Summer Sons (book review)

Overall rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

Summer Sons follows Andrew, a first-year graduate student in American Folklore at Vanderbilt University, as he tries to solve the death of (or, in his belief, the murder of) his best friend and adoptive brother, Eddie. As he returns to the South for the first time since he was a kid, he delves deeper in the the airs of danger, mystery, and occultism surrounding his friend's mysterious "suicide," stumbling into the world of car-racing, drugs, and hot men that Eddie lived--and died--in. I picked this book up almost exclusively because of its "Queer Southern Gothic" storyline advertised on the back cover. While it definitely did not disappoint on this front, I was somewhat surprised by how hard it leaned into exploring American masculinities in conjunction with (and deeply woven into) its Queerness. From this angle it was definitely and interesting read, as someone who is not familiar with Southern US culture and portrayals of masculinity in Queer works. It was grittier and more realistic than much of the MLM fiction I've read before, which was definitely refreshing. I think that it's a great read for anyone interested in queer horror, southern gothicism, masculinity and queerness, and, most of all, a good ghost story.