Review: The Summer of Bitter and Sweet

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is another of the novel in the Book Club assignment I give in my Indigenous literatures course. It follows Lou, a Metis young woman in Alberta, who spends the summer working at her uncles' ice cream shake, just before going off to university in the fall. It is a coming of age book, with a few twists and is a genuinely, lovely story.

Not to give spoilers, what I love about this book is that way that it explores sexuality and Indigenous identity in real life. Lou is flawed like all of us and struggles to learn who she is and how she should be in the world. Yet, she finds her way, supported by family and friends, navigating her relationship with her biological father and her own sexuality. There's hard things in here, like the aftermath of rape and trauma in general. But I can't help but love the story.

This is well worth reading as an uplifting story or as a way of exploring identity.

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