A review by oddly
Dog Days O' Summer by James Newman, Mark Allan Gunnells
4.0
Fun, entertaining, and well-crafted, Dog Days O’ Summer is a great weekend or one-sitting type read when you want something propulsive and captivating, perhaps on a warm summer night, as you sit outside and watch the sun go down.
Set in the mid-nineties, the story follows a group of young boys in a small town where people are being brutally murdered. The story doesn’t hold much close to the vest, offering up the potential suspect on the first page as Jason narrates from a point in the future and not attempting to veil the supernatural tones of the story for too long (I mean, if you take a peek at the cover and title, you could probably wager a guess).
But that doesn’t work against the story. I was completely on board with the boys and their shenanigans, appreciating the ’90s references and the strong dialogue and relationships between the characters.
While this book was fun to read, I doubt that it will be very memorable for me because there really wasn’t anything in it that stood out as new and original. It was a mashup of the lovable kids from [b:The Body|38926465|The Body|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527495506s/38926465.jpg|2334601], slasher elements from stories like [b:December Park|17802356|December Park|Ronald Malfi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1395145819s/17802356.jpg|24903872], and the—adding a tag just in case you wanted to keep that last bit a surprise!
I also thought the extensive explanation at the backend of the story via a journal brought the plot to a screeching halt and was unnecessary; we didn't need all that background to understand what was going on, and it wasn’t important to the main character’s journey.
Overall, this is a quick and fun read, but doesn’t offer anything new to the (quite large) catalog of stories similar to it, and it didn’t present any big, overarching ideas that made the story resonate deeply with me.
My thanks to Unnerving and the authors for sending this one to the Night Worms to read and review.
Set in the mid-nineties, the story follows a group of young boys in a small town where people are being brutally murdered. The story doesn’t hold much close to the vest, offering up the potential suspect on the first page as Jason narrates from a point in the future and not attempting to veil the supernatural tones of the story for too long (I mean, if you take a peek at the cover and title, you could probably wager a guess).
But that doesn’t work against the story. I was completely on board with the boys and their shenanigans, appreciating the ’90s references and the strong dialogue and relationships between the characters.
While this book was fun to read, I doubt that it will be very memorable for me because there really wasn’t anything in it that stood out as new and original. It was a mashup of the lovable kids from [b:The Body|38926465|The Body|Stephen King|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527495506s/38926465.jpg|2334601], slasher elements from stories like [b:December Park|17802356|December Park|Ronald Malfi|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1395145819s/17802356.jpg|24903872], and the
Spoiler
werewolf tropeI also thought the extensive explanation at the backend of the story via a journal brought the plot to a screeching halt and was unnecessary; we didn't need all that background to understand what was going on, and it wasn’t important to the main character’s journey.
Overall, this is a quick and fun read, but doesn’t offer anything new to the (quite large) catalog of stories similar to it, and it didn’t present any big, overarching ideas that made the story resonate deeply with me.
My thanks to Unnerving and the authors for sending this one to the Night Worms to read and review.