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Superb!And there we have the coming-of-age horror trifecta. After some research on the net and some reviews on Goodreads by people whose opinion I trust, I've decided to find the best three coming-of-age stories in the horror genre. In my opinion, this is the third and final leg of the triangle - the others being IT by Stephen King and BOY'S LIFE by Robert R. McCammon.What makes these books so great?Well, the writing is superb - it has to be, with this one being the shortest at 601 pages. They h...
Excellent story!Schools out and four friends have a wonderful summer to look forward to until something evil appears and turns their summer into something else. I loved the detailed information of the story and how the author weaves the story around you till it feels like you are experiencing what the boys and the town were going through. This is definitely a masterpiece and it has become a favorite for me.Will be putting this on my favorites shelf and will re-read it in the future. Five stars f...
"Old Central School still stood upright, holding its secrets and silences firmly within. Eighty-four years of chalkdust floated in the rare shafts of sunlight inside while the memories of more than eight decades of varnishings rose from the dark stairs and floors to tinge the trapped air with the mahogany scent of coffins."This book is a story about five 12-year old boys who live in Elm Haven in 1960. It follows them through their summer holidays as they encounter a number of strange happenings
Dan Simmons' Summer of Night is an engaging and creepy page-turner. The novel follows a small group of friends who are up against a malevolent entity. I enjoyed the characters and the way they came together to battle evil (and save their town). Summer of Night is a satisfying coming of age horror tale. My biggest regret has little to do with the actual book and more to do with reading this almost immediately after reading Stephen King's It (which has a very similar story line and structure). It
Preface: Some of you will read this review and wonder why I gave it such a high score when I had such a big problem with a certain aspect of the storyline. Those of you who feel confused by my rating should know that, yes, this book is terrific. It transported me to another time and place. For me, it effortlessly captured a sense of nostalgia for something I never experienced. I wasn't alive in the 60s. I didn't grow up in a small town, though I did live in one for my final years as a teenager.
How wonderful to return to the summer of 1960 in Elm Haven, Illinois. It was my third time sharing the adventures of Dale, Mike, Lawrence (don't call me Larry), Jim Harlen, Kevin, Duane, and Cordie Cooke. This book is like a dear old friend and you never tire of its company. Probably too shamelessly nostalgic, but that's part of Dan Simmon's magic, at least to this reader. Juxtaposed with the sweet small town flavor of SUMMER OF NIGHT is the horror story; one of the finest I've ever read. This n...
1960 Elm Haven, Illinois. The old Central School, a four-story monstrosity, is about to close its doors forever. School's out for summer, and the fun is about to begin. Except that's not what happened at all, was it? A rendering truck with scabby red paint, cornfields that are growing too tall and unnaturally fast, darkness that is absolute. A glint of teeth, shadows that seem to slither, and steps leading down from the basement.A harrowing coming of age tale that will almost certainly pleas...
Summer Of Night is a bloated book (I have a 500 page hardcover) that could really, really use some good editing. Dan Simmons clearly has good intentions, but most of them are lost in complete staleness and cliches of the plot.So far, one of my favorite books I've re-read this year has been King's IT, which I consider one of his true masterpieces. After finishing Summer of Night, I can't help but think that Dan Simmons also shared my enthusiasm and sat down to write his own IT. Ultimately, though...
Loved this book! It goes right to the top with Boy's Life, Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Body as one of my favorite small town, coming of age books. If you like any of those books you should enjoy this story. A group of friends band together to battle a supernatural menace and in the process take me back to my days of adolescence. I have struggled with some of Simmons's work in the past and even though this was just over 600 pages I never felt like it bogged down. There were a couple o...
Honestly most horror or suspense books feel lacking because it's hard to build a plot that keeps someone interested without giving everything away while balancing that with interesting characters and a unique plot line but some how this manages to do that. I honestly haven't read anything else like this but I don't really read that extensive an amount of horror so take that with a grain of salt. I really appreciate how well the ending was written too because honestly the only other writer I've r...
I know many will call it blasphemy, but this book put Simmons ahead of King in my mental list of great horror authors. "Summer of Night" is closest in story to "It" only without the haphazard ending (and 400 pages shorter). When you pick this book up at the store, you will notice that it is a thin book, and make the same assumption that I did, which was that I was about to read a 200-300 page story. About 100 pages in, it dawned on me that there was still a long way to go, flipping to the back I...
The only novel, I´ve read so far, I would compare to Stephen King´s It, it´s one of the most amazing and underrated of Simmons´ works, just as Carrion comfort. And I don´t get why. There are very few authors out there who have this amazing characterization ability, this magic gift of making exposition and less action seem so suspenseful and entertaining by just opening questions the reader wants to get answered. One is into that thing and can´t get out, it´s amazing, everything feels so perfect
When Tubby Cooke goes missing on the last day of sixth grade, Mike O'Rourke and his friends, the Bike Patrol, go looking and stumble upon Elm Haven's secret history of missing children and a turn of the century lynching. But what do those things have do with mysterious holes in the ground and a strange soldier stalking Mike's invalid grandmother?While I loved the Hyperion and Joe Kurtz books, Dan Simmons has been hit or miss for me. This was definitely a hit.Honestly, the first chapter almost ma...
4.5 starsSummer of Night is one of those books where the story is a delight to read but the review is kind of hard to do. It's also my first novel from Dan Simmons. After finishing this book, I definitely want to read by the author.The story is a sort of coming-of-age tale, although instead of focused on one as is typical, it centers around a group of children growing up together in a small town in the 60's. The author brings alive the excitement of that first summer day when school ends and onl...
What all happens during the summer of night? . . . . . . it's not pretty Old Central School still stood upright, holding its secrets and silences firmly within. Eighty-four years of chalkdust floated in the rare shafts of sunlight inside while the memories of more than eight decades of varnishings rose from the dark stairs and floors to tinge the trapped air with the mahogany scent of coffins. the walls of Old Central were so thick that they seemed to absorb sounds while the tall windows, thei...
2017 review: Unashamedly horror, with reverberations of Stephen King's It. Horror and terror comes to a small town and only a small group of children are aware, sound familiar? This is their story. Pretty good epic by Dan Simmons, a must read for his fans. 7 out of 12. Notably an author and genre favourite for horror readers.
The thing that impressed me about this book was not so much Simmons' ability to scare, but to build characters and the world they live in. Simmons draws a map of this small town in your head so well that the reader can see everything that happens vividly. I read other reviews criticizing the time the story takes to develop, but I feel that this is one of the strengths. It is a couple hundred pages in before something scary actually happens. By this time, the reader is anticipating these events,
Summer of Night was one of the most incredible books I have ever read and mind you it's not because I'd rather read a book on a Friday night than party, much to my boyfriends dismay as I so often do.Dan Simmons wove a masterful tale of 1960's Illinois with its cozy little town and streets, Saturday outdoor movies and the kids who were the true heroes of the story. It reminded me of Goonies in places as we quickly grow to like Dale and his younger brother Lawrance, Mike, Duane and Kevin and Jim H...
Re-read 10/7/21:This almost seems to be a seasonal regular. And why not? It's a deliciously spooky mystery/horror that revels in childhood and increasingly terrible deaths. In other words: everything a little boy needs.And just a reminder: this IS the same author who got his chops with horrors before he wrote the utterly classic Hyperion. Just saying.Original Review:It's really odd, but out of all these old 80's early 90's-era massive horror tomes to come out, few of them really strike me as wor...