What do readers think of The Gypsy Moth Summer by Julia Fierro? Write your own review.

The story takes place on an island --Avalon, the first symbolic trope of the novel--located off the coast of New York's Long Island--maybe another. The white daughter of a prominent executive of the main industrial and economic entity on the island--Grudder Aviation, manufacturer of war planes and polluter of the island ( Grummond?)--returns to claim her inheritance. She brings her Harvard educated husband, with an advanced degree in landscape architecture, and her two children with her to live in The Castle--royalty! He is, in addition to being educated, also black! Doesn't take long for the author to introduce all kinds of viewpoints, real and supposed, on race relations. In addition to this woman, Leslie, her husband, Julius, her son, Brooks and little daughter, Eva, we are introduced to the coterie of men and women who were friends of Leslie's parents and grandparents--all very shallow and all very proper and all very rich. All a big façade of perfection.

There are also the younger generation, the teens of the island--the rich pampered teens of the East end where the Castle is located; the poorer, though not necessarily poor, children of the blue collar workers at Grudder, located on the West end, where these kids live. Naturally, never the twain shall meet--although a West end guy married one of the East end princesses and produced the two main teen characters Maddie and Dominic, Dom for short.

Once upon a time, when choosing colleges, Marymount was on my list--Leslie would have been entering college about the time I graduated in '63. The description of her time at Marymount is total fiction and, if it is not, then I am truly happy I opted for Mt St Vincent, where I was not forced to live like a nun with required Mass attendance and prayer times. But, at any rate, Leslie was repressed as a young woman--is it any wonder she broke out of the mold she was expected to inhabit.

Back to the teens--Leslie brings the two groups together, allows them the run of the ballroom at the Castle and their story devolves into sex, drugs and rock and roll--or metal, or grunge or whatever it was they were blasting all the time all night into the dawn. Are they the ones responsible for the recent vandalism --the graffiti sprayed throughout town that accuses Grudder of causing death and cancer in the community?

I've not read this author before but she seems to have a good reputation as a writer. In this instance, I just think she tried too hard to bring too many current issues into one story line. As a result she didn't do any of them justice. The shotgun approach diluted the points she was trying to make. As a result the reader is thoroughly confused and repelled. The whole story takes place within one summer --but what a summer--it is one with a huge infestation of Gypsy Moths. Their eating, defecating and crawling everywhere is the background music of the piece, adding to the heightened tension of the story. This, too, was terribly overdone--actually quite disgusting.

It was hard to get into this book--it was superficial and too symbolic at every turn. None of the characters was appealing and none of them mattered enough to care that the ending was supposed to be tragic. That it seemed the author wanted the reader to care was a bit sad--she just filled it with too many things to care about and so none of it mattered. Like the islanders at the end of summer, it was just good that summer was over and so was the book. Was so disappointed.

I thought there was way too much unnecessary sex and cursing in this book. I didn't enjoy reading this book at all. There were too many plots going on to do any one of them justice.