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A review by miolla
The Price We Pay by Auryn Hadley
Did not finish book. Stopped at 80%.
The story doesn't match the blurb and it's also a prime example of how the topics, algorithms and tags can fail the reader looking for a listen. This is a coming of age/ YA/ New Adult story in the vein of Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor and Book of the Ancestor-trilogy by Mark Lawrence. The world is very grim and gruesome, the main topics are heavy, difficult and sobering. There's a lot of in-your-face graphic and explicit descriptions of sexual acts and different kind of (sexual) violence/abuse, yet at the same time there's this illogical
and overarching shadow of chasteness/ innocense. It's almost as if the book was written as something clearly R-rated, but went through a postedit censoring in order for it to gain a more marketable PG-rating. The main character, who is a teenaged GIRL for most of the book, nonchalantly talks and proficiently tries out the entire spectrum of non-penetrative sex, is exposed to and fantasizes about group acts, BDSM, double penetration and pegging etc. Yet actual penetration by pENiS is something so wildly different from any previously performed acts of fingering or tongueing etc that it's forbidden until a certain level of education (that magically "coincides" with age of 18) is reached.
The blurb and book cover is very bait-and-switchy, promising adult reverse harem paranormal steamy smut with a God of Temptation, and then have the reader thrown into a coming of age story in a border school setting with characters aged 10-19. DNFd at around 80%, hoping against all odds that the teenage-part was just a aggravatingly long prologue to this new series. Got so frustrated when I realized how long I've endured this disturbing high school drama that I ended up returning the title and writing this rant instead. Fucking shit.
and overarching shadow of chasteness/ innocense. It's almost as if the book was written as something clearly R-rated, but went through a postedit censoring in order for it to gain a more marketable PG-rating. The main character, who is a teenaged GIRL for most of the book, nonchalantly talks and proficiently tries out the entire spectrum of non-penetrative sex, is exposed to and fantasizes about group acts, BDSM, double penetration and pegging etc. Yet actual penetration by pENiS is something so wildly different from any previously performed acts of fingering or tongueing etc that it's forbidden until a certain level of education (that magically "coincides" with age of 18) is reached.
The blurb and book cover is very bait-and-switchy, promising adult reverse harem paranormal steamy smut with a God of Temptation, and then have the reader thrown into a coming of age story in a border school setting with characters aged 10-19. DNFd at around 80%, hoping against all odds that the teenage-part was just a aggravatingly long prologue to this new series. Got so frustrated when I realized how long I've endured this disturbing high school drama that I ended up returning the title and writing this rant instead. Fucking shit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content