The Second Home: a family drama

The Second Home by Christina Clancy is a story of a family and how one summer’s events tore everything apart. The story opens with Ann Gordon, a young woman at her family’s vacation home in Cape Cod. It is 2016 and Ann’s parents have died in a car accident six months ago and she has decided to sell the house. There were too many bad memories that overshadowed the good times. Part 1 takes the reader to the summer of 2000, the Gordon family: Ed, Connie and their daughters, Ann, 16, and Poppy, 15, and their adopted son, Michael, 16, arrive for their yearly vacation in Cape Cod. The Gordon family took in Michael after his mother died suddenly and left him with nowhere to go. This is the summer which changed everything. Ann began babysitting for the very wealthy Maureen and Anthony Shaw. Poppy fell in with the surfing crowd and Michael begins a landscaping job. After the summer ends and Ann reveals a shocking secret, the family is torn apart as Michael leaves with no clue where he is going. Part 2 brings the reader forward to 2015 as Ann is dealing with the aftermath of her parents’ death, Poppy is traveling the world and there is still no word from Michael. Soon word gets out that the Gordon family house is for sale and Michael comes forward. As they fight over the house, will they confront the events of that summer and its aftermath? Will the truth be revealed? Will they be able to heal from years of secrets and lies?

The Second Home is the debut novel for Ms. Clancy and began strong. The first part was the summer everything changed as Ann, Poopy and Michael grow up beyond their years when confronted with very real world problems. The second part is where things got confusing. New characters are introduced with no real explanation as to their relationship or connection to established characters. The timeline gets wonky as narrators changes with each chapter. It was hard to understand what was the present or the past. The characters were hard to like especially Ann. In the beginning, she was the one who spoke without a filter, often hurting others as a result. Her father gave her the nickname, “Ann with a Plan,” as she acts and gets things done. And usually that would be a good quality, but in part 2 as she is dealing with the house, Michael’s reappearance, she becomes a bitch. As the action and tension builds and builds, the end was anticlimactic. I loved the story. I loved Ms. Clancy’s descriptions of Cape Cod and its residents. However, the characters were hard to get invested in. The ending was just there with an epilogue that quickly wraps it up. Overall, I enjoyed the story, but the characters fell short for me. It’s a strong start for Ms. Clancy and I would look forward to ready her future novels.

The Second Home

is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook