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Summer of Night and other novels similar to It

posted 7 years ago by TheRealRandyWatson
6 replies | jump to latest

Anybody here read Dan Simmons "Summer of Night"? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11279.Summer_of_Night

While it's premise may sound like an It wannabe, a period set tale about a group of friends in their early teens who discover something is terribly wrong in their small town, Simmons does his own thing and Summer of Night can easily stand on it's own feet.

While not as iconic as King's novel, it's really a great read and might pass the time for some while waiting on the It adaptation. For me, it contained the same elements that I loved about It, that combination of nostalgia, a coming of tale and some good scares. Simmons even dares to go places that King's novel didn't.

Anybody else have recommendations of It like novels? Another one I'm interested in, is December Park by Ronald Malfi, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17802356-december-park

My father was a drunk, a gambler and a womanizer. I idolized him

[–] chrisdamato87 7 years ago

Slightly unrelated but for a TV show with a similar atmosphere, Syfy's series Channel Zero is good. It even has flashbacks to the 80s when the main character was a kid and his brother gets targeted by evil.

[–] Elphie_Tiggular 7 years ago

Toady by Mark Morris:

From my copy...

Welcome to the Horror Club:

...a world of werewolves and poltergeists, psychopaths and shape changers, the unquiet and the living dead...

A fantasy world, of course, for Richard, Robin and Nigel, the club's members, are ordinary boys from ordinary families, who just happen to share a taste for the macabre in films and videos, books and comics. And then they admit a fourth member to their club - Toady, a far from ordinary boy. From the moment he lures the others into a nerve-jangling seance in a house with a chilling reputation, their lives are blighted by worse horror than they have ever imagined.

Terror stalks the familiar streets of a sleep seaside town and waits to invade the safest home. The pervasive stain of evil spreads like ripples on a pond, leaving a trail of sacrilege and death in its wake. One by one the members of the Horror Club are forced into a netherworld, halfway between illusion and reality. It is up to the final member to fight alone against the evil they have unleashed - until, in the final battle, he is joined by an unexpected ally...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1352822.Toady?ac=1&from_search=true

...but word of warning! This was considered the poor man's version of King's It. Especially with references to a scary old house (conveniently on King Street), otherworldly creatures / dimensions and the fact that the title of the epilogue is: Incy Wincy... 😉

...but I still kinda liked it. Not as much as It but still... 😊

ELPHABA: Eleka Nahmen Nahmen Ah Tum Ah Tum Eleka Nahmen.

[–] TheRealRandyWatson 7 years ago

Sounds pretty cool. Will add it to my "to read list"

My father was a drunk, a gambler and a womanizer. I idolized him

[–] Sawyer_Lost 7 years ago

Boy's Life by Robert McCammon. Unbelievably good book.

https://www.amazon.com/Boys-Life-Robert-McCammon/dp/0671743058/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1479984852&sr=1-1&keywords=boy%27s+life

Books are a uniquely portable magic. ~Stephen King

[–] agusmaga93 7 years ago

"Floating Dragon" by Peter Straub reminded me a lot to "It".

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19593.Floating_Dragon?ac=1&from_search=true

Even the main characters are similar to the Losers; one of them is the only female member and is a domestic abuse victim, the other is a writer/historian who has investigated about the history of the city the story takes place in and links it to the entity that antagonizes them, the other is a child with a family trauma, etc.

[–] BrunoAntony 7 years ago

"Locke & Key" by Joe Hill.