Rose's family spends every summer at Awago Beach. There, she spends her time hanging out with her family and her friend Windy. This summer, however, is a bit different. The two girls are no longer children, but they're not quite adults, either, and as they push each other's boundaries and grow, they witness what the book jacket describes as a "tragedy in the making," a romance gone wrong between two older teens. Sad and beautifully drawn, This One Summer captures the difficulty of being caught in-between youth and adulthood. 
 I loved the emergence of the word "slut" between this two girls - girl-hate is common and Rose portrayed that well. What I don't love is how that conflict isn't truly wrapped up at the end. Rose's mom snaps at her and tells her not to call people that and Windy tells Rose it's sexist, but Rose never really responds to either of them, and the issue just drops, which is unfortunate, because these are both part of two larger issues: one, the strained relationship between Mom and Rose, and two, the tension between Rose and Windy. Neither of these larger issues are really dealt with - instead, (view spoiler)[the pregnant girl's attempted suicide steals the show and everything else is glossed over as the summer ends. Rose's mom never tells her daughter what's wrong - Rose overhears it and that's the end of it. Rose never figures out why it's wrong to call someone she doesn't know a slut, because she and Windy get wrapped up in the attempted suicide and forget about it. (hide spoiler)] 
 Though this graphic novel had a lot of interesting, moving pieces, I'm not sure it fully delivered any one of them. It's worth a read, though, because of the gorgeous artwork. Personally, though, I don't think I'd go out of my way to read it again.