Reviews with content warning for Blood - Acts of Desperation

The book centred on the whirlwind ‘romance’ between the narrator and Ciaran, laying bare the destructive force of obsessive love on the self. The narrator’s point of view, despite being unnamed, was so intimate that you felt everything that she went through.

Interweaved with the affecting prose was nuanced and edifying commentary on sex, gender, consent, power and patriarchy, the male gaze and the violence of sex. The flash-forwards to 2019 Athens were rich and clear in these perspectives, providing a stunning contrast to the dizziness of the narrator’s thoughts and experiences in the main timeline.

Overall, a staggering and important debut which left me stewing in thought for a while after.

Content Warnings

shesthunderstorms's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Content Warnings

sib_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

persephones_daughter's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"I made mistakes like this all the time, seeking affirmation from the very worst people, so that what I must have been after deep down was confirmation of the fears instead of their dismissals"

i am absolutely convinced that you do not need to love the main character to enjoy a book, the only condition being that it has been done well and i must say that this book did it almost perfectly.

would i enjoy being in company of such awful people ? absolutely not, not in a million years but it isn’t the point !! the only place i would want to meet up with them is maybe the waiting room of a therapist, because God knows they need it 😃

nothing about this story is romantic, both characters have extremely distorted visions of what love and affection is supposed to look like : we have on one part an unnamed narrator who engage in obsessive behaviours to be loved and on the other part an incredibly cold man, Ciaran, who seems unable to provide her with even the most elementary bit of affection.

it was visceral, raw and dark, very much so even, but it still felt real despite everything which makes this story so compelling. i struggled to put this book down because of how engrossed i was in it and the shortness of the chapters sure helped a lot achieve this ! i can have the attention span of a goldfish sometimes so this was very welcomed.

the part about eating disorders resonated with me in a way i wish it didn’t *cough cough* but hey i liked it and it felt really honest.

if you need one more thing to convince you (or to discourage you, but then i probably don't like you very much 🤨), this felt like a Sally Rooney book but on a little more than two bottles of wine and maybe some lines of coke

Content Warnings