PositiveAncillary Review of BooksSummer Sons opens up the possibility that the way we currently conceive of our connections to land—as property, something to be owned and passed down through families—needs to be severed, in favor of connections to people and a very different kind of community ... In classic gothic works, horror is often rooted in the fear of deviation from normative social expectations of gender and sexuality. In Summer Sons, embracing one’s identity and forming new communities—even if they are not traditional or expected—becomes a way to fight the legacies of slavery, whiteness, and internalized homophobia. Andrew breaks from those toxic legacies by accepting his own queerness and choosing his relationships with Sam and Riley instead of violent power over life and death.
