A review by potterpav
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

this might be one of those very rare cases where i rate a book 5 stars and the longer it goes from the time i finished reading it, the more the stars drop. i saw someone describe this book somewhere (goodreads, maybe?) as "the raven cycle if the main character was noah czerny", which is the main reason why i bought this book, but after reading it, i couldn't disagree more. its more "the raven cycle if the main character was adam parrish", but even then it feels so different to TRC. this book made me feel crazy. i adored the first half more than the second, but the entire thing just feels like someone poured testosterone all over this book like gasoline and struck a match. it feels like blistering just below the skin, boiling hot and shaking until it bursts and you're standing, shivering from adrenalin. i love reading abt (toxic) masculinity and repressed homosexuality, so this was great! it is THE southern gothic book, queer too (yippee!) and so enticing its insane. i haven't read a book this enthralling in months, i couldn't put it down and read 60% of it in a day. the writing style takes a LONG time to get used to, to the point where by the end i was still a bit lost, but its fast and has gorgeous characters. this book will not be for everyone, but it was definitely for me. if i had to describe it in three words it'd be vertigo, threesomes and horny, which is insane considering its probably gonna be the best book i've read this year. what a blessing it was for me to read this book, like fate.
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