Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

84 reviews

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

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

Minor: Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and Homophobia

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

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

aubdotcom's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

2.0

Ehhhh…not my cup of tea. Very moody and brooding but not much actually happens until the end. I did like the climax and where the story went, but overall just not my fave and didn’t wow me. The audio production also has a very…interesting take on Southern….coming from a GA girl.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Cursing, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content and Violence

Minor: Racism

aplpaca's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, and Homophobia

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

minella's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent and Homophobia

maytmayorga's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Blood and Transphobia

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

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

Spicy

kers_tin's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Torture, Alcohol, Confinement, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide

Moderate: Racism and Homophobia

Minor: Slavery and Transphobia

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

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

Minor: Deadnaming, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Transphobia