I love visiting Nantucket every summer and I’m sad that Elin is retiring from this type of novel for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, there are a few in her backlist that I missed so I still have a few to keep me going over the next few summers.
I don’t think Swan Song was her best, and I feel as if her last few would’ve made better “swan song” novels - particularly Golden Girl. This kind of gave the air of trying to cover all of her bases in saying goodbye, rather than something clever, thoughtful, or moving. Also, I feel as if her daughter was already starting to weave herself into the narrative with some really cringeworthy uses of Gen Z slang that just felt out of place - saying someone is ‘smoke show’ hot (which is also redundant if someone is a total smoke show, they’re hot), the repetition of ‘sneaky link’, calling women ‘queen!’, etc.
Alas, it is still a page-turning and fantastic summer escape. The increasingly outrageous parties thrown by the newcomers were so fantastically rendered and the infighting with friends was sadly very relatable. I can’t help but always highly recommend her books for the absolutely delicious immersion into the scenery, the food, and social scene of Nantucket.