Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

12 reviews

jojothefool's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I had a lot of fun with this audiobook. The supernatural stuff was a bit confusing via audio for me, I think I may have followed some scenes a lot better if I were reading instead of listening, but I got enough of it to get the haunting feelings of the scary scenes. I will say that this book has representation of a queer community I am so not familiar with which was interesting lol there’s a lot of drag racing and not the kind that I’m used to. Car stuff is just not for me, I don’t understand it and I don’t want to, so those parts were kinda hard to get through. I liked the overall mystery and ookiness of the novel. There’s a small yet remarkable romance that I found myself shipping far before I thought the book would do anything with it, so when it happened I was very pleased. Overall a fun time, especially for the toxic codependency queer ship enjoyers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Suicide, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, and Drug use

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Vomit, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Murder, and Homophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Car accident

chris_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Alcohol, Death, Racism, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, and Violence

Minor: Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and Homophobia

introverted_reads's review

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

babe wake up and smell the petrol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Murder, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, and Alcohol

Moderate: Vomit, Physical abuse, Racism, Terminal illness, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent, Cancer, Car accident, and Sexual content

Minor: Religious bigotry and Fire/Fire injury

gabertron's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Grief, and Gore

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Homophobia, Drug use, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, and Child abuse

laguerrelewis's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

This book is oozing in atmosphere. Lee Mandelo has a way of describing things that cuts right to the heart of the image, transporting you into the story. This skill is employed to great effect in this creepy, tragic southern gothic. A story about haunting, inheritance, personhood, and love in all its fucked up forms, this is a great tale to raise the hair on your neck an leave you with a lot to consider.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Racism, Cursing, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Blood, Violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Sexual content, Classism, Gore, Death, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia

foreverinastory's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

What a ride.

Rep: white achillean-questioning male MC with anxiety, white queer male love interest, white queer polyamorous trans male side character, various queer coded side characters, Black male side character (sexuality not indicated).

CWs: Suicide, death, blood, grief, murder, drug use (smoking and snorting), violence, body horror (including haunting/possession), gore, alcohol consumption, homophobia/homomisia, sexual content, injury/injury detail, vomit, panic attacks, self-harm, cursing, racism (systemic and interpersonal), drug abuse, alcoholism, torture, toxic relationship, toxic friendship. Moderate: confinement, kidnapping, mental illness, death of parent, animal death, biphobia/bimisia, car accident, medical content/trauma, suicidal thought, suicide attempt, psychosis, cancer, fire, transphobia/transmisia, terminal illness. Minor: mentions of slavery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Torture, Toxic friendship, Blood, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Death, Murder, Suicide, Grief, Drug use, Violence, Drug abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Homophobia, Alcohol, Vomit, and Self harm

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, Cancer, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Confinement, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Biphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Transphobia, Car accident, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Medical trauma

Minor: Slavery

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

There are soooo many things that I hate in this book. Alcohol and drug use, cars, violence, a huge amount of gore and some more... but I still loved it to pieces! I didn't hate those things here. The writing was so exceptional and immersive that I felt all those things, and they made sense. (FYI: The writing was also quite difficult to get into, be prepared to look words up a lot, but it's worth it to let the prose sink in.) For me, it was the perfect book with the perfect (slow) pacing and timing and perfectly imperfect characters. The story is so wild and unexpected that I had no idea where it was heading for about... 80% of the book. The character work is phenomenal. I would do anything for these characters. I love them so much.

There was one thing I was expecting from the story and I got it, but so much more of it and in an unexpected way. And there was one (huuuuuuuuuuuuge) aspect of the story I didn't expect at all. And it was fantastic in my opinion. But I would understand if it's not for everyone... 

I could write so much more about this book, list all the things I loved about it. But what made the reading experience so good in the first place was the fact that I had no idea what was coming. 

Quick shoutout to the acknowledgements which gave me life. 

Lastly: Please check trigger and content warnings before reading. There are some really hard topics at the center of the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Cancer

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Car accident, Death of parent, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, and Medical content

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. 

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Content Warnings

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

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

Minor: Transphobia and Domestic abuse

kkulhannie's review

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

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Slavery

cheelogreen's review

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

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Content Warnings

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

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