Finished: The Top of the World (Joella) I'm always deeply affected when I read a story about a sister who has lost her brother to illness and then, left in the world, is expected just to go on without this person who has been a part of her for her entire life. This was beautifully written and heartbreaking and extremely resonant. The story goes back and forth between the summer of 1975, which is also deeply meaningful to me, being the time period I was in high school along with my brother, and the summer of 1974. In the spring of 1974, Chip is a standout student and football player, with college in his very near future, when he gets a devastating terminal cancer diagnosis. He spends a few months doing several rounds of chemo, but decides that he'd rather spend the next few months living life and not being sick from the treatments and deteriorating even further until he just dies. He has amazing parents and a sister that is just a year behind him in high school, Maggie. They all love him beyond words. They are a family unit of four and always have been. His parents and Maggie are all completely devastated and don't know how they will live without Chip in their lives. When the summer of 1974 rolls around, Chip leaves his family a note that he needs some time to be alone and he leaves and doesn't let them know where he's headed. He isn't certain of that himself, except he grasps a brochure from The Red Maple Inn in the Poconos that he picked up one day when he was having lunch with his best friend since elementary school, Vicky. Chip shows up at the Red Maple Inn, and instantly makes an impact. He doesn't tell anyone he is sick (he has miraculously not lost his hair during treatments), because he wants to just be treated "normal". He gets the low job on the totem pole as a gardner, mainly in charge of pulling weeds in the extensive gardens in the summer heat. He doesn't complain, though. Instead, he has this calm and intuitive way of talking with everyone he meets, from the owner to his cabin room mate, to the instructors and other staff at the resort. The owner of Red Maple, Rhonda, is instantly taken with Chip and takes the time to get to know him. It turns out that Rhonda had lost her twin daughters several years ago in a car accident that spared her own life, but left her heart shattered. Though Chip doesn't tell Rhonda about his condition, they form a close bond and he makes a huge impact on helping her through her grief. He also becomes close with the gruff and completely chaotic resort activity instructor, Hawk. Hawk is only a few years old than Chip, but has already survived the horrors of going to Vietnam as an eighteen year old and is still trying to cope with the guilt of actually surviving when many of the young men he served with did not. Hawk figures out rather quickly that Chip is sick and may not be with them for too long and in all his gruffness, makes it his mission to exchange bucket list items with Chip and then sees to it that Chip gets to accomplish a few of those things without ever letting him know that he knows Chip is sick. And then there's Evie, the resort dance instructor, who he has a very sweet and intense summer love story with. But, above all there is Vicky. Vicky, the girl from home who he met on the school bus the first school day that her family came to town; the girl that looked scared to death when no one would move over to give the new girl a seat; the girl he scooted over for while just a grade-schooler himself and said here, sit with me; the girl who became his best friend and from whom he was inseparable all the way through high school; and, the best friend who was inconsolable at the thought that Chip was dying. Vicky was also the girl that he loved, but he hadn't figured that out yet. (Don't worry, he will!) When Chip gets too ill to continue on at the resort, he tells everyone, who had all figured it out already, that he is terminally ill and that it is for him to go home. Of course, they are all devastated to be losing this young man they have all grown to love, but he makes them promise to remember him and the summer they had together. When Chip passes away in the fall, his parents and Maggie are completely distraught. They go through the motions of life, and Maggie makes is through graduation her senior year, but none of them are the same people they were before. Maggie is determined to know what Chip did during the time when he was gone, and one day while she is helping to sort through his things, she comes across an employee nametag for a place called The Red Maple Inn. Maggie tells her parents she's going to go on this journey so they don't worry, and she heads to the Poconos. The summer of 1975 is all about Maggie making it to the resort and  actually meeting each of the people who Chip had affected so deeply. The relationships that she develops with each of the people is moving and loving and comforting to Maggie, and to the others. Maggie stays all summer and ends up helping each person with their own personal struggles in her own way, but also much like her brother had done. It's really a heartwrenching, and a life-affirming story. Each of the characters is pretty deeply delved into and becomes someone you feel like you know. It has taken me a few weeks to write this up because I can't even put into words how the author captured the raw feelings of what it is truly like to lose your brother. It has been 30 years for me, but it seems like he was just here yesterday. Here's the Amazon blurb which puts what I just said in alot fewer words.

"June 1975. Maggie Bishop has just graduated high school, the future hers to embrace—but she’s still reeling from the death of her older brother, Chip. A devastating diagnosis the summer before prompted Chip to leave home for a few months, never revealing where he went. Maggie’s search for clues leads her to The Red Maple Inn, a mountaintop resort in the Poconos.

At the Red Maple, Maggie is welcomed into a tight-knit community. As she unravels secrets about her brother’s final days, she begins to connect with the people he loved, and whose lives he touched. Through the warmth of strangers, Maggie begins to heal and is able to help others cope with loss.

Set in a nostalgic resort town over two transformative summers, this dual-narrative novel explores sibling relationships, coming of age, and the quiet power of human connection. Perfect for fans of emotional storytelling and small-town summer books, The Top of the World is a timeless story about memory, grief, second chances, and hope."