Summer Sons

by Lee Mandelo

Hardcover, 2021

Status

Available

Genres

Publication

Tordotcom (2021), Edition: 1, 384 pages

Description

"Lee Mandelo's debut Summer Sons is a sweltering, queer Southern Gothic that crosses Appalachian street racing with academic intrigue, all haunted by a hungry ghost. Andrew and Eddie did everything together, best friends bonded more deeply than brothers, until Eddie left Andrew behind to start his graduate program at Vanderbilt. Six months later, only days before Andrew was to join him in Nashville, Eddie dies of an apparent suicide. He leaves Andrew a horrible inheritance: a roommate he doesn't know, friends he never asked for, and a gruesome phantom that hungers for him. As Andrew searches for the truth of Eddie's death, he uncovers the lies and secrets left behind by the person he trusted most, discovering a family history soaked in blood and death. Whirling between the backstabbing academic world where Eddie spent his days and the circle of hot boys, fast cars, and hard drugs that ruled Eddie's nights, the walls Andrew has built against the world begin to crumble. And there is something awful lurking, waiting for those walls to fall"--… (more)

Media reviews

Chicago Review of Books

A haunting ghost story, a mystery, a queer romance, an Appalachian street-racing adventure: it’s impressive enough that Lee Mandelo’s debut novel, Summer Sons, doesn’t get lost in its potentially-contradictory impulses. Even more impressive is the way it pulls these threads together—or,

perhaps, is pulled and balanced between them—to tell a vibrant story of love and grief....The characters feel real, the cars feel real, and Mandelo absolutely nails the setting, right at this very specific intersection of Appalachia and collegiate uncertainty: the heat, the drinks, the casual physicality, the habits borne of rural poverty that recent affluence and city-living can’t entirely erase. The ghostly and magical elements, though disturbing, feel organic....Ghost stories, of course, are a way to think about loss. Mandelo balances that almost positive sense of haunting—the absence, the ache, the desperate longing—with the negative, the spooksome: old debts, old crime, old guilt beyond the chance of reconciliation.

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Library Journal

"VERDICT A great choice for readers who enjoy thought-provoking and engaging horror that asks its protagonists to come to terms with the monsters—both literal and metaphorical—in their past (such as Sam J. Miller's The Blade Between or Cynthia Pelayo's Children of Chicago). Also a good option

for fans of dark academic thrillers, like Donna Tartt's The Secret History."

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Publisher's Weekly

Mandelo brings a queer goth aesthetic to the Southern gothic in their slow-building, brooding contemporary fantasy debut—with drag-racing, drug-use, and plenty of ghosts to boot. When Eddie Fulton dies of an apparent suicide, his best friend Andrew Blur inherits his fortune, house, roommate,

research topic at Vanderbilt’s graduate program—and frightening sensitivity to ghosts....the central mystery provides few interesting twists. Instead, the novel shines in the tortured love triangle between Andrew, an intriguing stranger, and the ghost that haunts him. Full of angst and lingering spirits, Mandelo’s debut is like Tennessee molasses—dense, dark, slow-moving, and with a distinct Southern flavor.

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User reviews

LibraryThing member KallieGrace

Creepy almost dark academia? A lot of queer representation with some graphic scenes, and a lot of spooky supernatural elements. The characters are fantastic, and the plot unfolds at a good pace.

9 more

LibraryThing member MontzaleeW

Summer Sons
by Lee Mandelo
Macmillan-Tor/Forge

This is a book that has curses, friendships, secrets, drugs, sex, murder, and hope. This book will keep you turning pages, asking questions, looking out your window, and under your bed. This book will make you cherish your friends, ask more questions, and

love harder.

Two best friends, Andrew and Eddie, friends since childhood but one is keeping a secret. Separate for six short months but soon to be back with each other. Then Andrew is told Eddie killed himself. Andrew doesn't believe it. He comes to find out what happened. But something is waiting for him.

Paranormal, evil in the shape of humans and inhuman form is something Andrew has to confront to find answers. He has to walk in Eddie's steps to find out who or what Eddie encountered. What he doesn't know is they are already waiting for Andrew.
Good and creepy.

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LibraryThing member sturlington

Well, this was steamy. It took a while to get going for me, but I'm glad I stuck with it because the characters and story did grow on me over time. Set at Vanderbilt University, it's a coming-of-age story, a coming-out story, a ghost story, a Southern gothic, a mystery, and a pretty hot

romance--which in my opinion makes this an ideal vacation read. It's hyper-masculine, what with the hot cars and tight t-shirts, and as a result, the women characters are mostly sidelined, but this is not a book that claims to be about anything but men. It's probably not for everyone, and I have to admit that the interstate racing raised my hackles, nor did I care for the fact that the protagonist is a litterbug (seriously, why does he always throw his trash out the car window?). But I was definitely into the romance and rooting for the couple, and I dug the humid Southern gothic atmosphere dripping off almost every word. So it was a win for me, but I think my next book will have to have a lot of women characters to compensate.

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LibraryThing member Sunyidean

Raw, lush, and haunting in every sense (especially the literal). An absorbing story of grief, repression, lost boyhood, first loves, missed chances, redemption, class/race divides, and old gothic magic.

LibraryThing member reader1009

Testosterone-filled occult suspense with lots of queer MM relations (graduate students at Vanderbilt) in present-day outskirts of Nashville - includes drug use, auto racing, violence, sex; author is nonbinary.

I felt like I was always half a step behind, trying to figure out which "he" was talking,

what they were doing, what was happening to whom, but after awhile decided not to worry about it (those details weren't the important ones anyway). I liked this for its uniqueness of characters (queer but unwilling to acknowledge it) and setting (sometimes violently homophobic, but at any rate steeped in various evils that are associated with the history of plantations). Not sure I would read a second book by this author, but I'm glad they are writing and hope they publish more.

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LibraryThing member Carol420

Let me start by saying that this is NOT going to be for everyone. The descriptions are a bit misleading as to what the reader is in for. You think it’s a horror story with monsters and such... and it is, to some extent...but the reader has to separate the ghost in the room from the one in

Andrew’s head. One of the scariest scenes in the entire book is when Andrew feels the ice-cold foot crawl into bed with him on his first night home. He doesn’t dare look but he knows deep in his bones that it’s Eddie. This is also a story that deeply hinges on the exploration of grief, loss, denial, and a hunt for truth set against an atmospheric backdrop of the deep south. The book also attempts to show the darker side of academia and privilege. A lot to wrap up in one story, but it fleshes into a memorable and excellent ghost story, on both physical and metaphorical levels. You won’t always like the main characters nor will their behavior set well but it will produce several good cases of goosebumps long after the final page is turned.

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LibraryThing member whitewavedarling

Mandelo's Summer Sons has such a swampy angst to it, and I adored everything about it. In a lot of ways, the book reads like a queer lovechild of Poppy Z. Brite and Flanner O'Connor, with some flavoring that feels more like it came from Shirley Jackson. Haunting and smart, the author's prose makes

for characters who aren't just believable--as much as they're sometimes infuriating--but nuanced and carefully drawn in such a way as to make the book ever more powerful. And that's what so much of this book comes down to...powerful storytelling. Mandelo has managed to build a story which is so beautifully written, and so powerful, that I only allowed myself to sink into it when I had time without any distraction, just to devote to reading and living in this book. Summer Sons has made me a fan of Mandelo for life, and I know I'll be re-reading this one, as well.

I don't want to give anything about this horror novel away. I just want you to read it.

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LibraryThing member IreneCole

Andrew is getting ready to join his best friend, when he instead learns of his apparent suicide. Now everything Eddie owned belongs to Andrew except for the knowledge of what really happened. Andrew knew Eddie better than anyone else in the world and he is positive that he never would have killed

himself.
It took me a while to get into this story. The pace was slow at first, although I was immediately knocked over by the depth of Andrew's grief at the loss of his friend Eddie. As Andrew moves into what was once Eddie's house and now belongs to him, I didn't really care for his inherited roommate Riley or really any of Eddie's crowd. They grew on me eventually and by the time I realized I was angry with Eddie for having shared what Andrew thought was private, I was pretty heavily invested in Andrew's search for the truth of what really led to Eddie's death and whether he really took his own life. There is a supernatural element involved but it felt secondary to Andrew's grief and repressed sexuality. If you enjoy a slow burn horror this is for you.

4 out of 5 stars

I read an e-copy through Netgalley with no obligation to write a review.

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LibraryThing member thessaly

There is something about the prose that is jumbled, muddy, maybe needing just a few more months in the editing cycle. I don’t know. I don’t know if anything could make me like Andrew. Or Sam. Or Eddie. They’re all kind of horrible people. I should have felt bad for Andrew but he just annoyed

me with his directionless stumble through his days. I wanted to feel something for him, because we’ve all been rudderless but I did not. The only one I cared about was Riley. The end was rushed, way too much time spent on talking about booze and weed. It’s too bad bc I looked forward to this book for ages.

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LibraryThing member Jthierer

I gave this one three stars because I'm pretty sure there's a great short story or novella in this book somewhere. Who wouldn't want to read a short book about a ghost who helps solve its own murder with a splash of discovering sexuality and car racing thrown in? Unfortunately, the book clocks in

at close to 400+ pages many of which are repetitive and unnecessary. The first 2/3 of the book largely consist of our main character being a huge jerk, blowing off classes and just generally being in a funk. It's not until the final 1/3 that the central mystery gains any steam and then its wrapped up so quickly that it feels like an afterthought.

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