eviebookish 's review for:

Black Iris by Elliot Wake

1.0

---

Oh. My. F**ing. God.
I can't. I just can not.
I am on the tour for this book and my stop is tomorrow, and I was really forcing myself to get through this because, you know, so many people seemed to have loved it, the publisher raved about it, I was told it was some sort of new groundbreaking, life-changing, orgasmic reading experience, but all I got out of this is a freaking reading slump and a groundbreaking, life-changing, non-orgasmic headache.

This book is just too pitch-black and messed up for my taste. It's heavy. No, scratch that. It's THE heaviest book I have ever read, and I got through Ulysses and a whole year or mandatory Holocaust reading without any problems. But Black Iris? It's a freaking black hole of doom. It's so convoluted, so all-over-the-place, so filled with abuse, drugs, suicide attempts, revenge, toxic relationship, angst, depression, repulsive sexual acts, pathology... it's just too much of a downer.

I don't understand what is the point of all this? I don't think being rejected by someone you had a crush on explains or justifies all of the shit that takes place in this story. The main character should probably be locked up in a mental institution - she is a danger to herself and everyone around her. This isn't cool or hip or impressive or even darkly twisted in a sexy kind of way, it's just fucking sick to the core. So yeah, I totally dig Leah's prose, though she could maybe tone it down a notch - just a notch, and yeah I did enjoy some of the sexy scenes and girl-on-girl actions - these were done extremely well. I'm just not sure why this book had to be so drastic and shocking in every aspect. I mean, for fucks sake, who hasn't been rejected at least once in life? I sure was. I also lived through like 3 years of bullying and that was even before I went to high school. Yes, it made me depressed and yes, it was hard to face the ball-sucking reality of my life at the time, but I did not turn to alcohol, drugs, putting out to strangers or murder plotting. That's just... not how this works.

And don't even get me started on the jumping between timelines. I did not know which way was up and it was just tiring to try and make sense of it all. I tried. I really did. For a moment I thought I could actually like this book, but this yet another Beautiful Disaster type of read for me. Totally not my cuppa tea.