Summer in the Invisible City

Gr 9 Up—It's Sadie's last summer at New York School of Arts, and she's spending it in a darkroom. She has been devoted to photography ever since her famous father, Allan Ball, gave her his old camera. Sadie knows her notoriously absent dad mostly through Google Alerts. Her search for paternal validation seeps into all her other relationships, and her life has felt upended ever since she lost her virginity. What Sadie thought was an intense connection with cool senior Noah was merely a fling du jour for him. A beach party invite from the popular Izzy raises the opportunity of seeing Noah again. Instead Sadie meets Sam, an outdoors enthusiast from New Hampshire. Sam wants to be just friends, and Sadie isn't sure she is ready for anything serious, but when she talks to Sam, she finds herself telling him things she has never told anyone before. As her summer draws to a close, Sadie learns to distinguish between false and real friends, discovers the inadequacies of parents, and starts to accept life as it is. Examining life through a camera lens, Sadie begins to understand that appearances can be deceiving. Her misplaced search for fatherly love and acceptance adds an extra level of depth and introspection to the author's sophomore novel. The story is sectioned by months; the counting down of time heightens the tension and captures the urgency of a fading summer.