The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas

Publication date: January 30, 2006

# of pages: 232

Genre: Psychological thriller & Adult fiction


The Summer I Died is the first book in Ryan C. Thomas' Roger Huntington series. This is the first book I ever read by Thomas and I don't regret it. The title sucked me right in. I'm like, "Oh my goodness!!! This sounds scary as a mother f***er." At the time I had seen  the book, it was free on Amazon's website for the Kindle edition. (I'm always browsing Amazon for free Kindle books). Even though it was free, I definitely would have paid for it. It is totally worth the $2.99 (Kindle price) it's listed at today.

The cover caught my attention as well. I mean who wouldn't be curious about a book with a man standing in some mountains while the sun is setting with an axe in his hand!?!? I was super intrigued. I was like, "Who is he going to chop up? And why?" Thomas writes in a way that leads you right in to the point where you don't want the story to be over.


Roger Huntington (the series name suggests he would be a major character) and Mervyn A.K.A Tooth are the two principal characters in this story. Roger is a nerdy, virgin, comic-book lover who has come home from college for summer vacation. He's anxious to spend time with his best friend Tooth because he feels like their lives have drifted apart since Roger left for college. Roger and Tooth are an extremely odd pair. I wouldn't think they would have anything in common, but I guess opposites do attract. Tooth doesn't seem as smart as Roger, however, as the story progresses we learn that Tooth is much smarter than he lets on.

The summer that Roger and Tooth expected is far from the summer that they will actually experience. It all starts when they are out in the woods shooting beer cans with Tooth's gun. Just as they are about to leave they hear a woman screaming. Should they help her or leave her to fend for herself? 

This book was definitely not what I had expected; it exceeded my expectations with the way that Thomas was able to explain the events taking place in such vivid details. I mean I felt like I was there watching through a screen. Somehow I was able to sit here safely while watching all this stuff happen to these other people. I just really felt like I was there with them and somehow I was immune. I must say that it has been quite a long time since a book has made me feel this way. Certain parts of the story were so vivid that I couldn't take what was happening to the characters and had to take a break from reading to get the images out of my head. I loved how Thomas was able to squeeze the humorous analogies into the characters' dialogues and thoughts, even when the characters were in such horrible situations. Since he was able to do that it made the book seem more horrifying than saddening. I mean usually I'm bursting into tears when characters I love get hurt, whether physically or emotionally.

Between the title of the book and the cover, I was convinced that I knew exactly who was going to die and how they were going to die. Boy, oh boy was I wrong. This book has so many surprises, twists, and moments where you just can't believe it didn't go how you thought it would. The Summer I Died is written so well that it completely leaves you guessing because every event could have went a completely different way. Some events could have went at least three different ways. For some reason, I could never guess the way it ended up going. Maybe my brain wasn't functioning properly or I'm just not as imaginative as Ryan C. Thomas.

Another big thing for me with this book was how the characters' values and personalities played a huge part in how the story climaxed. Roger is nerdy and an extremely, cautious crybaby, while Tooth is courageous and doesn't take anyone's bulls***. All throughout the book it seems like their personalities clashed too much causing them to be in situations that they should have been out of or never gotten into in the first place. I loved how religion had its part in the story as well. Roger didn't firmly believe in God, but in a higher power that was over everyone. As the story progressed, so did his thoughts about God. The importance of family was also a driving and motivating force in this story.

I would definitely recommend this book to all of you if you like scary things, unless you have a very weak stomach. With that being said, WEAK STOMACHS PLEASE BE VERY AFRAID AND TOUGHEN UP BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT TO READ THIS STORY!

Rating: