By Summer's Last Twilight
By Summer’s Last Twilight is a Summer Horror Read. It’s a perfect one to read when it’s so hot outside all you can think about is hiding in your house. When the mugginess brings about a dreamlike qualities that beckons forth lazy memories of your own childhood. It rings with a nostalgia for those days gone past. It also feels faintly like an homage to Stephen King books. The group of kids, including the required rich, brainy Jew, and the token beautiful tomboy girl. The small town setting. The knowledge that what they’ve seen that summer will change them all. It’s not a bad thing, but it is present. Thankfully for me, the Stephen King seeming nod didn’t extend to excess page length. There’s lots of violence in this book, but the gore level honestly wasn’t that bad. This is an author that revels in violence, but doesn’t feel the need to try to gross his readers out. I can appreciate that. One interesting thing I’d like to note is that there is child death in this book, but it’s done in a way that didn’t bother me too much. It was maybe two lines, and then it was done. It also didn’t bother me because it made sense in the book. When you’re talking about Crowley and his cronies and Occult Gatherings, yes, you can expect a little human sacrifice. The only things that really bothered me (content wise) were the general role that women played in the book (sex objects or irrational nags), and the sometimes overly extended explanations of Crowley’s doings.
However, By Summer’s Last Twilight needs proofread. It needs it with a screaming desperation. The errors were so bad in this book that it kept me from enjoying the story as much as I might have otherwise done. I started doing tiny dog-ears at the top or bottom of pages I found errors on. After I was done, I took a picture of the edge of the book, and showed it to my friend. When I explained to her that all those marked pages were (mostly punctuation) errors, her response was… unrepeatable in polite company. If the author can get this fixed, his book will be near perfect for what it aims to be.
Disclaimer 1: The author has since informed he's had the copy proofread.
Disclaimer 2: He gave it to me free in exchange for an honest review.
