Jen Ferguson - Those Pink Mountain Nights

 

Jen Ferguson - Those Pink Mountain Nights 

4⭐

Genre: Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Young Adult, LGBTQIA+ 

Pages: 352

Format:  Paperback Proof 

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers / Heartdrum

Published On: 12th October 2023 (UK)

Big thank you to Harper360YA for sending me an ARC copy to read and review. 

Book Blurb: 

In her remarkable second novel following her acclaimed debut, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, which won the Governor General’s Award and received six starred reviews, Jen Ferguson writes about the hurt of a life stuck in past tense, the hum of connections that cannot be severed, and one week in a small snowy town that changes everything.

Over-achievement isn’t a bad word—for Berlin, it’s the goal. She’s securing excellent grades, planning her future, and working a part-time job at Pink Mountain Pizza, a legendary local business. Who says she needs a best friend by her side?

Dropping out of high school wasn’t smart—but it was necessary for Cameron. Since his cousin Kiki’s disappearance, it’s hard enough to find the funny side of life, especially when the whole town has forgotten Kiki. To them, she’s just another missing Native girl.

People at school label Jessie a tease, a rich girl—and honestly, she’s both. But Jessie knows she contains multitudes. Maybe her new job crafting pizzas will give her the high-energy outlet she desperately wants.

When the weekend at Pink Mountain Pizza takes unexpected turns, all three teens will have to acknowledge the various ways they’ve been hurt—and how much they need each other to hold it all together.

My Review:

I adored The Summer of Bitter and Sweet and it still is one of my favourite YA books to date. However, there was something about Those Pink Mountain Nights that I didn’t gel with. It might have been that I read it in the wrong mindset or at the wrong time, but I just couldn’t connect with the characters in this book as I did with those in TSOBAS. That said, I still think Ferguson is an amazing storyteller and writer, who wrote another moving book that covers so many important topics and issues that Native and Indigenous people in Canada face daily. Topics such as social injustice, grief, systematic racism, community, and belonging are explored beautifully and in-depth, and even though I didn’t connect with the characters in this book, I still think the story is very powerful.

The book follows Berlin, who is a hard worker and overachiever and who cares deeply about her friends and family. We also meet Cam, who is a high school dropout and who has a sweet spot for Berlin even though Berlin hates him. We get introduced to Jessie, who is a rich girl at school, but in real life, she feels misunderstood by her rich parents who just don’t get what they want. The unlikely trio all work in Pink Mountain pizzeria, a legendary local business…One weekend when the Pink Mountain Pizza is threatened by a chain pizza company, Berlin, Cam and Jessie realise that they might not be different from one another and that their friendship might help Pink Mountain and the whole community.

As I mentioned before, I didn’t connect with the characters, yet they were so well developed, each with their own set of issues, thoughts and personalities, which together make the trio very powerful allies. The book has multiple POVs from all of the main characters, and each POV have a very strong personality related to the person the chapter is about. The writing of this book is superb and the issues discussed with such a strong voice.

Overall: I enjoyed reading this book, and although I don’t love it as much as I did The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, I still think it is brilliantly written, with a set of strong and well-developed characters, as well as brilliant discussion on issues that Native and Indigenous communities in Canada face, especially issues of systematic racism, abuse, belonging, etc. Can’t wait to see what Jen Ferguson will write next!

About an Author:

Jen Ferguson - Métis (on her father's side) and Canadian settler (on her mother's side), an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD. She believes writing, teaching and beading are political acts. The Summer of Bitter and Sweet is her debut novel. 

https://www.jenfergusonwrites.com/about