Summer Sisters

Judy Blume is the author of the bildungsroman and romance Summer Sisters, which she published in 1998. A prolific author, Blume is famous for her young-reader books, including the canonized Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), but Summer Sisters is for adults. The book follows the friendship of two girls from different socioeconomic classes from adolescence through adulthood as it addresses themes like The Elusive Power of Sex, The Fluidity of Families, and Innocence Versus Experience.

This study guide references the 1998 Dell edition.

Content Warning: The novel and guide include discussions of child abuse, sexual abuse, grooming, and suicidal ideation.

Plot Summary

The narrative is primarily in Vix’s point of view, but dips occasionally into the perspectives of peripheral characters.

In 1977, 12-year-old Vix lives in New Mexico. Her family doesn’t have much money, and she has three younger siblings, including a brother, Nathan, with muscular dystrophy. Caitlin transfers to Vix’s school and is immediately popular. She invites Vix to spend the summer at the affluent Massachusetts island Martha’s Vineyard. Vix’s mom, Tawny, isn’t sure, but her dad, Ed, lets her go.

Caitlin’s dad, Lamb, a wealthy former hippie, gives Caitlin and Vix a lot of freedom. They explore their bodies together and realize touching their bodies makes them feel electric—they call the feeling the Power.

Caitlin transfers to a private school in New Mexico, Mountain Day, but she invites Vix back to the Vineyard next summer. Lamb’s new wife, Abby, redecorates the house and their room, upsetting Caitlin. Vix likes Abby and wishes she was her mom. Abby offers Vix a scholarship to Mountain Day. Tawny isn’t sure why Vix has to go to private school, but she lets her.

The girls meet the older cousins Von and Bru, and Vix falls in love with Bru. Another summer, they babysit for a famous acting couple, and Vix thinks the husband is predatory, but Caitlin thinks he’s a suitable candidate for her first sexual encounter.

Nathan gets to spend some of his summer away at a camp in Colorado for kids with physical conditions. He becomes assertive and independent. Back at home, he gets sick and suddenly dies. Vix is distraught; she returns to New Mexico for the funeral, and Caitlin goes with her.

Now 17, Caitlin looks like a woman. She’s sassy and captivating, and she lost her virginity to a ski instructor in the Italian Alps. She also performs oral sex on Von. Vix and Bru become romantic, and they have sex.

The summer before college, Caitlin travels around Europe, so Vix goes to the Vineyard alone. Abby and Lamb help her get into Harvard, and she works two jobs on the island so that she can have spending money for college. When she’s not working, she’s with Bru.

At Harvard, Vix becomes friends with the talkative Maia and the brassy Southerner Paisley. Caitlin continues to travel and call Vix, inviting her to join, but Vix regularly turns her down. Bru and Vix remain a couple, but difficulties arrive. Bru wants to marry Vix and live on the island, but Vix is unsure about what she wants. They break up, and Vix works on her thesis, a five-minute video of kids with physical conditions detailing their idea of heaven. Vix loves editing and, after she graduates, gets a job editing videos at a big PR firm in New York City.

Vix, Maia, and Paisley share a loft in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City. Concern about AIDS makes Vix and Maia avoid sex, but Paisley continues to have sex, believing that Ivy League men from “good” families won’t have the disease. Caitlin becomes friendly with two gay men, and one of them dies from AIDS. She yells at Gus, a journalist who used to stay at the Vineyard with Abby’s son, for not highlighting the epidemic.

Vix has brief affairs and goes back to New Mexico to be with her dad, who has developed a heart condition. Caitlin comes to New York City, and Maia thinks Caitlin is jealous of her and Paisley. She describes Caitlin’s type as a dime a dozen, but Vix thinks Caitlin is complicated and doesn’t want to get over her.

Upset with her abusive and exploitative boss, Vix gets a new job, and Caitlin calls her at work: She’s marrying Bru in the Vineyard. Vix throws up but agrees to be Caitlin’s maid of honor. Caitlin tells Vix she had sex with Bru after she came back from Nathan’s funeral. She was jealous and wanted to show Vix that Bru only follows his genitals. The night before the wedding, Vix has sex with Bru.

Caitlin and Bru have a daughter, but one day, Caitlin leaves their daughter with Abby and Lamb to go shopping with a friend. The shopping turns into dinner, which turns into a trip to Paris, which turns into a two-year absence. Lamb hires a private detective who locates Caitlin in Spain. She refuses to speak to her dad, but she meets Vix before she dies mysteriously on a boat. Vix marries Gus; they have a son and want to move to the Vineyard.