Reader reviews

• Nina Quartuccio

  (4/5)

  Lengthy but dont stop, it is a solid story with great narration. Not enough gore, otherwise 5 stars but full of suspense and tragedy. Love the characters, so well developed. It did move along at a pretty good pace, I wouldn't say it dragged at all, the author and the talented narrator kept the spirit of horror going. Definitely worth the time.
• Jenni Hoover

  (4/5)

  Much too descriptive. Way too long. It’s basically It in a different form.
• MichaelRShannon

  (5/5)

  Too many bad words and too much sex for kids that age — I know, I was there — but otherwise a tremendous book. And praise the Lord, it wasn’t a coming of age story!
• MistinaChristina

  (5/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  Very good. I almost stopped listening to this due to an occurrence that really annoyed me. But I kept and I’m glad I did. There is a sequel. Set in the future when the boys are grown.

  1 person found this helpful

• Daisy Kirby

  (3/5)

  Such a long, long, slow, and uselessly so, beginning. *Hours* of pointless... *everything*. Truly, I skipped a lot.
  I only slogged on because I've read and thoroughly enjoyed a couple of other novels by Dan Simmons.
  I felt rewarded by a 'B-' grade climax.
  I wouldn't recommend this book to friends.
• Alex Hyatt

  (5/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  Great narration and character voices made for a great and entertaining experience!

  1 person found this helpful

• Leah Barton Tew

  (2/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  This book started out strong. I enjoyed how well the author was able to develop the characters and the scenes so that they truly came alive. And the plot was intriguing as well, at first.
  
  And then it went off the tracks as, unfortunately, the vast majority of books (and movies) of this genre do. It was just too “over the top”, to the point that it actually became tiresome. In fact, the last half of the book ended up borrowing so many disparate cliches that it felt as randomly architected as the school building it describes in the beginning.
  
  I would love to read more books in the horror genre that don’t rely on shock and spectacle, choosing instead to leverage suspense and mystery to create a truly “creepy” response. I’m losing faith that such writing even exists anymore.

  1 person found this helpful

• Lydia

  (5/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  I really enjoyed this book. Dan simmons is a wonderful writer.

  1 person found this helpful

• caanderson-1

  (3/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  I enjoyed the story for the most part. The scary parts are really good, suspenseful and lots of twists in the story. What kills the book for me is all the back story, it was too much and kept taking me out of the story. Then there’s the old character arcs that need to be retired and never written about again. Not all boys growing up in the 40’s are misogynistic. Not all single female school teachers are fat and stupid. Not all single mothers are considered sluts by their school age sons. Not all school age girls are inept, fat, or have speech impediments.

  1 person found this helpful

• Leslie

  (4/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  Dan Simmons is a good writer. I don't say that lightly. In Summer of Night, he photographs the years of my childhood, when children except for one's own, were mostly unsupervised and often invisible, unless they interfered with grownup business.
  
  One of my favorite themes in this book is the idea that, in the course of our daily lives, while we can recognize irritation and obstacles, we can be blind to plain old evil.
  
  It's well-written, it's a blast from the past, and it's engagingly narrated (I wonder how they do those voices? )
  
  

  1 person found this helpful

• Jill Jorgensen

  (4/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  Overall I liked this book, but it could have used some editing

  1 person found this helpful

• brendanpmyers

  (4/5)

  In Dan Simmons’ Summer of Night, an ancient and forgotten evil comes to life in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, where a close-knit group of recently graduated sixth graders are among the few to realize it’s happening, and soon understand they are the only ones who can deal with it.
  
  Though a terrific work of horror, Summer of Night is much more than that. It’s a coming-of-age tale that deftly recalls what it’s like to be eleven-years-old, no longer a kid, but yet not truly adolescent either. It affectionately captures hot, sweaty summer days of riding bikes, playing sandlot baseball, camping out, long days spent in the woods, and a nascent and budding interest in the opposite sex.
  
  It also quite cleverly captures a time, the year 1960, with black and white background images of Democrats nominating Kennedy, and the first satellites being sent into space; and a place, the dying town of Elm Haven, Illinois, which doesn’t know that it’s dying.
  
  The source of the horror both stretches credulity and is quite clever. Then again, it doesn’t matter what causes the World War I soldier to come out of his grave and stalk one of the character’s grandmothers. It doesn’t matter how the lamprey creatures can burrow and surface and dive into asphalt as easily as a dolphin in water. And it certainly doesn’t matter what caused the interior of Old Central School to become ensconced in viscous fluids, pulsing eggsacks, and fleshy tentacles. What matters is it has happened and must be dealt with.
  
  One of the things I find interesting about reading an obviously semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale is trying to determine exactly which character is the author. In this book, there are many to choose from. There’s altar boy and all-around good guy Mike O’Rourke; earnest Dale Stewart and his younger brother Lawrence. There’s wiseass Jim Harlen, and quietly strong Kevin Grumbacher. And in the background, hovering over them all, is the bookish and brilliant (and doomed) Duane McBride.
  
  Though it becomes obvious toward the end which character most resembles Simmons, I’m struck upon every re-reading just how fully drawn each of the characters is, and can’t help but think there’s a little bit of Simmons in all of them.
  
  What strikes me most upon each re-reading of this book is the universality of it. Though I wasn’t born at the time this book takes place, it captures my own perhaps romanticized memories of my youth, hot summer days playing baseball and hanging out with friends, of riding bikes and camping out and playing in the woods. That may be why I re-read this book every few years or so.
  
  It’s always good to catch up with old friends.
• jan0fleming

  (4/5)

  It’s the summer of 1960 and in the small town of Elm Haven, Illinois, five twelve-year-old boys are forging the powerful bonds that a lifetime of change will not break. From sunset bike rides to shaded hiding places in the woods, the boys’ days are marked by all of the secrets and silences of an idyllic middle-childhood. But amid the sundrenched cornfields their loyalty will be pitilessly tested. When a long-silent bell peals in the middle of the night, the townsfolk know it marks the end of their carefree days. From the depths of the Old Central School, a hulking fortress tinged with the mahogany scent of coffins, an invisible evil is rising. Strange and horrifying events begin to overtake everyday life, spreading terror through the once idyllic town. Determined to exorcize this ancient plague, Mike, Duane, Dale, Harlen, and Kevin must wage a war of blood—against an arcane abomination who owns the night...
  
  Nostalgic, reminiscence Gothic tale crossed with Stephen King’s IT.
  
  "Few events in a human being's life--at least a male human being's life--are as free, as exuberant, as infinitely expansive and filled with potential as the first day of summer when one is an eleven-year-old boy"
  
  I love the way Dan Simmons writes and here he is pitch perfect capturing that uniquely childhood experience of that first day of the holidays with the whole of summer stretching out in front of you filled with anticipation, fun and adventure…maybe a little too much adventure in this case
  
  Summer of Night boasts a fascinating cast of characters, relationships, conflicts and horrors set in the in the bucolic town of Elm Haven, Illinois in 1960.
  
  Beautiful writing with characters you care about, the author does a wonderful a job of visualising Gothic midwestern America.
  
  Clever, frightening, and gripping and highly recommended
  
• Nylea

  (3/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  I rip off of It written before It was insanely popular. Still enjoyed it.

  1 person found this helpful

• Arielle Butler

  (3/5)

  2 people found this helpful

  There is a little too much description of little boy physiques and the hormonal thoughts they have. The plot was good but would have been better without the essence of pedophilia.

  2 people found this helpful

• carol420

  (5/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  School is out in the small Ohio town of Elm Haven. This will be the last class of Old Central built in 1876. The atmosphere has always been less than pleasant but now it is perpetrated with evil beyond imagination. The kids of Elm Haven sense this evil and are determined to fight it but the entity has lived too long to give in easily. The advantage is that few adults will believe them if they told. The book is filled with how life was in small town America 45 years ago. It will really bring back memories. You can almost smell the corn growing as you remember lazy summers of your childhood. If you like really good horror stories then this is just your ticket.

  1 person found this helpful

• sorjuana-2

  (5/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  In the vein of Stand By Me and It by Stephen King.Real page turner.Characters with depth.Dan Simmons is a terrific writer,his prose raises his novels above pop fiction to literature.

  1 person found this helpful

• dagon12

  (4/5)

  2 people found this helpful

  This started out as what I thought was going to be a boy's-coming-of-age-over-the-summer type of book, sort of like Robert McCammon's BOY'S LIFE. But then not too far into the story, things got freaky. Weird stuff and then more weird stuff. Pretty soon I was wondering what was happening and how was everything going to be explained. Then it got scary, real scary! It no longer resembled what I thought it was and instead turned into a teenagers-against-the-evil-creatures type of book. It is extremely well written with good characterization and a plot that insinuates itself into you without you knowing it. Additionally core characters to the book get injured and killed leaving you not knowing what will happen or to whom. This is the first book in a while that has scared me while reading it. Something to be definitely enjoyed!!

  2 people found this helpful

• steeleyjan

  (5/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  I read the reviews before buying this audiobook, and was surprised by the vast differences in reviewer opinion. For some, the book was too long, and others never wanted it to end. This novel is long, but if you grew up in the 50,s 60;s, or 70;s, you will probably feel a sense of nostalgia. If you grew up before those decades, I would imagine the book would seem wordy and too lengthy.Summer of Night falls somwhere between "It" and "Stand By Me" in the dewey decimal system of your mind, which are both by Stehen King. I loved this novel, and think the writing vividly depicts a coming- of- age story involving several teen boys. They cus, they drink, they go on adventures. They have good parents, they have awful parents, and they rely on each other.There is the issue of childhood death in this story along with the parental grief that follows. That kind of raw emotion has always been difficult for me to take as a reader, but Simmons manages to make it part of the overall horror story instead of an emotional mess.The writing is good, I got lost in the book, and I really liked the characters and the charater development. Dan John Miller was an excellent choie for narration.

  1 person found this helpful

• jpporter

  (5/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  Dan Simmons was well-cemented in place as one of my favorite authors before I read this book - this just raises him that much more in my esteem. The man can write in apparently every genre with the same level of intensity. Summer of Night tells the tale of six boys who have just finished the sixth grade (well, one of them is actually a couple of years behind) at the same time that their school - a more-than-one-hundred-year-old building - is being closed for good. But, as they prepare for an adventurous summer vacation, an ancient evil seeks to complete a transformation that began when the school was built.The story is replete with the stuff of which adolescent nightmares are made ... and symbolic, perhaps? I don't know what Simmons' intent was when he wrote the book, and the introduction that accompanies this edition does not preclude the possibility of this, but there is plenty of reason to wonder if some of the things that happen, and the principals involved, could well stand as symbols of many of the things involved in the passage into "teen-hood." And that just increases my estimation of Dan Simmons' writing.One of the characters in the book is apparently Simmons' representation of himself. The story is set in a small town in Illinois (where Simmons apparently grew up), it takes place in 1960, when Simmons would have been around 12 years old, and the protagonists are - by and large - 12, as well. Enjoy!!!

  1 person found this helpful

• Lena Ariza

  (1/5)

  I was going to try to push through, then Scribd informed me I still 12 hours to go in this 22 hour audiobook.
  
  No. Just no.
  
  This book is:
  Lots of kids.
  Lots of detail.
  Lots of guns.
  Lots of small town meanness.
  
  The “scary parts” are:
  Did I just feel a cold wind?
  Did I just get a dark feeling?
  Did the closet door just move?
  What was that noise?
  
  And road rage.
  And dead dogs. Really hated all the dead dogs.
  
  I had thought to compare this to Ghost Road Blues, 95% small town mean ending in 5% good malevolent supernatural boo, but dear God I enjoyed GRB better. That alone means it’s less than two stars.
• Thomas Nunez

  (4/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  It was a good. A bit long but characters are well developed.

  1 person found this helpful

• Jessica Kodzik

  (3/5)

  It gets a little weird sometimes, the boys get into some very far fetched situations and handle themselves like trained green berets instead of 13 yro boys, but most of the characters are well drawn (the ‘good guys’ are anyway’ Despite the fact that they fight like mercenaries on occasion. There are some REALLY unexpected plot twists...and some nonsensically vague ‘bad guys’ but all in all I found it entertaining. Also I love long books (especially on here since I only get one free audiobook a month so I hate wasting it on a short one.) I think it was pretty good, but not necessarily enough to recommend using your one audiocredit on it...
• crwiese

  (3/5)

  2 people found this helpful

  Interesting plot that keeps you hooked. End wraps up a little too quick and nicely in my opinion. If you are a fan of Stephen King's IT, you will most likely enjoy and see similarities. However, if you are not a fan of young kids constantly cussing and even making sexual comments- you may not want to choose this book. I almost quit listening to audiobook early on due to large amounts of unnecessary cursing and sexual innuendo. All in all, book was ok, even suspenseful at times, but foul language definitely took away from what could have been a better, more suspenseful read.

  2 people found this helpful

• ShannonHarding

  (5/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  Shit was dope, worth the read. It's like Stephen kings it.

  1 person found this helpful

• tara714

  (4/5)

  1 person found this helpful

  I'm not a fan of horror novels. I usually find them just plain dumb, but I really enjoyed this story. I found the story interesting and it was frightful and tense where it should be. It starts out a little slow and boring but it picks up. The way he wrote about the kids and their lives made me nostalgic for an era I didn't even live in. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to dig in to a creepy story.

  1 person found this helpful

• tymfos

  (4/5)

  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 , their glass warped and distorted by age and gravity, tinted the air with a sepia tiredness. . . .By the spring of 1960, Old Central School had come to resemble some of the ancient teachers who had taught in her: too old to continue but too proud to retire, held stiffly upright by habit and a simple refusal to bend. Barren herself, a fierce old spinster, Old Central borrowed other people's children over the decades." (from the first page of [Summer of Night])It is summer of 1960, and Old Central School has completed its last year as an active shcool. A group of friends, most of them having just completed 6th grade, are ready for summer fun. But it's not going to be an easy summer. Something Evil is afoot. A boy has disappeared. A dead soldier is wandering about. The odorous Rendering Truck roams the streets in search of more than dead animals. There are rumors of a cursed Bell. And something is slithering under the ground. . .I love the writing in this book. I love the warm scenes of ordinary small-town circa 1960s life juxtaposed against vivid descriptions of the dark horror of Evil that is enveloping the town. Simmons takes his time with descriptions that pull the reader back into small-town life the summer of 1960. There are mentions Huntley & Brinkley and the nomination of JFK. There are marvelous passages that bring small town/rural life alive to the reader. Some might say he describes too much -- at 600 pages, this book isn't a quick read. But without being rooted in that solid sense of a real place and time, I'm not sure this story would work nearly as well as it does.There are also things straight out of the author's chilling imagination. This is a horror novel, populated with the undead and other things that go bump (and slither and scratch) in the night. A certain suspension of disbelief is required of the reader -- not only regarding supernatural things, but also about the actions of these kids in fighting that Powerful Evil. But the author taps into an arsenal of natural childhood fears; fear of the dark, of something in the closet or under the bed; a reluctance to go into the basement, the threat of a menacing truck. Indeed, he does so much with the dreaded, odorous "Rendering Truck" that I wonder if a real-life version of such a truck was part of the writer's actual childhood terrors.This is a classic Good vs. Evil tale. Some of it's rather gross, and the ending (as with many horror novels) is a bit much. But I enjoyed it.
• grateful9zed

  (4/5)

  Not bad...interesting but fell apart at the end for me (but a lot of books do).
• souleswanderer

  (5/5)

  Staring at the clock, watching the minute hand creep towards the end of another school year with summer vacation only moments away, we are introduced to the last group of students attending Old Central School. As the minutes tick by, a fifth-grader walks the hallway down to the boys’ bathroom intent on completing his recent act of vandalism, breaking through one of the walls. He disappears. An eerie scream is heard throughout the school as the final bell rings and the handful of students seem disturbed by the sound are quickly assured by the teachers the noise is due to the age of the building. It’s 1960 in Elm Haven, Illinois, a small community surrounded by cornfields and seeded with a haunted past that has re-awakened, attempting to claim the town. The only obstacle to achieving that goal is the bicycle patrol, consisting of Mike, Dale, Lawrence, Jim, Kevin, and Duane. Dan Simmons has created a wonderful, nostalgic glimpse into a childhood past with the activities of his protagonists. Saturday night free movies at the makeshift drive-in, lazy days of sleeping in, dirt-clod wars, swimming in the nearby water-hole, and pup-tent camping. What would normally be a tale of growing up in small town America, becomes a background to the more sinister plot of an ancient evil resurrected, and using the community leaders to further its influence. Losing the innocence of youth to the realities and sometimes harsher consequences of adult decisions, we watch this group of youngsters grow and cope with the evil that only they seem to be able to see and confront. There are strong resemblances to other coming of age stories set in a horror genre, and Simmons does a nice job of building and fleshing out most of his characters while slowly introducing the monsters under the bed. I didn’t want to put this one down, not because it allowed me to keep the light on during the night, but that I wanted to see just how ingenious the tenacious youths would be in the final showdown. Ah but for the glory days of summer, where one could jump on a bicycle and roam the neighborhoods for hours, with no cares or worries except to be home for dinner.
• harpua_1

  (5/5)

  I really like Dan Simmons, he writes in so many different genres that I find it hard to believe that he does them all so well, but he really does. This is one of Dan's horror novels. One of my favorite types of novels are those that show a group of youngesters, usually pre-teens, set back in the 60s that are plagued by and must fight some sort of evil. Summer of Night compares well with classics like McCammons, Boys Life or Stephen Kings It. Simmons brings to life the times and scenary of the early 60s small midwestern town. These boys must fight a supernatural evil that plagues their town. Simmons is a master of settings and character development in the books of his I have read so far. He definitely succeeded in this novel bringing the characters to life. I recommend this one whole heartedly and look forward to picking up the sequel to this one soon.