Six More Months of June by Daisy Garrison (review)

Reviewed by: Six More Months of June by Daisy Garrison Alaine Martaus Garrison, Daisy Six More Months of June. Flatiron, 2024 304p Trade ed. ISBN 9781250348654 23. 99 Paper ed. ISBN 9781250348678 13. 99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781250348661 9. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 9-12 Since third grade, seniors Mina Stern and Caplan Lewis have been the most unlikely of inseparable best friends: the loner overachiever and the golden boy athlete. Now, motivated by their looming graduation in 2016, Mina is venturing out of the shell she built against long-held grief and trauma-induced panic attacks. She's eating lunch and partying with Cap's popular crew, bonding with his gorgeous, confident girlfriend Hollis, and accepting the flirtatious advances of his best friend Quinn—but she can't ditch her lingering ache for her best friend. Cap, meanwhile, worries about what his future holds in a wider world, where a small-town star may not shine, and his growing attraction to Mina could upend life as he knows it. Caught up in the hazy final days of high school, this debut novel offers a friends-turned-more narrative, skillfully balancing its more serious moments (the specter of Mina's father's death, a previous rape, and allusions to suicidal ideation haunt the shifting relationship) with humor, high school hi-jinks, and a sometimes scene-stealing pair of supportive friends. As a pair, Caplan and Mina ride the edge of codependency but stay compelling as individuals, while Cap and Hollis' casually active sex life adds a sex-positive spin that doesn't over-romanticize it. The time period and homogenous backdrop of small-town Michigan offers a pre-pandemic world away from current culture wars that might read as overly simplistic to modern readers. But thematically there's sure appeal for the rising-seniors crowd, and it will also find a likely home in the hands of readers navigating the changes that high school brings. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois