Review: Moonglass

Moonglass, by Jessi Kirby. The GoodReads summary:

Anna's life is upended when her father accepts a job transfer the summer before her junior year. It's bad enough that she has to leave her friends and her life behind, but her dad is moving them to the beach where her parents first met and fell in love- a place awash in memories that Anna would just as soon leave under the surface.

While life on the beach is pretty great, with ocean views and one adorable lifeguard in particular, there are also family secrets that were buried along the shore years ago. And the ebb and flow of the ocean's tide means that nothing- not the sea glass that she collects on the sand and not the truths behind Anna's mother's death- stays buried forever.

Generally, this book reminded me a lot of “Stay,” by Deb Caletti--a girl and her father move to a beach house years after the mother has died, and the girl starts to deal with the emotional repercussions of mom’s death. But where “Stay,” also deals with the main character’s crazy stalker ex-boyfriend, “Moonglass” stays completely focused on the main character (Anna) trying to finally come to grips with her mother’s death.

There really isn’t much plot in this book, to tell the truth. There’s the main plot of Anna learning more about her mother, and the secondary plotline of her budding romance with local lifeguard Tyler, but nothing ever really happens action-wise. That didn’t bother me since I love teen-angsty books and I felt like the book was short enough that it didn’t cause the book to drag, but I could see where it could bug other, more plot-oriented people.

For some reason I really like Anna’s relationship with Tyler. Which is maybe a little surprising since he’s a bit of a blah character. I think what I like about it was that Anna had to work to get his attention. A lot of times in YA contemporaries, the guy immediately notices the girl and gets all flirty right away. But with Anna and Tyler, she notices him first, thinks he’s hot, then proceeds to put herself in situations where he’s sure to see her, like sun-tanning in his lifeguard area and going to the lifeguard party. So their relationship isn’t maybe as cute as in other YAs, but I think its development is definitely one of the more realistic and natural ones I’ve read in a while.

Overall, I liked this book, but it was pretty low key, so I could see where it might not be other people’s cup of tea. But if you do like books that are bigger on character development than plot, definitely give this one a shot.