The novel captures the particular intensity of first love — the way it shapes everything else, the way a person can seem to define your idea of love itself.
The beach house summers represent a fixed, golden world. The shadow of Susannah's illness suggests that this world is ending. The novel is partly about learning to live with loss.
The Conklin and Fisher families are intertwined across Belly's whole life. The beach house is as much her home as her actual home. Belonging is not just about the family you are born into.
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