Review by mostat - Summer Sons

mostat 's review for:

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

3.0

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Hmmmmmmmmmmm

On the one hand I liked Andrew and Sam as characters, and I did enjoy the

romance/queer awakening

element. Their arc was so strong. I do think it’s a little odd that the only black character was barely a person, and that the main power stemmed from families that owned plantations without any sort of meaningful acknowledgment of that history. I dunno that part didn’t sit well with me. Am I the friend who is too woke.

I also felt like Riley got shafted.

I loved how they handled his trans/poly rep, but he got treated like a child and then always would show up conveniently to be helpful. Lowkey woman-coded.. dare I say…..

Audiobook was not that good. I think I would’ve enjoyed reading it more, the forced southern accent threw me sorryyyy

Prose was great, pacing was awful

(I kinda felt like nothing happened until the very end, and there wasn’t much in the way of suspense to warrant it. We spent so long on the setup and exposition and then as soon as it started to pick up it ended really fast and predictably).

The descriptions were the highlight of the book for me, Mandelo sure knows how to paint a picture. The characters practically lept off of the page. The haunt descriptions especially stood out to me, my god they were fantastic. Honestly they’re what I wanted from Ninth House.

I need to also point out that the cover is gorgeous. I didn’t even know it was gay when I picked up my copy, I saw the cover and immediately had to buy it. I like to use my dollar to support good graphic design choices.

Content Warnings