Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

26 reviews

frantic_vampire's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I am…unwell over this book. This was just fucking fantastic and I’m honestly at a loss for words for this review. Summer Sons is one of the absolute best books that I think I’ve ever read and I just want to scream about it. It’s this mix of dark academia, paranormal hauntings, and queer longing that had me hooked from the very beginning. Everything about this book was feral and unhinged and tinged with the sticky restlessness of a southern summer. And I could read about Andrew and Sam and Riley endlessly. This book is one that will haunt my dreams for a long time to come and I can’t recommend it enough. This is the easiest five stars I think I’ve ever given a book. I’m just gonna excuse myself now and go scream about it into the void…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Medical trauma

ghazalandotherpoems's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Vomit

perkyanda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

If you like horror dark academia mystery southern gothic chaotic bi energy death magic, all with a trans character who it literally does not matter is trans and who you can’t tell is trans til it just happens to come up, I cannot recommend Summer Sons highly enough. The only thing that could improve it are more female characters but then it couldn’t be a book that is largely about male relationships. And it has one of the BEST scenes with a female character who is otherwise unimportant I’ve seen in a long time.

And it’s spicy at points which was NOT expected in a, well, horror but not horror but horror ok mystery maybe maybe suspense? Is dark academia even a genre or just a sub genre or a blend genre I don’t fucking know book

And while I normally don’t actually love spice in normal books and was surprised at the level of detail it didn’t feel gratuitous it felt extremely relevant to character development bc repression and male friendship and sexuality is a big part of the book

Honestly this book is just a sweltering mess of OH MY GOD GO TO CLASS and DO YOU WANT TO GET YOUR DUMB ASS MURDERED TOO and IF YOU TALKED ABOUT YOUR FEELINGS NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED which I guess is a big part of why it has to be about idiot boys instead of idiot girls, even though as an idiot woman I prefer reading about idiot girls. But anyway, these idiot dirt bag druggie boys are adorable and I want to give them all a good talking to. But hey really excellent book about male friendship and relationships and the blurry (ha!) line between homoeroticism and brotherhood. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cancer, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Classism

Spicy

khea's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Deadnaming, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

caspian_the_pauper's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Abandonment

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I don't know how to review this. I feel like I didn't enjoy it as much as it deserves, though I did enjoy it. I couldn't fully get into Andrew or Sam as characters, so even though the writing was good and I enjoyed the story overall (other than a few things that needed a bit more development toward the end), I feel so-so on it. I also don't love atmospheric books, and this was very atmospheric. This came to me from Rainbow Crate Book Box.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Death of parent

Internalized homophobia

dagsywagsy43's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Transphobia

shortstak37's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Book was alright overall, most of the mystery solving tends to happen off page, and major focus tends to be on the main character coming to terms with themselves and the spooky/mystery stuff seems more like small side piece that comes up to help the character have some forward progress in the narrative.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Self harm and Blood

lycanhood's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief

zghutcheson01's review against another edition

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

4.75

I really loved this book. It took me about 30 pages to get into it but once I did I couldn't put it down. Without spoilers, I do enjoy how this book came to a satisfying ending without frantically rushing to resolve all of the character issues. It let the book feel like a peek into someone's life and you know things are going to change but that the hardest part is over. The nurder mystery part isn't super compelling but I honestly think that's not the main point of the book which is the character development and exploration of the supernatural which it does really well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Domestic abuse and Transphobia