Melanie Dulaney's Reviews > Something Maybe Magnificent

“It’s okay to let your guard down. It’s okay to let yourself be seen. It’s okay to share your heart with other people. Not everyone will be gentle with it. Some will etch little cracks in it. Some will make giant breaks. But cracks and breaks eventually mend. Hearts hidden behind thousand-foot-high, twelve-inch-thick walls don’t. They don’t even get the chance.”

Victoria ends her story of the summer before 8th grade with this thought after finally allowing Kyle to step into her family’s life as her mother’s husband and some kind of dad for her, older brother Jack and younger sister Maggie. In the first book about Victoria and her family, Dad has left for another woman and deeply wounds them with the jagged and permanent break he makes from all four. Now, mom has met a new man who is doing all that he can to demonstrate that he wants to be a permanent part of the family but Victoria is just as determined to make him leave.

The anxiety felt by Victoria over so many things is palpable and almost overwhelming. She is afraid of her dad calling and not calling, she fears the loss of her best friend but continues to push Sarah away, and her preoccupation with the changes in her body presses down on not her, but readers as well. Ultimately, the message of allowing people to know you and be a real part of your life comes through, but at no point is there any suggestion that Victoria (and likely the whole family) needs help processing the grief and damage caused by Dad’s abandonment and Victoria, specifically, could benefit from some counseling over ways to cope with anxiety and an unhealthy view of her own body. Author R.L. Toalson demonstrates a real gift in conveying the depth of emotion felt by Victoria throughout the book but this is definitely not a title for everyone and some could find it triggering should they have similar family trauma or battle body image-related anxiety.

Text is free of profanity, violence and sexual content. Race of all characters is left up to the imagination of the reader except that Victoria is pictured as Caucasian on the book cover I had. While a sequel, I read this one easily without having read The First Magnificent Summer. Recommended for grades 5-8.

Thanks for sharing an electronic arc with me, Edelweiss.