Book Review Tuesday: Summer of Night

Published in 1991, Summer of Night by Dan Simmons is a coming-of-age story set in small town America in the 1960s. The plot revolves around a group of children who realise that their town is in great danger from forces both supernatural and human, and that they are the only ones who can save it. Unsurprisingly, Summer of Night has been compared to Stephen King’s, It, but the plot does differ substantially.

The story begins when five young boys discover that disappearances in their town are linked to the local school, and their attempts to alert adults to this danger are dismissed. Even more alarmingly, some adults are actually working with this dangerous force, making it all the more likely that they won’t be believed. The boys team up with a girl from the ‘wrong side of town’, and together they set out to destroy the evil and make the town and it’s people safe.

In Summer of Night, Simmons creates a believable and evocative world which captures the spirit of childhood perfectly. He uses the fears common to most children – the monster under the bed, the face at the window, the creature in the closet – to great effect, and also turns the resentment many children feel towards compulsory education into something completely logical; who wouldn’t fear teachers who really were trying to kill you?

Simmons also draws on the natural anxiety many children feel as they head into their teens and struggle to come to terms with growing independence and the knowledge that their parents can’t always make their problems go away. These themes are combined with a delightful depiction of the joys of the long summer holiday from school which makes a wonderful backdrop to a story that is part Famous Five, part Stephen King and part To Kill a Mockingbird.

As I mentioned above, Summer of Night has been compared to It. However it is quite different, both in terms of the plot, and also Simmons’ writing style which tends to be more succinct than Kings. Although the book is 600 pages long, it is quite a fast read. If I have any criticism it would be that some of the geographical details are a bit confusing – I saw one reviewer suggesting a map might have been helpful – but this doesn’t detract from the plot as a whole. To sum up: if you’re looking for something truly creepy to while away a long summer evening, Summer of Night definitely fits the bill.