I have two thoughts upon finishing Summer Cannibals by Melanie Hobson. The first is that I truly feel sad that Ms. Hobson felt it necessary to depict such a despicable family. The other reaction I have is simply WTF.

Summer Cannibals starts out as a relatively quirky family drama in which three sisters come home for a few days one summer. The entire family rallies around the baby sister, who is suffering from pregnancy depression. Except, like any good family drama, things are never as simple as all that.

The story takes a weird turn as we start to recognize the weird power struggle between the husband and wife. Ms. Hobson spends too much time explaining why David feels that he reigns over his house and garden and how he deserves(!) the proper respect as a result. One could explain this away as evidence of family dysfunction. Except, Ms. Hobson then shows how David uses sex as a method for dominance, and how his wife lets him get away with what is essentially rape.

Oh, and it gets worse from there. By the time the husband and wife (spoiler alert) rape an unconscious woman found in their house after a garden exhibition and the second daughter decides that affairs are the secret to a successful marriage, what was quirky became absolutely repugnant. There are scenes I wish I could unread, just like I wish I had never met this horrible family.

I do not know what Ms. Hobson was thinking when she penned Summer Cannibals. The family is terrible. At the same time, the individual family members are simply horrible. I know that there are plenty of people who use sex as a manipulation tool, but I don’t need nor want to see an entire family that thinks that way and sees nothing wrong with their behavior. Honestly, the husband thinks that the naked, unconscious woman his wife helps him to rape is an apology gift from his wife! No thank you. ( )

Summer Cannibals
by Melanie Hobson
2018
Black Cat
4.3 / 5.0

Wow. I loved this very dark, but enthralling story. Its fucked up but that's why I loved it. This is a story of a wealthy family and the secrets they can't seem to their perverse and abusive tendencies.
David and Maria Blackford have a home in a rural area surrounded by a beautifully tended garden. They give guided tours of their gardens, which David leads. When a tour bus breaks down and the tourists start roaming his garden unattended he becomes irate. When he and his wife see two tourisrs of them making out, he becomes obsessed with the woman and loses it. Margaret finds the woman passed out in the attic, and locks her in as a gift for her husband's sexual deviancy.It sets him on a cycle of chaos he has no control over...and Margaret is glad to comply....
This was hard....fucked up but so good. Gibson has a talent of sharing all we fear and all we covet in the ones we love. ( )

If I had to label Summer Cannibals, I would probably classify it as a family drama about a family in crisis. David and Margaret Blackford's mansion is on the shores of Lake Ontario. They have summoned their three adult daughters (George, Jax, Pippa) to spend a four day weekend at their family home. Each daughter comes with her own emotional baggage, which is nothing compared to the parents' outlook on life. The word cannibal very well describes these people. It was difficult to spend time reading about such an unlikeable, intense, unpleasant family. Each member seems to have little regard for the others. The development of the plot is slow and becomes more and more unrealistic. However, Melanie Hobson writes beautifully: her prose is descriptive and poetic. The cover is a work of art. This is a first novel for Melanie Hobson and I look forward to reading future books by her.Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ( )