A Hollow Dream of Summer's End is innocuous in its beginnings, describing the boys, their circumstances and the idyllic run of their final summer as elementary school students. It highlights how things will probably change once September rolls in, but, for the first part of the book, all that matters is how they would make the most out of the months that they are free to do what they want. There's a subtle warning at the beginning of the book that the story wouldn't always be that way, however, and, once author Andrew Van Wey is done with the preamble of describing the boys and their activities, the horror rears its head... at first with dread and unease, then crashes in on you with the realization that this might not be a story with a happy ending at all.
What ensues is a harrowing experience for the children (and for this particular reader) with relentless assaults from a nameless thing that is in parts feral and in parts sentient. This isn't a particularly original tale, especially if you were raised on 80s and 90s horror films, but it doesn't deter the author from serving up the scares the right way. The story, however
short and probably because of it, doesn't give you much room to relax once the monster reveals itself, and that feeling doesn't stop even as you reach the final pages of the story.
But beyond the realness of the monster that terrorizes the boys as they cower in a tree house, there are truths to be realized about how individuals respond to a situation that is far and beyond from anything you would imagine that would happen to yourself. It brings out ugly thoughts and even uglier actions from the boys. If any of them survives the experience, you know that they will come out of it a lot less innocent and probably with emotional burdens that they would carry for the rest of their lives.
A Hollow Dream of Summer's End is short, but makes the most of its pages, alternating between scenes of terrified waiting and even more terrifying physical confrontations. It's great for a quick read, especially when you're looking for a good horror fix. It's going to make you want to find something happier to read afterwards... and in horror fiction, that's a good thing.
Happy (scared) reading!