Unpopular opinion alert: I didn’t like My Magnolia Summer. I hate to break it to you, but this is another DNF book review.
This Southern fiction novel by Victoria Benton Frank has been sweeping through the #bookstagram and BookTok feeds recently. The main reason is because it looks like the perfect summer read. Another reason might have something to do with the fact that author Frank is the daughter of famed novelist Dorothea Benton Frank. The third reason is probably My Magnolia Summer’s book cover, which is absolutely gorgeous.
But, we should never judge a book by its cover.
My Magnolia Summer left me so disappointed. I wanted to love this book. I wanted to lose myself in this story set on Sullivan’s Island, where I vacationed just a year ago. The book description makes it sound so good, and I dove into this women’s fiction novel the day I picked it up from the library.
I barely made it to my 50-page rule before I put this book aside.
Why did I DNF My Magnolia Summer?
Ugh. Okay. Here we go. Let me preface this book review by saying that, as a writer, I can be overly sensitive to writing styles and editing issues. I have a hard time separating the quality of the writing from the story itself. Call it an occupational hazard.
To me, the quality of writing in My Magnolia Summer… wasn’t very good. **wince**
The beginning of this story, in my eyes, is the epitome of “telling” instead of “showing.” The first few chapters “tell” what’s happening to the main character Maggie. It’s a lot of narrative, a lot of paragraphs without dialogue. Which would be fine if a lot of sentences didn’t begin with “I felt…” or “I saw…” or “I smelled…”
Most agents and editors will tell you that using phrases like “I feel” and “I saw” over and over (and over) again is the biggest mistake you can make when writing in first person. I won’t get all technical on you, but there are certain techniques writers use to immerse their readers in the stories, and these were noticeably, regrettably absent from My Magnolia Summer.
As a result, the first pages/chapters are pretty dull; nothing about them sucked me in. A lot of Maggie’s narration was super repetitive, voicing the same woes and concerns over and over again. I’d hoped that the dialogue, when it came along, would help the story come alive — but, nope. The conversations between characters consistently were wooden and stilted.
Okay, now I’m really getting nitpicky…
If you’re not a writer, editor, or grammar teacher, you can probably skip over these next few paragraphs. Because we’re going to talk about punctuation for a minute. (I told you I was being nitpicky.)
There were a lot of commas in My Magnolia Summer that should have been semi-colons or periods. And, omg, the exclamation points. SO MANY exclamation points. Maggie and her crew are basically shouting at one another all the time. It took everything I had not to whip out a red pen and start copyediting the book as I read.
All this stuff bothered me enough to destroy any enjoyment I could have gleaned from the novel.
Should you read My Magnolia Summer?
This is a tough one. Would I recommend that anyone read My Magnolia Summer? Nope.
Do I think other readers who are not so anal retentive about writing style might like this book? Yup.
I fully own that I might be overthinking what bothered me in the novel. If you’re someone who can can detach from the complexities of writing (#envious) and just enjoy this fun, set-in-the-South beach read for the simple pleasure that it is — by all means, have at it.
This story – the 50 pages that I read of it – reminded me of novels by Anita Hughes, whose writing style also drives me nuts. If you like Hughes’ books, I think you might enjoy My Magnolia Summer because you won’t be as bothered by Frank’s writing style as I am.
Finally, if you look at Goodreads, you’ll see I’m one of the very few people who was disappointed with this book. Like with Scythe and Mexican Gothic and Party of Two, I’m clearly in the minority.
Have you read My Magnolia Summer? I’d love to know what you thought about it — the good and the bad!
I stumbled upon your review when I googled “my magnolia summer is terrible;” and I haven’t even read the book. I just assumed. I’ve seen so many people sing its praises on social media, suddenly and out of nowhere (it was just published in June, yes?), that my first thought about this new “it” book of the season was “she must have an excellent marketing team” and “mass appeal”—and in that way, not be impressive or deep in any way that I find meaningful. I don’t like the way that sounds, but this frustrates me as a boutique indie book publisher with some excellent writers on the roster (two to be exact) whom no one has heard of because no one with a platform actually wants to discover hidden gems—seems a book must have already garnered enough social validation to warrant becoming some trend setter’s book rec. And… well… marketing is not my forte. I would be happy to send you copies of our two published books if you would be willing to write a review for each. The books are YA fantasy novel “Without a World” by Kristen Illarmo and “In the Ether: a Memoir of Holding Space” by Colleen Hildebrand. I promise you will not be distracted by bad writing in either!
Hi Sarah! I hear you on all of this — as an aspiring author, it really frustrates me to see books being traditionally published that are sub-par, whether it’s because of poor writing, poor editing, or derivative/unoriginal plot lines. I’m also a critique partner and beta reader, and I’ve participated in writing workshops, and I have seen SO many great, original, well-written books that I know might never see the light of day, simply because it’s so difficult to get published these days unless you fit into exactly whatever mold is hot at the moment.
I fully support boutique and indie publishers, and I would be happy to look at some books from your list. I checked the descriptions of the books you mentioned here and they don’t really match my interests, but if you email me your website and catalog info at cj@wellreadtart.com, I’ll see if there are any other books that I might want to read and review. Thanks for reaching out and commenting!
These two are the entire catalog—Lol. I’ll let you know about future releases, though! Our website is http://www.lebovier.com.
Sounds good!