More YA than I care for, but it still has a message for those who need to learn it.

Charlie and friends are spending the summer at their summer homes along the shore in NJ. He and Jackson go way back and are tight friends who are each going through a lot. Charlie's dad walked out on the family during the previous winter and Charlie can't get past that. He blames his mother, but she is the one who is there for him, not his dad. That part annoyed me, that this anger carried through so much of the book without being addressed.
Jackson is going through personal issues that I won't mention in order to let the reader go through it as he presents it.

The biggest annoyance to me was the term Shoebie used to derogatively describe the tourists. Once or twice is fine, but so many pages had that "insider" term that it was a total turn off to me, enough to bring it down to 2 stars for me.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy. Honest opinions expressed here are my own and are freely given.

I definitely think this book is relevant for YA, and I appreciate that it is relatable to so many students. I will put it in my library so the kids have access.

Holding Back the Tide
by Frank J. DeRuosi
I Loved this book, It was written with so much feeling and heart and hurt. Sixteen-year-old Charlie McIntyre just made me feel for him so deeply. I loved the well-written book.

This book, damn this book
Spoke to the inner teenager in me that missed out on going through normal life stuff like this instead of what I went through
Charlie with his family and how he was coping with it,
Jackson and his whole struggle with trying to tell Charlie about himself

This book is so damn well written and shows the real emotion behind everything