Review of 'Summer’s Edge'

I Know What You Did Last Summer meets The Haunting of Hill House in this atmospheric, eerie teen thriller following an estranged group of friends being haunted by their friend who died last summer.

Emily Joiner was once part of an inseparable group—she was a sister, a best friend, a lover, and a rival. Summers without Emily were unthinkable. Until the fire burned the lake house to ashes with her inside.

A year later, it’s in Emily’s honor that Chelsea and her four friends decide to return. The house awaits them, meticulously rebuilt. Only, Chelsea is haunted by ghostly visions. Loner Ryan stirs up old hurts and forces golden boy Chase to play peacemaker. Which has perfect hostess Kennedy on edge as eerie events culminate in a stunning accusation: Emily’s death wasn’t an accident. And all the clues needed to find the person responsible are right here.

As old betrayals rise to the surface, Chelsea and her friends have one night to unravel a mystery spanning three summers before a killer among them exacts their revenge.

Review

Summer’s Edge has a nice blend of haunting and mystery to keep the reader hooked from the beginning to the end.

Hauntingly Good

There was something about Summer’s Edge that called to me as a reader. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was about the premise, but I knew that I had to buy this book, and I had to read it, and I had to read it now. So, I purchased Summer’s Edge and devoured it within a night.

I love ghost stories. I love the gothic, the atmospheric tension when done well. Mele did an incredible job setting up that eerie atmosphere and the story.

It begins with five friends reuniting for summer, one year after the accidental death of their friend. But when strange things start to happen around the house, and Ryan, Emily’s twin brother, begins to question: was her death an accident?

But there’s more to Emily’s death than just one summer.

Going back three summers, between Chelsea, Kennedy, and Emily, the reader sees the unveiling of three summers’ worth of lies and secrets. We see ghosts roaming the halls, haunting Kennedy’s past, scenes reminiscent of Netflix’s Housing of Hill House.

Mele works hard to capture the unsettling and eerie atmosphere, making sure all the pieces fit together to tell the story of what happened in the summer of the fire when everything fell to pieces. Admittedly, there is some confusion in act two, but it leads to a jaw-dropping revelation that captures the reader’s attention, hooking them for that final act.

Mele made the reader look in one direction before pulling the curtains back, which was terrific. Her use of structure by depicting three summers out of sequence, layering the secrets and mystery on top of one another, was amazingly done. The pacing and those eerie and haunting feelings grip the reader to unveil the unsettling truth at the end of it.

Final Thoughts

I wish I could be more eloquent about Summer’s Edge, but I loved it so much that it’s hard to put it into words. Summer’s Edge is a novel I recommend to everyone. Summer’s Edge gripped me from the synopsis, and I could not put it down when I started reading it. This is one of those novels I read in a night, not a week or even a day. So hooked was I that I stayed up late into the night reading this novel because I had to see how it played out. The characterization was on point; the pacing, the atmosphere, and the unsettling mystery unraveling before their eyes all had me hooked from beginning to end.

• Writing Quality : 10/10
• Character Development : 10/10
• "Couldn't Put It Down"-ness : 10/10
• Intellectual Depth: 10/10
• Originality: 10/10
• Overall Rating: 5 out of 5.

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About the Author

Cynthia Bujnicki graduated from Emerson College with a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing. She has always loved to read since she was a child. A contributing writer for YA Fantasy Addicts, she is also the Editor-in-Chief for Cyn's Workshop. She lives in sunny South Florida with her husband, son and daughter and their two cats.