I will just give one example from Ada's voice and I think it will explain the appeal, for me, at least:
"She drifted into a tender, sad mood because of the way the light and dust slowed time to a halt and opened up a soft hole of memory. And she had a sense that something had happened and would never happen again...It was the dying light that made her sad, because time died over and over again. Each day threw out its last lone note of beauty like a plaintive howl, and then it was finished."
There are pages and pages of this kind of writing that just wrapped itself around me, making me so appreciate the written word. I had been unable to read for weeks after the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, too distracted and anxious and scared to focus on reading fiction. But when I finished The Last Summer of Ada Bloom, and turned the last page, I let out a sigh I didn't realize I had been holding.
I highly recommend this book for those who love literary fiction and exemplary writing. It may not appeal to everyone, because as I mentioned, some of the characters are fairly unlikable. But that's the way reality is: we are not always given the best parents; betrayals and tragedies occur and we have to process them; there is no stopping childhood - we have to grow up. But Martine Murray has a way with language, and I feel that I was carefully tended to by her as I was reading. "This," I thought, as I closed the book "this is why I read."
I've read a number of remarkable books published by Tin House over the last few years. I can also recommend A Key to Treehouse Living by Elliot Reed, another coming-of-age novel, but written in glossary form; Costalegre by Courtney Maum, loosely based on the lives of Peggy Guggenheim and her daughter Pegeen; and Biloxi by Mary U. Miller, in which you will meet curmudgeonly Louis and his rescue dog Layla, and be glad you did.
I will tell you right off the bat that any review I write of this book will not do it justice. I am particularly fond of coming-of-age novels, and have been since reading To Kill a Mockingbird all those years ago; so you can imagine that when I discovered that the main character, Ada, has hints of Scout Finch about her, that this book would be a surprise to me and something I enjoyed.
Set over one long, hot, dry summer in a small Australian town, it centers on the Bloom family, Martha and Mike, the parents, and Tilly, Ben, and Ada, their three children. The novel is book-ended by scenes at an old windmill that Ada finds at the beginning of the novel, and the symbolism of that is an example of the careful and thoughtful way the author has crafted her writing. Secrets are slowly revealed, and the innocence of each character is lost in some way by the end of the story. Though not always an easy read, nevertheless, this book is one I closed with a satisfied sigh, grateful to have been immersed in its pages for a little while.
The novel is light on plot, but is instead a deep examination of a family on the verge of falling apart, the slimmest strands holding them together. Ada is around 10 years old, and her life is set "just so." She roams the area around her house, with their three-legged dog, PJ, poking things with sticks and conversing with the trees she has named William Blake and Emily Dickinson. But things are changing in the family, and one act of betrayal will set in motion a narrative where cracks are revealed in all of their lives.
I loved the character of Ada Bloom. Her thoughts are beautifully rendered, and she's the best part of the book, other than the outstanding writing. Her older sister, Tilly, is also fully-developed, and reading the ups and downs of their relationship is something else I really enjoyed. Ben is less developed, but the fact that he's his mother's favorite plays an important role in one of the unexpected twists in the novel.
Speaking of mothers, Martha was my least favorite character, and I wasn't much of a fan of the dad, Mike, either. They are deeply flawed characters, selfish and self-absorbed, and sometimes it was hard to read their stories. But each of the characters has a chance to examine deep crevices inside themselves, and they process the events of the book in a way that was understandable, if not completely satisfying.
I mentioned the writing, and here is where I will fall short in my review. I cannot write like this author does. I haven't read many that I would say can. My advanced reader copy (courtesy of the library marketing department of W.W. Norton) is highlighted, underlined, and dog-eared. I will just give one example from Ada's voice and I think it will explain the appeal, for me, at least:
"She drifted into a tender, sad mood because of the way the light and dust slowed time to a halt and opened up a soft hole of memory. And she had a sense that something had happened and would never happen again...It was the dying light that made her sad, because time died over and over again. Each day threw out its last lone note of beauty like a plaintive howl, and then it was finished."
There are pages and pages of this kind of writing that just wrapped itself around me, making me so appreciate the written word. I had been unable to read for weeks after the beginning of the COVID19 pandemic, too distracted and anxious and scared to focus on reading fiction. But when I finished The Last Summer of Ada Bloom, and turned the last page, I let out a sigh I didn't realize I had been holding.
I highly recommend this book for those who love literary fiction and exemplary writing. It may not appeal to everyone, because as I mentioned, some of the characters are fairly unlikable. But that's the way reality is: we are not always given the best parents; betrayals and tragedies occur and we have to process them; there is no stopping childhood - we have to grow up. But Martine Murray has a way with language, and I feel that I was carefully tended to by her as I was reading. "This," I thought, as I closed the book "this is why I read."
I've read a number of remarkable books published by Tin House over the last few years. I can also recommend A Key to Treehouse Living by Elliot Reed, another coming-of-age novel, but written in glossary form; Costalegre by Courtney Maum, loosely based on the lives of Peggy Guggenheim and her daughter Pegeen; and Biloxi by Mary U. Miller, in which you will meet curmudgeonly Louis and his rescue dog Layla, and be glad you did.
October 3, 2025
2.75 stars. It was fine. Honestly, pretty boring, but I liked Tilly’s character. There was almost too much going on and not really any resolution at the end.
March 2, 2020
The Last Summer of Ada Bloom reads as if watching a play where each individual character is in the center of their own stage. No character is less important, dynamic, complicated, or thoroughly captured than the others. Each captivates in their own unique ways, and blended together and around each other we experience all the ways the Bloom family is connected and all the ways they are apart. The Last Summer of Ada Blooming is filled with all the spark and yearning that presses in on us during late summer evenings and the mistakes they make crackle like the first strike of lightning in a drought. I was utterly moved by these wild and hungry creatures and stayed up finishing this book late into the night.
December 30, 2018
Martine Murray beautifully captures the slowness of a long hot summer using minute details to reveal the world from each main characters point of view. This summer is very meaningful to each of the Bloom family members but to Ada the youngest, it is overwhelming. Tilly is the eldest and is waiting for her HSC results, Ben is a sporting teenager who aspires to attract girls like the older boys in his team Ada is still in primary school but is bridging the gap between childhood and teenager. Ada misunderstands and misinterprets the world around her she relies on her big sister Tilly to make sense of what she sees and hears.
September 26, 2020
Very poetic writing, so much so that it interfered with the plot lines. After reading particularly long ones, I had to go back and figure out where the plot was. Everyone comes of age except Martha. She’s going through a midlife crises and can’t figure out how to handle it. She’s selfish, thankless and treats her daughters shamefully.
March 27, 2020
“The withholding of things had gone against the telling of things, and the clash of telling and not-telling unleashed a violence, as pressing and as mighty as the sun.”
Many thanks to Tin House for the gifted copy of THE LAST SUMMER OF ADA BLOOM, available 4/7.
Set in the Australian countryside during the 1980’s, this charming coming-of-age story centers around the Bloom family. Ada Bloom is an imaginative nine-year-old who is wise beyond her years. Ada and her older sister Tilly have a beautiful relationship; however, Ada feels left behind as Tilly reaches the cusp of adulthood. Their brother Ben is the athletic golden boy of the family who can do no wrong in their parents eyes. The parents, Mike and Martha, have grown distant from each other. Their love has become tired and worn thin over the years.
Told through alternating perspectives, we see how one family’s secrets and imperfections threaten to tear them apart and the boundless love that ties them together. The more time I spend on this earth, the more I enjoy reading these mellow character study novels where bits and pieces of yourself are reflected in each of these flawed human beings. As children, we have all felt Ada’s loneliness, confusion and wonder. This heartwarming, poignant tale is about the magic of childhood and the crushing realization of getting older. It’s about the imperfections of love and the beauty of family.
Read this book if you loved: Goodbye, Vitamin, Little Fires Everywhere and/or Rabbit Cake.
February 2, 2019
Like all Martine Murray's books, this one is written sensitively and with nuance and subtlety regarding all characters. Its a very touching and, for me, very realistic portrait of a family over one long, hot summer. Writing in the omniscient third person perspective gives Martine Murray the opportunity to take us deeply into the personal perspectives of all the major characters, not privileging one above another, so that for example the tensions in the marriage of Martha and Mike are seen from both their points-of-view.
Martine Murray writes with such sympathy and perspicacity , that as a reader you feel like you're living alongside her characters through an almost unbearably hot, Australian summer in a country town.
Martine Murray writes with such sympathy and perspicacity , that as a reader you feel like you're living alongside her characters through an almost unbearably hot, Australian summer in a country town.
February 16, 2022
Loved ada’s sweet character .
August 14, 2020
This is a deep, dark foreboding story of changes in the lives of the Bloom family over the course of a hot, dry summer in a small town in Australia.
I enjoyed the journey of 9-year-old Ada as she tried to make sense of the changes in her family’s lives over a fateful summer. Ada has always been close to her older sister, Tilly, who is waiting for her exam results from her last year of school before making a decision about going away to college, yet things are changing and Ada feels a bit left out.
Everyone in the family has secrets, and some of them are a bit unsavory. Thinking back on the events that unfolded in alternate narratives with different POVs, I really didn’t like the parents or the brother much, although I was able to understand their perspectives. An over-arching theme is one of loneliness and uncertainty, although there are some beautiful moments and the tale is very well-written.
As the summer unfolds, secrets are revealed to some of the players in this story and, especially for nine-year-old Ada, but also for seventeen-year-old Tilly, they stir up dread and conflicting emotions. This sense of foreboding is echoed in the setting, the dry, hot landscape with dying trees, the old, rotting windmill with a bottomless well, the fox and the chickens, and, finally, fire.
There are lots of transformations in this novel, some of them not so pleasant, yet the reader is drawn into the story inexorably as the members of the Bloom family struggle within themselves and with each other over the course of the summer. It was an enjoyable read, even if some of the characters were unlikable. Many of the themes and occurrences will surely lead to lively discussion among members of book groups.
I enjoyed the journey of 9-year-old Ada as she tried to make sense of the changes in her family’s lives over a fateful summer. Ada has always been close to her older sister, Tilly, who is waiting for her exam results from her last year of school before making a decision about going away to college, yet things are changing and Ada feels a bit left out.
Everyone in the family has secrets, and some of them are a bit unsavory. Thinking back on the events that unfolded in alternate narratives with different POVs, I really didn’t like the parents or the brother much, although I was able to understand their perspectives. An over-arching theme is one of loneliness and uncertainty, although there are some beautiful moments and the tale is very well-written.
As the summer unfolds, secrets are revealed to some of the players in this story and, especially for nine-year-old Ada, but also for seventeen-year-old Tilly, they stir up dread and conflicting emotions. This sense of foreboding is echoed in the setting, the dry, hot landscape with dying trees, the old, rotting windmill with a bottomless well, the fox and the chickens, and, finally, fire.
There are lots of transformations in this novel, some of them not so pleasant, yet the reader is drawn into the story inexorably as the members of the Bloom family struggle within themselves and with each other over the course of the summer. It was an enjoyable read, even if some of the characters were unlikable. Many of the themes and occurrences will surely lead to lively discussion among members of book groups.
March 5, 2020
Ada Bloom is an adventurous and imaginative nine year old, who knows dangerous feats like climbing into endless windmill holes only count if there are witnesses and gives trees names like William Blake and Emily Dickinson. But this same over-active imagination threatens her understanding of the world after she witnesses something she shouldn't. She's not alone in her sense of upheaval. The entire Bloom family succumbs to the pressures and temptations of the long, hot Australian summer. Ada's mother Martha feels trapped in her own life, desiring to be needed by her growing children but also suffocated by the demands of the household and motherhood. Mike, Ada's father, feels alienated from his wife and his children. Her older brother Ben is the golden child, but his constant misdeeds threaten this image. And Ada's teenage sister Tilly occupies that tenuous space between child and adult, torn between love for her sister and the desire to be on her own.
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The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is an intimate story of childhood verging on adulthood, families, and the secrets that threaten to break them apart but also the tenderness and care that keeps them together. A beautiful debut that explores the sweetness and also the unsettling nature of adolescence.
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The Last Summer of Ada Bloom is an intimate story of childhood verging on adulthood, families, and the secrets that threaten to break them apart but also the tenderness and care that keeps them together. A beautiful debut that explores the sweetness and also the unsettling nature of adolescence.
January 30, 2021
I am so glad Netgalley and Martine Murray sent me a copy of The Last Summer of Ada Bloom, for an honest review. I didn’t know what to expect from this author or this book, but I was happily surprised. I fell in love with Ada and her dysfunctional family. The book takes place over one miserably hot summer. It’s set in a small town and the year is 1980. A family starts to fall apart when secrets are exposed, as they start to break down the family dynamic. Ada has two older siblings, a brother and a sister. They both have one foot out of the house and poor Ada is the one who sees the most, but doesn’t understand anything. As the summer progresses we get to know each member of the family. The character development is excellent. Their interaction with one another is so real and the story is heartwarming. I was so glad I was able to read this book. Marine Murray is a writer who I will now start to follow. I read this very quickly because I couldn’t put it down. When you get a chance, get this story and enjoy every second. This was a four star review for me and I have shared this on my Instagram page.
November 29, 2024
A summer of secrets and guilt face five characters of the Bloom family.
This expose of a family in transition does include action, even a bit of mystery, though for the most part we learn what makes each character "tick". The narrative is told through each one's point of view, less often by Mike the father or Ben the son. Martha, the matriarch, Tilly the oldest girl and of course Ada, the ten-year-old main character all reveal their inner selves.
My only quibble is how Ada's voice sometimes veers into language too mature for a girl her age to be thinking, but this doesn't happen constantly, and for the most part she exhibits the thoughts and actions of a lively girl who learns a terrible secret that brings her once carefree world into one of confusion and then finally knowledge.
The setting in a small town in southern Australia in a stifling hot summer is tangible.
This expose of a family in transition does include action, even a bit of mystery, though for the most part we learn what makes each character "tick". The narrative is told through each one's point of view, less often by Mike the father or Ben the son. Martha, the matriarch, Tilly the oldest girl and of course Ada, the ten-year-old main character all reveal their inner selves.
My only quibble is how Ada's voice sometimes veers into language too mature for a girl her age to be thinking, but this doesn't happen constantly, and for the most part she exhibits the thoughts and actions of a lively girl who learns a terrible secret that brings her once carefree world into one of confusion and then finally knowledge.
The setting in a small town in southern Australia in a stifling hot summer is tangible.
May 6, 2020
4-5 stars, a nice break from my normal genre. It was well written, with amazingly developed characters, which really helped make it seem like a real dysfunctional family. While I don’t really read non thrillers much, I am glad I picked it up, because it was written in a way that really tugged at my emotions! I highly recommend to those who love reading about dysfunctional families trying to make it through the tough things life throws at us!
Will make sure to buzz it up on all the different platforms and use my low amazon reviewer number!
Will make sure to buzz it up on all the different platforms and use my low amazon reviewer number!
September 8, 2020
This is a coming of age/loss of innocence novel where all of the Bloom family members are at a crossroad of one kind or another. Past secrets cause rifts, and lack of communication has disastrous results. The author paints beautiful word pictures that bring the hot Australian summer to life. Ada's observations are at once innocent and wise. Her mother's dissatisfaction with her life sets the tone for the whole family, and its breakdown has a ripple effect involving characters outside of the family as well.
September 15, 2021
I'm familiar with Martine Murray's YA and children's books, but this is her first book for adults. She has stuck to what she does best, which is focusing on the young protagonist, Ada. This summer in her life brings so many revelations and surprises as she grapples to make sense of family relationships and changes in her small country community. Everything seems fragile to her, especially as she fears having to grow up, deal with secrets and learn the truth of things. Beautifully written and tender.
February 28, 2020
This is a well-written, coming-of-age story. I love the character of Ada Bloom, the youngest child in the Bloom family. Her teenage siblings are growing up, and Ada's parents are having issues. Ada's discovery of an abandoned well in her Australian neighborhood brush at the beginning of the summer proves to be more significant than she ever thought possible. I enjoyed the descriptions in this novel and the depth of the characters. They were each flawed and beautiful in their own ways.
March 30, 2019
I listened to this as an audio book and it flowed nicely. It was easy to listen to and to follow. I enjoyed the Australian content and the author’s descriptive narrative.
February 1, 2020
A DRC was provided by Edelweiss in exchange for a fair & honest review.
A family is a complex engine of separate parts that need regular tune-ups to keep running smoothly. The Bloom family is starting to show some wear in 80s Australia, living in a suburban house on the edge of the bush. Martha is depressed and fed up with her housewife status, alienated from husband Mike and becoming interested in striking up with an old lover. She is increasingly critical of her eldest daughter Tilly who is waiting to leave the next for university in Melbourne and passing the time exploring the possibility of something with various young men. Ben, the middle child, is feeling his way to manhood by defaulting to some toxic Australian behaviors. Ada, nine years old and given to observing all of them closely, is courting danger by exploring an abandoned windmill out in the bush. Housewife Martha is bored, depressed and fed up with with everything, most of all aging in place, alienated from husband Mike and becoming interested in striking up with an old lover. She is critical and resentful of her eldest daughter Tilly, who is waiting to leave the next for university in Melbourne and passing the time exploring the possibility of something more with a young man. Ben, the middle child, is feeling his way to manhood by defaulting to some toxic Australian behaviors, which father Mike is already embracing. Ada, nine years old and given to observing all of them a little too closely, is courting danger by exploring an abandoned windmill out in the bush. There is some lovely writing, particularly of the uniquely Antipodean environment, and a terrifying description of wildfire towards the end of the book which mirrors the tinderbox nature of the Blooms' family dynamics. But Martha is so unpleasant, Mike so clueless, and the older members too focused on Ava as a source of youth, innocence, and validation that the reader begins to tire of the lot of them, and cease to wonder that the family is growing apart. Ada and Tilly are the only pair of Blooms who begin to forge a new relationship in the face of time changes, and it is their sweetly realistic sisterly bond that lingers in the memory.
A family is a complex engine of separate parts that need regular tune-ups to keep running smoothly. The Bloom family is starting to show some wear in 80s Australia, living in a suburban house on the edge of the bush. Martha is depressed and fed up with her housewife status, alienated from husband Mike and becoming interested in striking up with an old lover. She is increasingly critical of her eldest daughter Tilly who is waiting to leave the next for university in Melbourne and passing the time exploring the possibility of something with various young men. Ben, the middle child, is feeling his way to manhood by defaulting to some toxic Australian behaviors. Ada, nine years old and given to observing all of them closely, is courting danger by exploring an abandoned windmill out in the bush. Housewife Martha is bored, depressed and fed up with with everything, most of all aging in place, alienated from husband Mike and becoming interested in striking up with an old lover. She is critical and resentful of her eldest daughter Tilly, who is waiting to leave the next for university in Melbourne and passing the time exploring the possibility of something more with a young man. Ben, the middle child, is feeling his way to manhood by defaulting to some toxic Australian behaviors, which father Mike is already embracing. Ada, nine years old and given to observing all of them a little too closely, is courting danger by exploring an abandoned windmill out in the bush. There is some lovely writing, particularly of the uniquely Antipodean environment, and a terrifying description of wildfire towards the end of the book which mirrors the tinderbox nature of the Blooms' family dynamics. But Martha is so unpleasant, Mike so clueless, and the older members too focused on Ava as a source of youth, innocence, and validation that the reader begins to tire of the lot of them, and cease to wonder that the family is growing apart. Ada and Tilly are the only pair of Blooms who begin to forge a new relationship in the face of time changes, and it is their sweetly realistic sisterly bond that lingers in the memory.
November 22, 2025
This was a wild ride, written in lovely prose with ugly (hateable) side characters and a delightful main character- Ada Bloom. Her sister Tilly was also a sweet character.
Ada is young, younger than everyone else, except the 2 neighbor kids who are too young to play with.
She’s getting left behind by her family as her two teenaged siblings give up their playthings, and her parents fall deeper into their own personal Hell which they each created by being crappy human beings.
There are ways in which the story is so frustrating, but it didn’t make me dislike it.
Ada is a sweet spirit who is in tune with nature and probably pretty lonely. She’s kind of an old soul in a young body. Her sister Tilly is so good to her, but she’s also figuring out life as a 17 year old young woman in a culture where she’s viewed as inferior, and all while dealing with a narcissistic mother and a weird dad who is so… lost and horrible.
Her brother Ben is the next generation of horrible dudes because his mom permits it and so does his dad.
This is a bit of a narrative on gender and family dynamics and how we can choose to grow up, even in harsh circumstances.
I would read more books from this author!
Ada is young, younger than everyone else, except the 2 neighbor kids who are too young to play with.
She’s getting left behind by her family as her two teenaged siblings give up their playthings, and her parents fall deeper into their own personal Hell which they each created by being crappy human beings.
There are ways in which the story is so frustrating, but it didn’t make me dislike it.
Ada is a sweet spirit who is in tune with nature and probably pretty lonely. She’s kind of an old soul in a young body. Her sister Tilly is so good to her, but she’s also figuring out life as a 17 year old young woman in a culture where she’s viewed as inferior, and all while dealing with a narcissistic mother and a weird dad who is so… lost and horrible.
Her brother Ben is the next generation of horrible dudes because his mom permits it and so does his dad.
This is a bit of a narrative on gender and family dynamics and how we can choose to grow up, even in harsh circumstances.
I would read more books from this author!
January 12, 2021
I like the language, though at times we see Murray slip into cliche (Tilly, for instance, blooms in youth “like a just-opened flower”). Beyond that, it’s a very atmospheric book; you really feel the oppressive summer heat, the hot and sticky nights. I like Ada’s relationship with her trees, and how she has named them after books in her mother’s library-- in that way, I was definitely reminded of Anne of Green Gables, and was thereby endeared to the book right away. I will make my standard complaint, which I think I also said of Costalegre, which is that I think the book could have been longer; with this family of five, a span of twenty years, and the other characters that come in and out, I would have been happy to read maybe some deeper explorations of Ada and Tilly’s lives, or even Martha’s girlhood beyond just that one night. That point aside, however, this is a really well-written, emotionally pointed coming-of-age story, and I recommend giving it a read.
Thank you to Tin House books for the ARC!
Thank you to Tin House books for the ARC!
November 3, 2020
I keep going between 3 and 4 stars on this one, so maybe more like 3.5 or 3.75 stars? This was an interesting read, and I’m glad I read it, although I’m not sure I’d want to reread it. The way that some of the storylines and character backgrounds and histories unfolded was well done - simultaneously surprising but predictable, feeling very true to life somehow. The family dynamics were captivating, especially with the perspective switches, although I found Ben’s chapters to be completely forgettable. Ada was uncannily insightful, but based on some kids I know, that tracks. It’s one of those books that I wasn’t particularly rushing through - it took its time - but I feel like will sit with me for a bit.
September 21, 2019
My review says three stars, although it's more 3.5
The Bloom family living their lives with Martha their mother struggling with her life and family., suffering hot summers of Australia where they live.
Mike her husband disappoints and so does Tilly her eldest.
Without quite knowing why?
Life continues with Ben the middle child and Ada the youngest who yearns to grow up and is fascinated by Tilly as she matures into a young woman enjoying herself at parties and finding boys in her life.
A tender story of relationships, marriage and betrayal and how it shapes family life. Destroying them too with the decisions that are made. Extremely enjoyable but not quite four stars.
The Bloom family living their lives with Martha their mother struggling with her life and family., suffering hot summers of Australia where they live.
Mike her husband disappoints and so does Tilly her eldest.
Without quite knowing why?
Life continues with Ben the middle child and Ada the youngest who yearns to grow up and is fascinated by Tilly as she matures into a young woman enjoying herself at parties and finding boys in her life.
A tender story of relationships, marriage and betrayal and how it shapes family life. Destroying them too with the decisions that are made. Extremely enjoyable but not quite four stars.
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