I Know What You Did Last Summer by Lois Duncan

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Four teenagers are heading home after an evening of fun.  Driving down a mountain road, the car hits a young boy on a bicycle.  The teens panic; Barry, the driver, is eighteen and considered an adult.  If they report this, he’ll do jail time.  The four agree, somewhat reluctantly, to keep the accident a secret, but Ray and Julie are deeply troubled about it. Ray insists on at least calling 911 to try to get help for the boy.

That was a year ago.

Julie, once a bubbly cheerleader, has become a more somber, studious girl.  Helen’s life has only changed for the better: she’s a TV personality with her own apartment away from her struggling family. Football hero and only child Barry has finished his first year of college and is looking forward to a backpacking trip to Europe, away from his doting parents. He’s also more than ready to put some distance between himself and Helen.  They aren’t sure about Ray.  He left town after the accident, headed to California.

Then Julie gets a letter with no return address.  “I know what you did last summer” is all it says.  Is it a prank—or a threat?

Back in the day, mystery titles for children were mostly those featuring sleuths such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Hardy Boys, or the Three Investigators.  There were a few others, including a personal favorite, Brains Benton. From there it was on to adult authors like Agatha Christie.

Then a few authors began writing books that were edgier, books about real teens who found themselves in dire situations. I Know What You Did Last Summer came out in 1973 and created quite the stir. These teens had committed a crime! They mention smoking pot! They drink beer! (None of which is portrayed.) They have a stalker who means bodily harm!

This was definitely not a Nancy Drew book.

Naturally, this attracted the attention of Hollywood who optioned the novel for a movie.  Duncan was thrilled. When the movie opened, she was in the theater with her popcorn ready to see her book on the screen. She did wonder why there a man with a hook.

She soon found out.

She didn’t even eat her popcorn.

Former teen librarian Pam Neal said Duncan wrote an apology to all her fans, regretting that her suspense novel had become an urban legend slasher film. In an interview Duncan said she was “horrified.” The violence was sensationalized, which was particularly painful because Duncan’s daughter Kaitlyn had been shot to death by an unknown person just a few years before the movie.

Now the rebooted version of the I Know What You Did Last Summer is in theatres and from all reports it bears even less resemblance to the book than the first movie did.  I decided it was a good time to go back to the source material, so I picked up a copy of the book, albeit a slightly altered version.  In 2010, Duncan revised her book a bit, adding mentions of things like cell phones and GPS which didn’t exist back in 1973. She changed the war in the background to Iraq instead of Viet Nam, and made a few other changes to suit the times. Of course, that was fifteen years ago; there are a few things that seem slightly dated now but not so much that it took me out of the story.

Overall, I think the book has held up well. While more modern books may have grittier plots, the core parts of the book—the characters and the suspense—still work for me. This was a groundbreaking book in YA literature, one that led the way for such authors as Joan Lowery Nixon, Holly Jackson, and Karen McManus. It makes me sad that the novel is so little known.

As for the movie, I’ll pass.