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A review by sharshey
Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass
3.0
I feel like I went into this a little blind - it was recommended to me as a thriller with queer main characters - and I think I kinda took that and ran with it. I did NOT expect the confronting murder-y conversion camp story that I got, even after the content warning at the start (which, let’s be honest, really undersold just how upsetting the first part of this book was).
That being said, once I got into it, I actually enjoyed it a fair bit. The characters were great and it definitely did what it said on the tin with the spookier aspects of the whole ordeal. I did find that at times the story, particularly the timelines, felt a bit jilted, and I think it would have worked a lot better if it had taken place over the week-long period they talked about so much at the start. There were some gaps in character motivations as well, especially with the Reverend, and I would have loved to see that fleshed out a bit more as I think it could have created a really great conflict that was kind of attempted in places but not fully pulled off. There were also a couple of moments in the end that should have been really emotional, but the writing fell flat here which did take away from the grandness of the end of it all.
Overall, I think the concept for this book was great, and it was a quick enough one to read that I absolutely don’t regret it, but it read more like something that was still a couple of rounds of editing away from a final product. 3.5 rounded down to 3!
That being said, once I got into it, I actually enjoyed it a fair bit. The characters were great and it definitely did what it said on the tin with the spookier aspects of the whole ordeal. I did find that at times the story, particularly the timelines, felt a bit jilted, and I think it would have worked a lot better if it had taken place over the week-long period they talked about so much at the start. There were some gaps in character motivations as well, especially with the Reverend, and I would have loved to see that fleshed out a bit more as I think it could have created a really great conflict that was kind of attempted in places but not fully pulled off. There were also a couple of moments in the end that should have been really emotional, but the writing fell flat here which did take away from the grandness of the end of it all.
Overall, I think the concept for this book was great, and it was a quick enough one to read that I absolutely don’t regret it, but it read more like something that was still a couple of rounds of editing away from a final product. 3.5 rounded down to 3!