JUNE BABY
By: Shannon Garvey
Published: May 12, 2026
Publisher: Random House
Fiction
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
One of the first books published by the new publishing imprint Thousand Voices, founded by Jenna Bush Hager, which sets out to find fresh voices in all genres.
“The mission of Thousand Voices Books is to pull up seats to the table for writers of all genres, from all walks of life. We’re so excited to discover emerging talent from all over the world and share their stories with as many readers as possible.”
Jenna Bush Hager
Debut author Shannon Garvey dedicated her first book to her mom, who took her to the library and the bookstore and let her talk about the novels with her as if they were real. Because of this, I had a good feeling I would love Garvey’s story. At the beginning, Garvey shares a quote from Anne Sexton, “I am a collection of dismantled almosts.” As I look back at that quote, that was exactly who Garvey’s main character, Ruth, was…a collection of almosts.
Set in 2023 with flashbacks to the 2010s-2020s on Block Island, an island off the coast of Rhode Island, readers learn immediately that Ruth is a motherless daughter. Ruth’s mom died when she was just seventeen, and the first summer without her, her dad sent her to Block Island to find a woman named Diana and stay with her for the summer.
“When Ruth thought about her mom, her body ached, like it was folding in on itself. Since Maggie died, this sensation had struck Ruth where she imagined herself growing smaller and smaller, her insides crunching up against one another, everything squeezing together like it might combust, but it never did. There was no release.”
Ruth ended up going back to Diana’s every summer after that, and now, at 27, Ruth returns to the island only to find out Diana has died, unaware that Diana had even been sick. Their last conversation at Christmas had ended in a fight, and they hadn’t talked since. The only thing that would make this trip to the island better is that Ruth will see Diana’s nephew, Charlie. Ruth plans to finally tell him she loves him. What Ruth doesn’t know is that Charlie has something to tell her, too.
Even though this is set on Block Island in the summer, this isn’t the beachy summer read you might expect. It’s heavy, full of sadness and regret. Ruth has buried her grief for years, and now it’s all flooding back due to Diana’s death, a woman who was a second mother to her. Secrets have been kept. Things have been unsaid for too long. Anger, hurt, and poor choices become the theme of Ruth’s summer. At 27, she has no money, no future, and even contemplates letting the ocean take her away from it all.
“She knew Block Island was the place for her, and she also knew that it was probably impossible for her to ever really live there. She knew that life ended quickly and all at once, and people were gone before you wanted them to be.”
Ruth’s grief and shock at what is happening to Diana’s house and family fill Ruth with sorrow, almost more than she can handle. She can’t see straight, and every time she messes up, I ache for her. I wanted to squeeze her, tell her to cry it out, tell her to hit somebody, tell her to leave Block Island. But Ruth had to see it all for herself. It just takes her a long time to get there, and she hurts a lot of people on the way there.
“She felt like she had been running a race and for the first time she looked around and realized she was running alone, that she had been running alone the whole time.”
I appreciated Ruth’s ending and that it was a bit open-ended. The surprise twist towards the end left me feeling hopeful that Ruth would have the possibility for a happy life. I’ll be looking for more to come from Shannon Garvey.
Shannon Garvey is the author of the debut novel June Baby. Born in Rhode Island, Shannon now lives on the New Hampshire coastline. She received her MFA from the University of New Hampshire, where she taught undergraduate classes. Shorter works of hers have been published by The Saturday Evening Post. Check out her website, HERE.
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Posted Under Book Review, Shannon Garvey, fiction, grief, summer