Reviews with content warning for Misogyny - Summer Sons

Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

perkyanda's review

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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hbocking's review

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dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

In the immortal words of The Lonely Island: “It's okay when it's in a 3-way. It's not gay when it's in a 3-way.”

I somehow started reading this not realizing there was a supernatural element to it. I don't know, okay? Apparently I half read the synopsis and went sounds gay I'm in.

The first hundred or so pages were a slog. Andrew is a disaster of a human. It's understandable given how grief stricken he is at the sudden loss of his best friend, but I still thought he was more of an asshole than necessary. Also I don't have much desire to read about 20-something dudes being typical idiotic 20-something dudes, and let me tell you, these are truly some dumb dude-bros. It's all beer and street racing and weed and punching out their feelings instead of talking. And to top it off there was all this paranormal stuff and none of the queerness I was promised. I was just about to give up when I decided to read the last few pages to see how it ended, and immediately I had to go back and figure out how we got there. And oh how this book won me over along the way.

All the ghosty stuff, reckless driving, and drugs aside, this is a story about grief. It's about friendship, repression, and toxic masculinity. It's about dealing with loss and finding a way to let go of the past.

The main trio, Andrew, Riley, and Sam, are deeply flawed and irresponsible and far from being 'good representation', but they care deeply for each other. I still want to smack them all upside the head and tell them to stop being idiots, but now it's because I care and want the best for them.

Sometimes family is your dead best friend's roommate, his hot white trash cousin, and their gang of street racing hooligans.

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fanboyriot's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious 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

5.0

Read For:
Ghosts
Chaotic Gays
Spooky Fantasy
Dark Academia
Fast Cars and Stupid Decisions

I read a review that said this was like a gay fever dream and that sums up a lot of it. The supernatural elements and the overall eerie atmosphere were really lovely. It was well written, however, the romance was kind of meh at first, by the end of the book it was better but it just felt like there could have been more development with Andrew and Sam. Overall, the ending was nice and I would definitely re-read this again.

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (5/5)

Release Date: 28, September 2021

POV: Third Person

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rep: Achillean MC, Trans Character, Queer Characters, Polyamorous MMF, BIPOC SC, MC with Anxiety

Content Warnings