Nostalgia

The series as a whole is one giant celebration of nostalgia, and this reinforces the bittersweet nature of growing up. During the first novel in the series, Belly luxuriates in her first summer at the beach house in Cousins as a pretty young woman instead of a little kid that no one wants to hang out with. She has first dates and first kisses, but all the while she reminisces about her memories of life in Cousins at the beach house before she was pretty. During this novel, Susannah is dead, and the fate of the beach house is in danger as Mr. Fisher attempts to sell it and rid himself of the pesky reminder of the wife he abandoned and cheated on while she was sick. Because of this, Belly feels particularly nostalgic for the past all through the novel, and this is inextricably tied...