Well, well. This is not a book for parents who are worried about their parenting skills. Nor is it a book for anyone with a summer home. Both of those parties are grouped together as the antagonists to the heroes of Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible.
And that is taking into account a deadly hurricane that puts the kids in peril and firmly in charge. This book is blunt. Old people, you are fuck-ups and the kids should be holding the reins.
This is a cracking read though. Plenty of tension and whipsmart dialogue to paper over that bluntness. I do really like the narrator but more intriguing to me was the younger characters who were providing the counterpoint to the older kids. I wish there was a little more to them to sand off their stubborn streak a little.
Considering the obscene amount of drinking (and drugs) the parents do during the course of the book, best to head to the N/A choices for this one or you could find an organic beer or upcycled beer or any environmental beer to put your money to that cause.