Susan’s Book Blog

📚 Fave Reads of 2022 Countdown 📚  #2 Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo This might actually be the first horror novel I’ve ever read and it absolutely blew me away. The writing was subtle and masterful. It was so atmospheric you could almost smell the dirt and feel the humidity in the air. The characters were so believable and well drawn it made the supernatural elements even scarier because it all felt so real. I want to read more by Lee Mandelo!!!! 

  Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo  // 5 💀 out of 5 // I picked this book up just to read the first couple pages, with no intention of continuing because I had an ARC to read next but this had me before the first chapter was even over. There was no putting it down and coming back to it later. I HAD to keep going, ARC be damned.  I am Janice from Friends right now: OH  👐🏼  MY  👐🏼  GAWD  👐🏼      I feel like there is no way anything I say can do justice to what’s in this book. I’m not even sure I have all that many coherent thoughts, just a series of feelings that I’m struggling to articulate.  I was so impressed with how immersive this book felt. It’s hugely experiential.    Mandelo’s descriptions make heavy use of sensory information, with lines like “the cold sank straight through the gagging constriction of his throat to the cavern of his chest, grasping at him from the inside out” and “Andrew… [stood] in the wash o...