Revisiting Summer Nights

Book excerpt: In their twenties, PJ Addison and Wylie Parsons were hot young actors. Their iconic performances as the final girls in Dangerous Summer Nights launched a slasher franchise, and their real-life relationship only made their characters’ romance—and the film—more popular. But young love rarely lasts, and the Hollywood machine is brutal. A decade later they are called back to the most recent Dangerous Summer Nights installment. Their days of shifting cultural paradigms are long past. It’s hard enough just to maintain Hollywood careers and pseudo happy lives. PJ’s a director, finally making a name for herself that isn’t attached to having been a sexy starlet. Wylie is on marriage number three and most days doesn’t even mind that she’s a cliché. Their job is simple: pretend to be wildly in love on film again. Like professionals. But the more they fake it, the more they realize their feelings are anything but an act.