Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

15 reviews

valerian_honeybee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Deadnaming, Transphobia, Medical content, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

rhi_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Self harm, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

Minor: Transphobia, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

c_alexander's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

(june 2024 edit: i changed my rating to 5 stars cuz this book hasn’t left my brain once)

loved this - loved the complex characters and relationships, the imagery, tone, and the pacing!

was disappointed side characters weren't further developed - especially in terms of the bipoc characters; racism is a theme explored in the book but in a really brief capacity considering its relevance

took a little while to 'pick up' but had me hooked in the second half

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Child death, Car accident, and Death of parent

jojothefool's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I had a lot of fun with this audiobook. The supernatural stuff was a bit confusing via audio for me, I think I may have followed some scenes a lot better if I were reading instead of listening, but I got enough of it to get the haunting feelings of the scary scenes. I will say that this book has representation of a queer community I am so not familiar with which was interesting lol there’s a lot of drag racing and not the kind that I’m used to. Car stuff is just not for me, I don’t understand it and I don’t want to, so those parts were kinda hard to get through. I liked the overall mystery and ookiness of the novel. There’s a small yet remarkable romance that I found myself shipping far before I thought the book would do anything with it, so when it happened I was very pleased. Overall a fun time, especially for the toxic codependency queer ship enjoyers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Cannibalism, Car accident, and Death of parent

chris_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, and Fire/Fire injury

introverted_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

babe wake up and smell the petrol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cancer, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Vomit, Car accident, and Death of parent

Minor: Religious bigotry and Fire/Fire injury

gabertron's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, and Grief

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is oozing in atmosphere. Lee Mandelo has a way of describing things that cuts right to the heart of the image, transporting you into the story. This skill is employed to great effect in this creepy, tragic southern gothic. A story about haunting, inheritance, personhood, and love in all its fucked up forms, this is a great tale to raise the hair on your neck an leave you with a lot to consider.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

foreverinastory's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

What a ride.

Rep: white achillean-questioning male MC with anxiety, white queer male love interest, white queer polyamorous trans male side character, various queer coded side characters, Black male side character (sexuality not indicated).

CWs: Suicide, death, blood, grief, murder, drug use (smoking and snorting), violence, body horror (including haunting/possession), gore, alcohol consumption, homophobia/homomisia, sexual content, injury/injury detail, vomit, panic attacks, self-harm, cursing, racism (systemic and interpersonal), drug abuse, alcoholism, torture, toxic relationship, toxic friendship. Moderate: confinement, kidnapping, mental illness, death of parent, animal death, biphobia/bimisia, car accident, medical content/trauma, suicidal thought, suicide attempt, psychosis, cancer, fire, transphobia/transmisia, terminal illness. Minor: mentions of slavery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Biphobia, Cancer, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Slavery

lilifane's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

There are soooo many things that I hate in this book. Alcohol and drug use, cars, violence, a huge amount of gore and some more... but I still loved it to pieces! I didn't hate those things here. The writing was so exceptional and immersive that I felt all those things, and they made sense. (FYI: The writing was also quite difficult to get into, be prepared to look words up a lot, but it's worth it to let the prose sink in.) For me, it was the perfect book with the perfect (slow) pacing and timing and perfectly imperfect characters. The story is so wild and unexpected that I had no idea where it was heading for about... 80% of the book. The character work is phenomenal. I would do anything for these characters. I love them so much.

There was one thing I was expecting from the story and I got it, but so much more of it and in an unexpected way. And there was one (huuuuuuuuuuuuge) aspect of the story I didn't expect at all. And it was fantastic in my opinion. But I would understand if it's not for everyone... 

I could write so much more about this book, list all the things I loved about it. But what made the reading experience so good in the first place was the fact that I had no idea what was coming. 

Quick shoutout to the acknowledgements which gave me life. 

Lastly: Please check trigger and content warnings before reading. There are some really hard topics at the center of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Death, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Child abuse, Homophobia, Medical content, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury