Summer Sons

Another queer southern gothic hit from Lee Mandelo! This story is just as dark and gritty as it is tender and melancholic. Mandelo's writing is immersive, uncomfortable and perfectly matches the atmosphere of an unbearably hot summer day. The characters are flawed and reckless but believe me, you will be rooting for them when you least expect it.

“It's a choice I made, getting in this thing with you, whatever it is. But don't mistake me, I'm not interested in filling in for a ghost.” Summer Sons is a book that haunts you in your sleep, one that buries itself deep inside your chest and remains there until it’s over. And once you’re done, you quietly sit on your sofa contemplating your entire existence. Or maybe that’s just me. It’s a story about grief, about love, about letting go of a life, a person, an almost future while (literally) being haunted by your past. It’s one of those books that are steeped in love without ever being a love story. It’s subtle in its approach and messages; taking the reader’s intelligence for granted, which is a breath of fresh air in today’s literary landscape. The prose is beautiful - haunting and atmospheric - and lets you forget everything around you (until you need to text your friend about an insane quote you just read). The story is driven mostly by its tone and characters, their relationship to each other complex and complicated but real. One relationship being new and messy and cloaked in guilt, while the other is all about toxic codependency and repressed feelings, only told in memories and text messages. If you liked All for the Game and The Raven Cycle, I would advise you to give Summer Sons a chance. You will probably love it as much as I did.

The best kind of fever dream! I got easily sucked into this unique tale of southern gothic. This book is filled with strong emotions and compels with a beautiful writing style and interesting characters. It's the perfect amount of creepy, with an intense queer slowburn romance.

Convinced his best friend’s death wasn’t suicide, Andrew follows his traces to the university they planned to attend together. Once there, sorting through the chaos he left behind and trying to investigate, he meets his housemate Riley and Riley’s cousin Eddie. Andrew discovers more questions than answers the deeper he digs though and that Eddie—with his big mouth, tattoos and revealing tank tops—is getting on his nerves, isn’t helping the matter either. “Summer Sons” invites us into a Southern Gothic tale of masculinity, hauntings, childhood curses, car races, dark academia, murder and queerness. Lee Mandelo manages to transport us right into the South, making our skin clammy with the heat and biting our nails as we question if the sounds Andrew hears and schemes he sees are just imaginative or of a paranormal nature, coming to drag him into an early grave. I’d recommend “Summer Sons” to everyone who liked “Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo and whose favourite character from “The Raven Cycle” is Ronan Lynch. It’s the perfect horror novel for hotter days.