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A review by archaicrobin
Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
As of January 26, 2022 Bath Haus is by far my favorite thriller I’ve read all year!
I tend to read a lot of thrillers, the more farfetched and out there the better in my opinion. Unfortunately, because of my thriller novel addiction, I usually am able to predict the twist and see it coming a mile away. With Bath Haus, while I did have some ideas about what the twist could be, the author does such a good job of throwing you off that even though I had a general idea, I was unable to predict exactly what would happen! This automatically made me want to keep reading just to see what was going on!
Oliver has had his fair share of troubles but he seems to have settled down, found a nice almost husband, a nice job, a great life, but he’s still struggling and he’s not sure why. He goes to a gay bathhouse while his husband is away to have an anonymous affair but things take a dark turn and he barely gets away with his life. You follow along as Oliver finds himself pursued by his attacker and his amazing life slowly unravels.
I was addicted to this thriller and it was so hard to put down! It sounds alike your typical thriller set up but it has plenty of twists and turns. Also, Oliver, while definitely dumb is still endearing enough and interesting enough as a character that I found myself still cheering him on. He makes some of the dumbest decisions, that usually would drive me nuts but Oliver’s backstory makes all those mistakes more understandable in relation to his character.
While this one sounds like your typical thriller, I was pleased to find its very unique.
I tend to read a lot of thrillers, the more farfetched and out there the better in my opinion. Unfortunately, because of my thriller novel addiction, I usually am able to predict the twist and see it coming a mile away. With Bath Haus, while I did have some ideas about what the twist could be, the author does such a good job of throwing you off that even though I had a general idea, I was unable to predict exactly what would happen! This automatically made me want to keep reading just to see what was going on!
Oliver has had his fair share of troubles but he seems to have settled down, found a nice almost husband, a nice job, a great life, but he’s still struggling and he’s not sure why. He goes to a gay bathhouse while his husband is away to have an anonymous affair but things take a dark turn and he barely gets away with his life. You follow along as Oliver finds himself pursued by his attacker and his amazing life slowly unravels.
I was addicted to this thriller and it was so hard to put down! It sounds alike your typical thriller set up but it has plenty of twists and turns. Also, Oliver, while definitely dumb is still endearing enough and interesting enough as a character that I found myself still cheering him on. He makes some of the dumbest decisions, that usually would drive me nuts but Oliver’s backstory makes all those mistakes more understandable in relation to his character.
While this one sounds like your typical thriller, I was pleased to find its very unique.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Rape, Alcoholism, Addiction, Cancer, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence