June 2022

A few weeks ago, I plucked an advance reading copy of VACATIONLAND by Meg Mitchell Moore from my shelf. Immediately I was transported to a beautiful home on the coast of Maine. I could smell the water and see the rocky shore.

As the novel opens, a young woman named Kristie is headed to Maine on a bus. She has a backpack, $761 and a mission to figure something out. That is the setup for a typical scenario of “a woman on a quest.” From there, the story shifts to Louisa, a tenured professor who has arrived in Maine from Brooklyn with her three children to spend the summer with her parents while her husband launches his podcast brand back in the city. Louisa is counting on her folks to help out with the kids as she works on a book with a deadline she has to hit. She has been on sabbatical, but something has gotten in the way of her work, and she is desperate to get some time to write.

But once there, Louisa realizes that her dad is failing with Alzheimer’s much more than her mom has let on. Her mom is thinking about the next phase of their lives --- one that will change the stable summer vacations that Louisa has known her whole life. Then there’s Kristie. Why is she there? And what does she want to settle?

Meg’s storytelling gets you invested in these characters. You will want to visit a place like Ships View. It’s perfect summer reading when we all want to escape to our own versions of VACATIONLAND.