21 magical science fiction and fantasy books hitting shelves in Fall 2021
By Lacy Baugher
Fall 2021 release: Summer Sons – Lee Mandelo
A queer Southern Gothic dark academia horror story? Sign me up for Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo right the heck now.
This genre-bending tale follows best friends Andrew and Eddie, whose lives had been inseparable until Eddie moves away to start a graduate school program. Andrew plans to join his friend, but after just six months apart, he is told that Eddie has committed suicide. Andrew refuses to believe it and journeys to Nashville to find the truth.
What he finds there is more than he bargained for – like Eddie’s roommate Riley, his pack of friends who like to race fast cars in the streets, and the supernatural curse that seems to hang over them all.
The official synopsis reads as follows.
"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 month 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 with bleeding wrists that mutters of revenge. 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 for him."
Summer Sons is available on September 28.