Shadowed Summer by Saundra Mitchell

Sometimes, I think I am the only woman in LJ-land who is over twenty and did not read what seems to have been copious amounts of L.J. Smith and/or V.C. Andrews. I vaguely remember reading a bit of each in my early teens, but did not imprint on them the way many seem to have. I’m not sure why I bring that up, save that I thought about it many times while I was reading Shadowed Summer.

Iris and her friend Collette are fourteen and trying to keep themselves busy during a lazy Louisiana summer, their longtime friendship being complicated by Collette’s discovery of hormones. They keep themselves busy by talking about how they’ll one day escape the town, and by creating rituals to raise the dead. Eventually Ben, the subject of Collette’s raging hormones, is also brought into their very small circle, though his family’s old ouija board had at least as much to do with it as hormones.

Soon, Iris unintentionally brings a boy of her own, Elijah, into the mix. The problem? Elijah disappeared around twenty years ago, is believed dead, and is one of the town’s local legends. I will now steal from sarahtales's much more entertaining post on the book, as she sums up how this goes down:

IRIS: So we totally accidentally raised the dead.
COLLETTE: Iris, you are talking crazy. I know from crazy, and you are talking it!
IRIS'S BEDROOM: erupts into poltergeist activity
COLLETTE (ducking a lamp): There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for this!
BEN: No, I'm pretty sure we accidentally raised the dead.
COLLETTE: QUIET YOU.
BEN: Momma said sometimes girls could be kind of highly strung.
COLLETTE: QUIET EVERYBODY, INCLUDING YOU, MR GHOST, SINCE YOU DO NOT EVEN EXIST!
IRIS: I think we need to sit down and think up a nice reasonable plan for dealing with our ghost problem.
BEN: ... I like your down-to-earth ways.
IRIS: Oh, Ben. I'm pretty much just using you for your ouija board.

It’s a ghost story, obviously, and a wonderfully atmospheric one at that, but it’s also about first love and friendship, and about prejudice and acceptance. I love Iris’s down-to-earth-ness, and how the friendship of the girls is much more important than hormones, and how Iris’s reaction to her own hormones is “yes, well, I guess you’re kinda cute in that weird way that sometimes happens once you can get acne, and you might be cuter, but you kissed my best friend first, so you just have cooties.”

My great-grandmothers apologize for that war thing. Not.

Guess what guys?  Giving women the right to vote totally caused WWII!

From the day the founding Fathers risked their liberty and life by signing the Declaration of Independence, there has been those who have wanted to sink this great ship called the United States of America. Well 143 years later the good ship America took a torpedo hit that at the time seemed like just another glancing blow. What many still consider the greatest step forward in equality for the sexes, was more then just a glancing blow however. It was in fact a deadly strike that entered the very heart of the ship and has been smoldering since. The damage caused by the 19th amendment was slow in its destruction, but after almost 100 years we can now see how complete the destruction really was.

Come on, guys, this is totally an April Fool's joke that went up a bit early, right?

And please do not bring up all the wars men have gotten us into. The biggest war in history was WWII, and it happened with men elected after women around the world won the right to vote.

I mean, it's a PROVEN FACT that wars weren't becoming more encompassing and no one ever tried to come up with ways to create deadlier weapons before women in the US got the right to vote, right?

And the comments!

I am a woman and I totally agree with you.

Take a look at what’s happened to news. Used to be men would get the facts, report what happened. Now that women dominate all we get are FEELINGS. I’m personally sick of seeing women quite so much. Watch old 50’s clips and it is amazing how few women are sounding off or are even in evidence - which really is refreshing.

To bring up one of the less enraging ones.

It's a very bad April Fool's joke, and I won't be convinced otherwise!

I think I'll go read the latest Viz volume of Claymore now.
 
ETA:  It's like a train wreck!

It wasn't only women's suffrage that started the downfall of America. I believe it really started with feminism, and taking away women from the homes. Mostly it was the smoking. Women started smoking at the same time Feminism started. They smoked because it was the only way they could act just like men. Thank god smoking is becoming more illegal. Next step get rid of that darn alchol problem. Women's suffrage, Alcohol, Cigarettes, Heroine, a mainly Marjiuana cause most of the problems in America.

Also, person making homophobic attacks against the OP?  GET OFF MY SIDE!  Go join the person who thinks the N-word is OK if you're being sarcastic.