April May June July by Alison B. Hart

Publication date: May 2024
LGBTQ+ author? Unknown
Setting: United States and Iraq in 2014
Content warnings: War, Alcoholism

Four siblings have grown apart since their father went missing ten years ago while working in Iraq. This novel follows the impact of their loss and how the start to put the pieces back together.

What I liked

The book is about four siblings named April, May, June and July. Each of them had an interesting story about how their lives had gone in the past ten years. The book also followed how a personal tragedy could tear a family apart but also bring them together.

Two of the siblings were queer. June, who went by Juniper/Junie, is a professional soccer coach who is about to get married now that gay marriage is starting to become legal in the United States. She is a little bit androgynous/masculine leaning but doesn’t feel super comfortable with that yet. Her story was the most fleshed out to me and the one I enjoyed the most. July is the little brother of the gang and is figuring out what to do with his crushes at college.

What didn’t work for me

I thought this was going to be a family drama. The book cover has twinkle lights around the four siblings names that hint at a wedding. The blurb talks about everyone’s relationship problems with spouses and crushes.

However, a lot of this book is about the Iraq War that started in the early 2000s. There is nothing wrong with that — it is an important topic! But it’s not what I was expecting to read when I picked up a book to help me relax at the end of the day.

A book set ten years ago doesn’t feel like long ago enough to make this a historical fiction novel. But many of the political events in the book are not recent enough to feel fresh in my mind. So the author had to do a lot of heavy lifting to remind us what happened in the Iraq War twenty years ago.

I would have been more open to this if the history lessons were woven in a bit more to the story. But much of it was delivered in monologue form. It wasn’t in-depth enough for me to actually sink my teeth into and learn. And the details didn’t have enough personal stakes to the characters to make me push on through and engage. I started skimming parts of it, which made me feel very guilty!

Recommendation

I think knowing what this book is really about, will help it find the right audience. So if you want an (almost?) historical fiction book about the impact of the Iraq War on an American family, this book is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this advanced reader copy.