Every Other Weekend

Teens have a lot of problems to deal with. Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson deals with topics that far too many of them face. I recently had the opportunity to read an Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review (thank you Netgalley and Harlequin TEEN/Inkyard Press for the opportunity!). I enjoyed this book, which deals with a lot of these topics.

Adam’s parents are separated. He insists that they’re not getting a divorce. Jolene’s parents are divorced. One weekend, they find themselves moving into the same apartment building. Their parents have the same custody arrangement: every other weekend. Over the course of the year, they develop a friendship (which slowly grows into more), learn about life, and deal with problems that many teens face.

Good Things

If you were to break down this book into topics teens face, you’d run into quite a few. Some of the topics covered in this book include parental divorce, forgiveness, and dealing with adults that try to take advantage of their perceived authority. This book also covers being honest with yourself. But this book isn’t preachy.

The characters are great. The male MC, Adam, has anger issues with his parents. The female MC, Jolene, comes with a whole family full of baggage. They work well together, and their fears about the future are valid. I especially wanted to hug Jolene sometimes. She’s so excited about film, yet who knows whether she’ll be able to get into the film program she wants to get into? Her parents are trash.

Adam’s story unfolds slowly, leaving us to wonder for most of the book what happened to cause his parents to separate. I won’t spoil anything here, but I will say I had an aunt and uncle who went through something similar, and it really can be difficult on the family.

I also enjoyed the voices of the characters. We get to read this story from both Adam’s and Jolene’s points of view. I did sometimes get them mixed up? But it wasn’t too big of a deal.

Trigger Warnings

There is an attempted sexual assault in Every Other Weekend, which could be a trigger for some people. You can probably figure out what’s going to happen from a mile away, and it is stopped before it goes too far. However, if that sort of thing bothers you, you might want to skip the chapter it occurs in (which you can probably guess?).

Conclusion

If you’re looking for a feel-good book with teens dealing with separated parents, I highly recommend Every Other Weekend. There were points in this book where I didn’t want to put it down, and I wanted to read just one more chapter. It has great characters, deals with important topics, and is written in a style that made me not want to put it down. The book also has a satisfying and realistic ending. I’d also like to read other books by this author someday.

Every Other Weekend comes out on January 7th.