Hello, hello, ghouls and gals!
Spooky month is in full session, and I’ve got another scary book review for ya today.
Today’s post is all about Killer Summer by Wendy Dalrymple.
After reading Birthday Party Demon and Christmas Party Demon and loving it, I just had to read another of Dalrymple’s books. I bought a signed copy of Killer Summer and had extremely high hopes and expectations, so let’s see how it went!
Blurb
She can still smell him.
She can still feel him.
But she can’t see him.
Dani Kincaid is an average teen on the cusp of adulthood in late 1990s California. She has her friends, her family, her boyfriend, and a job at the local video store. But she also has a dangerous stalker in preppy classmate Matt Vickers, a textbook misogynist who will stop at nothing to have her by his side.
Twenty-five years later, Dani is still struggling to shake the past of the killer summer that turned her life upside down. She’s changed her identity and moved to Florida, where the echoes of that awful summer continue to haunt every aspect of her life. Even though Vickers has been behind bars for a quarter of a century, Dani slowly begins to feel his terrifying shadow creep back into her life to finish what he began.
In a final girl showdown to end all showdowns, Dani is forced to face her past and stand up for herself and her freedom once and for all. But at what cost?
Killer Summer is a pink horror slasher splashed with hot magenta blood; a meditation on consent, independence, and the terrifying price that all women face, simply for being alive.
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I am an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate and earn a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase.
The Review
Now this is how you do an iconic slasher!
Dani Kincaid enjoys a relatively normal life. She works at the local video store and dreams of all the great things she’s going to do in college. That is, until her resident stalker comes in and ruins her life. Years later, Dani has rebuilt the shattered fragments of her life, but a terrifying incident brings her former fears back to life with a vengeance.
I love, love, loved this book! Dalrymple is an expert wordsmith and her writing is so easy to get into. This book is no exception, and though slashers aren’t my typical genre, this absolutely knocked it out of the park!
Dani is a realistic and fully fleshed out protagonist. Seeing her live through her trauma and rise above the odds was a real treat, and how it affected her later years made so much sense and made her character really jump off the page. Extra kudos for all of the other characters that had distinct personalities and quirks of their own. I especially adored Aunt Lisa.
Each chapter moves at a quick pace, making this novel very hard to put down. Mystery, murder, and an ever-present tension made this a read that I’ll never forget. Don’t miss out, this author is amazingly talented!
That’s A Wrap!
Well that’s it for this book review. Like what you see? Leave a tip!
Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!
Have a great day!
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