Summer of the Cicadas

Summer of the Cicadas is about a West Virginian town where a brood of Magicicadas emerges for the first time in seventeen years. The cicadas damage crops and trees, and swarm locals. Jessica, a former cop whose entire family was killed in a car crash two years earlier, is deputized during the crisis. Throughout the book, Jessica must deal with her feelings for her sister’s best friend, Natasha, who is a town council member. After Fish and Wildlife removes the swarm, Jessica must also confront the two-year anniversary of her family’s death, Natasha’s budding romance with a local editor, as well as a sudden but devastating loss that changes everything.

ADVANCE PRAISE

Chelsea Catherine is a bright, raw, original new voice in American fiction. Her prose is electric. And Summer of Cicadas was a novel I couldn’t put down.—Thomas Christopher Greene, author of The Perfect Liar

Many authors are good at writing about the body. Few authors excel at writing the body of the world, the way it moves through everyone: cicadas owning us, making us restless, flirtatious, fearful even; shadows hiding our shadows; the defeating pines; the teasing sun. Chelsea Catherine creates a natural world as real as her characters. But it’s not about her deft ability at description or setting; it’s about her deep understanding of how everything moves as one—people, moods, moments, manifestations—and the modern Romance (with a capital R) of it all.—Erica Dawson, author of When Rap Spoke Straight to God

A graphic design of a cicada insect in the center and red script that reads Summer of Cicadas a novel by Chelsea Catherine.

Chelsea Catherine ( Author Website )

Publication Date: August 18, 2020

Genre/Imprint: Fiction, Quill

$14.95 Tradepaper

Shop: Red Hen, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble

ISBN: 978-1-59709-483-2

News

Ep. 12: Chelsea Catherine

Chelsea Catherine is a native Vermonter living in St. Petersburg, FL. Most recently, she won the Mary C Mohr nonfiction award through the Southern Indiana Review and her book, “Summer […]

Reviews

Thanks for the shoutout World Wide Work!

UNDER NUSHAGAK BLUFF by Mia C. Heavener, SUBDUCTION by Kristen Millares Young, and SUMMER OF THE CICADAS by Chelsea Catherine were all featured on the newsletter World Wide Work: Books, […]

Publisher’s Weekly: Summer of the Cicadas

Catherine wraps a fast-paced, stirring narrative about loss and unrequited love into a story about an unusually aggressive 17-year cicada swarm and the terror it brings to the residents of […]