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jmc2187's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
Graphic: Murder, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
ahippysreadinghigh's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
This book was a little stranger for me to read. It was erotic but featured many trigger warnings and the ending was a shocking discovery that left me blank for a bit. I had a hard time getting through it because of the treatment of the main character. with the main character being gas lit over and over again it took away from the book itself I think. It really had me the ready thinking I was going crazy and imagining things. The author did an amazing job portraying this aspect of the big but as an SA and emotional abuse victim I struggled getting through it because of this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Drug use
archaicrobin's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
As of January 26, 2022 Bath Haus is by far my favorite thriller I’ve read all year!
I tend to read a lot of thrillers, the more farfetched and out there the better in my opinion. Unfortunately, because of my thriller novel addiction, I usually am able to predict the twist and see it coming a mile away. With Bath Haus, while I did have some ideas about what the twist could be, the author does such a good job of throwing you off that even though I had a general idea, I was unable to predict exactly what would happen! This automatically made me want to keep reading just to see what was going on!
Oliver has had his fair share of troubles but he seems to have settled down, found a nice almost husband, a nice job, a great life, but he’s still struggling and he’s not sure why. He goes to a gay bathhouse while his husband is away to have an anonymous affair but things take a dark turn and he barely gets away with his life. You follow along as Oliver finds himself pursued by his attacker and his amazing life slowly unravels.
I was addicted to this thriller and it was so hard to put down! It sounds alike your typical thriller set up but it has plenty of twists and turns. Also, Oliver, while definitely dumb is still endearing enough and interesting enough as a character that I found myself still cheering him on. He makes some of the dumbest decisions, that usually would drive me nuts but Oliver’s backstory makes all those mistakes more understandable in relation to his character.
While this one sounds like your typical thriller, I was pleased to find its very unique.
I tend to read a lot of thrillers, the more farfetched and out there the better in my opinion. Unfortunately, because of my thriller novel addiction, I usually am able to predict the twist and see it coming a mile away. With Bath Haus, while I did have some ideas about what the twist could be, the author does such a good job of throwing you off that even though I had a general idea, I was unable to predict exactly what would happen! This automatically made me want to keep reading just to see what was going on!
Oliver has had his fair share of troubles but he seems to have settled down, found a nice almost husband, a nice job, a great life, but he’s still struggling and he’s not sure why. He goes to a gay bathhouse while his husband is away to have an anonymous affair but things take a dark turn and he barely gets away with his life. You follow along as Oliver finds himself pursued by his attacker and his amazing life slowly unravels.
I was addicted to this thriller and it was so hard to put down! It sounds alike your typical thriller set up but it has plenty of twists and turns. Also, Oliver, while definitely dumb is still endearing enough and interesting enough as a character that I found myself still cheering him on. He makes some of the dumbest decisions, that usually would drive me nuts but Oliver’s backstory makes all those mistakes more understandable in relation to his character.
While this one sounds like your typical thriller, I was pleased to find its very unique.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Alcoholism, Addiction, Cancer, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence
rickyschneider's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A wild ride was promised and a wild ride it was! P.J. Vernon's propulsive queer thriller is steamy, stylish and sadistic. This is really more of a 3.5 star read for me but I rounded it up to four purely for the enjoyment factor. The writing wasn't as slick or sharp as I would've liked but the author delivers on the premise with tense, exciting thrills delivered with a sexy, dark aesthetic. The result is a fun, entertaining romp that kept me hooked to the dramatic conclusion.
On a plot level, Vernon is bursting with ideas and the pacing is brisk and engaging. However, on a sentence level, the author relies too heavily on quick, easy metaphors and the characters are generally homogenous-feeling. The latter becomes almost painfully clear because the narrative alternates between Oliver, our protagonist, and his almost husband, Nathan. While the two men's perspectives are ostensibly very different, one coming from wealth and privilege while the other hails from small town poverty and trauma, the two POVs blend so seamlessly together so that, even with large capitalized headers before each section, I found myself constantly having to refer back to those headers in order to determine which character was speaking. The author's propensity for metaphor shouldn't be a problem, as I love metaphor and simile in my books, but a broader and more sparing approach to the literary device would've served the reading experience better. Instead, Vernon peppers nearly every paragraph with obvious comparisons that add little to the atmosphere or emotional interiority of his characters but does manage to muddy the prose and confuse the narrative with its distracting tangents. There are also some regrettable lines that come off as cringey, self-indulgent or pedantic. I admittedly shook my head at the line about "Alexander Scares-gard". That being said, there are some hints at promising ideas and real potential for well-crafted storytelling in Vernon's writing. I particularly liked the structuring of the novel into the stages of asphyxiation. More of that and less of the easy metaphors and cheesy puns, please.
The who-dunnit element was executed skillfully, keeping me guessing at every turn. Though I liked one of the red-herrings better than the actual reveal at the end, the mystery and danger that soaked every page was salaciously fun and the break-neck pace was intoxicatingly immersive. I was skimming the last chapters, not to rush to the conclusion of the novel but simply out of pure excitement and curiosity for what Vernon had in store for this twisty, taught thriller.
All the characters are intensely flawed and most are pretty detestable. The detective felt like a pet-favorite of the author and she was certainly the most likeable of them all. Our main protagonist, Oliver was self-destructive to the extreme but I did find myself caring about him and hoping for the best for him by the end. The villain was intentionally sexy and sinister but I honestly was on his side for the first third of the novel. It seemed clear to me that Oliver was intensely anxiety-ridden and paranoid so I honestly thought he probably made up the murderous intentions behind the studly Scandinavian's advances. I was worried that Oliver was yet another unreliable narrator that would have dreamed up most of the events taking place but I'm happy to report that Vernon did not fall into that trope. Instead, Oliver's seemingly unbelievable plight is, while still highly implausible and riddled with coincidental convenience for the plot, terrifyingly real and full of urgency and tension.
By the end of the novel Vernon had largely won me over with his engaging and exciting story of a bathhouse tryst gone horribly wrong and I genuinely loved getting to read from the perspective of a modern gay couple in all their messy domesticity. Though a flawed and somewhat frivolous novel, the overall effect was satisfying and scintillating. I will definitely look forward to P.J. Vernon's next smartly stylized thriller with the anticipation that if it's anything like Bath Haus, it will be a messy, addictive, simmering sauna of sexy thrills!
On a plot level, Vernon is bursting with ideas and the pacing is brisk and engaging. However, on a sentence level, the author relies too heavily on quick, easy metaphors and the characters are generally homogenous-feeling. The latter becomes almost painfully clear because the narrative alternates between Oliver, our protagonist, and his almost husband, Nathan. While the two men's perspectives are ostensibly very different, one coming from wealth and privilege while the other hails from small town poverty and trauma, the two POVs blend so seamlessly together so that, even with large capitalized headers before each section, I found myself constantly having to refer back to those headers in order to determine which character was speaking. The author's propensity for metaphor shouldn't be a problem, as I love metaphor and simile in my books, but a broader and more sparing approach to the literary device would've served the reading experience better. Instead, Vernon peppers nearly every paragraph with obvious comparisons that add little to the atmosphere or emotional interiority of his characters but does manage to muddy the prose and confuse the narrative with its distracting tangents. There are also some regrettable lines that come off as cringey, self-indulgent or pedantic. I admittedly shook my head at the line about "Alexander Scares-gard". That being said, there are some hints at promising ideas and real potential for well-crafted storytelling in Vernon's writing. I particularly liked the structuring of the novel into the stages of asphyxiation. More of that and less of the easy metaphors and cheesy puns, please.
The who-dunnit element was executed skillfully, keeping me guessing at every turn. Though I liked one of the red-herrings better than the actual reveal at the end, the mystery and danger that soaked every page was salaciously fun and the break-neck pace was intoxicatingly immersive. I was skimming the last chapters, not to rush to the conclusion of the novel but simply out of pure excitement and curiosity for what Vernon had in store for this twisty, taught thriller.
All the characters are intensely flawed and most are pretty detestable. The detective felt like a pet-favorite of the author and she was certainly the most likeable of them all. Our main protagonist, Oliver was self-destructive to the extreme but I did find myself caring about him and hoping for the best for him by the end. The villain was intentionally sexy and sinister but I honestly was on his side for the first third of the novel. It seemed clear to me that Oliver was intensely anxiety-ridden and paranoid so I honestly thought he probably made up the murderous intentions behind the studly Scandinavian's advances. I was worried that Oliver was yet another unreliable narrator that would have dreamed up most of the events taking place but I'm happy to report that Vernon did not fall into that trope. Instead, Oliver's seemingly unbelievable plight is, while still highly implausible and riddled with coincidental convenience for the plot, terrifyingly real and full of urgency and tension.
By the end of the novel Vernon had largely won me over with his engaging and exciting story of a bathhouse tryst gone horribly wrong and I genuinely loved getting to read from the perspective of a modern gay couple in all their messy domesticity. Though a flawed and somewhat frivolous novel, the overall effect was satisfying and scintillating. I will definitely look forward to P.J. Vernon's next smartly stylized thriller with the anticipation that if it's anything like Bath Haus, it will be a messy, addictive, simmering sauna of sexy thrills!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Toxic relationship
kate_reads_books's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Ooof, this book. It's pretty damn good. Just when you think the story is slowing down, a twist happens and you're sucked in again. The last few chapters are SO intense. If you like a suspenseful read with lots of twists & turns then this one is for you!
Out of the books I have read so far in 2022 this one sticks in my mind. It was just so good.
Please check trigger warnings before you read.
Out of the books I have read so far in 2022 this one sticks in my mind. It was just so good.
Please check trigger warnings before you read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Sexual assault
sarah12's review
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Drug use and Toxic relationship
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
maurapartridge's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Death, and Drug use
Minor: Addiction and Animal cruelty
One of the best thrillers I’ve ever read!! I read in less than 24 hours and couldn’t put it down. Suspenseful, well written, and unlike anything I’ve read before.whatmaddieread's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into this one and found it to be darker than I anticipated. The first half was slow and a bit confusing with the POV-switching. The first chapter drops you right in the action and then takes its time establishing you in the story. It felt a bit disorienting, and this pacing was my biggest issue with the novel, as I meandered over the first third for several days, only to tear the last 70% in a single sitting.
Vernon is a really talented writer and looking back, I appreciate the way he wove the story together to build to the conclusion. One final qualm? I finished this one still a bit confused about the role one certain character played in it all, and wish that had been expanded a bit more to tie up that final thread.
While I did see the finale coming, Vernon threw enough twists in there to still make it exciting, while leaving room for commentary on trust and betrayal in relationships that I think could be impactful.
Vernon is a really talented writer and looking back, I appreciate the way he wove the story together to build to the conclusion. One final qualm? I finished this one still a bit confused about the role one certain character played in it all, and wish that had been expanded a bit more to tie up that final thread.
While I did see the finale coming, Vernon threw enough twists in there to still make it exciting, while leaving room for commentary on trust and betrayal in relationships that I think could be impactful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Drug use, and Drug abuse
kshertz's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
This book is everything I’d ever want from a mystery! It’s dark, brooding, flawed characters that need to deal with their shit and because they don’t, it all goes to hell. You just can’t stop listening because it’s just always twisting and turning! I would’ve given it a 5 but I actually guessed correctly who was behind everything and I NEVER guess correctly so I would have to note it as predictable. But I totally recommend it as a thriller you can’t put down.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Emotional abuse
stevie's review
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cancer, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence