Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

53 reviews

potterpav's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

this might be one of those very rare cases where i rate a book 5 stars and the longer it goes from the time i finished reading it, the more the stars drop. i saw someone describe this book somewhere (goodreads, maybe?) as "the raven cycle if the main character was noah czerny", which is the main reason why i bought this book, but after reading it, i couldn't disagree more. its more "the raven cycle if the main character was adam parrish", but even then it feels so different to TRC. this book made me feel crazy. i adored the first half more than the second, but the entire thing just feels like someone poured testosterone all over this book like gasoline and struck a match. it feels like blistering just below the skin, boiling hot and shaking until it bursts and you're standing, shivering from adrenalin. i love reading abt (toxic) masculinity and repressed homosexuality, so this was great! it is THE southern gothic book, queer too (yippee!) and so enticing its insane. i haven't read a book this enthralling in months, i couldn't put it down and read 60% of it in a day. the writing style takes a LONG time to get used to, to the point where by the end i was still a bit lost, but its fast and has gorgeous characters. this book will not be for everyone, but it was definitely for me. if i had to describe it in three words it'd be vertigo, threesomes and horny, which is insane considering its probably gonna be the best book i've read this year. what a blessing it was for me to read this book, like fate.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Homophobia

i was going to put

incest

in the content warnings, but i actually have no clue if it actually was ... the entire book i was like okay, yeah sure,

they are constantly referred to as siblings, as brothers, as more than siblings, as more than cousins

but then i was like am i just being stupid? is it all metaphorical? also wtf was all the stuff about

andrew's childhood assault in the caravan or whatever when the ghost like... assaulted him? why did we never go back to that? does that count as sexual assault, and should that be tagged or was it not??

i feel like a lot of the less obvious themes of this book are so hard to tag because it's super unclear what actually happened and what didn't. anyway

c_alexander's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

loved this - loved the complex characters and relationships, the imagery, tone, and the pacing!

was disappointed side characters weren't further developed - especially in terms of the bipoc characters; racism is a theme explored in the book but in a really brief capacity considering its relevance

took a little while to 'pick up' but had me hooked in the second half

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Alcohol, Cursing, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Death, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Violence, Homophobia, Racism, and Vomit

Minor: Child death, Death of parent, and Car accident

btaylorb's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

😭

The comparisons to The Raven Cycle are very accurate. There were some occasional descriptive moments that were confusing and I would have to re-read, but overall I loved this. Spooky shit, southern gothic, magic that is a stand-in for something else, a hint of dark academia and ending that is a glimmer of hope while also guaranteeing nothing, hurts so good, satisfyingly unsatisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Murder, Blood, Suicide, Body horror, and Drug use

Moderate: Sexual content and Torture

Minor: Classism, Toxic friendship, and Racism

jojothefool's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I had a lot of fun with this audiobook. The supernatural stuff was a bit confusing via audio for me, I think I may have followed some scenes a lot better if I were reading instead of listening, but I got enough of it to get the haunting feelings of the scary scenes. I will say that this book has representation of a queer community I am so not familiar with which was interesting lol there’s a lot of drag racing and not the kind that I’m used to. Car stuff is just not for me, I don’t understand it and I don’t want to, so those parts were kinda hard to get through. I liked the overall mystery and ookiness of the novel. There’s a small yet remarkable romance that I found myself shipping far before I thought the book would do anything with it, so when it happened I was very pleased. Overall a fun time, especially for the toxic codependency queer ship enjoyers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Suicide, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, and Drug use

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Vomit, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Murder, and Homophobia

Minor: Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Car accident

madscientistcat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Visceral, haunting, a queer gothic masterpiece.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Grief, Murder, Suicide, Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Homophobia, Drug use, and Racism

Moderate: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Gore, and Vomit

Minor: Cancer, Slavery, and Animal death

holyschmitz's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Woah. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Murder, Death of parent, Mental illness, Gore, Drug use, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Classism, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Drug abuse, Cursing, Body horror, and Alcohol

winglesswarrior's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Alcohol, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Grief, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Death, and Murder

dodgeremerson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Body horror, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Death, Self harm, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Alcohol, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Cursing, Medical content, Physical abuse, Classism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Religious bigotry, Car accident, Transphobia, and Death of parent

frantic_vampire's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am…unwell over this book. This was just fucking fantastic and I’m honestly at a loss for words for this review. Summer Sons is one of the absolute best books that I think I’ve ever read and I just want to scream about it. It’s this mix of dark academia, paranormal hauntings, and queer longing that had me hooked from the very beginning. Everything about this book was feral and unhinged and tinged with the sticky restlessness of a southern summer. And I could read about Andrew and Sam and Riley endlessly. This book is one that will haunt my dreams for a long time to come and I can’t recommend it enough. This is the easiest five stars I think I’ve ever given a book. I’m just gonna excuse myself now and go scream about it into the void…

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Drug use, Gaslighting, Racism, Violence, Vomit, Classism, Eating disorder, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical trauma, and Racism

minella's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent and Homophobia