Book Review: The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White

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The Last Carolina Summer by Karen White is the story about Phoebe Manigault returning home to Mt. Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston, South Carolina, to help her sister with their ailing mother. When past memories resurface, Phoebe is thrown back into some childhood turmoil. I requested an Advanced Readers Copy ARC of The Last Carolina Summer from NetGalley, and I was ecstatic when the provided me with a copy for free in exchange for my honest review. So, a big thank you goes out to them! When I began reading this story, I just happened to be vacationing in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. I loved hearing about the different places, including streets and a bridge called the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, which I had to cross to get into Mt. Pleasant as well as Isle of Palms. It's always nice to be able to visualize the places and author writes about. With that being said, I'm not a fan of traveling over bridges, and one of the scenes of The Last Carolina Summer mentions a car going off ...
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Book Review: The Train by Diane Hoh

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book review the train

The Train by Diane Hoh opens with Hannah, Kerry, Mack, and Lewis, along with other students from Parker High School, boarding a train in Chicago for a cross country school trip to San Francisco. Once on the train, they find out a deceased student from their school was being transported back to his parents, and the friends start admitting to how horribly they had treated Frog before he died. Then, horrible things started happening to them on the train, and it seems like Frog is out for revenge.

Rereading this book as an adult and having read most of Agatha Christie's books, The Train loosely reminded me of Murder on the Orient Express but in reverse. This book also has a very Stephen King vibe to it but is kid friendly. With that being said, I still am a bit jumpy from reading it as an adult.

This is a book that I originally read when I was either a tween or a teen. Usually when I reread books from my childhood, I generally remember what happens as I work my way through the book. However, I didn't recall most what happened in The Train except one or two small things, so it was like reading it for the first time again. One of the things I remembered was the small typo in the way a sentence was worded. You'll have to find it for yourself though.

What I loved about this book is that it deals with something that still goes on in schools today . . . bullying. Hopefully, if a kid reads this book today, it will resonate with them about the consequences of bullying can have. Once all the main characters revealed the nasty things they had done to Frog, it made me incredibly sad for this fictional character and really impacted me even as an adult. I know this is only a book of fiction, but people in real life can be so cruel and don't realize what their actions can do to people.

I gave The Train by Diane Hoh five out of five stars because of how well written it is and has stood the test of time. If you liked this book, I recommend April Fools by Richie Tankersly Cusick.


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