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A review by adamsfall
Malignant Summer by Tim Meyer
2.0
Ugh. This one was frustrating. I wanted to like it so much, but it stood in its own way.
This story leaned heavily into the “80s kids on bikes” genre, only it moved up a decade. The story felt too derivative of its influences of IT and Stranger Things, but never became anything unique or as fun or scary.
There were so many POV switches. None of them seemed that different from each other and it was often hard to keep track of who you were experiencing the story through.
My two biggest issues with Malignant Summer are its length, which overstayed its welcome by nearly 200 pages and the antagonist. I was never scared during this book. The Mother of Dead Dreams seemed like a half baked idea that took shape as Meyer wrote, only really being fully fleshed out in the back third. Most of the book she spent her time threatening the main characters through the same tired lines, always in all caps, or through mind controlled minions.
Malignant Summer is a book that knows exactly the book it wants to be, but sadly, that book has already been written and it’s called IT.
This review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the use of comedy and cursing throughout the book. It seemed like Meyer loved the foul-mouthed jokes of Richie Tozier and decided that nearly every main character needed to crack a couple dick jokes or hit a minimum ‘Fuck’ quota per chapter. I laughed out loud a couple times throughout, but mostly found myself “why am I still reading this?”
This story leaned heavily into the “80s kids on bikes” genre, only it moved up a decade. The story felt too derivative of its influences of IT and Stranger Things, but never became anything unique or as fun or scary.
There were so many POV switches. None of them seemed that different from each other and it was often hard to keep track of who you were experiencing the story through.
My two biggest issues with Malignant Summer are its length, which overstayed its welcome by nearly 200 pages and the antagonist. I was never scared during this book. The Mother of Dead Dreams seemed like a half baked idea that took shape as Meyer wrote, only really being fully fleshed out in the back third. Most of the book she spent her time threatening the main characters through the same tired lines, always in all caps, or through mind controlled minions.
Malignant Summer is a book that knows exactly the book it wants to be, but sadly, that book has already been written and it’s called IT.
This review wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the use of comedy and cursing throughout the book. It seemed like Meyer loved the foul-mouthed jokes of Richie Tozier and decided that nearly every main character needed to crack a couple dick jokes or hit a minimum ‘Fuck’ quota per chapter. I laughed out loud a couple times throughout, but mostly found myself “why am I still reading this?”