thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Tor/Forge for providing an e-ARC, in exchange for an honest review.

*Summer Sons* by Lee Mandelo is a haunting Southern Gothic novel that blends grief, desire, and the supernatural. The story follows Andrew, who travels to Nashville after the sudden death of his best friend, Eddie, only to uncover dark secrets lurking beneath the academic and street-racing scenes Eddie was involved in. As Andrew is plagued by spectral visions and an overwhelming sense of loss, he forges tense, complicated relationships with Eddie’s old associates—especially the charismatic and dangerous Sam. Mandelo masterfully weaves themes of repressed emotions, queerness, and the weight of inheritance into a slow-burning, atmospheric tale of obsession and self-discovery.

Mandelo weaves a lush queer southern gothic filled with ghosts, snarky dialogue, and suspense.

The story and writing had me hooked from the very first page and did not let me go! It reminded me a little bit of Supernatural x Fast and Furious x dark academia. It worked beautifully with an ache that was palpable through the pages. My reasoning for knocking it 1 star is due to the pacing ... it can be a bit slow, but once it picks up, hold on for a wild ride.

Summer Sons is definitely one to add to your Summer Scare Reads!

This horror novel has a lot of themes that I like: psychological suspense/thriller/gothic/academic. After his best friend, Eddie, dies, Andrew is determined to figure out Eddie's life and how much he didn't know about his friend, and a vengeful phantom that talks about revenge. I liked the two worlds that Eddie was inhabiting, the contrast between academia and the wild nights. It's good for those who love gothic tales and dark academia. I really enjoyed the writing as well.

I felt like someone was whispering this story in my ear the entire time I was reading it’s dark and sultry tones give the book a fever dream like feel. While the pace is slow I found myself so wrapped up in the atmosphere I didn't mind the slower pacing at all.

While I do not give it a full 5 stars, I found this book intriguing and thought provoking. I feel that you must be really into horror and thrillers to read this for it to keep you captivated. I would buy and stock this for my store if we had more space in our horror section.

There is something so deeply satisfying about Lee Mandelo's writing. The dark gothic tones and eery imagery make this a fantastically creepy story. The twists and turns are brilliant and the inherent queerness of the whole story make for a perfectly spooky summe read.

This book was a sultry, spooky thrill ride through a hot Nashville summer full of secrets and ghosts. Fully recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this copy. I DNF this at 26%. That was enough time for me to realize that I wasn’t connecting with these characters.

The pacing is on the slower side, yet the story almost felt feverish because of the uneasiness, the descriptive writing, and an increasingly palpable (sexual) tension.

This eerie novel captures the intensity of grief and stifled queer desire through a Southern Gothic lens. I found the novel most affecting in its portrayal of otherworldly hauntings and self-destructive isolation, but struggled connecting to the characters and the slow-paced nature of the plot. This novel is at its best when it comes to mood and tone but struggles to develop its central mystery. I would recommend this for fans of contemporary gothic works, but not for primarily horror or thriller readers.

I'm going to be honest. I requested this book solely based on the fact that it was comped to Maggie Stiefvater's Raven Cycle series and I was all over that. Unfortunately, this book and I didn't click. I was a little anxious going into the book because I don't read much horror and I am a lightweight when it comes to scary. That part of the book wasn't bad. I got confused about what was happening a time or two. But my main turn off was the main character. I get he is going through it and he was grieving the loss of his best friend but his character never developed past that. I can see so many people loving this book. Unfortunately, this was a miss for me and I DNFed it around the 35% mark.

It's the end of summer, and Andrew Blur is moving to Nashville for graduate school at Vanderbilt. While he'd been looking forward to this for ages, it's with a lot of emotional baggage that he makes the journey now — his best friend and adopted brother, Eddie Fulton, had already been at Vanderbilt for a semester, getting ready for Andrew to join him, when he inexplicably committed suicide just weeks before the fall semester was to begin. Andrew is sure that Eddie wouldn't kill himself, and it's with that in mind that he makes the move — yeah, he'll go to school, but his main goal is to prove that Eddie was murdered. However, Eddie and Andrew had a deeper connection, dating back to a horrific incident when they were 13 that tightened their bond and gave them both the ability to see revenants of dead people. When Eddie's revenant attaches to Andrew, Andrew's mission gets even harder, as Eddie's ghost is certainly an angry one.

This is a great horror novel with plenty of spooky situations, yes, but it's also an amazing look at the grieving process, self-realization, and learning to let go. I was thrown a bit at the beginning by Andrew's copious alcohol consumption and drug use, but as I continued to read, I realized how right it was for Andrew's character. I ended up really enjoying this book, and I highly recommend it to fans of horror.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for giving me a free eARC of this book to read in exchange for my review!

This book should have been a book for me. It has so many things I love in a book, unfortunately it didn’t live up to my expectations.

This book perfectly combined my love of Southern Gothic horror and queer fiction. Mandelo painted a gorgeous picture of Nashville in late summer. As someone who lives an hour from Nashville, I loved his rich descriptions of setting and characters. Mandelo painted such a gorgeous picture of relationships between all of the characters; I cared just as deeply about the family Andrew was building as I did about the (literal and figurative) ghosts that dogged him. This one is a highly recommend for me and I'll definitely be seeking more of Mandelo's work as I go forward.

CW: drug use, alcohol use, self-harm, suicide, gore, violence, sexual content, homophobia, racism, driving under the influence

Though I’m not a car person by any means, the characters in this book were enough for me to not care. They were wonderfully written, as was the story.
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Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I loved the combination of so many genres mixed into one in Summer Sons – horror, coming-of-age, fantasy, and action. It's a gothic suspense that I ate right up.

Focusing on two friends–Andrew and Eddie–Summer Sons is about their inexplicable bond that was cut drastically short when Eddie dies by suicide. Eddie leaves Andrew everything, including a mystery and growing suspicions of Eddie's friends.

Lots of unlikeable characters, but such a loveable story. And yay for the Nashville rep!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this advanced reader's copy and the opportunity to read this early. Review has been posted on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Street-racing meets dark academia meets the Southern Gothic in this heart-wrenching novel full of ghosts, grief, and piercing portrayals of masculinity. Summer Sons reels you in with its rich, claustrophobic writing, then keeps hold of you with the sharp, painful claws of heartbreak. Sam loves Eddie like you love breathing, and Eddie is gone. Lee Mandelo never lets you forget that, but he also doesn’t let that stop you from falling hard for the rest of this angsty and vibrant cast of characters.
Because the *boys* in this book, my god. Such gorgeous descriptions, full of rawness and intensity. So much violence and tenderness and camaraderie surrounding Andrew, who is fractured and raging at the centre of it all. So much suspense and repression and terror surrounding the mystery, which leads you inexorably forward into the darkness of this world and its broken young men. A book about grief, love, and release; a visceral and powerful read.

This would be a 4-star or higher read for me if you took out all of the car sections. I simply didn't care about the lengthy drag-racing scenes or characters whose personalities were Cars. The supernatural plot was honestly less interesting than the academic intrigue and folklore bits.