The Dead of Summer
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
IN ONE MOMENT THE HORROR BECOMES YOUR LIFE. IT’S NOT JUST IN THE PAPERS ANYMORE, IT’S ON YOUR HANDS.
Seven years ago when she was called Anita, Kyle and DEnis were her friends. They hadn’t been at first, perhaps she shouldn’t have pushed it, but Denis, bespectacled in thick NHS frames and Kyle, permanently clad in his anorak – were the only takers.
Let out of their south-London comprehensive they spent the long, sticky summer days smoking cigarettes, messing about in the Thames tunnels waiting for something to happen.
And then something did.
The Dead of Summer is a chilling and brilliant story that asks where evil lurks, and what form it takes.
Reviews
‘A modern day classic in the making’ Dazed & Confused
‘A beautifully written descent into darkness’ Glamour
‘So addictive you’ll devour it in one greedy gulp’ Cosmopolitan
‘Creepy, clever, compelling…a cross between The Cement Garden and The Long Good Friday…absolutely superb' Arena magazine
'Prepare to be gripped by this brilliantly haunting novel' Grazia
‘An amazing debut’ New Woman
‘This compelling psychological thriller is a real hair-raising read thanks to the gritty realistic writing' She magazine
'It's hard to say what's more impressive: Way's plot, Anita's utterly convincing voice or the evocation of the strange, eerie atmosphere. Whatever, it all adds up to something truly exciting – Way has just 'Got It'. The London Paper
About the author
Camilla Way was born in Greenwich, south-east London in 1973. Her father was the poet and author Peter Way. After attending Woolwich College she studied Modern English and French Literature at the University of Glamorgan. Formerly an editor on the men's style magazine Arena, Camilla Way is now a freelance writer. Having lived in Cardiff, Bristol, Bath and Clerkenwell, she now lives in south-east London.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
From the U.K. comes this promising debut novel narrated by the sole witness and survivor of a set of murders that left three children dead in an abandoned Greenwich, England, mine in 1986. Seven years later, Anita Naidu, now nearly 20, lives in quiet isolation in Bristol. She tells her tale largely in retrospect, with her opening bluster soon giving way to the vulnerability of her 13-year-old self. Having recently lost her mother and moved with her family to a council house in South London back then, Anita's only friends are the overweight and learning-disabled Denis and her volatile neighbor Kyle. The young Anita identifies with Kyle's social invisibility and, more disturbingly, his violence. The friends spend their adolescent summer wandering around Greenwich, running from bullies and seeking hidden caves. As the novel progresses toward its horrific surprise conclusion, Anita gradually reveals more and more disturbing information both about Kyle and his mysteriously disappeared little sister and about herself. Anita's story is intriguing and her portrait of the desperate Kyle touching, but the way Anita's damaged psychology plays out seems more a result of narrative necessity than of a realized character. Still, readers will react to the bold material and stark storytelling.
