A review by stefanie_duncan
Cruel Summer by Wesley Southard

5.0

AMAZING BOOK!

This book was recommended in one of my fb Horror Books and as usual I went in blind (and because of the gorgeous cover).

This book isn't straight up horror. I am not sure how to categorize it, but I feel like it does not need a box. This book mixes scary, some horror, some DV and and greek mythology into a beautiful tale of survival, a mothers love and our fear of water. Except this time the water and its inhabitants follow you.

Melissa, her not-so-nice boyfriend Hoyt and Melissa's son Patrick are making their way to a small town in Florida for a nice vacation. Except Hoyt has other plans because "nice" isn't part of his vocabulary. And when a particular incident happens everything we know about the ocean, the water and the sea creatures makes us want to go hiking in the mountains for a relaxing vacation. We all seen jaws and it kept many of us from swimming in the ocean for years. This book isn't helping getting some of us back into the water.

Mixing the genres for this book was very clever and well done.