The Summer of Haight
George Petersen
Cinematic Press (2025)
ISBN: 978-1967227013
Reviewed by Demetria Head for Reader Views (12/2025)
The Summer of Haight by George Petersen is a historical fiction that blends noir and dark fantasy. The setting is 1967 San Francisco, as the story opens with what appears to be a predator sweeping over the city before stalking a teenage girl. Then the narrative shifts to a polished, British attorney named Mr. Longfellow, who attends a housewarming party at the house of his friend, Dr. Jonathan St. Amour. The party seems normal with its elite guests and high society banter, then shifts to the reveal of Johnathan’s modern scientific vault with snakes and other disturbing obsessions.
Before long, Mr. Longfellow notices that Jonathan’s behavior becomes increasingly erratic, with a fascination for transmogrification. He insists that Longfellow helps him draft a will. In the will he wants a clause that allows his entire estate to go to a strange figure named Dr. Asmodeus Youngblood, should he disappear for three months. This all leads to psychological suspense and gothic dread as Youngblood begins to emerge and Zelda, Jonathan’s cat, is found strangled. Now Mr. Longfellow has no choice but to make it his business to find out more about this mysterious man named Youngblood.
George Petersen has brilliantly crafted a story narrated from Mr. Longfellow’s point of view. I love how he also delves into Jonathan’s scientific curiosities. But he would speak of transformation and transcending beyond the limitations of human beings, and was fixated on becoming closer to animals. Even before his cat, Zelda, is found dead, she expresses terror just being around his laboratory. All of this is used to help build the creeping dread that unfolds. I found myself questioning the doctor’s sanity and stability. Petersen is a genius in achieving this reaction from me and I think other readers will react the same way. The pacing is very engaging, and the dialogue is coherent, witty at times, and the description of the settings are precise such as the opulent bay-view home or the claustrophobic underground lab. There are no jump scares needed because the tension creates all the uneasiness that we need.
Character development is one of the strengths in this novel. One of the things I found interesting was that Alfred, the gatekeeper for Jonathan, hints that he’s not well and that he fears “everything is starting back up again. It’s going to be the same thing-“ This is a huge detail that indicates Jonathan has unraveled before, and Alfred is a tragic supporting character caught up in the spiral.
Longfellow starts off polished and believes in routine but soon finds himself having to come out of his comfort zone and face quite a bit from the truth about his friend Jonathan to the truth about his own grief. Dr. Asmodeus Youngblood is an interesting character in how Petersen creates him because he’s rarely seen, but his presence has tremendous influence on the events that take shape in the novel. He’s like the phantom antagonist. Detective Maggie Shaughnessy is not only the no-nonsense investigator but also becomes the emotional catalyst. Dr. Jonathan St. Amour is a tragic genius, the eccentric scientist who slowly unravels and by the time Maggie and Longfellow find him in his cellar lab, he’s become a shell.
I love how Petersen slowly builds this psychological thriller and mystery in a slow-burn fashion. He lulls the reader with all of these false senses of security then slowly takes us deep sea diving into a world that becomes dangerous with obsession and secrecy. I also like how Petersen used the cellar lab that Jonathan eventually retreats to, as the nexus for revealing the narrative’s truths, motives, and consequences. It also seems to mirror his slow descent from the main part of his mansion and his mental state to this underground cellar and ultimately a shell of a man.
There were some things I thought Petersen did well with the rich symbolic representation. For example, the snakes in the lab hissing seemed to mirror Jonathan’s fixation with things like metamorphosis; His cat, Zelda, and her fearful cries mirrored looming dangers; the broken cane that Longfellow gifted Jonathan mirrored the trust that was shattered. Throughout the narrative are all kinds of symbolic themes that added more depth to the story.
The Summer of Haight is a haunting historical masterpiece, with elements of psychological suspense, some gothic mystery amid 1967 counterculture in San Francisco. Readers who enjoy a slow-burn unraveling narrative in similar works like Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library or Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic will find The Summer of Haight to be unforgettable.