| Plot Summary of Summer of Night |
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"SUMMER OF NIGHT is a book written by Dan Simmons in 1991.
1960. Elm Haven, Illinois. Duane, Mike, Dale, Kevin, Lawrence and Jim, all 12 years old boys, have just finished school. In this little town lost in the middle of corn fields, there is nothing peculiar to do during the summer holiday. So when Tubby, the little brother of one of their classmates, disappears, the young boys begin their own investigation. Convinced that Tubby has never left the Old School, Jim tries to enter the monumental building by climbing the facade. Looking through his classroom's window, he sees his teacher, Mrs Foggett, in company of an old teacher who has died of cancer some 6 months before. Horrified by this vision, Jim falls from the outside window and breaks his arm. In the meantime, Dale and his brother Lawrence, remark that something black is hiding in their closet. The thing disappears under their beds before their mother can actually see it. The next day, Dale must go down into the cellar that has been flooded during the night. He encounters there Tubby's corpse which also disappears after a while. Duane, the smartest of the boys of the group, discovers by reading old newspapers that strange events happened around the Old School some sixty years before. A bell, brought from Italy by the local millionaire, had been installed in the school steeple. This bell belonged to the Borgia family during the Renaissance period and was believed to have supernatural proprieties. Later in the week, a strange truck nearly kills Duane in the middle of the corn fields. Art, Duane's uncle, just before he could give some important information to his nephew, is found dead two days later after having hit a bridge at 100 miles per hour with his car. The boys also begin to see apparitions, mainly a soldier from WWI, wandering near their houses.
The boys understand that something is after them as the apparitions and the attacks happen more an more often. They decide to counterattack by using the help of religious symbols such as sanctified water that can hurt some of the apparitions. But new monsters appear, coming from tunnels dug into the ground from the Old School. As one of the children is savagely killed, the others decide to attack the school that seems to be the home of the monsters.
"
Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Summer of Night |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Book
descript. of violence and chases - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%
How society works & physical descript. (people, objects, places) - 20%
Tone of story
- scarey (primal ax-wielding fear)
Time/era of story:
- 1960's-1970's
Kid or adult book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Horror Story?
Yes
Horror plotlets
- Why do they stay in the haunted house/boat?
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- student
Age:
- a teen
How much violence does he/she use?
- just the right amount
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a lot
Motive of antagonist
- power
Monster of some sort?
Yes
Kind of monster:
- general monster
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- bulging muscles
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- Midwest
Forest?
Yes
Farm/Ranch?
Yes
Farm/Ranch:
- farm
- lots of descript of crop raising
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- dumb rednecks, like Gomer Pyle
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- very gorey references to deaths/dead bodies and torture
How many deaths?
- 8 or more
Sex
Yes
What kind of sex:
- descript of kissing
- descript. of breasts
Unusual forms of death
- hanging
- eaten
- flamed
- perforation--bullets
- perforation--swords/knives
- exploded into bits
Unusual form of death?
Yes
Amount of dialog
- significantly more descript than dialog
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