This One Summer

In the climax of This One Summer, Rose and Windy’s families share a night together on the beach, around a bonfire they build. The mood is contemplative and tense, as the past few days have been fraught with conflict and disconnect. Rose and Windy witness Jenny screaming at Duncan at Brewster’s, angry and in disbelief over his lack of accountability. Earlier, the girls argued over whether or not Jenny deserved Duncan’s neglect—with Windy pointing out Rose’s sexism. Alice and Evan are also still in conflict, barely speaking and struggling to reconnect (as the former’s trauma has yet to be worked through). By the time the story ends, these conflicts are not fully resolved; they are instead left with a sense of optimistic uncertainty.

The bonfire scene is the moment the novel completely shifts. It is depicted through a series of panels that often contain no text and leave their ambiguous images up to the reader’s interpretation. These illustrations also serve to set the mood and illuminate the setting of the families’ last night in Awago Beach for the summer. Rose seems unable to enjoy herself, uncertain about her parents and many of her summertime experiences. Alice is particularly deep in thought, and blankly stares into the blaze, her glasses alight—a stark contrast to her more relaxed self (who is without glasses) after revealing her miscarriage to Windy’s mother Evelyn.

During this pivotal scene, Rose spots an unmoving Jenny floating in the lake. She screams for her mother, and the panic in her voice can be felt through her jagged dialogue bubble and the dark images (of the night, the lake, and Jenny’s tangle of hair) that follow. Alice breaks out of her lull in an instant and rushes into the water to save Jenny (perhaps fueled by her daughter’s first overt cry for help as much as her own lake-related trauma). A two-page splash of Jenny falling lifelessly into the depths is followed by another two-page splash of Alice’s legs as she swims after her. The scene then cuts to a few hours later when everyone is safe at home.

When the novel ends, the various conflicts within and between characters remain unresolved, but there is a sense that they’ll look ahead with more optimism than they had before. The night in which Jenny almost dies seems to push both Rose and Alice in another direction, and Alice even laughs with Evelyn that evening. On the drive home from the beach, Rose looks ahead to adulthood with cautious optimism after her summertime experiences (perhaps fueled by her newfound understanding of her mother). She’s learned that growing up is complicated, and that judging others can have dire consequences. She’s also uncertain if she’ll ever come back to Awago Beach. Windy insists that Rose must: “You have to come back next summer. So I can see your massive boobs” (312). Although said jokingly, this quip reveals Windy’s acceptance of Rose growing into a teenager and eventual adult, and that she has reconciled this reality within herself. Rose ultimately thinks to herself, “boobs would be cool” (319), showing that she looks forward to becoming a woman—with its highs and lows.

Jillian Tamaki’s illustrations are critical to a reader’s understanding of the novel’s characters and themes. Images are commonly featured without any text at all, indicating their importance: One such double-panel shows Rose and Windy’s families sitting around the bonfire on Awago Beach, with the starry sky overhead. This composition is intentional, with the characters and their fire being a small portion of the image, and the beach and sky consuming the rest. It is a comforting reminder of how small one person’s problems are in comparison to the universe itself—which isn’t to invalidate these problems, but instead reframe them as manageable. Shadowing is a prominent feature of Tamaki’s illustrations as well, with line inflections being used to emphasize emotions like Jenny’s anger, add depth and texture to scenery such as the fire or waves, and communicate mood. The detail of Tamaki’s illustrations adds to the realism of the graphic novel. The way Tamaki draws the characters also has bearing on the story itself; both Windy and Jenny are girls with larger builds, and though this is mentioned once or twice when Rose gives Windy a hard time for snacking, for the most part these body types are normalized and simply part of everyday life.