Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson - HIGH

Every Other Weekend by Abigail Johnson, 432 pages. Inkyard Press, 2020. $19.

Language: R (31 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG13

BUYING ADVISORY: HS – OPTIONAL

AUDIENCE APPEAL: HIGH

Separated parents means mandatory time with each of them in two different homes. When Adam shows up, less than thrilled, at his dad’s new apartment for the weekend, he meets Jolene who lives next door—but only every other weekend. Escaping from their family drama together makes the weekends they spend at the rundown apartment complex the best weekends but ignoring their family problems only makes the problems worse.

Life is messy, and we all have problems. I love how Johnson doesn’t only talk about the struggles faced by the main characters. Johnson also shows the ups and downs of those closest to Adam and Jolene, illustrating how all of our choices impact each other—even when they aren’t intended to. I think this aspect of the story is what really brought Every Other Weekend to life for me. All of the characters feel real, and I wanted all of them to become the heroes in their own lives—as much as each of us deserve to be the hero in the lives we lead—and Johnson did a great job of helping everything come together in a natural ending that feels satisfactory without being cheesy. The mature content rating is for sexual assault, and the violence rating is for domestic violence.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen