Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Summer Sons

Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

dodgeremerson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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chris_reads's review

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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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aubdotcom's review

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Ehhhh…not my cup of tea. Very moody and brooding but not much actually happens until the end. I did like the climax and where the story went, but overall just not my fave and didn’t wow me. The audio production also has a very…interesting take on Southern….coming from a GA girl.

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grey_jayne's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

Lee Mandelo's Summer Sons is fabulous! If I hadn't taken a chance on this queer author, I would not have thought that I would absolutely adore a slow moving masc 4 masc Southern Gothic with supernatural elements and so much grad school research. My reading (and personal) preference is femme 4 femme. Thank you Lee for sharing a fully realized world of fast cars and positive masculine queer characters. And for the horniness, I love when a queer genre book gets a little dirty...or a lot.

I did need to clear the space for the reading, which isn't a bad thing, I just struggle with slow paced books because I have reading difficulties. The audiobook was excellent alongside the printed page.

I also love how technology is effortlessly interwoven throughout the story, emails, texts, Snaps, sometimes showing the text bubbles and other times presenting the text in italics. It's honestly the best representation of owning a smartphone I've ever read. So visceral, intimate and mundane all at once, which is also a fitting description for the vibes of this novel. Oh, and a haunt embodying those qualities.

This book made me think of Clive Barker more than once. Fall into this story and it will take you on a journey. Just don't expect high octane like some of the blurbs suggest. It's a beautiful slow burn, done extremely well.

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stuckinatimeloop's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

the characters and their dynamics and relationships are great. i don't really get the plot, maybe it's not my genre.
but sam and andrew. i loved Sam's development. and riley is just amazing.

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aplpaca's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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alouette's review

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dark emotional mysterious tense 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

5.0

i needed months to process how good this book was. the intimacy of every moment made it feel so real that i just needed to breathe after, listen to some of the wonderful playlists the author shared, and thank them for the experience.

the idea of the person you built your life around being gone, rethinking your whole relationship with them, the mystery of their death being so dark and twisted, it was all very well-crafted. one of the first mysteries where i haven't wanted to speed through to find out what happens, because the characters and other plot beats are so gorgeous and fascinating that it would be a mistake to go too fast. the dialogue is also so cleverly funny, even in the most tense moments! i don't even mind that andrew was a basic white boy at first, by the end of things he had my heart for how real and flawed he was, and the way he was just barely learning who he was as his own person. the book too had its flaws, such as the depth of some characters and being a bit overly sensual at times, but i adore it regardless.

He was going to take that 'maybe' to his grave.

i'll likely have more to say upon rereading, which i will definitely be doing. also, the narrator's deep southern accent was SO PERFECT. this was my first real southern gothic and i'm so glad for it!

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perkyanda's review against another edition

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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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