Book Review — The Summer I Died

 

Title:  The Summer I Died
Author:  Ryan C. Thomas
Genre:  Horror/slasher
Pages:  Paperback, 186
ISBN:  9781977576088
Opening Lines:  "To avoid the nightmares of that summer, I take caffeine and diet pills, any type of speed to keep me up for as long as possible."

When Roger Huntington comes home from college for the summer and is met by his best friend, Tooth, he knows they're going to have a good time. A summer full of beer, comic books, movies, laughs, and maybe even girls. The sun is high and the sky is clear as Roger and Tooth set out to shoot beer cans at Bobcat Mountain. Just two friends catching up on lost time, two friends thinking about their futures . . . two friends suddenly thrust into the middle of a nightmare. Forced to fight for their lives against a sadistic killer with an arsenal of razor sharp blades and a hungry dog by his side. If they are to survive, they must decide: are heroes born, or are they made? Or is it something more powerful happening to them? And more importantly, how do your survive when all roads lead to death?"

~ Jacket copy

The slasher genre has long been seen as the bastard child of the horror movie genre.  Despite the critics, slasher films have always held a special place in horror.  Looking closely, it supports conservative paradigms and beliefs--don't have sex outside of marriage, listen to your parents, don't drink, and so on.  The unfortunate victims of the slasher always violate some type of boundary and are punished for their infraction.  However, the 2000s have taken the slasher genre and started to morph it into something different--pseudo gore porn.  The Summer I Died is not any different.

Roger and Tooth, while out shooting, hear frantic screams.  They decided to go investigate and stumble on scene straight from a horror movie--a woman with an axe sticking out of her forehead and being chased by a crazy man.  Through a series of unfortunate events, both young men find themselves chained in his torture dungeon.  And thus starts the roller coaster ride of The Summer I Died.  It never stops . . .

I will be the first to admit that slashers are my guilty pleasure.  I grew up with Freddy, Jason, and Mikey.  I learned the lessons of violating the boundaries of polite society.  However, for me, there was always a method to the madness of the Slasher.  For me, the newer slasher-type films have taken that cultural boundary and turned it into smut porn.  For example, Hostile, The Purge, The Strangers, etc. are all instances of violence for violence sake.  Aside from the need for bloodshed and trying to show that humans are basically beast driven by their id, there was zero point to the violence.  In some ways, The Summer I Died was no different.

I struggle trying to figure out how to rate this book or even how to approach this review.  Ryan C. Thomas is an extremely talented author. His writing style is unique and holds a lyrical quality while still being simplistic.  Getting down to a technical level, my problems stem from hinting at some psychological issues behind Skinny Man's behavior, but never following through with it.  Maybe we don't need to know as an audience; however, I felt a little let down.  And, to be honest, I struggle with how it pulled me in.  The violence was almost too much.  

It was a well-written.  It pulled me in, and I struggled putting it down.  However, I cannot give it an accurate rating.  Reader beware: the book is brutal beyond words.  If you enjoy brutal slashers, definitely read this book!