📖 Book Review ~ What Happened that Summer by Laura Pearson

Boldwood Books
3 January 2026

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

 

You think you know what happened that day… But what if you’re wrong?

Everyone remembers where they were when they heard that AJ Silver had died. In summer 1996, there was no avoiding the story that America's biggest teen pop sensation had plunged to his death on a rollercoaster at a family-run amusement park in rural England.

Now, 27 years have passed, and – even if you’re too young to remember the event – you’ve probably heard AJ Silver's songs topping the charts again. So what better time to take a forensic look at what happened that summer?

I’ve spent hundreds of hours interviewing everyone who was there that fateful day: workers, friends, family… the people who gained from his death, and the people who lost everything.

But you’re going to want to pay attention. Because I’ve found out a secret. One you’re all going to want to know… Perhaps it wasn’t such an accident after all?

📖 My Review..

Whilst I’ve read a few books with a similar structure of using podcast type entries to control the narrative it’s not usually something which piques my interest however, I’d heard good things about this one on social media so thought I’d give it a try. It takes a bit of getting used to but once I had the characters firmly fixed in my mind I started to enjoy the way the story pulled together and so became keen to discover just what happened that summer when American teen pop sensation AJ Silver suffered a fatal accident on a rollercoaster at the family run theme park known as Wildworld.

After new information comes to light and set twenty seven years after AJ’s death, and spread over eight imagined podcasts, the story introduces us to all the main characters who were involved and we get to hear, through their own words, their sometimes different, and sometimes similar, interpretations of what happened in the lead up to AJ’s visit and of his tragically brief time at the theme park. Wildworld, very much a character in its own right, reminded me of a local theme park, which began to fall on hard times in the nineteen-nineties, so I had a picture in mind, especially of the rides and AJ’s fascination for loop rollercoasters. Cleverly written, there are several unexpected twists in the tale, all of which kept me guessing, and which help to give a very different slant on events as they unfolded during that brief but intense summer of 1996.

What Happened that Summer turned out to be a really enjoyable read over the space of a couple of afternoons. I became fully immersed in the written podcast idea and enjoyed how they were set up with enough information without getting too bogged down in unnecessary detail. 

🍦Best read with: A whipped ice cream and can of cola 🥤

About the Author

Laura Pearson is the author of issues-based women’s fiction. She founded The Bookload on Facebook and has had several pieces published in the Guardian and the Telegraph. Her first title with Boldwood, The Last List of Mabel Beaumont, was be published in August 2023.

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