50% That's as far as I could stick this one out, I'm sorry to say. Frankly, I kind of feel like it could have been 50% smaller. There is not plot, per se. It's simply a life told in fits and starts from the p.o.v. of a girl named Nenny, in a sequence of chapters, memories, imaginary fears, moments, that do not link in any way except I suppose there's a snail's pace time progression. Generally speaking, this style usually works for me. But for this particular book, I don't know if the lack of plot just didn't work because I wasn't particularly interested in the characters or what? It was, as someone else said, a boring book. It was one of those books I dreaded returning to. So today, at lunch, when I went to pick it up again (with dread), I just simply decided to throw in the towel. Too many books, too little time for this book to force me to keep it going.

This book is a little different from what I usually read, but I found it very compelling and interesting look into the life of an unconventional family in the late eighties. 

This book as a melancholy voice I would compare to the narrative style of The Virgin Suicides, but besides the tone, these two books are completely different. It has that detached matter-of-fact tone that works for both of these books. 

Every Other Weekend centers around the life of a third-grader growing up in a blended family. Nenny's worries and anxieties fill the narrative but aren't overwhelming. I think that sometimes there are books that feature characters with anxiety that focus solely on the anxiety. Although anxiety ends up being a huge part of a person who suffers from its life, other things happen, life continues, and I think this book handles that well, especially since the character who has the anxieties is nine years old for a majority of the book.

Each of the characters in this book captures a different part of the people that existed in the late eighties, which I found really interesting. There's a woman that feels like she was part of the hippie movement of the late sixties, a Vietnam vet, a man who wanted to go to Vietnam a teenage girl with an obsession with Poison and other kind of awful 80's music, and a group of children-- children observing the wall of the Berlin Wall, the Loma Prieta earthquake, The Cold War, that Exxon Valdez oil spill. All these things happened when I was much too small to remember them, so for me, it was interesting to see children living through these events as I've only ever heard the adult version.

This book is well written. It has some funny bits balanced with extreme heartbreak. I recommend it if you're looking for something a little different, a quick read with a melancholy feel.

"It is 1988 and America is full of broken homes. America's time is measured in every-other-weekend-and-sometimes-once-a-week. Her drawers are filled with court papers and photos no one looks at anymore. Her children have bags that're always packed and waiting by the door."

Nenny is eight years old when her parents tell her and her brothers, Bubbles and Tiny, that they are getting divorced, their father is moving into a new apartment, and they'll see him every other weekend.

After living in a house with their mother and a friend of hers from the hospital where she works, their mother starts dating a new man, Rick, a Vietnam vet who also works at the hospital. Rick has two children of his own, Kat, an emotional, know-it-all 16-year-old, and Charles, who is Nenny's age.

Once Nenny and her siblings have gotten used to the upheaval in their lives, they are thrown another loop when their mother and Rick marry, and they move into Rick's house. Suddenly, Nenny has more siblings and has to deal with a mother who must spread her attention and love even thinner, plus she must navigate the newness of Rick, his off-putting silences, his thriftiness, and the emotional distance he seems to keep.

Nenny is a nervous child with an overactive imagination. She fears experiencing the types of disasters she hears about on the news—fires, earthquakes, home invasions—but she also fears unbelievable scenarios she's dreamed up, like Mikhail Gorbachev drafting her and all of her classmates into the Russian army, or her mother disappearing, never to be heard from again. But as she prepares for what she believes to be the worst to happen, she and her family are unprepared for the tragedy that does occur.

Every Other Weekend is a nostalgic look at growing up a child of divorce, when all of the things you've relied on for security are gone, and you have to become acclimated to an entirely new life. It's a book about desperately wanting to be noticed, wanting to be loved, and having that need be so palpable. It's also a book about how families can change shape and reform, and how it takes time to realize that comfort and love come from surprising places, when we least expect it.

This was a sweet book, and Zulema Renee Summerfield really created a memorable character with Nenny—silly, sweet, emotional, loving, confused, fearful, and curious. I thought the book would be pretty predictable, yet Summerfield definitely chose her own path from time to time. She's a very talented writer, and none of her characters are more precocious than their ages—they sound authentic rather than too clever for their own good.

The story shifts between real life and Nenny's fears, as well as some strange chapters which felt a little more like non sequiturs than plot devices, and that disrupted the flow of the story for me. But at its core, this is a poignant story with a lot of heart, featuring an endearing character you'll remember.

NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company provided me an advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making this available!

I found Every Other Weekend to be an easy read that was funny at times, but I don't think it was the right fit for me as a reader. It wasn't face paced and didn't have much substance. I will say that I did enjoy the narration style of this book.

A magical view into the mystery and nuances of divorce in the 80's.

Oh my goodness what a sweet book! Nenny's parents get divorced and the book follows the split family through their healing process. Along the way Nenny's mom remarries so there are stepsiblings, etc, to deal with. Most of the situations presented are relatable for any reader, whether they come from a broken home or not. Interspersed throughout the book are chapters discussing random fears, like earthquakes, The Russians, and having a parent disappear. These were humorous because we all had the same odd ball thoughts when we were younger. I think perhaps the only misstep in this book is that it is aimed for a younger audience but the 1980s references (and there are a LOT of them) won't be understood unless you are older. I hope I am wrong on that score because the book was really a great read!

EVERY OTHER WEEKEND is an exquisite rendering of childhood heartache, filtered through pre-adolescent Nenny. Nenny's a middle child daughter sandwiched between elder brother Bubbles and little brother Tiny. This is not quite a coming-of-age story, more a coming-to-grips with childhood narrative. Already anxious, growing up in 1980s suburban Los Angeles where alienation is an unavoidable lifestyle, Nenny navigates Catholic grammar school and her parents' divorce. This fragmented world is crafted with vivid chapter-vignettes, some of which are named for Nenny's anxieties: "Fear #22: The Russians"; "Fear # 37: Earthquake"; "Fear # 7: Home Invasion"; “Fear #1: Disappeared”. Spoiler alert: at least one of these fears will directly drive the plot.

Nenny moves reluctantly into a step-family when her mother marries Robert, someone she knows from working together at the hospital. Robert is a solid provider with a difficult past. "Vietnam sits at every meal, jungle-breathed and bleary-eyed, sprawled across their plates. Vietnam is a hungry dog shivering at the foot of the bed. Vietnam is the constant thing between them. Vietnam, ugly and childish and hiding and damned. It slithers the hallways and skulks the stairs. Vietnam lurks in every room, laughing in the dark..."

Robert's children are teenaged Kat (a reluctant big sister), and Charles (who is Nenny's age but withdrawn into his own world). Kat and Charles' mom, Windsor, complicates the plot in unexpected ways. In Nenny's world, even the dog has problems (kudos to the author for not killing the family dog!) One strength is Summerfield's tone, luscious snippets of humor mixed with existential crisis, all filtered through Nenny's preoccupations. An after-class conversation with Sister Mary tilts Nenny's perceptions of God, which might prove enough of a lifesaver for Nenny to ride out the storms of a complex blended family and hostile suburban milieu. In rare mother-daughter moments, bonding happens where least expected. "Mom lets Nenny pick out their machine, then dumps the clothes in and sprinkles in some Tide. Doing laundry at a laundromat lends the chore a kind of magic. The sound of quarters plunking in! There's plastic chairs for while you wait! The machines sound like a hive of bees! You want to know what spoiled is? Spoiled is when your mom takes you, and only you, to a special place like a laundromat and presses two quarters for candy into your hand without being asked."

Nenny glimpses snippets of the broader world while watching television news about Tianamen Square protests and the fall of the Berlin Wall. If there were a sequel of Nenny's teen years, I'd love to read it. Recommended for fans of Janet Fitch and Edan Lepucki, or the 2017 Greta Gerwig film LADY BIRD. Plenty of themes for Book Club discussions here.

This review is based on an ARC of Every Other Weekend which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Little, Brown and Company).

Every Other Weekend, I feel, is thoroughly okay. I felt neither any supreme love for the book nor any dislike towards it. It was merely middle ground on my interest scale. Personally, having now read it, I don't think that I would care to read it ever again, but this one time was enjoyable enough and on top of that a quick, light read.

I quite enjoyed the writing style, though a couple times I did get a
little lost with what was happening. I felt entirely swept up in the story; the flow is prime and crystal clear.

My favorite facet of Every Other Weekend is that it is a sibling story and a very good one at that. This may be one of the quintessential sib-stories--if, that is, my opinion holds any weight.

My main issue is that, although the story flows excellently and is nice to read, it holds no weight in the field of New Adult (as it is labeled.) I think that Every Other Weekend lacks in any real drama or meaning. I'm afraid that this book will be lost in the literary world due to--what I think anyway--it's blandness. This story lacks the oomph and the slap-across-the-face of emotions that readers crave.

I hope that readers will enjoy and appreciate Every Other Weekend (and hopefully derive more from it than I myself did) for what it is.

Every Other Weekend is the story of Nenny and her family, living in California in the 80's. Nenny has quite the imagination and a lot of anxiety, which is handled in a very humorous way. Her parents are divorced and she spends every other weekend with her dad. Her mother's family is a blended family - remarried to a man with children of his own. Nenny's mom's house is chaotic and her father's house is boring. Her adventures and imagination are some of the most creative writing for adults about a child.

Every Other Weekend is about a young girl named Nenny and the emotional journey she and her two brothers take when their parents divorce and their mother marries a man with two children of his own, set during the 1980s. Nenny is an anxious child, and her anxiety takes a turn for the worse as a result of her parents' divorce, she struggles to connect with her two new step-siblings and stepfather, and her relationship with her father becomes more emotionally detached as he deals with his own feelings about the divorce.

There were several elements to Every Other Weekend that pulled me in and didn't let go until long after I finished the book. Perhaps the most powerful was Nenny herself. Every Other Weekend is effective as a coming-of-age story, and Nenny's voice is one that connects with readers from the very beginning. Her innocence is endearing, and as the book progresses, the insights she gains about life are poignant and well-written. Zulema Renee Summerfield effectively crafts a young character with an authentic voice without making the prose too simplistic as a result; although the story focuses on Nenny's experiences, the observations about life as a child of divorced parents are ones that adults will understand, even if Nenny doesn't necessarily grasp the gravity of her own experiences. Nenny is sweet and loving, and her attachment to her mother made my heart ache for her during the moments when her mother was distracted by events that Nenny struggled to comprehend.

Nenny was one character in a quirky cast, however, and I was drawn to the others as well. Following along as each of the characters changes as a result of events that take place in the book is an interesting journey, and Summerfield presents that journey as a string of memories from this time in their lives. There isn't really one major conflict on which the story is focused, other than the blending of the two families, but this particular structure works very well for this book. Instead of introducing one problem, providing a solution, and then ending the story, Summerfield tells Nenny's story in a much more realistic way. Real life is full of both minor and major events that shape who we are, and Nenny's growth is the result of all of those events. For example, when Nenny's brother, Bubbles, finds a "geode" in the garden, their stepfather's response and Nenny's observation of that response might seem minor at the time, but including details such as these provides deep insights into the complicated emotions both Bubbles and Rick experience as they work toward becoming part of one family.

Every Other Weekend is a wonderful read, and it evokes a sense of nostalgia for childhood and all the important lessons that accompany it, however hard some of them might be to learn. Give this one a shot, if you are looking for a book with a cute kiddo as a main character or a book that shows the messy reality of divorce and blended families and the powerful lessons they teach.

'It is 1988 and America is full of broken homes.'

I devoured this novel, I absolutely loved Nenny and her entire wacky, lost family. I’m nostalgic for the 80’s, and I kept thinking about tv shows and toys as this novel took me back to my childhood, though my elementary school years were the early 80’s. It seems families started cracking, splitting more around that time than any other. This is a story about a family as it dismantled told through the eyes of the charming Nenny. Nenny isn’t perfect, in fact early on its obvious she herself isn’t found of happy, nice kids who have mommy’s that bring them hot lunch everyday and live in a home filled with the adoration of both parents, still married. She’s sarcastic, funny, and very sad. She fills the reader in on, ‘A Brief History of Why Everything Sucks’, in her life. Her brothers, Bubbles and Tiny are funny little characters too, especially the youngest Tiny. Mom and Dad destroy their world and divorce, then along comes Rick, mom’s new man and his children Charles and Kat. Bingo, Bango- she now has more siblings, an instant family.

We follow Nenny as she navigates the construction of their new world, in stops and starts. Through the loyalties, rejections, and mysteries she stews in fear of something awful happening. She was born with ‘a natural predilection for alarm.’ She couldn’t have conjured the tragedy that occurs even in her worst nightmare. Her weekends with her dad are gloomy, he seems to have fallen in a constant dishevelled state without her mother. He tries, he really does try to be fun, to make the most of their weekends together, but somehow his happiness dissipates and lies on the ground like a limp balloon. One house is full of chaos and noise, new sibling who are and the other is take out food, a pool you can’t swim in and a new friend, Boots.

An older sister isn’t the fantasy she once longed for, as the only girl in her brood, anymore than the dog who decides to be their pet is the fluffy stuff of dreams. In fact, one is just fleas and mange and the other infected with a case of the ‘teens’. Then there are horror stories on the news at night and there is the looming threat of masked men. They could come after her! As if being a kid of divorce wasn’t bad enough already!

Though the tragedy that happens is a shockingly horrible event, this novel is a quiet, humourous tale about the torment Nenny goes through when her parents split up. It’s a child’s perception, and the bigger meaning is always running around some corner her mind isn’t grown up enough to capture. It’s tender and moving. “Mysteries abound when you are young. Some unravel and reveal themselves over the course of your lifetime, but most remained unsolved.”

She doesn’t always get it, but she’s trying. The grown ups all have their own messes to slip in, some more bloody than others. The kids are in constant struggle trying to merge in this family they didn’t pick and all the new faces that make up their new life (exes, step- grandmother) just leave Nenny with more mysteries to poke and prod. Sometimes she finds clarity but more often than not, her world is just turned upside down and how in the heck is a little girl like her supposed to understand her life if the adults can’t get it right?

Funny, tender, sad, and horrible moments swirl through the novel. I tore through this book in 2 days. I love Nenny, and I have a soft spot for Tiny, the runt.

Publication Date: April 17, 2018

Little, Brown and Company