View source for Summer of Fear (novel)



{{Infobox book
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| name           =  Summer of Fear
| image          = Summer_of_Fear_1st_edition.png
| image_size     = 190px
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| caption        = 
| author         = [[Lois Duncan]]
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| country        = 
| language       = English 
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| genre          = {{hlist| [[Horror fiction|Horror]] | [[young adult fiction]] }}
| set_in         = 
| publisher      = Little Brown & Company
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| published      = September 1, 1976
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| pages          = 252
| awards         = 
| isbn           = 978-0-316-19548-5
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| dewey          = 813/.54
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'''''Summer of Fear''''' is a 1976 American [[horror fiction|horror novel]] by [[Lois Duncan]]. The plot follows a teenaged girl who suspects her recently orphaned cousin is practicing [[witchcraft]].<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/i-know-what-i-read-that-summer|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|title=I Know What I Read That Summer|author= Machado, Carmen Maria|date=June 21, 2016|accessdate=May 30, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/18/lois-duncan-ya-young-adult-thriller-novel|work=[[The Guardian]]|title=Remembering Lois Duncan, the queen of the young adult thriller novel
|date=June 18, 2016|author=Abbott, Megan|accessdate=June 2, 2017}}</ref> The novel was adapted into a [[Stranger in Our House|1978 film]] by [[Wes Craven]].<ref name="weinman">{{cite magazine|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/134402/lois-duncans-teenage-screams|magazine=[[The New Republic|New Republic]]|title=Lois Duncan's Teenage Screams|accessdate=May 30, 2017|author=Weinman, Sarah|date=June 17, 2016}}</ref>

==Plot==
Fifteen-year-old Rachel 'Rae' Bryant's aunt is killed in an automobile accident in the [[Ozark mountains|Ozarks]]. Her 17-year-old cousin Julia Grant, who has been in boarding school in [[Boston]], comes to live to with Rae's family in [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]]. Julia is shy and reserved initially, and dresses in conservative, old-fashioned clothing. Rae and her boyfriend, Michael, and her best friend, Carolyn, attempt to ingratiate Julia into their circle of friends, and her personality begins to shift rapidly. She makes sexual advances toward Rae's brother, Peter, and carries herself as though she is far older than she is.

Rae is stricken with a series of mishaps, including an unexplained case of [[hives]] prior to a school dance, and her dog Trickle dies mysteriously. Rae discovers from a local professor in her neighborhood that the area where Julia's family was from in the Ozarks had a reputation for witchcraft and rumors of covens. Rae, suspicious of Julia, confronts her, and she is revealed to be in fact not Julia at all, but the Grants' 22-year-old housekeeper, Sarah Blane, who is a practicing [[witch]]; she caused the car accident that killed both Julia and her parents, and then posed as Julia.

Sarah and Rae begin to fight, and Rae locks her in her mother's [[darkroom]]. She flees with Mike to meet her mother in [[Santa Fe, New Mexico|Santa Fe]] and prevent her from falling victim to a car accident that Sarah has invoked upon her. Rae and Mike reach her and prevent the accident from happening, but Rae's parents dismiss her claims regarding Sarah/Julia. When they return home, Sarah/Julia has vanished. The novel ends in the present, as Rae, now a sophomore in college, reflects on the events.

==Reception==
In a retrospective assessment of the novel, [[Sarah Weinman]] of ''[[The New Republic]]'' said the novel "reads now like a chilling portrait of [[borderline personality disorder]]."<ref name=weinman/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/summer-of-fear-by-lois-duncan/ ''Summer of Fear''] at Scholastic.com

{{Lois Duncan}}


[[Category:1976 American novels]]
[[Category:1970s horror novels]]
[[Category:American horror novels]]
[[Category:American young adult novels]]
[[Category:Novels set in New Mexico]]
[[Category:Novels about witches and witchcraft]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Horror novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Novels by Lois Duncan]]
[[Category:Little, Brown and Company books]]


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{{Wikipedia attribution|original_title=Summer of Fear (novel)|access_date=2026-03-06}}