Getting Over Max Cooper

Inhibitions are cast aside and lifelong friendships are tested in Karp’s theatrical debut. Jasmine “Jazz” Jacobson has spent her summers visiting Fire Island’s Fair Harbor since she was two years old. For Jazz, summers on Fire Island mean freedom and, now 16, she can’t wait for the upcoming season, during which she plans to scoop ice cream at the snack bar, work on a photography project to expand her Instagram following, bike along the beach with best friend Macy Whelan, attend wild parties, and embark on her first-ever romance with handsome photographer, Leo “McDimple” Burke. In reality, though, Macy’s preoccupation and increasingly all-consuming pursuit of Max Cooper, her “non-boyfriend boyfriend” and last year’s hookup, turns Jazz’s initially carefree vacation spent getting closer to Leo into a boundary-crossing summer in which she helps prevent Macy from doing something she’ll regret. Supporting characters’ plotlines occasionally overshadow the protagonist’s arc, and situations regarding drug dependency and unreciprocated romantic advances are left unexplored, but Macy’s all-or-nothing attitude and Jazz’s determination to pull her back from the edge of obsession add intensity to this otherwise breezy debut. Karp’s intricately detailed locales and companionable cast effectively capture one unforgettable, whirlwind summer. Most characters cue as white. Ages 12–up. (Apr.)