A review by nitzanschwarz
God of Fury by Rina Kent

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

86 | B | 4.0  ★  | Quite Good

Finally, I reached the book that flooded my TikTok and made me want to pick this series up. I'm glad to report that it didn't disappoint :)

Brandon has been one of my favorite characters throughout the series thus far, so I was super excited to get to his book. Here was a guy who touched literally everyone - and could bring together Elites and Heathens just by virtue of being a great guy. So you can imagine how my heart broke when we moved into his POV, and we learn how utterly filled with self-loathing he is. Throughout this book, I would often feel my stomach literally drop at his perspective of himself. I had my suspicions of what might have happened to him all the way from book 1, even though, in retrospect, the comment that made me think that could not have actually been referring to The Event. The deeper we went into this book, the bigger my sense of dread became. Because things were resolving themselves, yet we still weren't talking about it--not even in his own head. Which, to me, was a clear indicator of where we were going. Even though I knew, even though I read the signs from the early pages and had prepared myself for a potential
suicide scene
from the very first pages, it didn't stop me from crying :)

Someone so reserved as Brandon, so certain of his own worthlessness, yet so determined to contain it so no one but him will hurt--and god, does he hurt--needs someone who will hug him and make him feel desired and loved constantly. Someone who, if they could, would stick to him 24/7 like a baby koala. Luckily, Nikolai is a clingy little big fella. I think he would spend all his days attached to Brandon at the hip if he could. Which personally I found cute. That man was enamored with Bran from the get-go and you got to love him for that. Nikolai's own demons were not as deeply explored as Brandon's, but I feel like that's because, in a sense, he has a better grasp of himself.

That being said, it doesn't mean they didn't interfere in their relationship. At a certain point, I did find all the ghosting,
especially right after finding out about Bran cutting himself
, a little tedious. On both sides, really, but more so on Niko's since he was the one chasing after Bran and promising him he was okay with the way things were, only to then actually not be. But then again, Nikolai is still very young, even though none of the 18-19-year-olds in this series ever act their age. I swear, if Kent didn't remind me every once in a while, I'd assume they're all 23-26 years old. 

The weakest part of this series remains its villains. This one is no exception. Bran's emotional state and journey were definitely the most poignant ones we got so far, but the way things went down at the end confused the heck out of me. What
on earth was that woman thinking? It's one thing to groom and rape a child. It's a whole other thing to have a clip of it, with him begging you to stop and then send it to his boyfriend. Like, what's the thought process there? What did she think was going to happen? The boyfriend is not the kid you groomed and convinced to keep quiet by drowning him in shame and gaslighting him that no one will believe he didn't want it because he kissed you back (which is beside the point. You slept with a 15-year-old. Whether he consented or not--which he didn't, verbally so, in your own clip doesn't matter). He has absolutely no reason to keep quiet.
Like WTF.

Plot - 17/20
Characters - 18/20
Relationships - 18/20
Writing - 15/20
Reading Experience - 18/20
Final score: 86 
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