A Midsummer's Nightmare

Title: A Midsummer's Nightmare
Author: Kody Keplinger
Publisher: Poppy
Year Published: 2012
Pages: 291
Price: USD 8.13 (Bookdepository) // Rp. 118.000 (Opentrolley)

The story begins with Whitley waking up in stranger's bed. It was an after Graduation Day party, and Whitley was sure enough that the night before, she had had sex with a guy (an amazing one!). And yes, there he was, waking up beside her. A sexy brown-eyed guy named.. Uh.. What was his name? Whatever..  And when the guy asked her phone number, Whitley didn't gave it. It's not like she was gonna meet him in the future right?

Whitley had planned to spend her last summer holiday before entering University of Kentucky (UK) in her father's condo. Her father was a news anchor. He was popular and full of fun. So different with her mother who had never cared of Whitley and was still obsessed with her ex-husband after the divorce. Whitley had expected a fun summer nights, drinking vodka with her father and her father's temporary hot chicks. But what hit Whitley was the fact that her father finally decided to settle down. He had moved from his condo to this neat and cute suburban house, with his soon-to-be-wife and her two teenage children. And the most surprising of all, Whitley soon-to-be-stepbrother was a random guy she had had sex with on the after Graduation Day party. And his name was Nathan.

All the new situation pissed Whitley off. Living with perfect people like Sylvia, Nathan, and Bailey was certainly the opposite of what Whitley had expected before. How could her dad not inform this before? How could her dad change? Whitley then tried to channel her anger by attending parties and doing wild things. She drunk a lot, she hooked up a lot, and she appeared in social media a lot. Until she realized that maybe her new family were not as bad as what she had expected. Maybe her definition of "perfect summer holiday" had been wrong and now was her chance to finally feel what the "perfect summer holiday" was.

Could Whitley wake up from her Midsummer's Nightmare?


Once again.. Kody Keplinger has blown me away with her story. I love it so much! This is the second Kody Keplinger's book that I read after Shut Out and, like Shut Out, I also gave 5 stars to this book. A Midsummer's Nightmare surely brings different feel to me from Shut Out. While Shut Out brought more fun, teenage-ish feel to its readers, A Midsummer's Nightmare brought more serious issues and emotional feeling.

The main character, Whitley, is definitely not a good example for teens. She's wild. She partied a lot, she drunk a lot, and she hooked up a lot. She didn't do friend and she didn't care of what happened surrounds her. She's so cynical and selfish. If I met her in real life, maybe I would hate her so much. But even with this not-so-easy-to-love main character, I can understand the reason behind her behavior. Whitley was an example of a child who is trapped between her parents' problem. After the divorce, both Whitley's mother and father seems like trying to be easy to their kids (Whitley and her big brother, Trace, who had had his own family in this book) because they thought that the divorce process had been hurting the kids too much. But being free was not what Whitley need. She needed affection and she needed to be scolded sometimes after breaking the rules. Whitley's voice throughout the story was actually loud and clear enough so I could feel her true feelings and felt the empathy to her. I think Kody really did a great job in voicing Whitley's.

When Whitley was forced to spend her summer in a place she called nightmare, unexpectedly, she finally found her way to fix her problem. At first, she really looked down to her soon-to-be-step family because they were so contrary to her own family. And their attention to Whitley really made her sick. But throughout the summer, she learned that they were not as bad as she thought and that they could also be her family, not only her father's new family. I like Bailey and Sylvia. Bailey is the perfect definition of young sister. She was cute and she always looked up to Whitley for example, which was very wrong in this story, but so nice. And Sylvia.. Yes, at first she appeared like one of those Stepford's Wives but she was more than that. And most of all.. NATHAN!! OMG how I love this guy. He's definitely a good, polite, responsible guy but he also had his own past that he tried to fix. And the way he treated Whitley was so... genuine. He's not overly romantic but he's protective. And he cares. He found Whitley as special to him too. *major swoon*

And if I am allowed to mention one more of my favorite character: HARRISON!!! OMG how I love this guy. Too bad he's gay. His appearance always boosted up the mood. And yeah, if only he were not gay, I would totally support him to be with Whitley.

Overall, this book has an amazing story. It is entertaining, but most of all, the message it contains is great. For teenagers, it can help them to prevent themselves from being Whitley. And for the parents, from this book they can learn what kids really need their parents to provide.

A TOTALLY MUST READ!!