“Summer Frost” by Blake Crouch (Forward Collection)

[DivaDiane]

I just finished this story/novellette(?) and really enjoyed it. Has anyone else here read this one? What did you think? I will post my “review” of it in a minute.

[DivaDiane]

I liked this story a lot. Crouch definitely has a “style”, which I find compelling. And I’ve always been interested in Robot/Android/AI stories.

I liked how Crouch played with gender expectations in this story, even though it wasn’t about that at all. For a moment I wondered whether the MC was male or female and wondered, if they *were* male, why they would have a woman narrate the story? I half expected Riley to be non-binary, but it was “revealed” at some point that Riley is female in a same-sex relationship.

Definitely chilling ending, but not entirely surprising. The fulfillment of my expectations and desires got flip-flopped a couple times towards the end, which I thought was well done.

I wonder why Max even bothered to tell Riley what they were doing in the end? It wasn’t really even necessary. But I don’t suppose that would’ve made as good a story.

[Sarah]

I enjoyed this one too, for the most part. But I will say I wish it had ended differently. I feel like that was a really easy trope to default on.

Definitely haunting though- loved the narrator.

[John]

Also really like this short fiction. John's review


Linking to my review as had been "guided" by a mod on another topic about spoilers and focus. Still learning group etiquette, nuances and Goodreads web site mechanics.

[DivaDiane]

Ah, good point. I’m not sure if what I posted would be considered spoilery or not. I use the app 95% of the time, for which there is no provision for hiding spoilers or links to books or authors. I’ve been active in this group for about 8 months and I still forget sometimes. Sigh.

[Bookish]

I didn’t enjoy it. Its atmospheric, I think Crouch was trying to pull of a 1940s noir feel, but the writing was flat and I found the premise and execution predictable and unfortunately, boring. He raises interesting questions but doesn’t really deal with them in a way that provokes any depth of thought. All in all, I came out of it feeling like it was an okay read, nothing to dislike especially but nothing special either.

Its my second read from the Forward collection. I started with Emergency Skin and compared to that, this felt really amateurish.

[Jason]

This was one of my favorites out of the collection. If anyone watches the show Dark Matter, there is a scene in one of the last episodes where he is running past a movie theater. The movie theater sign has Summer Frost and Upgrade - I thought it was a cool little Easter egg.

[DivaDiane]

Ah, that’s fun, Jason!

[Barry]

Jason wrote: "This was one of my favorites out of the collection. If anyone watches the show Dark Matter, there is a scene in one of the last episodes where he is running past a movie theater. The movie theater ..."

Yes, I caught it. A rare thing when a series (or movie) is as good as a book. I wish they didn't go off the mark with Wayward Pines, ,

[DivaDiane]

Thanks, Barry for saying that, I’ve been reluctant to watch Dark Matter because I was unsure it would be as good as the book.