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The Summer Prince Alaya Dawn Johnson Books

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The Summer Prince Alaya Dawn Johnson Books

You can read my full review here:
[...]

***I won this novel from IReadYA and Scholastic. However, all opinions are my own.***

Initial Thoughts:

I’ve honestly put off reading this book for years. I won it back in 2013, the same day I put my dog Lady to sleep. I guess I’ve had that negative association with this book (and the 6 others I won with it from IReadYA and Scholastic) ever since. I was also told by a friend and fellow reviewer, whose opinion I highly value, that this book was extremely underwhelming. Add all those factors together and I stayed far away from this, yet I was never able to convince myself to take it off my shelf. I was committed to at least trying it, and after the major reading spree I’ve been on this month, I decided why not close it out with something I was unsure about. Plus, with summer literally sweating down my back already, now seemed like the perfect time.

Spoilers!

I may have read the synopsis for this novel back in 2013, but going into this novel EXACTLY 3 YEARS LATER *I had that realization just this moment as I’m writing this post…I picked up this novel to read it exactly 3 years to the day after winning it and putting my dog to sleep…LIFE WHAT IS THIS BOOK MAGIC? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME?* Where was I…? Oh, yes, I had no idea what this novel was about, and as I love to do, went in completely blind.

In my head, I call this book The Summer King, because that’s what Enki was. I feel so connected to this story, in so many ways, I’m actually having an extremely difficult time deciding where to start this review.

Art.

June, our main character, is an artist (the best artist in Palmares Tres). Everyone in this futuristic society has a talent for something: drawing, painting, dancing, singing, technology. What attracts June to Enki, aside from his raw beauty and charisma, is that he is like her. He will do literally anything for his art.

There was so much imagination and world building in this novel. The art that is described was so easy to imagine, so breathtaking and painstakingly beautiful. In this novel, art always had a purpose, it always had a deeper meaning, even when June was oblivious to that meaning herself. She’d create from her soul every time, without realizing what others might see when they looked at it. It was freeing, sad, and amazing to watch. We discovered who June really was, who she was becoming, and how she really felt through her art.

Death.

Everyone knows that the Summer King will die a year after he is crowned. Women rule in this society, which should have been great, since powerful women is kind of a must have for me in novels (more on this later). Their logic behind female power in society is that men caused the collapse of the world we, the readers, know today. The Aunties promise to never let that happen again, by allowing no man to have power, in any real sense of the word. For that reason, Enki must die, and he is fulling accepting of his fate. Enki embodies and embraces death, he greets it in every action every day, and he lives his life full of unrestrained purpose that is unparalleled by any other living person.

Enki is such a great reminder of how close we all are to death, and how that knowledge/acceptance/ignorance changes our actions. His character was so uninhibited, so calculative in his motives, so jarringly honest, it was truly haunting and beautiful to read.

In this futuristic society, medicine and technology have progressed so that people can live upwards of 200, in some extremely cases even 300, years old. When elders get to a certain age, they can choose to die (assisted suicide, if you will). June’s father chose this death, and she never forgave her mother for not doing more to stop him, or for attempting to move on with her own life by remarrying. Throughout the novel, as June’s relationship with Enki grows, so does her understanding of her mother’s actions (or lack thereof). She begins to dwell less in her past, and move her thoughts and focus outwardly. She becomes less concerned with her future, which she had a firm and unrelenting grip on through the majority of the novel, as she watches Enki’s inevitable death loom nearer with each passing day.

Politics.

For a novel about art and death, it dwelt heavily in the political sphere. Although powerful women (ESPEICALLY WOMEN OF COLOR…DID I MENTION THIS NOVEL IS SET IN FUTURISTIC BRAZIL?!) commonly elicit a HURRAH from any feminist in the room, this novel reminds us that feminism isn’t about women becoming more powerful or better than men. If you practice the true form and definition of feminism (noun: the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men) you support equality among the sexes. The Summer Prince shows women who are quickly on their way to becoming everything they fear most. It isn’t until the arrival of radical thinkers (Enki and June) in a tiny position of power, the power to spread their message and ideas to the masses, that any hope of balance is restored.

Generational Gaps: The old versus the new.

This novel shed a light on the age old debate about generation gaps. Everyone thinks that they know what is best. The older generation will insist that because they’ve lived longer they have more life experience, and therefore…you get the idea. The younger generation will argue that they have fresh eyes, open minds, and new technology that can make life safer/easier/better/insert-adjective-here. The Summer Prince shows us why we need both sides in order to form a well-rounded society, why a middle ground must be reached, and why we must be willing to listen and compromise with each other for the benefit of all.

LGBTQ+

This novel dealt with sexual partners, marital partners, any kind of partner really, in such an open way it was at first, rather shocking. To date, I’ve never read a novel that was so pro LGBTQ ideals, as if that has always been and always will be the norm. At first, they say that our Summer King sleeps with whomever he wants, with no one blinking an eye, because he’ll be dead in a year. Boys, girls, women, men 15 times his age, it doesn’t matter, they’re all fair game for the Summer King. When Enki falls in love with June’s best (male) friend Gil, and in many ways with her as well, it was more than hinting at bisexuality and the possibility of polyamorous relationships. I’m not able to do this description justice; labels simply did not exist, they didn’t matter. June’s mother married a woman after her father’s death, and there was no outrage that her mother was suddenly with someone of a different gender than her father. This novel’s take on sexuality and gender was so progressive it was less in-your-face, it simply existed.

Conclusion:

For a novel that is relatively short, there is so much to look at, soak in, and work through. I’ll definitely be thinking about this one for a long time, and rereading it to absorb anything I’m sure I may have missed. I can’t even say that I love this novel. It dealt with so many great issues that I honestly cannot wrap my mind around it. It’s a novel I want to think about for a really long time, but the more I think about it the more my head and my heart hurt. It was so passionate, so true, so raw, and so weird. It’s a novel I think I’ll forever be grateful for having read. I think everyone should give this a try, but I can see why this novel isn’t for everyone. I feel very lucky that it fit perfectly for me.


Tags : Amazon.com: The Summer Prince (9780545417792): Alaya Dawn Johnson: Books,Alaya Dawn Johnson,The Summer Prince,Arthur A. Levine Books,0545417791,Romance - General,Science Fiction - General,Social Themes - General,Artists,Artists;Fiction.,Brazil,Government, Resistance to,Government, Resistance to;Fiction.,Kings and rulers,Kings, queens, rulers, etc,Kings, queens, rulers, etc.;Fiction.,Love,Love stories,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9),Dystopian,Fiction,Fiction-Science Fiction,JUVENILE,JUVENILE FICTION Science Fiction,JUVENILE FICTION Science Fiction General,JUVENILE FICTION Social Themes Adolescence,JUVENILE FICTION Social Themes Emotions & Feelings,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile FictionDystopian,Juvenile FictionLove & Romance,Juvenile Grades 7-9 Ages 12-14,Kings, queens, rulers, etc.,Love & Romance,Science Fiction,Science Fiction Fantasy (Young Adult),Science fiction (Children's Teenage),Social Themes - General,TEEN'S FICTION ROMANCE,TEEN'S FICTION SCIENCE FICTION,United States,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Romance General,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Science Fiction General,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes General (see also headings under Family),science fiction; dystopia; Brazil; royalty; diversity; WNDB,Dystopian,JUVENILE FICTION Science Fiction,JUVENILE FICTION Science Fiction General,JUVENILE FICTION Social Themes Adolescence,JUVENILE FICTION Social Themes Emotions & Feelings,Juvenile FictionDystopian,Juvenile FictionLove & Romance,Love & Romance,Science Fiction,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Romance General,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Science Fiction General,YOUNG ADULT FICTION Social Themes General (see also headings under Family),Fiction,Kings, queens, rulers, etc.,Science Fiction Fantasy (Young Adult),YOUNG ADULT FICTION,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 7-9),Science fiction (Children's Teenage)

The Summer Prince Alaya Dawn Johnson Books Reviews

This review and others can be found at [...]
I received The Summer Prince as a part of a package giveaway at the Dystopian YA panel at bookcon, and after hearing Johnson speaking about her influences and how the book came about, I was quite intrigued.

The Gist

Set in future Brazil, every year a Summer King is chosen and sacrificially killed. This is considered an honor, and men run to be chosen by the population for the honor of being the Summer King. Through art and the use of new and illegal technology, June and Enki challenge the ideals of Palmares Tres and start a rebellion.

Cover Art

I really love the cover art of this book. It definitely takes the main character, June, and something very essential to her characterization, her art, the glowing tree she’s created on her skin, and brought it to life. Plus, I’m a sucker for anything green.

Plot

Past and future, young and old. The Summer Prince is a book that examines what the future can hold when people are still stuck in the past and don’t want change. June Costa is a waka, the term for younger people (when people usually live to more than a hundred years old) in Palmares Tres. There were a lot of plot points that Johnson hit, and sometimes, there wasn’t a lot of explanation that came along with them. It took me ages to finish this book, and I think it was just that I kind of got tired trying to keep everything straight, all the while wondering why someone would WILLINGLY want to kill themselves that they’d have to hold an election for it. Overall, there were a lot of rough patches, but someone that likes politics (I don’t really) would probably enjoy this book. It definitely delves into the morals and ethics behind why people continue to support a broken system.

Johnson’s characters bring diversity to YA, which was a nice change of pace, and her unfazed approach to sexuality and bisexuality was rather refreshing. In the world she created, people lived long enough to realize that love was love, no matter what gender. Though, even with the open sexuality portrayed in the book, racial undertones still seep through. Enki, the Summer King, uses the slavery of the past and likens it the present, the people of the Verde.

I think the book would have kept my attention more if it focused on just one of the many aspects it tried to touch on. Technology. Art. The past. Ethics. There just wasn’t enough time to properly conclude any of the things that were brought up, and I was just left wanting more.

Johnson took the idea of a matriarchy and made it real. The Queen ruled the city with the Aunties. Only one man was ever important, the Summer King, and even then only every ten years could he “truly” pick the Queen. The rest of the time it was just for show, a sacrifice that meant nothing.

I might not have understood this totally, but it felt like the matriarchy didn’t matter that much. Just because it was women ruling, did that change the way the world played out? I’m still not sure it did. If anyone has their own opinions on this, I’d love to hear them.

Characterization

With June, I really enjoyed the fact that her character wasn’t really written in an attempt to be likable. She is raw, selfish, and stubborn. She thinks she knows best, that her art can be enough to change the world, and she starts to realize that maybe it can. But if you take on the responsibility to start changing the world, you can’t just abandon it when things start to go to s***.

Her relationship with her mother, father, and stepmother was definitely one of the most enjoyable relationships in the book for me. Usually, YA books shove aside parents, they’re absent, they’re horrible, but as the Summer Prince unraveled, it was obvious that June’s parental figures cared deeply for her. It was a great ride to be understand how June finally comes to realize that, and that putting her father on a pedestal and then hating him for it may not have been as justified as she thought.

Sometimes you get a glimpse into the world from Enki’s perspective, and I found his idealism and “empathy” to be a little annoying, at times. I didn’t quite understand how Enki could say all the things he did about wanting to be connected to the city, but still end up where he did. I can understand the reason that Johnson made his character the way she did, but he felt more unreal than anything. A commentary, a foil for the very real June. Enki was too unbelievable.

Writing

Johnson has a wonderful voice, a wonderful style. June’s art came alive through words instead of images, and I really, really enjoyed that part of the book. Other times, things were left hanging. There was a lot of waiting for explanations that never came and a hope that maybe it would all come together in the end.

I think, overall, the book finished in a way that I could be happy about, but I think it was just the political aspect of everything that did me in. It wasn't the book for me but anyone looking for a read with bisexual poc characters should definitely check it out.
You can read my full review here
[...]

***I won this novel from IReadYA and Scholastic. However, all opinions are my own.***

Initial Thoughts

I’ve honestly put off reading this book for years. I won it back in 2013, the same day I put my dog Lady to sleep. I guess I’ve had that negative association with this book (and the 6 others I won with it from IReadYA and Scholastic) ever since. I was also told by a friend and fellow reviewer, whose opinion I highly value, that this book was extremely underwhelming. Add all those factors together and I stayed far away from this, yet I was never able to convince myself to take it off my shelf. I was committed to at least trying it, and after the major reading spree I’ve been on this month, I decided why not close it out with something I was unsure about. Plus, with summer literally sweating down my back already, now seemed like the perfect time.

Spoilers!

I may have read the synopsis for this novel back in 2013, but going into this novel EXACTLY 3 YEARS LATER *I had that realization just this moment as I’m writing this post…I picked up this novel to read it exactly 3 years to the day after winning it and putting my dog to sleep…LIFE WHAT IS THIS BOOK MAGIC? WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME?* Where was I…? Oh, yes, I had no idea what this novel was about, and as I love to do, went in completely blind.

In my head, I call this book The Summer King, because that’s what Enki was. I feel so connected to this story, in so many ways, I’m actually having an extremely difficult time deciding where to start this review.

Art.

June, our main character, is an artist (the best artist in Palmares Tres). Everyone in this futuristic society has a talent for something drawing, painting, dancing, singing, technology. What attracts June to Enki, aside from his raw beauty and charisma, is that he is like her. He will do literally anything for his art.

There was so much imagination and world building in this novel. The art that is described was so easy to imagine, so breathtaking and painstakingly beautiful. In this novel, art always had a purpose, it always had a deeper meaning, even when June was oblivious to that meaning herself. She’d create from her soul every time, without realizing what others might see when they looked at it. It was freeing, sad, and amazing to watch. We discovered who June really was, who she was becoming, and how she really felt through her art.

Death.

Everyone knows that the Summer King will die a year after he is crowned. Women rule in this society, which should have been great, since powerful women is kind of a must have for me in novels (more on this later). Their logic behind female power in society is that men caused the collapse of the world we, the readers, know today. The Aunties promise to never let that happen again, by allowing no man to have power, in any real sense of the word. For that reason, Enki must die, and he is fulling accepting of his fate. Enki embodies and embraces death, he greets it in every action every day, and he lives his life full of unrestrained purpose that is unparalleled by any other living person.

Enki is such a great reminder of how close we all are to death, and how that knowledge/acceptance/ignorance changes our actions. His character was so uninhibited, so calculative in his motives, so jarringly honest, it was truly haunting and beautiful to read.

In this futuristic society, medicine and technology have progressed so that people can live upwards of 200, in some extremely cases even 300, years old. When elders get to a certain age, they can choose to die (assisted suicide, if you will). June’s father chose this death, and she never forgave her mother for not doing more to stop him, or for attempting to move on with her own life by remarrying. Throughout the novel, as June’s relationship with Enki grows, so does her understanding of her mother’s actions (or lack thereof). She begins to dwell less in her past, and move her thoughts and focus outwardly. She becomes less concerned with her future, which she had a firm and unrelenting grip on through the majority of the novel, as she watches Enki’s inevitable death loom nearer with each passing day.

Politics.

For a novel about art and death, it dwelt heavily in the political sphere. Although powerful women (ESPEICALLY WOMEN OF COLOR…DID I MENTION THIS NOVEL IS SET IN FUTURISTIC BRAZIL?!) commonly elicit a HURRAH from any feminist in the room, this novel reminds us that feminism isn’t about women becoming more powerful or better than men. If you practice the true form and definition of feminism (noun the advocacy of women’s rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men) you support equality among the sexes. The Summer Prince shows women who are quickly on their way to becoming everything they fear most. It isn’t until the arrival of radical thinkers (Enki and June) in a tiny position of power, the power to spread their message and ideas to the masses, that any hope of balance is restored.

Generational Gaps The old versus the new.

This novel shed a light on the age old debate about generation gaps. Everyone thinks that they know what is best. The older generation will insist that because they’ve lived longer they have more life experience, and therefore…you get the idea. The younger generation will argue that they have fresh eyes, open minds, and new technology that can make life safer/easier/better/insert-adjective-here. The Summer Prince shows us why we need both sides in order to form a well-rounded society, why a middle ground must be reached, and why we must be willing to listen and compromise with each other for the benefit of all.

LGBTQ+

This novel dealt with sexual partners, marital partners, any kind of partner really, in such an open way it was at first, rather shocking. To date, I’ve never read a novel that was so pro LGBTQ ideals, as if that has always been and always will be the norm. At first, they say that our Summer King sleeps with whomever he wants, with no one blinking an eye, because he’ll be dead in a year. Boys, girls, women, men 15 times his age, it doesn’t matter, they’re all fair game for the Summer King. When Enki falls in love with June’s best (male) friend Gil, and in many ways with her as well, it was more than hinting at bisexuality and the possibility of polyamorous relationships. I’m not able to do this description justice; labels simply did not exist, they didn’t matter. June’s mother married a woman after her father’s death, and there was no outrage that her mother was suddenly with someone of a different gender than her father. This novel’s take on sexuality and gender was so progressive it was less in-your-face, it simply existed.

Conclusion

For a novel that is relatively short, there is so much to look at, soak in, and work through. I’ll definitely be thinking about this one for a long time, and rereading it to absorb anything I’m sure I may have missed. I can’t even say that I love this novel. It dealt with so many great issues that I honestly cannot wrap my mind around it. It’s a novel I want to think about for a really long time, but the more I think about it the more my head and my heart hurt. It was so passionate, so true, so raw, and so weird. It’s a novel I think I’ll forever be grateful for having read. I think everyone should give this a try, but I can see why this novel isn’t for everyone. I feel very lucky that it fit perfectly for me.