A review by booksthatburn
Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

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. 
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