Summer's Edge (2024)

Summer days spent at the lake with friends; the stuff hazy, sun-soaked dreams are made of.

Everyone is young, good-looking, scantily clad, there's a ton of food, drink and drama. Making memories, that's what it's all about. Both good and bad.

For Kennedy, Emily, Chelsea, Chase and Ryan, summers at Kennedy's family lake house were their thing. They've been friends for so long and their summer days together serve as an anchor for their relationships.

As the friend group ages circ*mstances do become more complicated, however. Like the year that Chase, Emily's long-time crush, brings a new girlfriend, Mila, into the group. That summer doesn't end well.

In fact, in ends in Emily's tragic death and the lake house burning to the ground.

A year later, the house has been painstakingly rebuilt; an exact replica. With the house ready for occupants once again, the friends have been invited to reunite at the property on the anniversary of Emily's death.

From the very start you could cut the tension with a knife. It runs thick amongst this group. Everyone is second guessing if they should even be there.

Additionally, Chelsea begins having haunting visions. She's seemingly the one who has suffered the most mentally since last summer and it is extremely challenging to be back at the lake. The guilt is overwhelming for her.

Making matters worse is the fact that the boys are at each other's throats and Kennedy's constant need to play the consummate hostess is pushing her to the edge.

Eerie events begin to plague the group almost immediately, leading to an accusation that Emily's death was no accident. It seems someone else is on the property with them and that person is seeking revenge.

Will the friends be able to work together long enough to solve the mystery of what happened last summer before it's too late?

Pitched as The Haunting of Hill House meets I Know What You Did Last Summer, this YA Supernatural Thriller was uncomfortably addicting from beginning to end.

I have read from Dana Mele before and while I enjoyed People Like Us quite a bit, I would classify it as a fairly standard YA Mystery/Thriller. Summer's Edge is many things, but standard is not one of them.

This story took me completely by surprise. It's like I went in expecting a burger and fries, but what I actually received was a perfectly prepped Wagyu steak with truffled fingerling potatoes.

I was going along, all was well and then it took a sudden right turn. I was surprised, but pleasantly so, thinking okay, I didn't know this was going there.

Then we took turn after turn until I was questioning everyone and everything I had read previously.

It was reality-warping. I can't believe how hard I was questioning myself.

I love that Mele was able to surprise me. It was cleverly-plotted and the writing was truly next level. I loved how it made me think. The narrative really plays off the assumptions we make as Readers.

My final thought was, wow.

In addition to the clever plot, disturbingly accurate toxic friendships and spooky scenes, the atmosphere was exactly what I was hoping for.

The perfect creepy summer read to keep you up late at night and possibly fearful of swimming in the lake or going out on the boat. Take from that what you will.

Thank you so much to the publisher, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, for providing me with a copy to read and review.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it didn't disappoint for a moment! Highly recommend!!

UPDATE: ARCS are in the world! Yay! And time to hide under a rock.

But this would also be a good time to make a list of trigger warnings! This is what I've come up with, but if anyone ever reads the book and finds something I've missed, please feel free to add in the comments, or message me on my website to let me know:

This book contains murder, blood, references to (past) suicidal ideations and involuntary admission to a psychiatric hospital, trauma related to the death of a friend, a description of a dead animal (a rabbit), references to drowning, poisoning, fire, fear of sharks, and falling.

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It looks like my book description disappeared! So I'm adding the one from PW:

Pitched as The Haunting of Hill House meets I Know What You Did Last Summer, the YA supernatural thriller centers five estranged friends who return to the summer lake house on the anniversary of their friend’s death. But when unexplainable events begin happening, the group suspects there's an uninvited guest in their midst—one intent on revenge.

I'll be adding updates here as pub date gets closer!!! I could not be more excited for this book. It's...well, you'll see.

The problem is that the living and the dead aren't meant to mix.
The problem is that I think the line has begun to blur.

Unfortunately for me, there were a lot of elements of this story that did not work for me, with most of them boiling down to the writing and editing. I read an eARC of this, so hopefully these issues were fixed by the time the final edits went to print, but I found some glaring continuity errors (such as a character destroying an item on one page, and then having it in his hands, unharmed, two pages later) and there were some unlikely scenarios that I couldn't quite suspend my disbelief for. While some of those scenarios are somewhat explained later, avoiding tying up those loose ends struck me as incomplete and a missed opportunity to make this book a lot more solid than it was.

While I won't give any spoilers for the twists or the ending, I will say that I saw it coming, and while it was a trope I've enjoyed in many other pieces of media, I didn't love its execution here. That said, there were some redeeming qualities in a few of the characters and many quotable, creepy lines that I enjoyed (especially in the "in-between" short chapters in the first half of the book), and the atmosphere of the lake house was immaculate. Overall, Summer's Edge wasn't a story to write home about and I was a little relieved when it was over, as I think it dragged on a bit too long, but I'm still happy I read it and think it will be a big hit with a lot of summer thrill-seekers!

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! All thoughts are honest and my own.

✨ Representation: Chelsea is bi/pan (not specific); Kennedy is sapphic (unknown if lesbian or bi/pan)

✨ Content warnings for: death, murder, grief, death by fire/smoke inhalation, death by drowning, infidelity, animal death (brief, off-page), brief implication of a previous suicide attempt, brief memories of forced mental health institutionalization, drugging without consent, underage alcohol abuse

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I struggled with this book because it was difficult to tell the characters apart. Their voices were so similar. The book is divided into three parts, each with a different narrator. Honestly, in the first part, I kept forgetting whose head I was supposed to be in. Chelsea, Kennedy, someone else? The middle-ish was slow, and I ended up skimming after the halfway point. Though confusing at times, I think everything did come together in the end. I think? Borrowed from the library.

Pitched as Rebecca meets The Haunting of Hill House, Summer's Edge is a queer horror/thriller about a group of friends returning to a lake house the summer after their friend died there. And it was SO good! Slow building tension, super toxic relationship dynamics, and a creepy, possibly haunted house.

The first half of the book is told through the perspective of Chelsea who spent the last year in an out of mental hospitals and is possibly an unreliable narrator. She's there with her ex-girlfriend AND her ex-boyfriend, while they are still mourning the death of his (the ex-boyfriend's) twin sister the year before. And then there's his best friend who his sister had a thing for, and the friends current girlfriend. It's messy and complicated, a book dealing with grief, toxic friendship, and privilege. I don't want to say too much more, but this book totally worked for me. It's a perfect summer-time horror novel. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Content warnings from the author: "This book contains murder, blood, references to (past) suicidal ideations and involuntary admission to a psychiatric hospital, trauma related to the death of a friend, a description of a dead animal (a rabbit), references to drowning, poisoning, fire, fear of sharks, and falling."

I read an early version of this as a CP and it was SO GOOD I itched to tell people about it, and that's how you know a thriller is good! I cannot wait to read the publication version and 5 star it all over again :)

Easiest 5 stars I gave this year!

"Do you know what I think about the truth? I think truth breaks people. It twists them in knots until they snap. It turns them against one another. Truth is a poison, and we treat it like an antidote."

Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the queen of creating unlikable characters with their toxic friendships and relationships, who you still, for some reason, deeply care about—Dana Mele!

I loved her novel "People Like Us" and had to wait for an eternity to finally read this one. But it was totally worth it.
"Summer's Edge" blew my mind.

It's hard to explain what exactly was so amazing about this novel without spoiling it, so all I'm going to say is: This is how you write a ghost story! You don't use ghosts to help cover up plot holes. Not use them as excuses for every illogical/impossible event. Not make them copy/paste sad ghosts who need help of the living to tell the world story of how they were killed, nor angry ghosts who want revenge.
No, you do what Dana Male did and scramble readers' brains.

Just...pick up this book and see it for yourselves!

And question for those who read it: any thoughts on the epilogue??

This book is a bit hard to rate, but I´ll end up with a two-star rating, because I simply didn´t enjoy it for the most part.

This book is a little bit over the place, I don´t know if I´m more frustrated for having finished and seeing all the plot holes but also the possibilities this story had, or if I´m frustrated that I just didn´t drop it. In any case here it goes.

One thing that I really struggled with, was that the characters don't feel fleshed out or have their own voices, everyone reads the same and there are three different narrators in total and that is one thing I really dislike in books, I think the author could have worked better in bringing more unique voices to each one so they could feel a little separated from each other and not have the same voice. Another thing was that the writing itself did not suit this story at all, apart from having a very raw and draft kind of tone, this story would have benefitted so much from a more atmospheric and descriptive story.

Another point that lies tied with the writing, is that the first narrator of the book paints a very different picture from the other though, and although that works as a plot point, in terms of writing it made first chunk (about 50%) really feel different from the rest both thematically and in tone, and I keep thinking that if I never pushed through I wouldn´t know the rest of the story that is so different, and also the first part was really a slog. I couldn´t tell one character from another (what´s up with Chelsea and Chase these names are so similar) and their relationships to one another, and there seemed like the story wasn´t going anywhere, and it was so dragged it really bummed me.

Then we have a major shift in point of view and the paranormal aspect really comes into play, and I loved it. I love this plot simply putting it. I just felt that if the writing was different, and the character construction in the first part of the novel was different, I would´ve loved it so much, I would´ve cared so much more and that is really a bummer. One thing I have to say about this is that there are so many book comparisons made when marketing a book "this is a mix of y meets x" and in my experience most of the time it really is just a stretch or a pure market card and not really anything to deal with the story but in this case, they weren't lying. What really bums me is the amount of wasted potential that could have made this story great.

I really thought if I should rate this a 3 star since I really did enjoy this plot aspect, but here is the thing: more commonly books have flaws in the plot, you feel like things could be different, if there was a different choice or path, if things ended in another way. Fewer times, the book has an excellent plot but such poor writing that you just can´t overlook it. This is the case here. I really wish I could give this one a higher rating, but I just can´t. The overall reading experience left me more pissed of than not, and a plot/plot twist cannot be the only thing holding a book when everything else sucks.

There was more revelations at the third part in the novel with another pov change, this narrator was the one I cared for the least and also these chapters felt more jumbled and messy than the previous ones. Again, I enjoyed the twist, but I just really didn´t care about the character or like the writing.

Like I said earlier, this was a difficult one to rate. I had numerous problems with it that I cannot overlook, but it wasn´t a complete waste, when you analyze it like this.

↠ 2 stars✨

How far are we willing to go for the people we love- and how quick are we to abandon them for our own sake? These are some of the many questions Summer's Edge poses in this dark thriller/drama.

Overview:

👍 Who-Done-It
👍 Co dependent destructive friend group
🆗 Sapphic romance
🆗 Bisexual love triangle
👍 Multi POV
👍 Non linear storytelling
♥️ Gothic drama

Summer's Edge is at its heart, a young adult gothic. A book meant to leave an impression to those who love the genre and possibly frustrate those who don't.

Chelsea and her friends have been close for a long time, until the night one of them, Emily, burns to death in her girlfriend's lake house. In that moment, their lives and friendships shatter. A year later, their friend group returns to the lake house, rebuilt down to the last detail. As they revisit the last year, it feels like someone is sending them cryptic messages about the incident; about what REALLY happened that night.

This is a slow, understated book that does not give you too much at once. It's long conversations and a slow burn reveal of the nature of these characters and their relationships with each other. Summer's Edge feels like a love letter to traditional gothic storytelling- it isn't trying to give you an explosive moment. Rather, by the end of the book, the creeping feeling of realization comes in. Those small moving parts all tie together for a twist that leaves you feeling strange and hollow.

The storytelling in non linear, told more or less between two timelines by three different girls; however, it is not confusing or hard to follow. The story follows the teens meeting back up at the lake house, and later goes into the past the year that Emily died.

the characters themselves are all fairly un likable by design. all of them are messy, troubled teenagers with a spot of darkness to them. If you've read the adult gothic author Rachel Hawkins, it is a lot like her work.

I have to be honest, I was rooting for the villain most of the time. I did not particularly support any of the main characters in the book, though they were all extremely interesting as people. I particularly liked Emily and her twin Ryan. Emily's past POVs were exceptional and the hi light of the book for me. She was such a fascinating character.

I has one character whose POV I didn't love (Kennedy), but ultimately came to appreciate as it provided much needed context for the book. I also did not like the main romance very much; although I do not know how much you are really supposed to. I hard a hard time buying it, but the individual characters themselves were pretty cool.

Summer's Edge is a spooky treat for fans of darker YA. I devoured it, and I recommend it for patient readers who can enjoy an easy to read, slower moving tragedy.

holy f*ck. rtc!

While I could not put this book down, I found parts of the storyline confusing and choppy. I had re-read several chapters quite a few times in order to grasp what was actually happening. I found it hard to follow, as the author switched the character who was ‘speaking’ in one chapter to another character in the next without a smooth segue.

I question whether I would recommend it to someone.

**spoiler free!

“Feasts are for weddings and funerals, greetings and goodbyes.”

→ 4.5 stars

okay there’s not a lot i can say without spoiling what happens, but this was AMAZING. all the twists were so shocking and i didn’t see any of them coming, and i definitely spent at least 30 minutes staring off into space because i was so shocked??? the only reason why i didn’t give it 5 stars is because the ending got a little bit confusing, but other than that i loved this so so so much. this was one of my most anticipated reads in 2022, and it definitely did not disappoint AT ALL.

i feel like it’s kinda difficult to explain the plot since this book is so intense and crazy, but just trust me when i say it’s definitely worth reading. it reminded me of the haunting of hill house and we were liars, so if you’re a fan of either of those you’ll probably love this :)

also, i really loved the lesbian and bi rep! it wasn’t a huge part of the story since this book wasn’t really about relationships, but that was the main relationship so it made me really happy that that was added :)

overall this was VERY well done and i will definitely be reading more books by this author in the future!

→ trigger warnings

**this list was created by the author on their goodreads, i did not come up with this!

“Murder, blood, references to (past) suicidal ideations and involuntary admission to a psychiatric hospital, trauma related to the death of a friend, a description of a dead animal (a rabbit), references to drowning, poisoning, fire, fear of sharks, and falling.”

WOW! The first 40% was amazing. Seriously excellent. However, the majority of the book, you know the last 60% of the book, was not it. Very slow and confusing. I skim read the last 40% or so and still understood what the ending was all about. SO much potential and yet it fell short for me.

Summer's Edge is a 5-star read. It was unpredictable and that's an important trait I seek in the novels I read.

SUMMER'S EDGE
Dana Mele

WHAT THE HECK? This goes one way until about midway and it makes a U-turn and goes backward. WTF? I read it all, but at one point I had to ask myself what was going on. I had reached almost what I thought was the end with one POV and then turned around and started over with another POV.

I started this blind as a bat so I had no idea what was going on really... I mean I didn't expect any ghost or supernatural anything (quite a disappointment). The characters were absolutely terrible people and not one of them was worth saving... in fact, the boat should have sunk and the house burned down and that should have been the end!

If these were high school students, they should have had more parental involvement cuz these kids are the worst kids ever.

2.5 stars

Happy Reading!

Thought it would be a 5 star ended up being the worst this year. I hate this book. I don’t even remember most of it and I finished it five minutes ago. Characters suck and plot sucked and predictable.

Een heerlijke vakantie van een hecht clubje van zes vrienden, wordt opeens één grote nachtmerrie.
Een verschrikkelijke brand zorgde ervoor dat er nog maar vijf overbleven.
Één jaar na deze gebeurtenis, krijgen de overgebleven vrienden ieder een mysterieus kaartje voor een reünie om terug te komen naar het huis aan het meer, die inmiddels weer opgebouwd is nadat het is afgebrand. Dit besluiten ze te doen, om hun overleden vriendin Emily te eren.
Maar dan gebeuren er wel hele vreemde dingen, die ze niet kunnen verklaren en allemaal naar Emily lijken te wijzen. Ze denken elkaar zo goed te kennen, maar niks is wat het lijkt en iedereen lijkt zijn eigen geheim bij zich te dragen.
Wat is er écht op de nacht van het ongeluk voorgevallen, en was dit ook echt een ongeluk of speelt er veel meer dan dat?

Een paar weken geleden ontving ik een mystery pakketje van Blossombooks; hier zat het eerste deel (het boek is opgedeeld in meerdere delen in verschillende perspectieven) van ‘De laatste zomer’ in! Ik was zo excited dat ik er gelijk in begon, en kon hem ook echt niet wegleggen.
Voordat ik het wist was ik al bijna klaar en toen begon ik toch het ergste te vrezen; er zat een GROTE cliffhanger aan te komen.
De afgelopen weken zat dit boek daarom ook erg in mijn hoofd, en dacht ik er vaak over na wat er precies speelde en wat deze mysterieuze gebeurtenissen nou kon veroorzaken.
Vandaag viel dan eindelijk het volledige exemplaar op de deurmat, je kan vast wel raden wat er toen gebeurde. Ik liet zowat alles zó uit mijn handen vallen en begon met lezen. 😂

Het verhaal had me gelijk al in zijn greep en ik zat er weer heerlijk in. Ik zat direct weer op het randje van mijn stoel, want ik moest en zou weten wat er nou exact aan de hand was.
Let me tell you, het einde zag ik TOTAAL niet aankomen en las dat hele stuk met open mond.
Wat ben ik toch dol op dit soort verhalen; duister, mysterieus, vleugje paranormaal en bom vol twist en turns. Het grimmige, mysterieuze sfeertje wordt al perfect neergezet in het begin van het verhaal en heeft je echt hooked waardoor je het niet weg kan leggen.
De personages zijn erg interessant, maar zoals ik al eerder zei; iedereen lijkt wel een geheim achter te houden en je hebt geen flauw idee wie je nou wel of niet kan vertrouwen. Persoonlijk ben ik hier echt dol op en voel ik me zelf net een detective om te achterhalen wie wat heeft gedaan.

Kort samengevat; dit boek is een echte pageturner die je niet weg kan leggen!
4/ 4,5 ✨

As soon as I heard about this book, I was excited. A sapphic thriller about friends revisiting their yearly summer cabin, even after the tragedy that killed their friend there last summer? Sign me up!! As soon as I was approved for this arc, I was desperate to dive in (even if it’s not quite summer yet). And I’m so glad I did!

Reading this book felt like a blur, in the best of ways. I lost track of time, of the world around me, and focused in on only on the story in front of me, of the twisted games these friends played on each other, of the secrets they kept hidden. I found myself getting increasingly absorbed into the story, obsessed even, as the story wove on and on and the weight of all these secrets became heavier and heavier.

I saw another reviewer say that this is a book where you have to trust the process and where the story will end up, and I have to fully agree. There were moments where I just had to let go and follow the book, even through my confusion as the story continued to warp around me, and that’s honestly a hard thing to do sometimes. I wanted to piece things together, but without any idea of the bigger picture, I was just lost. But in the end, I trusted the story, and I’m so glad it did. That final moment of clarity, of realization, was worth the confusion, and made better because of it even. (I’m being intentionally vague here because this is a story worth reading without spoilers, just so you can feel the full punch in the gut it brings by the end).

This is one of those books where I want to just list everything I loved, but can’t without spoiling too much and giving it all away. So I’m just going to ask you all to trust me, and give this wonderful book a shot, because it’s honestly worth the trip.

Rounded up to a 1.5

I just never got into this book properly. Going in I thought it’d be a revenge slasher, then the paranormal aspect came in, which I actually liked. Kennedy’s perspective was my favorite and her dynamic with the house and it’s ghosts. But everyone in the book is just the WORST.

They are so annoying, something spooky and supernatural would happen then they’d have pages long talks about how they’ve been betrayed by someone, undercutting any tension built. The story felt very character driven and I never thought that could be a bad thing, but I would have liked a more of a concrete plot. It kinda felt like messy teen drama with ghosts in the background.

I read the whole thing hoping for it to pick up, but it sadly never did.

I liked the destination but the journey was tortuous and confusing. I might’ve enjoyed this a bit more if it was edited differently. I like a non-linear timeline and multiple POV but it did not work here at all, it just felt a bit sloppy. The book is broken up over 3 summers, each narrated by a different person but each character read the same. Overall, not an enjoyable reading experience and not one I would rush to recommend.

This one has pretty good reviews so I might just be an outlier 🤷‍♀️

Definitely comparable to We Were Liars but better and more aggressive. The characters were honestly written well and I enjoyed the writing style. I finished this completely so quickly too. There’s just some small things in here that confused me and so for that it loses a star. Was really good, just didn’t blow my mind.

this book was so f*cking trippy

Summer's Edge was a very interesting story. And the turn it took was not what I was expecting.
Pure brilliance.
Full review to come...

This one caught me COMPLETELY off guard. A really great mystery for the summer!

the only good thing i can say about this book is that it inspired me to commit arson. against this book. better hope ther's not a lake house around bc i will happily toss this travesty in the flames and watch it burrrrnnnnn we didn't start the fire by billy joel is on repeat right ab now

thank you Netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
I read people like us by this same author and loved it, so I requested this.
What I liked in this book - LGBT+ representation, the spirits/ghosts & tarot cards(I just read all your hidden gifts so it gave me that vibe!), the different characters.
What I didn't like - the weird time loop?

I stayed up two hours later than I should have because I just had to finish it, which is really the highest compliment I can give!

Perfect for fans of We Were Liars and The Haunting of Hill House.

A group of friends decide to revisit their annual summer house trip one last time after losing one of their friends in a tragic fire. Not everyone is sure the fire was an accident, but how to uncover the truth when everyone seems to be lying, or at least seems to be telling half-truths. And why do mysterious things keep happening?

I was SO excited to be reading this, the premise sounds INSANE (in a good way). I’m not going to lie, though, the first half of the story I was very confused. I didn’t really understood the group dynamic and what was going on. However, as the story progressed and we got to see from the POV of other characters in other summers, I began to understand. The insane toxicity of the entire friend group truly was something, though…

I loved getting to know the different characters through their own POVs. I especially loved how we got to see an entire summer through one character’s eyes, instead of switching between characters every chapter. This really helped me in getting to know the characters and their motives. I especially loved Kennedy’s summer, that was INTENSE!!!

After the second half I was VERY intrigued and shocked. The story kinda went everywhere, which at times was fun but at other times was rather confusing. At the end I couldn’t tell what was going on. This really bothered me, but I finally understood the entire story as I read the last chapter.

I don’t fully understand my opinion on this book. It was an enjoyable and thrilling read, which at times was hard to put down. However, I’m not sure I’m a big fan of books where it only truly starts making sense in the last few chapters. This is a genre I’ve seen others enjoy tremendously, though. So if you’re looking for a thrilling and supernatural summer read about the most toxic friend group ever, this is DEFINITELY for you!

This was a wild ride and I literally do not know how to explain my feelings about it without spoiling anything. It does get quite twisty with the timelines, so it's a story that can't be put down for long periods of time or you'll probably be confused and need to reread.

I definitely do think if you have to DNF this book, you should look up the ending, because it's not something I picked up on in the first half of the book.

Plot Concept: 5/5

Plot Execution: 4/5

Pacing: 5/5

Writing: 3.5/5

Characters: 4/5

Romance: 4/5

Ending: 4/5

Overall Enjoyability: 4/5