Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

15 reviews

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

SUMMER SONS is a long exhalation after a reckless sprint, a tale of grief and queer masculinity as Andrew slowly wrestles with who his best friend was to him, and the betrayal he feels at finding out after Eddie’s death that other people knew different sides. Andrew begins by resenting every new thing he finds, every way that Eddie was someone else with someone else, and disturbed that these other people would have any interest in knowing him too. As he slowly works his way through his resentment and grief (with the help of an occasional punch to jolt him out of his own ass), Andrew gets closer to the car-racing, hot, young men who filled Eddie’s nights, circling warily around the academics of Ahis days who seem hell-bent on making Andrew pick up where Eddie left off. The problem is that Andrew doesn’t know who he and Eddie were, and the achingly slow process of figuring out what that was is being complicated by the way Eddie’s haunt keeps filling Andrew’s throat with earth, loam, dirt, and death whenever he has a moment alone. 

The characterization is complex and well-executed, generally following Andrew’s understanding of the people around him. As he’s able to observe more from behind the veil of his grief, they, too, come into focus. It's a story of queer masculinity, including the difficult tangle of emotions which can make embracing one's queerness without giving up masculinity in the context of a rural Southern existence. 

This is beautiful and ultimately satisfying, unafraid to fill itself up with jagged pieces and look you in the eye as it names the broken bits one by one in their slow exhumation from Andrew’s soul. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug abuse, Gore, Racism, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Domestic abuse and Transphobia

kkulhannie's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Slavery

cheelogreen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Vomit, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Outing

bookcrushin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

dark messy masc boys in grad school working to solve a mystery from childhood and more recently... 
Trauma, death, mysterious curses, and spectral spookiness! Highly recommended this queer spooky story! Serious CWs looks those up if you’re into scary books but be safe. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, and Medical trauma

Minor: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

czerny's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

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

4.25

** physical ARC from publisher won in giveaway on Goodreads!! **

Reading this sitting outside in the 90 degree Chicago humidity was, how I assume, this book was meant to be read. Summer Sons has all the components of a PERFECT July read: sweltering heat, confusion, and a main character yearning for something beyond his reach. I ate this shit up.

Lee Mandelo explores the underrepresented intersection between queerness and raw hyper-masculinity. An ode to the transmasc Raven Cycle fan if you’ll humor me for a second. Summer Sons is equally unapologetically queer and messy and smothered in American masculinity: street racing and Molly and making out with the guys you’re street racing on molly with.  

Maybe I wasn’t a massive fan of the ending or maybe I just read it at 2am, so rating is subject to change. Regardless, this book is incredible and I’m so excited to read anything by Lee Mandelo in the future.

(Also, yes, I was IMMEDIATELY making connections to The Raven Cycle while reading this and IMMEDIATELY read Mandelo’s articles/essays on it— I’m convinced we would be besties in another universe)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Suicide

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit and Fire/Fire injury