Enjoyed the setting and time period. I was invested in some of the characters and felt compelled to see how their stories evolved. The writing style was well done and unique.

DNF - I have tried 2-3 times to get into this story and I just dont think it's for me. I'm a mood reader and it's just not fitting in

When I read the blurb for this book I was convinced I would love every single page of it. Unfortunately I was disappointed in the end. I can't fault the writing but I feel that there is just too much going on in the story. This one didn't work for me but I hope other readers will give it ago and hopefully enjoy it more than I did.

Told from various perspectives, this tale of racism, classism, and family strife had great potential. While actively engaging at times, it overall fell flat for me. There were lots of secrets, plots, sex, and tragedy....yet remained mediocre. Perhaps it tried to be too much at once, so that it failed to adequately fulfill any angle? The ending, somewhat predictable, could have stirred emotions. Instead it felt rushed and therefore, a disappointment.

"It is the summer of 1992 and a gypsy moth invasion blankets Avalon Island. Ravenous caterpillars disrupt early summer serenity on Avalon, an islet off the coast of Long Island--dropping onto novels left open on picnic blankets, crawling across the T-shirts of children playing games of tag and capture the flag in the island's leafy woods. The caterpillars become a relentless topic of island conversation and the inescapable soundtrack of the season.

It is also the summer Leslie Day Marshall--only daughter of Avalon's most prominent family--returns with her husband, a botanist, and their children to live in "The Castle," the island's grandest estate. Leslie's husband Jules is African-American, and their children bi-racial, and islanders from both sides of the tracks form fast and dangerous opinions about the new arrivals.

Maddie Pencott LaRosa straddles those tracks: a teen queen with roots in the tony precincts of East Avalon and the crowded working class corner of West Avalon, home to Grudder Aviation factory, the island's bread-and-butter and birthplace of generations of bombers and war machines. Maddie falls in love with Brooks, Leslie's and Jules' son, and that love feels as urgent to Maddie as the questions about the new and deadly cancers showing up across the island. Could Grudder Aviation, the pride of the island--and its patriarch, the Colonel--be to blame?

As the gypsy moths burst from cocoons in flocks that seem to eclipse the sun, Maddie's and Brooks' passion for each other grows and she begins planning a life for them off Avalon Island.

Vivid with young lovers, gangs of anxious outsiders; a plotting aged matriarch and her husband, a demented military patriarch; and a troubled young boy, each seeking his or her own refuge, escape and revenge, The Gypsy Moth Summer is about love, gaps in understanding, and the struggle to connect: within families; among friends; between neighbors and entire generations."

This sounds like the PERFECT summer read, doesn't it?

I love the 90s and I love books that are set during that time decade. So, I was super excited to read Fierro's latest novel, The Gypsy Moth Summer. Unfortunately, the book did not work out for me. As much as I wanted to love the story, I just didn't. I found all of the moth referencing to be too much for too little - I get the point of including references, but I think it could have been toned done quite a bit. As for the unlikeable characters - ugh! I couldn't stand them, which meant I didn't care to get to know them. And to be honest, Fierro tackles way too many subjects and I just felt that it was a bit overloaded. I found myself skimming through the book instead of reading it. In the end, the book just wasn't my cup of tea. Now, I don't want to deter anyone from reading the book, because there are so many bloggers who seem to LOVE the story. So, definitely check out what they have to say.

I found the experience of this book to be absolutely shocking- but in the good, intriguing, mouth-agape, gotta keep reading kind of way. First of all, a side-note: as a child of the 90s, I very much appreciated all of the little things that made this an accurate depiction of the time; this book absolutely transported me back. Julia Fierro takes on a lot in this story of star-crossed love in a backwards town where racial tensions run high, pollution is literally killing off the population, and class tensions, broken families and substance abuse are the norm.

I found myself really endeared to these characters - particularly the children. We see them all as victims of circumstance and the broken world around them, trying to understand it and fit in. Ultimately though, the tragic twists of the story seem inevitable (if surprising in the nature of them). I really appreciate the fearlessness with which Fierro tackles the themes here. The book reads like a gossip-filled juicy page-turner while simultaneously managing to really challenge the reader. Though this centers around young characters, it's important to note that there is some surprising violence and for that reason I wouldn't recommend it for readers too young.This would make an excellent book club pick! There is a lot to discuss here.

Full of dualities, The Gypsy Moth Summer, is a novel bursting from the pages, just like the gypsy moths in the story. Both sides of an island point fingers at the other, while big issues like privilege, race, and cancer are woven into every islander's life. Fierro builds up the tension and integrates the metaphor of transformation into every chapter. I would describe The Gypsy Moth Summer as West Side Story meets Mean Girls meets Erin Brokovich.

It's all beautiful, damned, and fleeting in this stunning novel.

Fierro's prose, elegant but holding nothing back, truly shines in this multiple POV novel. Avalon is one of those Potemkin villages that looks good from the outside but the innards are twisted and horrific, rotting with disease and corruption.

The entire story, woven expertly by Fierro, is a rollercoaster of beautiful chaos that constantly hits the reader with uncomfortable scenes and thoughts that apply so truly to our present-day. But, in this dash toward oblivion, there is always this rushing on-the-edge feeling. It's a careening, headlong, out-of-control dash to whatever end awaits the characters. That drunken, hot summer nights by the water feel made me think of Gatsby a bit.

While I enjoyed the whole cast (and by that, I mean I enjoyed detesting the ones I did and loving the others), Veronica's POV was my favorite. Poignant and heartbreaking but fierce, she is a crafty lioness that I always wanted more of.

All in all, it's a fascinating book that I highly recommend, particularly for a reader who wants to be challenged in their thinking of society in the 90s and today. This is not your light, by-the-beach summer read!

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review, which I have provided above. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher St. Martin's Press, and the author Julia Fierro for the opportunity to do so.

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A wonderfully written coming of age story.

THE GYPSY MOTH SUMMER is a charming and eloquent tale of a community with more going on than what is on the surface. It is how the author created the town as well as its inhabitants that is where the true beauty of the book lies. The interactions between characters as well as their reactions to certain situations within the book are core of this narrative.

This story is heavy at points and the fact that the book does deal with some weightier issues might have been why this book took me a while to read. I went back and forth with it for a number of weeks. I don’t know why, but it wasn’t one of those books that I devoured. This does not mean that it wasn’t good. It just means that it took me longer to get into. However, Fierro’s exquisite writing is the main reason that I kept on reading.

In my opinion, it felt like this book was trying to do too much, and in that process feel completely short of everything it set out to accomplish. There are so many things going on here (TW for: Animal cruelty, profanity, drug use & alcohol abuse,racial prejudice, an abused wife) that sometimes it was too painful to read what was going on that I had to put the book down and just take a breather for the intense conflict.

There are bugs overtaking this isolated island, most literally and metaphorically. Leslie is the daughter of the esteemed Navy commander who isn't who he seems, and moves in with her black husband and biracial children to a house called "The Castle". It's has a mysterious maze and is an enchanting place to all of the other islanders.

Than there's Maddie, trying to be a full-on teen drama queen, and yet just experiencing first love for the first time with the new black boy in town, Brooks. Ah to be in young and in love, but it wasn't romantic to me, instead it became stilted and fell flat. The sexual situations were overused, there was no many sensual details. It awkwardly started to detract from the story and I thought the majority of it was unnecessary.

Usually, I'm such a sucker for hints of star-crossed lovers but in this book it just didn't work. Sure, there were secret trips to see eachother in the dark, both sets of parents disproved, they came from completely different backgrounds, but it was missing every excellent point that I genuinely enjoy in that trope. And in the end that was one of my biggest disappointments with this one.

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.**

This was a very unique story set on the island of Avalon, home to a huge war plane factory, filled with a wide variety of interesting characters. I enjoyed seeing how all the islanders were intertwined and how their extreme actions dictated their fates.

In the summer of 1992 the gypsy moths destroyed the foliage and trees on Avalon Island off the coast of Long Island. Unfortunately that Island was doomed and contaminated by toxic waste long before the gypsy moths arrived. The principle industry in Avalon is the Grudder Aviation plant and the pollution and executive coverups go unchecked and continues to infect it’s residents. The Islanders know the plant is to blame but they feel helpless and unable to fight the wealthy owners, especially Colonel Prescott, with his government connections. The pollution continues and illnesses, cancers, miscarriages and deaths keep on occurring.
Maddie is one of the main teenage characters in this story and her coming of age experiences and experiments with sex, drugs and the wrong crowd are a big focus in this novel. She is also Colonel Prescott’s granddaughter. Something is definitely not right with Colonel Prescott when he arrives on the Island this summer with his wife Victoria. The purpose of their visit is to be with family but more importantly to attend to plant business and a possible threatened financial merger of the plant. Maddie’s relationship with Brook, a new boy on the Island and her first real love, is also a focal point in this drama. Maddie’s abusive father and depressed mother, the Colonel’s daughter, all have a part in what happens that fateful summer. This novel is about revenge, greed, prejudice and privilege. There is some rather bad behavior from the teens and a bit of gang tension going on. As a whole I found this to be an enjoyable book. I would say it will appeal to YA readers. I received a copy from the publisher and Netgalley and this is my honest review.

Unfortunately, this was a DNf for me. After I read chapter 9, I was really uncomfortable with the book. The material was just really not for me.

3.5 stars.

This book is really unique and atmospheric. Set on the island of Avalon told from different point of views. I wanted to write 'story' but it's more like scenes pinned together to draw out a picture about racism and what really drives people deep inside.

Leslie Day returns to the island with her black husband and their two kids, that is the main theme but it feels more like an excuse to put several pont of views in action. It's more about character development than anything else and different POVs complete each other perfectly. In this books actions speak instead of words and the gypsy moths evolve in perfect unison with the storyline.

It's set at the point of life where multiple ruined, broken lives collide and crash changing everything in the end.

Fierro writes beautifully which makes this book stand out but despite that I felt like she left the readers in the dark too many times about major happenings. I know it was on purpose but sometimes I didn't see any sense in it. Often she only let people in on the aftermath of the event.

Overall I think it's worth reading because it's very well written and has a unique structure.

* I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. *

I am not a fan of multiple POVs past two, and this book has five! I have been known to tolerate three, but above that it has always been bye bye for me. So, for this author to keep me reading enthusiastically until the end was a feat unto itself. Each POV has it's own unique voice, so it isn't difficult to remember whom you are listening to.

The character voices are: a teenage girl, a middle aged man, an older woman, a middle aged woman, and a sixth grade aged boy. I found the use of such a wide scope of ages engaging and refreshing. The story is multi-layered and it is done seamlessly. It is one of those books that a person can read again and again and come to a realization about something new each time. I also loved the way the Gypsy Moths and their reproductive cycle played into the storyline.

This is a story about how class structure, race, religion, generational beliefs, and economics can negatively bend a person's perception of others; especially outsiders, and it was done exceptionally well.

An intriguing analysis of race and class in one small island community, overrun by gypsy moths and family secrets. There is a lot happening in this novel, but it is woven together in an impressive way. Sultry and vivid, Fierro invokes this specific time and place with skill.

Sometimes a book just isn't a good fit for a reader, or for me, in particular. I struggle to figure out why, when it happens. In this case, there are perhaps too many characters with idiosyncratic personalities and a plot not well-developed early enough to sustain them. When I add in the bugs, and the constant reference to them, I have too many actors and not enough going on. I just lost interest. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.