The Face of TG Storytime Part 8: "The Summer Holiday" by Adam Cooper Review

 The Face of TG Storytime

Part 8: "The Summer Holiday" by Adam Cooper Review

tw // sexual assault

The previous stories I’ve covered in this series I’ve all seen discussed to various levels in trans writing communities. Mainly “For a Girl”, “Of Heroes And Villains” and “Hush”, which I’ve all seen talked about rather extensively. Not so much for “Fangs”, but I’ve seen it brought up from time to time. However, this series is going to get into a lot of stories that have not been as well remembered as others, and this review is going to focus on one of them. It’s a story that, despite being as popular as it is on TGST, has seemingly been forgotten about today. It’s time to go back and see if it’s a forgotten classic, or if it’s, well, not. Without further ado, let’s get this started.

“The Summer Holiday” was first posted by user “Adam Cooper” in August 2014, and it was finished in December 2015. It is 90K words in total, and it is another TG Storytime exclusive story. Unlike the previous two stories I’ve reviewed, it hasn’t (to my knowledge), been rewritten in any way.

“The Summer Holiday” is about an 18 year old boy from the UK (This story is about British people? Instant zero.) going with his sister and her friends to a vacation in Malia, Greece. Through a drug mix up during the trip, he ends up having to spend the entire vacation as a girl.

Right from the start this story has something none of the others so far have had, an image. The first thing you see in the first chapter is a picture of a silhouette shadow of a woman in the ocean during the sunset. 

Yeah I know it’s a stock photo but it’s a good one nonetheless. It’s a good tone-setter, immediately casting a calm atmosphere of reminiscence, which is what the actual beginning of the story is going for. It starts off by showing the main character, Sam, looking back at a photo album taken a year beforehand at his last vacation, in disbelief, wonder, and fear at what the photos themselves depict. We then flashback to the events of the actual story, taking place a year before the opening.

It’s a good way to start things off, at least in theory. The execution though, leaves a lot to be desired.

My name is Sam, I have short, brown, shaggy hair and would say I'm average height. I dress rather casual, long boot cut jeans, trainers and t.shirt or checked shirt was my style and it suited me just fine.

Again, this is a really awful way to introduce a character. It’s bad enough in third person but it’s even worse in first person, the point of view this story is written in. Who is Sam talking to here? If he was writing this on a chat board then maybe I could buy it, but that’s clearly not what’s happening.

The rest of the main characters are introduced in a similarly clumsy way, with Sam just going over them and listing their character traits. His older sister Denise has a group of three other friends she frequently hangs out with, her best friend Sarah, another girl named Leila, and a gay guy named Eric. These introductions do go by very quickly, but still, not a fan of how they’re handled.

If there is one thing I can praise however, it’s that later in the chapter the story is able to demonstrate all the character’s personalities very well and quickly by having them make shirts for each other that give them a nickname poking fun at the kind of person they are. 

Sarah turned it around and on the back it said 'The Alcoholic' this made them all laugh. "Oh very funny, I'm guessing that's mine" said Leila finding it amusing but at the same time a little bitter snatching it off Sarah and putting it on.

Sarah rummaged for another and pulled out one that said 'The Man Eater' again it was met by lots of laughter and to my surprise my sister took this one. "Oh thanks bitches" she said taking it and putting it on also with a huff.

Then came a t.shirt that said 'The slag' which Sarah put on proudly. Then came another that read 'The Puff' which Eric took findg it very amusing.

It’s realistic, and definitely something a group of friends would do for each other. I feel like the story should’ve focused on this being the character’s introductions rather than Sam just listing all of them in his head for no in-universe reason.

We also get a shirt for Sam, where he’s called the “virgin”, something that embarasses him at first, and he almost refuses to put the shirt on, but after some pushing he obliges, and he later is able to get over it. 

"Hey your not angry at me for the t.shirt thing are you"? whispered Denise breaking off from her conversation with Sarah.

I was very annoyed was the truth but her innocent and caring eyes told me she was very sorry about it. "No, no of course not" i said forgiving her.

So, the first chapter has some good ideas, but it is not able to execute them well.

By this point you’ve probably seen a huge problem with the writing here, that being that the prose is very poor. Even by the standards of TGST there are a lot of spelling and grammatical errors, and sentences are structured very awkwardly, to the point where it’s hard to enjoy anything here.

Now, I don’t want to be a dick. I know the author has said they have dyslexia. I understand that when it comes to writing, some things might be more challenging for them. And to be fair, after the second chapter, the prose does improve, as do the spelling and grammar mistakes. There are still a few errors here and there (a very common one is the story mixing up the words “being” and “been”), but it never gets to the point where it’s tedious to read like in the first two chapters. 

There is one very standout bad error in the later chapters however.

“You coming?” he asked.

“I don't want too”.

“Come on. It will be so much fun" he said. “Or are you chickenr03;?”.

It’s scenarios like this where a proofreader would be very helpful. To clean up the writing and make everything flow better. It can go a long way.

However, unfortunately due to the prose the first two chapters are a very bad start. They’re not paced well, and the dialogue and sentence structure is very poor and awkward. It throws off the tone of entire scenes, like the opening for instance, which loses the atmosphere it’s going for.

The second chapter is a very tedious slog and a very bad example of the “first look freak out” trope that’s very common in TG stories. Essentially, when a TG’d character first gets TG’d and finds out that they are no longer a guy, they frantically feel around their body and then panic when they finally look at their new reflection. It’s not an inherently bad cliché, but the way “The Summer Holiday” handles it is particularly bad, as it takes a frustratingly long and unbelievable amount of time for Sam to actually realize he’s a girl.

It starts with him waking up the next morning in their hotel room, and all his other friends are staring at him shocked and afraid. He finds that he has a high voice, which doesn’t seem to disturb him as much as it probably should, and then he finds out he has long hair, which is what finally catches his attention. From there he needs his friends to pretty much explicitly spell out to him that he’s a girl and it just drags on.

Denise brought the mirror forward to me with its back turned. "What is it..." i said. With one last hesitation Denise gave in and turned the mirror around to show me.

I gasped and shook in terror at what i saw. There was my face but not how I remembered it.

I feel like, if you went to bed as a guy and then woke up the next morning as a girl, it would be a bit more immediately noticeable. Like, if you had a flat chest when you fell asleep, and then you woke up with fully grown breasts, wouldn’t you notice it rather quickly? Sam doesn’t appear to be the inattentive type anywhere else in the story.

It was all clear now and my heart thudded fast in my chest. The voice, the hair, the face, the eyes!

"I'm a GIRL!" I yelled.

After this we get the usual sequences of Sam freaking out when he sees he has breasts and a vagina. And then afterward we finally learn the cause of Sam’s overnight transformation.

Sarah was silent and hesitated to say anything but she knew as well that she had been caught out and after shaking her head and playing dumb she gave up. "Urgh okay, okay but don't shoot me".

She walked to her bag and pulled out the tablets i took. "Was it these Sam"? she asked. "Yes" i replied curious as to what they now were.

"Look I didn't mean for this to happen okay, i thought the travel ones were in this pocket" she explained clearing her name. "What are those" questioned Denise.

"Fem pills" she admitted with a huff. Everyone now became enlightened by the answer, everyone but me.

In the previous chapter Sam got sick and nauseous while on the plane, and Sarah was supposed to give him his travel tablets, but accidentally gave him “fem pills” instead, which…

"Fem Pills are subscription drugs that you can only buy on like the black market" explained Leila. "They are a drug that is meant to increase female beauty, fitness and youth and can have very strong effects".

According to the bottle, taking the fem pills means Sam will be a girl for a week, the duration of the whole vacation, and immediately he feels his vacation has been ruined. Thus, the plot is set in motion.

Again, the second chapter just isn’t structured well. Sam’s realization and subsequent freak out drags on for way too long, almost comically so, and the bad prose constantly gets in the way. 

So yeah, this story makes a pretty bad first impression. However, as I said earlier, things do get better after the second chapter, as the grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and pacing all improve (I would still say it is overall worse than the average TGST story, not by much though).

The basic structure of the story is actually pretty good. When Sam first becomes a girl, she thinks her entire vacation is ruined and she won’t be able to enjoy anything. Then, later on in the first day, she slowly starts to come around to the idea of enjoying her vacation as a girl, if only because the alternative would be wasting away and moping around in the hotel room the whole week, forcing herself to be miserable.

So she goes out to the waterpark, finds her friends, and even goes on a waterslide. Everything is good, until she finds she has made a horrible mistake. She wore a white shirt, without a bra or bikini top underneath. So when she hits the water, her shirt becomes transparent, and her breasts are visible to everyone at the waterpark. She panics, cries, and runs from all the attention, laughing, and mocking.

I ignored her and ran across the park crying my eyes out and retreated to the safety of the hotel. I ran up the stairs and barged into the hotel room. Here I threw myself on the bed and cried like a little girl...

How humiliating!

I can never go out there again!

I hate this so much!

I wish this holiday would end!

Now she thinks she can’t ever go out again because she doesn’t know anything about being a girl. She went in without knowing what she was doing and ended up humiliating herself. When her friends go out clubbing that night, she doesn’t go with them.

That night, her older sister, Denise, stays with her at the hotel and talks with her. They have a brother/sister bonding time, or in this case a sister/sister bonding time, and Denise gives Sam a pep talk.

“Your in a girls body, that sucks but it doesn't matter, it's not stopping you from having a fantastic holiday with us. It's all up here in your head. Nothings stopping you enjoying yourself but you. I saw how excited you were to get on that slide, and at that moment it didn't matter what gender you were, you were happy and you still can be”.

She finished momentarily and stood up, collecting the wine glasses.

“You can sit here hanging on to the idea that this holiday is ruined” she said.

“Or you can embrace been a girl and enjoy it.”

And that’s a sentiment that sticks with her for the rest of the vacation. On the second day, she goes out again, wearing a bikini, and is able to have a good time. Though when the obvious male love interest, David, and his friends come over to her group and play a volleyball game, she refuses to participate, choosing instead to stubbornly read her book.

It was that taunt which made Sarah get very competitive. The next hit that came their way she jumped high like a leaping frog and hit it with both fists. The ball however didn't go the right way and instead it flew toward me and she landed bum first in the sand. The ball now rested before my feet and all laughed at Sarah's dive. I hid my face with the book as they all looked my way.

“Hey Samantha” called out David. “Pass the ball!”.

I did nothing. There was no way I was going to bend down in front of them for their own perverted needs. So I ignored them as if I hadn't heard.

That night, she goes out clubbing for the first time, albeit in a ridiculous looking outfit.

But I had nothing to wear, all my cloths didn't fit, unless? I thought of my blue, cargo shorts with a belt that were tucked away in my case. They would hopefully tighten around my skinny waist. I grabbed them from my case and everyone watched as I slipped the huge shorts on my petite legs. I pulled them up and tightened the belt as tight as it would go around my waist. To my surprise it held them up just fine and I smiled with relief.

“There see, I'll wear these” I said triumphantly.

Everyone burst out laughing and couldn't contain their opinions.

They later force her to wear her ‘Brit Girls’ shirt, and she obliges and leaves for the clubs.

And this is the pattern that the story continues to follow from here. Sam gradually comes out of her shell, one step at a time. And that’s not just regarding her becoming more comfortable with being a girl and wearing girls’ clothes, it’s also about her letting herself go and enjoying the vacation, even if she doesn’t look how she wanted to.

David is a huge source for her coming out of her shell and loosening up, and the next day on the vacation the two have a “date” at the beach, where they become closer to one another. Sam starts out the day still annoyed at him, but warms up a little once it’s over, even being caught by her friends with him.

We reached the hotel and had finished off our ice creams. David was just making a joke about Sarah when we were walking through the gates. It made me laugh out loud in my new girly giggle just in time for me to be caught doing so...

The gang were all there waiting within. They turned and fell utterly shocked to see me walking and laughing along with the big hunk David. Their faces were of utter disbelief and soon my face turned pale to see them looking back at me.

This makes her an easy target for teasing from the rest of the group.

“You spent the day with David?”.

“Yeah but it's not like I wanted too, he followed me to the beach”.

“Sounds like a date to me” mocked Eric.

“Look don't be ridiculous, it's not like that so leave it okay” I said agitated.

“Don't worry Hun your secrets safe with us” giggled Leila.

The following night they go clubbing again, this time meeting up with David and his friends, and after some convincing, Sam decides to wear a simple outfit that is clearly a woman’s, but not something like a dress or skirt.

Once dressed I stood back and looked at myself in the mirror. I couldn't deny what my eyes were seeing, the cloths looked very fitting on my hot body. The butt hugging jeans and the cute, flowing blouse together gave me a very elegant look. The cloths felt strange to wear but were oddly comfortable and pleasant to have on. They were made of much softer materials and my body felt right at home wearing them.

I did look like a proper girl dressed like this which felt un-nerving if a little exciting too. The girls would have a field day knowing they got me to wear girly cloths. I wasn't going to fight it this time though. I felt comfortable, and calm wearing them and decided now was the time I needed to edge out of my comforts zone and start opening up to a more girly way of living. It's just jeans and a shirt I kept telling myself though I knew they were much more feminine then that.

Looking pretty becomes something Sam starts to enjoy, which is first shown in an earlier chapter through a small moment I quite like.

I put the sun glasses on and looked at myself in the mirror fully dressed in a tight, porn star bikini which was begging to get wet. I found myself smiling at my reflection and eyeing my appearance in the mirror now with less disgust and more admiration. As weird as it was to think I looked surprisingly hot. I was the sort of girl I could only dream of having as a girlfriend.

I noticed Denise watching me model myself in the mirror and quickly pulled my gaze from it.

“What”? I uttered, playing dumb to my actions.

“Nothing” she smiled rather pleasantly.

David and Sam start becoming really close and nice with each other, and this threatens Sarah, who’s taken a liking to David and wants to get with him herself. This leads to a confrontation between the two where Sam denies she feels anything for David, which then leads to Sarah making up a lie about Sam being a lesbian.

“Who Samantha? Yeah she's a total Lezbo!” said Sarah. “But we don't care, we love her anyway”.

“Oh...really?” said David now looking a little disappointed.

“You didn't tell him” said Sarah looking at me.

My eyes flicked between David and Sarah and I didn't know what to say. I was thrown into this mess so quickly I had no time to prepare.

“Right, well that's cool” said David trying to be calm and un-fazed by the news.

“Oh no, you didn't fancy her did you?” said Sarah patronizingly.

“Pfft, no” said David. “No of course not where just mates right Samantha?”

I nodded in agreement but couldn't help but feel guilty. Maybe I had lead him on. He may have thought he stood a chance with me but now he was given the crippling news that I was in fact a lesbian.

Sam goes with it, and David and Sam are able to maintain a platonic relationship, at least for some time.

The next day, Sam overhears Leila and Denise get a little too excited when talking about how incredible it feels to have sex with men, so she immediately goes into the bathroom to masturbate, imagining herself as a woman having sex with a man. She gets caught by Sarah, who never lets her forget about it.

The rest of that day is spent with them all just having a good time at the waterpark, the pool, the jacuzzi, and later, the beach. They play a volleyball game as boys vs girls, Denise and Sam go hand-in-hand into the ocean as sisters, and David playfully “saves” Sam from a shark, in a cute scene that feels like something straight out of a cheesy romance novel.

“There is, I'll save you!”.

David lunged towards me and without warning picked me up off my feet with his muscular arms. He threw me over his shoulder, holding me in place around my thighs.

“Whoa!” I screamed. “What are you doing!”

“Saving you” he replied and began leading me to shore.

“Come on, put me down” I pleaded as I dangled helplessly on his shoulder.

We exited the ocean and he put me back on my feet. I looked around and many people were looking at us with puzzled expressions.

“She's okay folks” said David addressing the watching spectators.

He had made a total fool out of me but I didn't care. I just laughed at his behavior and enjoyed the ride.

Sam is actually enjoying and accepting being a girl, for the first time in the vacation, and the subsequent night out is a good representation of that. She dresses up for the club, in a full dress and makeup. We get the obligatory TG story mirror scene, where the MC sees themselves in a dress and/or makeup for the first time. I quite like how it plays out.

I opened my eyes...There I was in the mirror.

My eyes widened at the site of my face.

“Oh...” I squeaked with astonishment.

“Good right!” said Denise.

I was speechless.

Their I was, my hair perfectly curled at either side of my face. Inside the frame was a beautiful portrait of a young, beautiful diva.

Something I have to commend this story for is how natural Sam’s character progression is. TG stories, particularly older ones, have a habit of making the character’s acceptance of being a woman go by at a speed that’s too unbelievable. For a lot of these stories, the character needing to accept womanhood is basically their entire character arc. So when it happens too quickly, it’s very noticeable. 

What I love about “The Summer Holiday” is that it takes this progression more slowly. The way Sam acts on each night of the vacation is a pretty good indication of this. On the first night, she doesn’t go out at all. On the second, she goes out, but with an oversized outfit her friends laugh at. On the third, she goes out wearing jeans and a blouse, both of which are clearly feminine. And on the fourth, she goes full out with a dress. And Sam needs encouragement from her friends to do all of this. The fact that you can clearly see the increments of progress as the story goes on makes “The Summer Holiday” stand out among many of its contemporaries, which have the MC go through this way faster than they should.

The fact that the transformation here is temporary definitely helps too, as it gives the story more leeway with the MC’s development. In that kind of situation it makes total sense that a guy would try and embrace being a girl. It’s only temporary and they know it’s temporary, so the stakes are much lower. In stories where the MC accepts everything so quickly, the fact that the transformation is permanent makes the entire development make even less sense.

After another common TG story scene, the one where the MC needs to learn how to walk in heels, the gang is off to the club for the night, and everything is going well and everyone is enjoying themselves until David and Sarah have a falling out when he rejects her advances. This causes Sarah to drag Sam up to a higher level of the club where the music is loud and it smells like drugs.

Soon, they get separated, and Sam tries to leave but continues to get groped by men there. David comes to save her and takes her back out the club and to the pool, where they talk a bit before finally kissing each other, for the first time.

Sam enjoys it at first, but soon her male self comes back with a vengeance and demands her to stop. 

'What are you doing Sam!'

'You're kissing a man!'

I tried to ignore the thoughts and embrace the kiss but it was getting worse.

'You're not thinking straight'!

'You're not gay, you can't kiss a guy'!

'Sam your making a huge mistake!'

'Stop!'

'Stop now'!

She panics and runs back to her room, reverting right back to where she was right when her breasts became visible to the entire waterpark, beyond humiliated and not wanting to go out as a girl ever again.

That night she has a disturbing dream when she imagines getting married to David as his wife.

During the day, Sam tries to hide that she kissed David from the rest of the gang, but she hits a critical point when she meets up with David and tells him they can never be together. She runs back to the hotel, and her friends, along with David, follow her. David then confesses what happened last night to everyone and leaves after Sam shuts him down.

Sam also gets a bigger blow to her mental state, as she learns the fem pills do not have any mental effects. They didn’t force her to do anything or cloud her mind in any way. Everything, from her dancing like a girl, to her dressing as a girl, to kissing a guy as a girl, was all her. And she enjoyed all of it.

I pulled it out, flipped it over and began reading all of the medical information on the back. I read with intensity looking desperately for that little sentence that said 'may cause mental changes'.

I read paragraph after paragraph and read about all of the side effects but I saw nothing about it. I kept looking though, it had to be there. I read each side of the box and every word on the back, front and side but I found nothing about mental changes.

“No, no” I cried. “This can't be right”.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I really like this twist. At the time of this story’s release, a lot of TG stories took the easy way out and just had the MC’s mental state change in order to make them like being a girl, without having their new feelings be organic. And as I’ve already said in my “For a Girl” review, it kind of ruins a huge part of these character arcs. There’s no satisfaction in having a character like being a girl if you’re just going to MAKE them like it against their will, and it also raises some pretty unfortunate implications.

This story, on the other hand, plays with the expectations you have about it as a TG story from 2014. It anticipates that you will believe Sam was forced to kiss David out of some form of brainwashing. And then it turns that expectation on its head when it reveals to you that no, Sam was not brainwashed and everything she did in the story was completely her doing. It’s not an insanely mind blowing twist or anything, but it is neat.

Sam pushes everyone away from her and refuses to go to the big beach party that night. She stays in her bed and plans to mope around until the end of the vacation comes. 

But come nighttime, Denise refuses to go to the party with the rest of her friends so long as Sam is laying in the hotel room.

“What are you doing?!” I said.

“I can't go out” she replied. “Not while my brother is sat in here miserable”.

“Please Denise, don't do this” I said. “I don't want to be responsible for ruining your holiday”.

“And I don't want to be responsible for ruining yours” she replied.

Denise stormed towards a chair and glued herself down on it. She was not leaving until she had made me see sense. I could tell she would sit there all night if she had too.

Denise gives her another pep talk. And it’s harsh, but it’s exactly what Sam needs to hear. She has been rude. And stubborn. And immature. And her denial of the fact that she likes being a girl has made her lash out at everyone and everything around her.

Denise even gives a rather interesting explanation for who Sam is that almost seems ahead of its time for 2014 TGST.

“I'm not sure, sexuality is a strange thing. Maybe you're enjoying the experience of seeing what it's like from the other side. Almost like you have two parts to your self. One is male and the other female. As a male you would feel disgusted kissing a man but now you're your female self, it feels acceptable”.

The one part of this that I find kind of iffy is the part about Sam’s sexuality. As a guy, Sam likes girls, and as a girl, she likes guys. She has no attraction to guys as a guy, and as a girl she has no attraction to girls. The story explains this as it just being who Sam is, and not a result of any forced sexuality change.

While I will admit that this is better than traditional comphet, it still just doesn’t feel right. I have a hard time buying that all attraction to women would just disappear when she herself is a woman. The story doesn’t even really examine why this is the case, it just says it is. I still like the attempt to do something different from typical comphet, which was very widespread in TG fiction at the time, but the end result here is kind of clumsy. 

Sam gets the motivation to go to the beach party and make things right. She gets dressed in the same kind of dress and makeup she did the previous night, and goes out to make amends. She makes up with Eric and Leila, and then later with David and even Sarah (put a pin in that one for now).

And finally, we get to the climax of the story, Sam having sex with David. Yeah, this is another one of those TG stories. Chapter 28 is even called “Final Step to Womanhood”. I know this stuff is technically problematic, but it’s the kind of the cheesy thing I really like in these stories and this one handles it pretty well.

The following day is their last day in Greece. They go on a few more rides, hang out in the jacuzzi some more, and Sam and David have sex another time before they pack up to leave.

Sam then learns the gang made a slight adjustment to her T-shirt.

The gang all decided to put on their pink, Brit-girls t.shirts one last time for the way home. I agreed to do the same but couldn't find my t.shirt among my things.

“Here it is” said Denise with a naughty smile. “We've made a little change to it”.

“What do you mean?” I said and took the shirt.

Everyone’s faces were grinning devilishly. They had done something to the shirt and I eagerly unfolded it. It looked like the same pink, 'Brit girls' top but as I turned it over and looked on the back I noticed the nick name 'The Virgin' had been crossed out with black marker.

“Oh funny” I said giggling at the joke. “Thanks guys”.

I like the goodbye scene between Sam and David. It evokes the same feeling as being a kid finding a friend on the beach and then leaving. You know you’ll probably never see them again, but you’re holding onto the very small chance that you will.

The bus turned away and drove down the car park and out of the hotel gates. I kept looking back until David was completely out of site then my head fell low. He was gone and the holiday was over.

“It's always hard saying goodbye to your first holiday romance” explained Denise. “But that's just the way it is”.

“Yeah” I muttered knowing it was the harsh reality. “I'm just happy I met him”.

“Aww” said Leila stroking my leg. “Don't worry. You will always have the memories”.

I stared miserably from the window the entire way to the airport and wished I could have had at least one more day with David. But maybe it was best this way. One more day together may have concreted my love for him and I may never have been able to leave. It was sad to go but it was the right time.

Of course, I don’t have the money to go on vacation nor have I ever had a summer fling like this, but that was what this evoked for me.

The gang goes back to the airport to show their passports so they can leave, which leads to a scene where Sam has to be questioned due to her still having her male self on her passport (and people will say genderbent characters aren’t trans smh).

They clear up the mix up and end up being late to the flight and have to wait until the next day. And it’s at that night at a hotel that the fem pills wear off and Sam finally changes back to her old self.

I was a boy again...

I instantly recognised my old male features and shaggy brown hair. My body was back to it's old, slim and straight posture and I was at my usual 5'8 height.

In a way I didn't recognise myself any more. I had gotten so used to waking up and seeing Samantha in the mirror I had almost forgotten how I used to look. I clapped my hands on my cheeks and felt my skin and my regular facial features. It was definitely me though, that was for sure.

The gang finally gets on the plane to leave and Chapter 30 ends with Sam and Denise in their father’s car, getting asked about what they did during the vacation.

“So how was the holiday?” asked dad cheerfully.

“Erm...” uttered Denise.

Me and Denise looked at each other and began to laugh knowing well enough it had been a very interesting holiday indeed.

“It was fun” I said with a grin.

“Yeah, well that's good. What did you get up too?” asked Dad.

“You wouldn't believe us if we told you” I laughed.

Which leads us right into the end. Throughout the story, Sam made it clear that he did not want any photos of him taken as a girl.

“Don't take pictures of me like this!”

“Oh come on it's just a picture”.

“Yeah well I don't want any of me as a girl” I snapped.

“I thought you were over that now” said Leila.

“I'm far from over it and I don't want any evidence of 'this' getting back home, or on facebook”.

“Sorry Sam, but we want memories of our holiday” said Denise.

“Yeah well keep me out of them”.

But in spite of this, Denise continued taking pictures of Sam as a girl throughout the week. And while none of the photos with Sam were posted online or shared around (with the believable excuse of him not liking his photo taken), Denise gives Sam an album full of all the photos of him at the vacation. As Samantha.

“What's this?” I said taking the book with wonder.

“Just a little present” she said with an excited smile. “Open it!”

I opened the book to the first page and inside I found photographs from the holiday all of me as Samantha. I gasped with joy at the site of them and flicked through the pages adoring the memories.

I recognized each photo and watched the evolution of my transformation into a girl. There was pictures from the water park, the parties, the clubs and at the end one very special one of me and David together, smiling happily.

“This is wonderful” I said with happy tears in my eyes. “Thank you”.

“We all put it together for you” explained Denise. “Just so you never forget your time as Samantha”.

After this we get a few paragraphs detailing Sam’s life the year after the vacation. The vacation itself, according to Sam, starts to feel like a bizarre dream, which I imagine would be the case if one was only the opposite gender for a limited amount of time. He spends his first year of university making friends, going to parties, and even losing his virginity as a man. At the end of his first year at university, the group decides to go to Malia again for their vacation.

And from there, we loop right back to the first scene of the story, where Sam is flipping through a photo album, seeing the many pictures of himself as a girl.

I sat on my bed looking at the cover not wanting to open it. I knew what was on the pages yet I feared to see those photos again. Eventually I pulled myself together and flicked over the cover as I looked upon the first photograph.

It was a photograph of me as Samantha dressed in skinny jeans and a red blouse. I stood with Denise, my arm wrapped around her. We both smiled happily and looked like two close sisters.

Though I had seen this photograph before it disturbed me in a strange way that made me shut my eyes and shake my head in disbelief. Still a year on I couldn't believe what happened to me on that holiday and what I had to go through, something no boy should ever go through.

Sam is tempted to take the fem pills again, and constantly thinks over doing it.

I tried to push the feelings away, I needed to let it all go and be a boy again even if I did enjoy it...

I am a boy. I can't turn myself into Samantha again...

I'm not going on this holiday as a girl...

I won't give in no matter how much I want too...

Not this time...

Not ever…

In the last scene of the story, the gang is on the plane to Malia for that year’s vacation, and it’s revealed that Sam took the fem pills and is all too excited to be Samantha once more. And she’s holding onto hope that she’ll see David again.

I would give anything to see him again...

To hold him again...

To kiss him again...

To Fuck him again...

The thought of it made my body tingle and I knew just then Samantha had come out to play again…

I really like this ending. It’s unusual for a TG story to not end with the MC becoming permanently female, and you’d probably expect this story to end with Sam taking fem pills enough days so that her transformation becomes permanent. But it doesn’t do that. Instead, it ends on a more ambiguous note, and it leaves many questions up to interpretation. Will Sam embrace being a girl enough that she becomes one full time? How big of a part will Samantha play in Sam's life? The story doesn't tell you and I like that it doesn't. It's a nice subversion of a common TG story ending.

So yes, the structure and set up of this story is really good. Most TG stories that take place in the “real world” tend to stick with a typical suburban kind of setting, so it’s nice to have one set during a vacation at a resort. It helps this story stand out and be more unique.

However, the story’s execution of its premise is kind of a mixed bag. As for some positives, in the “Hush” review I talked about the vivid descriptions of winter, and how they were a nice addition to the story. The same can be said about “The Summer Holiday”. The vivid descriptions of summer, of a water park full of people, of a beach, and of loud nightclubs all give off a very strong atmosphere. One that just screams “vacation” and “summer”. In fact, whenever the characters go on a waterslide or relax at a beach I feel like I’m right there with them, as if I’m going on this vacation as well. It’s a great feeling, and it makes this a perfect story to read in the summer (which I did actually, on my second reading).

One of my favorite examples of the atmosphere being utilized is the start of Chapter 21, which is the part where Sarah drags Sam up to the club full of weed and loud noises. The nightclub itself is called “The Tower”, and this is the third floor of it. And yes, it is indeed loud and smells like weed, but it’s also cramped and full of smoke.

I tried to shake myself away but the man had me held firmly. I screamed to Sarah for help but now she was becoming lost amidst the crowd and soon she was out of site entirely.

I was completely alone now and the man kept his hands clasped, firmly on my cheeks. He began to grind up and down my back. This was horrible and frightening I thought as I felt the fear grow inside me. I had to escape before this groping lead to something worse.

I tried to pull away again but felt his hand slide down my leg and scuttle under my dress. I felt the fear and adrenaline run through me and without further thought I slammed my fist into his crotch. I could not hear the man’s screams but he was quick to release me from his grasp.

I now ran, well as fast as I could threw the chaotic dance floor. I clambered left and right, forward and backward looking desperately for the exit to this crazy maze. It took me a long while but eventually I reached the door we came in at. I sighed with relief but before I could reach it I was grabbed from behind.

It contrasts harshly with the atmosphere of the rest of the story and it works really well. You really do feel Sam’s complete sensory overload. She can hardly hear herself think, let alone comprehend anything else around her and she’s constantly lost and disoriented trying to navigate this nightmarish maze. 

It’s almost like this scene is operating on dream logic, or rather, nightmare logic. You can never get a hold of your surroundings as they seem to actively work against you.

It’s not really a secret that a lot of TG stories, and also just a lot of online fiction in general, don’t exactly treat the subjects of sexual harassment and sexual assault with a lot of tact. So I should bring up how I really like this portrayal of it. It’s not erotic, not fun in any way, it’s just terrifying. You have no control, you have nothing except a horrid violation of your personal space. It just makes you feel gross.

It works really well with the atmosphere of the rest of the scene, as Sam is suffering sensory overload and is lost in a maze of people she doesn’t know and can’t communicate with. It’s almost suffocating.

And of course, it’s soon followed by the part where David comes in to save her. 

I guess I should start talking about the characters here. I’ve already discussed Sam so let’s get into the side characters.

The characters are where a lot of my problems in this story lie. Mainly because about half of them aren’t just underdeveloped, they hardly even do anything. Really, the only characters that actually matter here are Sam, Denise, Sarah, and David. Everyone else is basically filler and one-note. Even then, the few personality traits they have aren’t demonstrated well and usually they’re just there to say things every once in a while, as if to just remind the reader that they exist.

Just to start this section off, I guess I’ll start by saying that Sam and Denise’s parents have very little presence in this story, with only the father getting two lines of dialogue. Now, this is perfectly fine, as they clearly weren’t intended to be anything more than minor characters.

As for the characters where it starts to become less fine, David has two friends with him: Richard and Carl. They both become the summer romances of Leila and Denise respectively. Obviously they were never going to be very important characters, but the fact that they barely have any characterization and are just kind of there sometimes does suck.

The big problem lies with Leila and Eric. They’re part of the six main characters in this story, part of the “Brit Girls”, but it doesn’t really feel like that because they never have anything to do. They’re just there to say what feels like scripted dialogue sometimes. It’s a real bust.

As for character traits, after reading this story twice I still am not able to think of anything for Leila. Her T-shirt says she’s an alcoholic and that’s it. And for Eric, well again, he’s gay. That’s pretty much his only trait, and about half of his dialogue is just to remind the reader that he’s gay. The story never does anything substantial with him being gay, even when it does things with the other characters’ sexualities. It’s just something that comes up every now and again.

It’s kind of frustrating because in one chapter they bring up how there are gay bars at this resort, and then it’s just never brought up again.

“HEY!” said Leila with a bright idea. “If Sam wants to meet some girls we could go to one of the gay bars”.

“Good idea” said Eric.

“Really?” I said with disbelief.

A gay bar did actually make sense. It would be full of lesbians I could try get with. However I'm a nervous and shy individual when it comes to chatting up girls, been in a girls body was only going to make it harder.

“So what do you say Sam, gay bar?” asked Leila.

Why does Eric not go to them? Well…

“You can still go though Eric” I said thinking he may feel left out.

“No, no. Not after last time” he replied looking off into the distance having some kind of world war 2 flash back.

“The last time Eric here had a holiday romance he got his heart broken” explained Leila.

“Crushed! My heart was crushed!” moaned Eric.

The problem with this is that it’s not a consistent characterization.

“That was so much fun” said Denise. “Their such nice guys”.

I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore my sister's admiration for them.

“And their so hot!” said Sarah. “David is soooo fucking fit! Oh the things I want to do to him”.

“Well if your calling dibs” said Leila, “Then I call Richard”.

“Why can't one of them be gay” sighed Eric.

The girls giggled but my face remained grim and miserable.

Eric sounds like he’s into the idea of a summer romance here, and then just a few hours later he’s completely against it.

Since hardly anything is done with Eric having a heartbreak during his last summer romance, I think that idea should’ve just been dropped. That way he could’ve actually had something more to do. The author has stated Eric was added so Sam wouldn’t be the only male character in the main group, only for nothing to be done with that dynamic. Sometimes it feels like the story forgets he’s even there.

“How big are they?” asked Leila.

“I dunno, pretty big” I replied.

“Let's have a look” said Leila coming over to me.

I recoiled as her hands came to remove my towel.

“Oh come on Sam, where all girls here” she mocked.

Yeah, except for Eric, unless they’re fine with him beng there? Maybe Sam could’ve brought that up, but she doesn’t. Eric’s character was a huge waste.

As for the characters that actually have a presence, their implementation is pretty mixed. Sarah, for instance, is handled pretty badly. She’s supposed to be Denise's best friend as well as a pretty well liked member of the main group. But despite this, she’s an extremely unlikeable character.

Now yes, I understand that the point of her is that she’s not exactly that great of a person. Of course she’s going to be a bit unlikeable. The problem is that there isn’t anything to like about her. In almost every scene she either comes off as someone who just really likes bringing other people down, or a borderline obsessive creep.

For the latter part, as I’ve alluded to, a big plotline in this story is that Sarah likes David and wants to get with him, even though David has no interest in her. According to David, she's desperate and trying too hard.

“So what's the deal with your friend Sarah?” asked David.

“What do you mean?” I wondered.

“Well she's a little odd isn't she”.

“Oh she's like that with every guy, she probably has a crush on you”.

“Really. Did she say that?”

“No but it's obvious isn't it”.

“Does she have trouble getting guys to like her?”

“No, usually their all over her”.

“Really because she comes across desperate”.

And this shows true throughout the story, where it's clear Sarah is trying way too hard to get guys to like her. 

David was making his way over to me, waving his arms about and bopping his head but Sarah swung in for the kill. She blocked his path and gave him the 'fuck me eyes' again as she swung her hips, brushed back her hair and flicked her butt like a porn star.

David had no choice but to stop and dance with her but he did so awkwardly, smiling politely as he ignored Sarah's seductive moves.

Sarah carried on with her sensual display now turning her back on David as she slid down her imaginary stripper pole.

David looked past her allure and straight towards me. He rolled his eyes and smiled at me. I smiled back and tried to hold in my amusement as Sarah tried to grind on him.

As the story goes on, it's made clear that Sarah thinks David, and men she's attracted to in general, owe something to her. And when they don't give her what she thinks is owed, she gets upset. 

If they show interest in another woman, in this case Sam, she interferes with that interest in any way she can. When she sees David interested in Sam, she comes in and makes up a lie about Sam being a lesbian to stop them. When that still doesn't work, she lashes out at them and starts resorting to sexual harassment.

I looked over to the side of the room where a huge, plush, snake hung and saw David stood with Sarah. I tried to remain dancing but I couldn't help but glance over at them to see what was going on.

They were talking and Sarah was leaning in close to David. He looked uncomfortable as usual. She was leant on a weird angle, her eyes were glazed over and her head was wobbling on the top of her neck. She was clearly very drunk and was once again making her move on David.

She grabbed his hips and pulled herself in to him. Her crotch was pressed in to his crotch and she stared up into his eyes. David's arms were awkwardly by his side and he refused to give in to her advances.

Next Sarah grabbed his dick with her hand. David jumped with surprise. I saw his face now become disgusted and he was quick to push her away. Sarah saw she was loosing him and leant in for a kiss. David shook his head and began telling her off with stern hand gestures. I couldn't hear what was being said but I knew David was finally telling her he didn't like her.

I waited to see how Sarah would react. She picked up her drink glass and threw the liquid in David's face. She was furious and not thinking straight. David alarmed by her reaction did the gentlemanly thing and walked away without reacting.

If there's one thing I like about the way Sarah is written, it's that her personality is connected to and goes really well with her use of fem pills (which Sam brings up within the story). As she states in the beginning, she started taking fem pills because during puberty she didn't look the way she wanted to. She was spotty, had fat bulges, and her breasts “didn’t develop quite right”.

She’s insecure about herself, and her body. And as a result of that insecurity, she ends up trying very hard to get men to like her. It’s very in line with her use of fem pills.

However, the point I’m trying to make when I bring up how Sarah acts throughout this story is that she’s really shitty almost all of the time, and it’s hard to see why her group would like her at all. I don’t understand how she could ever be friends with the other characters, considering how unpleasant and rude she is. She doesn’t have any positive qualities alongside the negative ones, and as a result she ends up being a pretty one dimensional asshole.

She’s especially mean to Sam, mainly when it becomes clear that David, who she’s set her sights on, is interested in her. They form a sort of rivalry, and Sarah is able to get ahead for a bit when David thinks Sam is a lesbian. She’s so vindictive, and by the end it feels like she will stop at nothing to bring Sam down.

However, in one of the final chapters, Sarah has a change of heart that’s so abrupt and forced it feels like something written in a draft that accidentally got into the final story.

She looked at David and back at me. Her tongue was ready and I could see the end was coming but then something changed. She looked into my watery eyes and I saw a sudden change in her expression. Her bright red face, slowly cooled down and her face un-tensed as her cruel smile faded.

Sarah goes around the entire beach during the beach party, looking for David so she can tell him Sam is a guy. And then once she finds him and is about to tell him, she looks at Sam and suddenly, after an entire story of being nothing but an asshole to her, she completely changes her mind.

My face morphed into one of confusion and hope. The angel on Sarah's shoulder had won and she had pushed the devil back inside her. She had seen my pain and for the first time ever in Sarah I saw a hint of humanity. She looked at me with an apologetic smile.

“Just Samantha is a great girl” she said. “Give her another chance”.

And for the rest of the story, Sam and Sarah get along just fine without any conflict. It feels cheap, and it isn’t remotely earned. There was no build up to Sarah’s change, it wasn’t organic, and I don’t buy it.

Sarah’s character was a huge misstep. If she was, on the surface a more pleasant person to be around, if her flaws became more clear as the story went on, if her tactics to entice men started off more subtly, and if she had an actual change of heart that felt natural and wasn’t forced, then she could’ve worked a lot better. As it stands, her handling leaves a lot to be desired, and the fact that she’s such a driving force of the story’s narrative makes it worse.

David is fine, as far as male love interests go. He’s got the usual characteristics: he's charming, attractive, strong, saves the female MC from bad men, and isn’t one to stoop down and be won over by Sarah’s desperate methods. He’s a bit like Sam’s polar opposite, wherein he’s chill and relaxed, while Sam is uptight and stern. And through David, Sam is able to come out of her shell.

Throughout the story he’s clearly determined to get with Sam, but is never too overly pushy. It’s just the amount you need in these kinds of stories. You got the scenes that would be typical in any romantic comedy type media, like a scene where David is driving a jet ski and Sam is holding onto him in the back. There’s a scene where David saves Sam from bad men groping and harassing her, a scene where David runs to Sam’s hotel room and tries to make up for his seemingly forbidden kiss, and a scene where Sam runs to David to try to fix her relationship with him and make up for her mistakes. It’s all fine and good.

I like how the romance is portrayed. It’s just a temporary summer fling that won’t lead anywhere big and they both know that. So they’ll just have fun with each other while they can. And when it’s revealed that David and his friends go to this resort every year, there’s just a small chance they can see each other again. I do have to wonder why they don’t just trade each other’s phone numbers though. This story does take place in 2014 right?

On discord I mentioned that Clark in “Hush” may have been a better character if he was introduced earlier. If he and Johanna had been assigned to the history project before her transformation, it could’ve made their eventual relationship feel more natural and developed. Instead of Johanna’s very own Prince Charming suddenly coming to her, she would’ve come to love Clark more naturally. Their relationship would feel a lot more earned and real if Clark had to experience her bad side.

In this area, David has the opposite problem. He was introduced too early. In Chapter 6, before Sam and the gang are about to go on a waterslide (before Sam’s breasts become visible to the whole waterpark), they meet David and his friends.

“That’s so kind of you” said Sarah who was now jelly legged and lusting at the guy. But the American carried on looking at me over anyone else.

“So how about it, wanna race?” he asked again.

“Erm...I don't really know you” I replied.

“Sorry where are my manors” he chuckled and held out his hand to shake. “Names David”.

I shook his hand without thinking. His hand was much bigger then mine and covered it. I said nothing still shaking like a coward.

The fact that this is his first appearance doesn’t work. For starters, not much is really done from him witnessing Sam’s embarrassing stunt. He brings it up one other time in the story and that’s it. So including him here was pretty pointless.

The point of this first day at the vacation is to have Sam go through something really embarrassing. To break her spirit and make her think she needs to stay inside for the whole week because she doesn’t know anything about being a girl.

I laid on my bed, my face stuffed in my pillow case as I cried. The pillow became a sponge soaking up all the water that flooded from my eyes. My emotions were all over the place. The embarrassment of what just happened had over come me and now all I could do was sob. The image of everyone laughing at me, surrounding me, mocking me was still present in my head and it filled me with shame.

I knew I shouldn't of gone out! I have no idea how to be a girl! I made a rookie mistake and now I'm the laughing stock of the park!

Introducing David on the first day doesn’t serve any purpose. From a narrative standpoint it doesn’t make sense for him to be in the story yet.

David’s actual introduction should’ve been his second appearance in the story, during the second day of the vacation at the beach where he sees Sam reading a book.

Someone stood before me but I dared not look who. I pulled my gaze away from my tits and lifted my book up in front of my eyes hiding my perverted stare. I did not read I just sat silently hoping the person would leave me in peace. Instead they spoke.

“Samantha”? Came a man’s voice. “That is you right”?

I knew the voice it took me a moment to realize where from but I knew. That distinctive voice with an American twang. It was that guy from the pool, David.

I froze and did not want to speak to him but I definitely couldn't hide behind my book forever. I pulled the book away from my face and saw it was indeed David, standing tall in front of me his muscles bare only wearing a pair of red shorts.

“It is you” he said smiling with relief that he got my identity correct.

From a narrative standpoint it would make the most sense for him to be introduced at this point, and there’s already a very good in-universe reason for them to meet up here. David sees Sam reading a book he likes, strikes up a conversation with her, then afterwards the rest of the main group comes back from the water and meets David. Then they play a volleyball game, and Sam and David’s relationship is set in motion. It works really well.

It’s also worth noting one of the more questionable ideas in the story involves Sam becoming even more feminine on the second day after taking fem pills. She wakes up the second day on vacation, and sees that she is smaller, has larger breasts, and wider hips. 

I walked over to the mirror and noticed instantly my hair had changed. My hair was was now thicker, longer and had much more of a shimmer to it. Yesterday it was long but it only just tickled the top of my shoulders, now it was running down my back and over my shoulders just resting above my breasts.

Then I noticed my face. My nose was smaller and cuter. My eyes bigger and brighter. My lips plump and more kissable. My chin was now perfectly rounded and my cheeks a bit more soft and peachy. My mouth dropped in amazement. Yesterday I looked like a female version of myself, today I looked much less recognizable. Judging my appearance from a male prospective I was super hot! A real babe! It was so strange!

I touched my cheeks and lips gently as if I would hurt such a beautiful and delicate face with my hands. I noticed now my nails were longer and my fingers more slender. The drugs must have kept on changing me over night. I wondered what else had changed. I turned and looked at my bum in the mirror. It was tighter, rounder and very perky. I squeezed the cheeks hard with my hands, it was a truly fine arse!

Then I noticed the bumps under my t.shirt they seemed larger. I lifted up my t.shirt and as I suspected my breasts had gotten bigger. Much bigger.

This is the form she takes for most of the story until the last day of vacation, when the fem pills are losing effect and she reverts back to how she looked on the first day.

Yeah, I’m not a big fan of this, and I think it should’ve been dropped. It’s completely unnecessary and leans way too heavily on those bad clichés of early TG fiction, where they want to make the MC as petite and feminine as possible, in a very over the top manner. It doesn’t add anything to the story and isn’t needed.

The reason I bring this up in the context of David’s character is that on the second day of vacation at the waterpark, Sam is nervous that she may be recognized as the girl whose breasts became visible to the entire park. Her friends reassure her that no one would care to remember that, especially not care to remember the specific girl’s appearance. And Sam rationalizes that since she looks different from how she did yesterday, no one would recognize her.

But in the next chapter, David clearly recognizes her, even though he had only seen her once and she looks much different now. So her assumption that no one would recognize her was dead wrong.

Denise is a pretty good character. I thought all the scenes with her and Sam bonding were sweet. I like how Denise is kind of a mother figure to Sam in this story, which is especially helped by how Sam and Denise’s actual mother doesn’t have any dialogue. They had some cute scenes together and overall Denise is definitely one of the better used characters here.

Some major negatives for me in this story include the macguffins that initiate the transformation, fem pills. I don’t think fem pills are particularly well implemented here. Unlike in “For a Girl” and “Hush” they don’t feel like a natural part of this world, they feel like something haphazardly thrown on top of it. There’s hardly any examination of how fem pills being a thing that exists in this world affects the world, and when I say that I’m not saying fem pills need to be a big part of the plot that’s always relevant, I’m saying that I want them to feel connected to the rest of the story. Are there instances of people other than Sam and Sarah using fem pills? How hard are they to find? How expensive are they? If this story gave the fem pills more depth and made more references to their existence I wouldn’t feel like asking these questions but it doesn’t give anything. 

Fem pills feel like something that only exists to this very small isolated group of people and nowhere else. There’s a scene where the girls convince Sam to wear some more feminine clothing so David doesn’t suspect that she’s a guy, but that’s it. Hell, even the name “fem pill” reads like a placeholder name instead of an actual name that would be in the final story. 

And all of this ties into another problem I had. And that’s that Sam and the rest of the gang do a pretty bad job of hiding that Sam is a guy.

For instance, take this scene in Chapter 9 where David takes Sam’s book and she demands he give it back.

I jumped for it again but missed. I noticed now everyone was watching. Most were laughing but Denise looked worried about me as usual.

“Your such a jerk!” I snapped and retreated to my sun bed, arms folded and face sour.

“Give him it back!” said Denise.

This got his attention and he knew the joke had run it's course.

“Okay, okay” he said. “Here, I didn't loose your page”.

I snatched the book from him and said no more.

Denise refers to Sam with male pronouns, while yelling, and no one bats an eye. I don’t buy that at all. At the very least Sam and Denise should’ve been embarrassed by that mistake. 

Denise doesn’t seem like the kind of person who would make that mistake either, since the name “Samantha” was her idea in the first place.

“This is the part where you tell me your name” he joked at my silence and his friends chuckled behind him.

“Samantha!” said Denise abruptly. “Her names Samantha”!

I turned and gave her a horrified look. What was she doing!

“Samantha, al right awesome” said David. 

David never learns of Sam’s true gender, and I feel like that’s a bit of a missed opportunity. When you take the volleyball scene along with the fact that Sam is constantly miserable, has an aversion to female clothes, and forgot to wear a bra on her first day out into the waterpark, maybe David could piece together that she’s a guy who accidentally took fem pills. And then he doesn’t care about that fact. It could’ve made their relationship even stronger and have David being introduced on the first day serve a purpose.

The big point I’m making is that, in a world that’s otherwise completely normal and like ours, the fact that pills that can change men into women overnight exist should be examined a bit more.

When I first read “The Summer Holiday”, I didn’t like it, but I couldn’t really explain why I didn’t like it. After my second reading I got a better idea of what the hangup was, and writing this review has really helped me understand why I felt the way I did.

For starters, “The Summer Holiday” kind of has the opposite problem as “Fangs”, where instead of being overwritten, it feels underwritten. Though to be fair, aside from the first two chapters, that problem really isn’t that bad.

In spite of that, the fact that the first two chapters are as bad as they are does detract from the story. Furthermore, the fact that half of the main cast was horribly mishandled is also pretty hard to ignore. Leila and Eric do basically nothing and hardly have a personality, and Sarah’s character was just written and handled very poorly in general. And since Sarah in particular is such a driving force of the narrative, that’s a pretty major flaw.

Even the little things, like David being introduced too early, Sam’s sexuality not being written too well, the poor implementation of fem pills, and the weird idea to make Sam look even more feminine on the second day, add up. It’s frustrating because I really wanted to like this story, but all the areas where it messed up come together to make it kind of a bust.

It’s not a total bust though, the good stuff is still noteworthy and worth praising, but in a lot of ways, it feels like missed potential.

Honestly I think this story would’ve been a lot better if Sam had a stronger character arc. He kind of has one where he learns to loosen up and enjoy himself, but it’s not focused on a whole lot. The first chapter kind of sets that up with Sam being a little quick to fight with people, but on the whole a lot of his bad traits don’t come into play until after he transforms into a girl, which was a big misstep. It’s not as satisfying if his bad side is only a result of him being angry at being a girl and doesn’t have anything to do with who he was beforehand.

Imagine a version of this story where Sam is established as stubborn, uptight, easy to get into arguments with, and rarely ever enjoying himself in the first chapter. Here, him becoming a girl would make a lot more sense for his character and connect to a wider arc. Why does he transform into a girl? Because he needs to learn to take it easy and enjoy his life. It’s another missed opportunity.

And of course, there’s the obvious question of if Sam is transgender. Much like “Hush”, this story, whether intentional or not, implies Sam is trans, but never explicitly confirms it. I mean, there's literally a plot twist where it’s revealed the fem pills didn’t change his mind to make him like being a girl and he willingly becomes one in the end. That’s pretty blatant. 

Reading that ending really made me wonder why more TG stories don’t go the route of having the MC change back to a man in the end before deciding they want to go back to being a woman. I think it’s mainly due to the fact that older TG stories, as I’ve said many times before, really hinge on the MC being stripped of all agency and by extension, accountability. Sure, they can say they wouldn’t want to be a man again, but when they’re actually given the choice, it gives them agency. If they willingly choose to be a woman, then the vibe a lot of older TG stories go for is broken a bit. I think breaking that vibe is a good thing for the record and I do wish more older TG stories went in that direction.

There are other things here I can call missed opportunities, like how Sam mentions he has two best friends that never actually appear in the story. And there are some random things I can mention, like how this is the first one of these stories where the MC’s last name is never said. But I think I summed everything up pretty well. 

To judge “The Summer Holiday” overall, it’s okay. On one hand, it handles the whole vacation concept pretty well and Sam’s progression in accepting girlhood comes together with it naturally. It mostly avoids comphet and brainwashing and it even has a bit of a subversive ending. Sam’s development is paced well and doesn’t feel forced, which is more than can be said for a lot of TG stories. There is a lot to like here, but again, the flaws still come through.

It’s disappointing because I feel like this story was very close to being good. It has a lot of good elements, but it just needed a little more. If it had that and it cleaned up its more spotty plot elements, it probably could’ve been a home run. But as it is, it’s underwhelming. It’s definitely one of the better stories on TGST, but it’s not one I have much desire to return to.

Adam Cooper is another author who hasn’t had an online presence in a long time, and much like the others, I do hope they’re doing well, wherever they may be now.

Rating: 6/10

The next story I’ll be reviewing is “Suhara of Curses” by Ruexin. See you all then!