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Summer Sons

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Summer Sons

By: Lee Mandelo
Narrated by: Will Damron
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About this listen

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, letting in the phantom that hungers to possess him.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tordotcom

©2021 Lee Mandelo (P)2021 Macmillan Audio Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Horror Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Haunted Scary Ghost

Critic Reviews

"Summer Sons is a southern summer in book form: hot and hungry and haunting. I couldn't put it down." —Alix E. Harrow

"Truly intense: you can smell the blood, the sweat, and the petrol. It absolutely rips." —Tamsyn Muir

"At once a raw, beautifully written gothic and an adrenaline-fueled debut, Summer Sons heralds a rich new voice in speculative fiction. Lee Mandelo is for real." —Andy Davidson
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There seemed to be a fair bit of anticipation for this book and it was just okay, which made for a bit of an anticlimax.

I found that the main story was not as interesting to me as the homoerotic undertones that I desperately wanted to bubble to the surface. This either means I’m a horny piece of shit or the story was a bit thin.

The ‘magics’ that managed the supernatural aspect of the story were frustratingly vague and while nobody is asking for Harry Potter level explicitness, I would have liked some more clarity. The vagueness gave the writing this strange pretentious or forced tone that made me dislike it.

The narrators voice is BLOODY GORGEOUS and I could have listened to him read the phone book.

Sexy af but like… not super interesting

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Every single line of this amazing book is delivered perfectly. I very much recommend it

The Best Audio Book I’ve Ever Heard

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The book was pretty good, it kept me hooked until the end. I did expect a bit more for the ending but it was okay otherwise.

Was a good listen

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the narrator is solid, but the story lacks meat. I felt like I was holding on and holding on for it to pick up. stopped 1/3rd the way through. kinda annoyed coz booktube seems to love this novel.

hard to connect with

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