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I Know What You Did Last Summer (1973) by Lois Duncan

11/28/2016

3 Comments

 
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Another book that isn't nearly as good as the hook. Teenage girl receives note that threatens to expose -- or, worse, to physically make her pay for -- the very serious crime she and three of her friends committed the previous summer. The crime is horrible enough, but the kids' coping strategies are so superficial and routine that one finds oneself almost agreeing with their tormentor -- that these spoiled brats could benefit from a hard dose of reality: they are all more interested in their love lives than what they did that terrible night. If this doesn't quite happen, it is only because the characters aren't compelling enough to provoke much of an emotional reaction either way. With less action than you might expect and a whole lot more lax dialogue than you could ever want. A quick read, though. Revised and reissued in 2010 in order (a) to update the technology and (b) to squelch any sense of history a young reader might have possibly been exposed to. Made into a film in 1997 starring Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

3 Comments
Bookstooge
11/28/2016 08:27:05 pm

I knew the movie was based on a book but I had no idea it was from the 70's. Man, every time I think hollywood has gone as low as they can, they just keep on digging!

Reply
Brian
11/29/2016 08:47:11 am

This made me laugh -- but if you think about it, it's the literary world that comes out looking worse in this case. Both for revising the book (and believe me, reading the revised version, you'd never guess it was written in '73) and because, as I recall, the movie was better (I'm trying to get hold of it so I can confirm that).

Beyond that, I think it was an excellent choice for adaptation because, as I said, the hook is a good one, and as for the rest...well, that just allowed any potential screenwriter to rewrite and improve upon it.

To my mind, a better case for Hollywood screwing up appears, from the trailer I saw, to be Skull Island. Maybe it'll be decent, but the trailer looked to me like just another Jurassic Park variation.

Reply
bookstooge
11/29/2016 04:51:05 pm

I am reserving judgement on Skull Island. I really enjoyed the Peter Jackson version of Kong a couple of years ago, so I'm not sure where my bias falls on this new version.




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