Summer Sisters

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of child abuse, sexual abuse, grooming, and suicidal ideation.

“They’re still Vixen and Cassandra, summer sisters forever. The rest is a mistake, a crazy joke.”

Referring to their pet names of Vixen and Cassandra, Blume foreshadows or previews the key theme of The Elusive Power of Sex. It is significant that Cassandra was a Greek mythological figure whose prophecies went unheeded. As a teenager, Caitlin suggests that she will kill herself before she becomes too old or ugly to be wanted; as an adult, she dies under mysterious circumstances, and Vix finds it difficult to believe that she’s truly dead. In this sense, Blume starts the novel with a potential clue about Caitlin’s death. “Summer sisters” is an example of alliteration.

“‘It’s my Native American gene. I’m one-sixteenth Cherokee on my mother’s side.’

‘God, that is so interesting! I wish I had unusual genes.’”

Though Blume published her novel in 1998, she anticipates contemporary discourse. The dialogue between Vix and Caitlin reflects the appeal of ethnic ambiguity—a thesis argued by the contemporary cultural critic Jia Tolentino in “The Age of Instagram Face” (The New Yorker, Dec. 12, 2019).

“It wasn’t that they didn’t have The Power anymore, it was that they couldn’t use it together. They didn’t know why. Something about it just didn’t feel right.”

As Caitlin and Vix collect experiences, they stop playing “Vixen and Cassandra Meet Von,” a game that involves mutual masturbation. Blume later hints that they both experience attraction to one another and that it lingers into adulthood, with Caitlin dating a woman similar to Vix, and Vix fantasizing about Caitlin and her flamenco dance.