“The Summer Before” by Dianne C. Braley is a powerful tale of a dear childhood friendship gone sour for the most tragic of reasons. Madeline and Summer had been closer than sisters, sharing their days, nights, laughter, and adventures on Martha’s Vineyard. “I’d never been closer to anyone in my life than to her. She was my life,” Madeline recalls. Summer practically lived with Madeline’s family, and the girls were inseparable. But Summer had a secret that exploded everyone’s lives when it came out. Madeline’s father, a wealthy and influential businessman, was an abuser, and Summer had been his victim … repeatedly.
He was tried and convicted, but, now, six years later, it turns out that Madeline is collateral damage, as we learn from the very first moment. Living in Boston, she is returning from her therapist’s office –– she sees him for severe depression that led to her near-fatal suicide attempt –– and Madeline is gripped by deep self-loathing for being blind to what had occurred. “How could this have happened in plain sight, right under my nose, and I didn’t notice? No one did? How could I not see the monster take over my father, the monster that is him, or my best friend’s reaction to it? Where was I?”
Madeline had grown up adoring her father. She asks her therapist, “And what if you love him? … the evil one. This person that the devil has infected. And what if there isn’t any devil to blame, and it’s just your person, connected to you, who is the devil himself? … Who then are you?”
Braley expertly interweaves the backstory in and out of Maddie’s attempt to pull her life together. Maddie listens to a trial tape, and intermittently recalls earlier times, mining the past for the truth. Having fled her beloved Martha’s Vineyard, she has also lost her mother, who lives in willful denial of her husband’s guilt.
In her pain, Madeline likewise attempted to break up with her boyfriend, who tries valiantly to support her. “I only did it to save him, because he loved me too much to save himself from me … I loved him. He was everything I’d ever wanted when I used to think about those things as a girl, but he deserved more than picking up my pieces.”
Braley created Madeline’s complexity from a blend of people she has known or encountered. She says, “Madeline is defiant yet numb, incredibly intelligent and sophisticated, but also rebellious and raw. She’s honest, even when it hurts, and is terrified, even when she won’t admit it. Madeline’s struggle is deeply human. She’s caught between the parts of her parents that shaped her and the parts she wants to break free from. But the moment her father, the man she once admired, is revealed to be a monster, her entire foundation cracks … Her character wasn’t just ‘constructed’ in my mind — she revealed herself as I explored these complexities, growing into a person who feels painfully real, even to me.”
Braley keeps us turning the page as she skillfully conveys the multiple dimensions of the tale and each character’s emotions. While we feel the devastating effects on Summer, Braley excavates the lesser-told tale of the impact on the secondary victim. She explains, “Ultimately, I aimed to portray the pain from all sides — not just through facts but through dialogue, nuance, and the raw, conflicting reactions of those involved. My goal was to create a full, unfiltered picture of how these crimes unfold, both in court and the lives of those left to pick up the pieces.”
Braley never set out to write this story. When preparing to write a scene about a violent assault for another book, she immersed herself in victim statements, and spoke with survivors: “But while I was researching, something struck much closer to home. What happened in my family was devastating. Someone we knew and trusted committed an unthinkable crime. The fallout was immense, leaving wounds that may never fully heal. It wasn’t just about the primary victim, though their pain is, of course, the deepest. It was about the lives caught in the wreckage — the people forced to reconcile the person they thought they knew with the truth of what he had done. I witnessed firsthand how these crimes don’t just affect the victims but ripple outward, fracturing families, dividing loyalties, and forcing people into impossible moral dilemmas. Some turned away, unwilling to confront the truth. Others, in their disbelief, stood by him simply because he was ‘one of us.’ But I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.”
Braley continues, “That experience changed everything for me. It opened my eyes to the unseen victims. The ones caught in the aftermath, grappling with guilt, betrayal, and loss. Their pain is often overlooked, their voices unheard. I couldn’t not write about it. Choosing to tell this story from the perspective of a secondary victim allowed me to explore trauma in a way that felt honest, yet less graphic, while still capturing the profound emotional weight of these crimes.
“There is still so much stigma surrounding sexual assault,” Braley said. “The Me Too movement gave survivors the courage to come forward, to finally feel safe in sharing their stories. But while we’ve made progress in breaking the silence, we still have a long way to go. Although the conversation has largely focused on primary victims — and rightfully so — we also need to examine the long-term impact of these crimes on secondary victims and society as a whole.”
“The Summer Before” is a thoroughly absorbing narrative in which Braley helps us understand the very real impact on everyone whose lives are touched in some way by sexual violence.
“The Summer Before” by Dianne Braley. Available at Edgartown Books and Bunch of Grapes. Braley will speak on Saturday, May 25, at 2:30 at the West Tisbury Library. She is donating a portion of the proceeds from “The Summer Before” to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services’ Connect to End Violence program. This domestic violence program and rape crisis center offers free and confidential services to individuals who have experienced or witnessed domestic or sexual violence, as well as to loved ones, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers who may also be affected.
