'Summerhouse' brings darkness and the realness of the human psyche to the queer genre. It brought a fresh prospective to relationships, their inner dynamics, and how obsession can ruin them. Yigit Karaahmet is able to bring the characters to life and cause the reader to become reflective on human nature and how horrifyingly wrong it can go. It is also a reflection on the individual and how one can delve into the innermost psyches of the mind to dark places out of a need not to lose anything or anyone. The realness of the characters is tangible. Their exploits and thoughts can mimic those experienced by the reader which brings 'Summerhouse' to life and causes a very real emotional connection as well reaction to the unfolding of the story.
I am hesitant to write further on 'Summerhouse'. I believe to truly enjoy the book, one needs to know just a little. I cannot adequately summarize 'Summerhouse' without giving away details that would ruin it. That is something that I do not want to do. It would be a true disservice to the book. 'Summerhouse' is a terrifically dark and emotionally charged read. Something that has been lacking from the queer genre. Karaahmet does a phenomenal job intertwining realism, psychological torment, and the dark nature of the individual in 'Summerhouse'.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get into the story at all. The age difference made it very hard for me to enjoy the different aspects of the story. It was certainly of depth- but I would have preferred if the thriller segments could’ve been explored more.

This story follows a gay couple, Fehmi and Şener as they live out their idyllic retirement years on the island of Büyükada. They have just celebrated their unofficial anniversary of 40 years, celebrating a love that was only ever allowed to exist in secret and behind closed doors. Their love is not idyllic or pure and they also have some issues, as any couple probably would, but it is very clear they have chosen well to spend their lives together. But when a family moves in to get their son Deniz away from his school, where he just beat up another classmate, their lives are soon changed, as Fehmi finds himself deeply attracted to the boy.
I absolutely adored the lyrical writing of this book, obviously I only know the English translation, but I think it made for a really beautiful reading experience. The story also moves quite slowly, not at all what I expected from a book that’s marketed as a mystery and a thriller (in fact those aspects only start at 60%), but as a fan of contemporary fiction, I found myself enjoying that. However, I think you need to know what you’re getting into, because this is not a fastpaced thriller at all and sometimes the book does feel a bit overextended. The story examines the relationship between Fehmi and Şener, the issues they have with each other, the fact that Fehmi treats Şener badly and as if he was inherently more feminine and thus weak at points and the resentments that causes for Şener, the way Şener controls the house tightly as the only place he is allowed to be himself, the tension in how they talk with their neighbors and friends and the constant obfuscation of their relationship, as well as the atmospheric descriptions of the island and the people on it all made for incredibly interesting reading. While I did not care that much for Fehmi becoming creepily obsessed with Deniz (his age is never specifically mentioned, but we do know he is in school and celebrates a birthday After Fehmi starts creeping on him), it was still interesting to see how this would play out.
My favorite part of the story began after the story takes a dark turn (as the summary promises!), since I deeply enjoyed the role reversal for the characters and the way they were forced to embody new roles and figure out a life so unlike anything they had even been able to conceive previously. It was also interesting to see how they would find their way out of their dilemma and so I really enjoyed reading that part.
So, if you are willing to wait for the suspense, enjoy reading about people, who upon messing up find themselves forced to dig ever deeper, want to take a deep dive into a couples relationship, their highs and lows and other issues, or just want to feel like you are spending a quite eventful summer on an idyllic island in Turkey, then you should read this book!

TW: drug use, homophobia, murder, stalking, violation of consent

It’s not often we come across Turkish crime fiction, much less examples influenced by Nabokov and Highsmith, but Yiğit Karaahmet has produced an original, atmospheric debut with LGBTQ+ themes. Summerhouse is set on Büyükada, an island just off Istanbul, and follows a single summer and one event that irreversibly alters the life of a couple.

Link to full review: https://westwordsreviews.wordpress.com/2025/06/18/summerhouse-yigit-karaahmet/

I gave this book three tries and I was especially excited to read this during pride month but for some reason I just could not get into the book or care about the characters. It may be just the translated writing style that I just could not connect to. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to try.
2 star

I really tried to get into Summerhouse, but it just didn’t vibe with me. The writing’s not bad—I can see why some people might enjoy it—but I couldn’t connect with the story or characters enough to stay invested. Might be a case of right book, wrong reader.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I think I'm not the target audience for this one and I don't feel I got enough into it to recommend it to anyone is particular, though I wouldn't discourage anyone from giving it a try if it sounds like something they'd love.

As other reviewers have said, I think this book has been mismarketed slightly as a gay thriller because it doesn't really follow "thriller norms" in terms of plot and pacing. But that's not say it doesn't have suspense or intrigue and certainly for the first half of the book there is a definite sense of what the heck is going to happen here? And when "it" does happen, it is indeed suitably horrifying and disturbing. I also really liked that the two main protagonists were queer men in their seventies. I'm here for more books with elder queers getting up to all sorts.

Until about a third of the way through the book, I wasn't sure I was enjoying it. I couldn't figure out where the story was taking me, it was mostly about the celebration of Fehmi and Şener's forty-year relationship, lived in the very closet of a prejudiced society. And then a new group of characters appears, made up of a family who goes to spend their summer vacation in a house rented by the side of Fehmi and Şener's mansion on the island of Büyükada, to get away from the events that had happened in Istanbul.

It was from that moment on that I began to accept this novel for what it is: an intense melodrama written as the best dramatic Turkish or Mexican soap operas can be! From this moment on, it became such a joyful thing, even in the most horrid moments, but wish such a great finale!

I really wanted to like this, but it just didn’t click with me. The story felt too familiar, and I struggled to stay engaged. I couldn’t feel any real connection between the two main characters, even though they’re meant to have spent forty years together. The ending felt confusing rather than impactful, and overall, it just didn’t leave much of an impression.

Such an intense read, packed with dark humour, suspense, and betrayal. Every moment kept me gripped until the very end.

Unfortunately, I’m putting this one down at around the 60-page mark. I’m not sure if it’s an issue with the original text or the translation, but the writing feels incredibly choppy. The dialogue comes across as overly formal and unnatural, which kept pulling me out of the story. The grammar and structure made it difficult to stay engaged.

There’s definitely a promising concept here, but some narrative choices—particularly a developing age gap that feels uncomfortable—made it hard for me to stay invested. I found myself dreading picking it back up, which is always my sign to move on.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. I never take it lightly when I DNF a review copy, but I also believe in being honest, and this one just wasn’t for me.

Babyyyyyy this plot and twist gave what it was suppose to give everything!!!! Awesome read it was a lil different but it seem like this is an everyday life situation that happens but overall great read

I wonder who this book is for, because I was not the one. I think the book starts on shaky ground and never truly finds its footing. The language choices feel a bit unexperienced, but I can tell there is a spark here that the author will develop as they continue to write.

Thank you to NetGalley and Soho Crime for this ARC.

“Summerhouse” is a gay thriller translated from Turkish, telling the story of an elderly gay couple living on the island Büyükada, part of the Princes’ islands near Istanbul. The book starts off with the couple, Şener and Fehmi, celebrating their 40th anniversary, and we get to see what their life is like, the rhythms and synchronicities that come when you're together that long. However, this peace changes when new people rent the house neighbouring theirs for the summer, bringing their young, troubled son Deniz with them, whom Fehmi develops a crush on. Events unfold from there, and the situation gets increasingly heated…

I really enjoyed the setting of this book. I’ve always liked thrillers or horror novels in a somewhat contained setting, like the island in this book. This element was made even more interesting by the nature of Şener and Fehmi’s relationship, living together as a committed gay couple, hidden in the closet nonetheless. I think exploring the different ways gay couples may have to live their lives around the world, but especially in a country like Türkiye where there is no legal recognition of or protection for same-sex couples.

I also thought creating a cast of flawed characters was well done, though to the extent where I personally hated nearly every single one of them. Fehmi and Deniz were especially unbearable to me. Karaahmet seems to have attempted to make Fehmi a sort of Humbert Humbert-esque character, and reading from his POV certainly created that sense of discomfort.

I did however have some issues with this book. For one I have to judge it by its translation, and therefore cannot judge how this novel is in its intended state, and unfortunately I found the translation very clunky. It felt like it was trying to be too literal at times rather than translating the meaning of the text in a way that would remain understandable in English. The dialogue somehow always felt somewhat uncomfortable and stilted.

I also thought the plot was a bit oddly paced. It felt like everything was progressing very slowly, I couldn’t really perceive a significant rise in tension until suddenly everything happened at once, and then it felt like events didn’t quite get the attention I would’ve expected them to get when compared with earlier chapters.

Overall I would say that if you greatly enjoy thrillers and you want a gay thriller in a unique setting you could enjoy this book.

Fehmi and Sener, a queer couple of over 40 years living on a beautiful Turkish island, experience turbulence as a new family moves in next door, with one of the older men falling for the adolescent son.
Atmospheric and lyrical, I think this novel could appeal to a wide variety of readers! I also think the translator did a brilliant job. The initial pacing was slower than I anticipated for a book which is marketed as a thriller; but this negative is outweighed by the book's varied strengths.

A sultry slow-burn queer noir set on a sun-drenched Turkish island with secrets in every corner.

In Summerhouse, Yiğit Karaahmet serves us seaside longing, fraying domesticity, and the kind of queer tension that crackles. Fehmi and Şener have been together for forty years, which in itself feels like an act of rebellion. Their world—small, soft, weathered by time—is upended when a troubled teenager named Deniz moves in next door.

Fehmi is drawn to him. Şener is disturbed by the draw. What starts as unease turns into obsession, and soon the island heat isn't the only thing suffocating. Karaahmet doesn’t flinch from mess or moral ambiguity, crafting a story where love dissolves into jealousy. Deniz is both a character and a catalyst, throwing a long shadow over everyone’s intentions.

Summerhouse is Patricia Highsmith—esque in its interpersonal drama, razor-sharp in its commentary. It’s not a thriller in the traditional sense, but it thrums with dread and cracked beauty. The real horror here isn’t what happens, it’s what these characters convince themselves they deserve.

#SohoCrime #Summerhouse #YiğitKaraahmet #DarkSummerReads #Bookstagram

I enjoyed this more than I expected to! I felt the writing was well done and the setting was immersive. The story started off and I thought I could have predicted where it would go, but it surprised me with the twists!

Summerhouse tells the story of Fehmi and Şener, an elderly gay couple living on the island of Büyükada, near Istanbul. It opens with a celebration: the two of them have been unofficially wed for forty years. "Unofficial" because they need to hide their relationship from everyone except their closest friends, due to public and political perceptions and laws. Their idyllic life is interrupted when a family moves in next-door, following a brutal beating that their son Deniz perpetrated against a classmate in his private academy. Fehmi begins to take a liking to the teenager, though, and the harmless crush turns into something he thinks is mutual. However, when Şener returns one night to hear screaming in the bedroom, he realizes that Deniz was toying with Fehmi in a sick game to try and use the old man as a scapegoat to force his parents into letting him leave the island. Şener can't take this, and his reaction that night haunts the two old men for the rest of their time on Büyükada.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this as much as I expected I would. I think part of the reason is because the book is marketed as "a gay thriller" but I think that does the story a grave disservice and sets an expectation that can't be met by the story. This isn't a thriller. Instead, this is a contemporary fiction with a queer storyline involving two antiheroes who make a terrible decision and have to live with its consequences. In other words, it's a drama.

Now, regarding the content of the book, another major reason I didn't enjoy this was just how creepy the pseudo-relationship with Deniz was. His age is never stated explicitly, but we know he's in his final year of school and he has a birthday after Fehmi has started watching him masturbate and swim naked. This makes the reader assume that Deniz is younger than 18, at least for the first half of the book, ultimately turning the book from what would be a creepy age-gap issue into a creepy and illegal age-gap issue. I also really didn't understand the ending. Berna, Deniz's mother, pieces everything together suddenly while on top of the gazebo where Deniz is entombed, but there's no conclusion beyond her running and saying to herself that she needs to make some calls. Then the next scene is Fehmi and Şener leaving on a cruise liner.... From my perspective, this is a non-ending and therefore leaves the book unresolved. The problem isn't that they escape unscathed, it's that it feels like we're missing pieces from Berna's discovery before their escape.

From a positive perspective, though, I will say that the pacing is good (assuming we change the expectations of the book to be a contemporary fiction, not a thriller). We're introduced as readers to a number of people, their interconnected lives as relates to the two older men, and aspects of Türkiye that are decently portrayed to form a cohesive narrative. The dynamics of Fehmi's and Şener's relationship is also shown to have dynamic ups and downs, rather than being assumed to be stagnant in their 60s-70s, which was an excellent decision because it made them feel more real.

Ladies in Lavender meets Poison Ivy or The Babysitter, but make it gay.

I requested and received an eARC of Summerhouse by Yiğit Karaahmet via NetGalley. Fehmi and Şener have recently celebrated their fortieth anniversary, which is no small accomplishment for a gay couple in Turkey. When a family moves into the home next door for the summer, Fehmi is immediately struck by the beauty of troubled teenage son, Deniz. Despite knowing Deniz would never reciprocate the much older Şener's crush, Fehmi finds himself trouble. As one betrayal leads to another, Deniz formulates a plan that will test the strength of the couple's relationship like never before.

From the overture that opens Summerhouse I was hooked. The suspense, the atmosphere, and the unease successfully seduced me and I couldn’t wait to discover what secrets the novel had to offer. Karaahmet does a masterful job of capturing such a real and nuanced dynamic between Fehmi and Şener. From their first interactions on the page I felt like I had an understanding of their relationship and I really couldn’t wait to see what twists and turns the novel might bring them. There’s a lot of humor to be found in this novel, but what I was most impressed with were the feelings of despair and jealousy that permeate throughout Şener’s scenes as he tortures himself imagining what Fehmi is thinking.

Thematically, there’s this focus on “raging against aging” that feels both real and very camp, making both Fehmi and Şener somewhat sympathetic, but also gloriously entertaining and vicious, like a regular George and Martha. Through his characters Karaahmet offers accurate and wickedly humorous observations about gender roles in gay relationships and the resulting friction. I wish there were more opportunities to share space with Deniz, but I also found him very well-written as the angry teenager and scheming temptress. This was a terrific read, I wanted to rush through it, but found greater satisfaction in lingering and enjoying the mounting tension and paranoia along with a few genuine on the way.