Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo is exactly what I was looking for in a spooky fall read. I loved the premise of Southern Gothic mixed with the college atmosphere and the street racing. The characters and representation were excellent. I liked seeing Andrew's character step into Eddie's life and try to piece it together while dealing with his own problems. I do feel like grief could have been tackled in more depth, which in turn would have connected me more with Andrew as a character. I loved Sam and Riley! I thought they were juxtaposed really well and I could understand their motivations.

I thought the actual writing was very easy to read while still being vivid and interesting. I finished the entire book in two days. The build up to the climax and reveals were well paced and while I figured out the mystery pretty early on, I still enjoyed getting to it. I wanted more of the paranormal towards the end and maybe even more of the history of Eddie's family. I still really liked the book overall.

The narrator was pretty good as well. Some of the accents bothered me a little bit but at the same time they added to the story's charms.

I requested this one because it might be a 2021 title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one rather than push myself to finish the digital copy on my phone only to give it a poor review.

I did not enjoy this narration and stopped listening before finishing the book. The narrator's accent felt contrived and awkward (it gave me a similar vibe to Jodi Foster in Silence of the Lambs, which ruined the movie for me) and after a while, I stopped listening. I would be likely to pick up this book in print, however, once it is released.

Summer Sons is the queer, haunting, sensual, and grief-shot southern Gothic dark academia that I didn’t know I needed as much as I did. Mandelo’s prose is gorgeous and thoughtful and this book has some of my favorite depictions of grief, masculinity, and sexual discovery that I’ve read in a long time. It’s a thrilling and fascinating read the whole way through and it’s entirely deserving of its beautiful cover. You don’t want to miss this one and I would suggest experiencing Summer Sons through audiobook if you can—it’s the last step to make this story come truly alive.

I went into this book not really knowing what it was about and it was SO GOOD. Southern gothic, dark academia, with street racing. Someone dies (murder?) and dumb boys are figuring out their shit, it was just all of the things that I didn't even know I wanted to be reading about.
This comes out at the end of September, which is just perfect timing, because it is a perfect book for spooky season.