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A review by iam
Strain by Amelia C. Gormley
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
3.0
Zombie dystopia romance with a questionable erotica plotline that, despite just not really making sense sometimes, is highly entertaining to read.
Content warnings include: dubious consent, rough/kinky sex (D/s, light impact play, public use), violence, death, age gap (19/43); Mentions of: BDSM not including main couple(sadism, burning, humiliation, scarification), abduction, rape, abuse, starvation, slavery, religious fanaticism.
The entire premise of the book sets up a quite questionable and fucked up dynamic. Rhys, whose family just got slaughtered by revs (=zombies), has to fuck as many of the jugs (=super soldiers) as possible, as that is the only way for him to not turn into a rev himself. The rev and jug are strains of the same virus, and a person can only have one or the other - basically, Rhys has the choice between getting fucked, or dying.
Which isn't much of a choice at all.
Given that Rhys is a young gay man who spent a lot of his formative years under the yoke of a religious fanatic and the man's bully of a son, he has a lot of hangups around sex with other men, particularly multiple of them, who are essentially strangers to him, and there is no privacy to speak of.
Darius, the leader of the jugs, mostly takes it into his own hands to make sure Rhys is infected, and doesn't let his sensibilities get in his way. There is a heavy power imbalance between them, not to mention the morally/ethically questionable situation with the infection business.
The book addresses this in detail, and makes it work. I think a bit part of that is actually the kinkiness - Rhys is very kinky, though he does not have the words or really concept of it to express it, which in turn adds more complications as he fights his own enjoyment of the situation.
Ultimately, the erotica aspects of this are very well executed in my opinion, and never stretched my suspension of disbelief. The same can unfortunately not be said for the rest of the plot.
One of my biggest issues is with Jacob - the other survior of the rev attack, and Rhy's bully. He's a horrible person from the start, and while the jugs generally seem to see through him and protect Rhys, there are so many moments where they just... do nothing?
Similarly, most of the non-romance/erotica tension of the book come from situations around the revs that the jugs make, that simply do not make sense to me.
This is a fun erotic romance with a dystopian setting, and those parts are well done, but it's not particularly well thought through in the finer plot details, despite a prequel and sequel existing that deepen the worldbuilding. The book can still be easily read as standalone, though.
Content warnings include: dubious consent, rough/kinky sex (D/s, light impact play, public use), violence, death, age gap (19/43); Mentions of: BDSM not including main couple(sadism, burning, humiliation, scarification), abduction, rape, abuse, starvation, slavery, religious fanaticism.
The entire premise of the book sets up a quite questionable and fucked up dynamic. Rhys, whose family just got slaughtered by revs (=zombies), has to fuck as many of the jugs (=super soldiers) as possible, as that is the only way for him to not turn into a rev himself. The rev and jug are strains of the same virus, and a person can only have one or the other - basically, Rhys has the choice between getting fucked, or dying.
Which isn't much of a choice at all.
Given that Rhys is a young gay man who spent a lot of his formative years under the yoke of a religious fanatic and the man's bully of a son, he has a lot of hangups around sex with other men, particularly multiple of them, who are essentially strangers to him, and there is no privacy to speak of.
Darius, the leader of the jugs, mostly takes it into his own hands to make sure Rhys is infected, and doesn't let his sensibilities get in his way. There is a heavy power imbalance between them, not to mention the morally/ethically questionable situation with the infection business.
The book addresses this in detail, and makes it work. I think a bit part of that is actually the kinkiness - Rhys is very kinky, though he does not have the words or really concept of it to express it, which in turn adds more complications as he fights his own enjoyment of the situation.
Ultimately, the erotica aspects of this are very well executed in my opinion, and never stretched my suspension of disbelief. The same can unfortunately not be said for the rest of the plot.
One of my biggest issues is with Jacob - the other survior of the rev attack, and Rhy's bully. He's a horrible person from the start, and while the jugs generally seem to see through him and protect Rhys, there are so many moments where they just... do nothing?
Similarly, most of the non-romance/erotica tension of the book come from situations around the revs that the jugs make, that simply do not make sense to me.
This is a fun erotic romance with a dystopian setting, and those parts are well done, but it's not particularly well thought through in the finer plot details, despite a prequel and sequel existing that deepen the worldbuilding. The book can still be easily read as standalone, though.