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A review by alienor
These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
dark
emotional
medium-paced
4.25
"It was a relief and a horror to be known so perfectly."
This novel is one of desperation and cruelty, of a slow but unwavering descent into darkness and it's going to haunt me for a very long time. It's both everything I love in dark academia and why it always takes me months before diving into another one again. It's a story of obsession, violence, self-doubt and grief, a character study first and foremost that doesn't try to be obscure with fake deep convos like so many dark academia wannabes - *cough* the atlas six *cough*. This genre might never fully escape its veneer of pretension, but there's a difference between intellect being one of the characters' facets, and sentences so obviously constructed to be quoted on social media but whose actual meaning is fleeting at best. These Violent Delights belongs to the former, and is a very well-written debut. Paul and Julian's story will stay with me, and isn't it what matters most in the end?
This novel is one of desperation and cruelty, of a slow but unwavering descent into darkness and it's going to haunt me for a very long time. It's both everything I love in dark academia and why it always takes me months before diving into another one again. It's a story of obsession, violence, self-doubt and grief, a character study first and foremost that doesn't try to be obscure with fake deep convos like so many dark academia wannabes - *cough* the atlas six *cough*. This genre might never fully escape its veneer of pretension, but there's a difference between intellect being one of the characters' facets, and sentences so obviously constructed to be quoted on social media but whose actual meaning is fleeting at best. These Violent Delights belongs to the former, and is a very well-written debut. Paul and Julian's story will stay with me, and isn't it what matters most in the end?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Toxic relationship, Murder, Suicide, Death of parent, and Violence