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frasersimons 's review for:
Summer Sons
by Lee Mandelo
Fear is wonderfully realized in this queer and fantastical southern gothic tale. Internalized misogyny, homophobia—especially around power dynamics and (sexual) empowerment—unresolved trauma, and general apotheosis of coming into your own in post-secondary education.
Andrew is forced into a painful reckoning when his best friend ostensibly commits suicide and he is gifted, or rather pushed, into his life. He inherits everything. Friends, money… the lingering supernatural remnant of Eddie. Essentially a new life birthed from the death of who he thought he was on the back of a murder that dredges up old trauma.
Occupying a liminal sexual identity while grief riddled, Andrew tries to discern the circumstances of his friends death as he is pulled into an unfamiliar, quintessentially sexually charged university/college scene Eddie was embedded in, and may have gotten him killed.
The supernatural components being linked and intersectional to Andrew’s identity and queer themes worked incredibly well. It’s evocative, slightly melodramatic and dark in tone and subject matter, and themes, as you’d expect from southern gothic. The investigative components are well paced, paralleling Andrew’s internal dimensions. Felt respectful of heavy subject matter. Really liked the ending. Very solid, better than I expected.
Andrew is forced into a painful reckoning when his best friend ostensibly commits suicide and he is gifted, or rather pushed, into his life. He inherits everything. Friends, money… the lingering supernatural remnant of Eddie. Essentially a new life birthed from the death of who he thought he was on the back of a murder that dredges up old trauma.
Occupying a liminal sexual identity while grief riddled, Andrew tries to discern the circumstances of his friends death as he is pulled into an unfamiliar, quintessentially sexually charged university/college scene Eddie was embedded in, and may have gotten him killed.
The supernatural components being linked and intersectional to Andrew’s identity and queer themes worked incredibly well. It’s evocative, slightly melodramatic and dark in tone and subject matter, and themes, as you’d expect from southern gothic. The investigative components are well paced, paralleling Andrew’s internal dimensions. Felt respectful of heavy subject matter. Really liked the ending. Very solid, better than I expected.