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brekkerlun 's review for:
These Violent Delights
by Micah Nemerever
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I feel like I say this in all my reviews recently, but I simply adore insane, unlikeable people in books. This, combined with the intense plot lines and splendid writing, made my reading experience of this novel a very pleasant one overall. It gripped me right from the first chapter, and the more I got to know the characters the more I wanted to just keep reading and see where it all would lead (always with a sense of impending doom looming over my head though). I believe the author did a great job fleshing out each of them, even the secondary ones, thus adding a lot of depth and nuance to the story of the protagonists.
"And that's how it feels, it hurts, it's like I lost you before I was born"
The reason this didn't get 5 stars for me is firstly due to the pacing in the second half (I feel it dragged a bit more than it should've after the 55-60% mark), which made it lose a bit of the tension it had up until that point, and secondly due to some inconsistencies in the writing. Although I found it profound for the most part, some chapters and specific passages didn't deliver as well as others, which in turn made the characters seem incongruent; it felt like you'd gotten to know them behaving and speaking in a specific manner, only to then have some dialogue or inner thought that seemed out of place (for example,the writing in the whole interaction between Paul and Julian's parents read too YA in comparison to most, if not all interactions prior to that point).
Despite this I've grown attached to the main characters, and although it is a violent story in nature I could still see the tenderness woven throughout by the author. It was easy to sense how much thought and care they put into this book. These two will pretentious teens always haunt me, and honestly I'm happy about it.
"I need to make something beautiful, something that lasts. I don't know what, but I have to, if I want my life to matter at all."
"And that's how it feels, it hurts, it's like I lost you before I was born"
The reason this didn't get 5 stars for me is firstly due to the pacing in the second half (I feel it dragged a bit more than it should've after the 55-60% mark), which made it lose a bit of the tension it had up until that point, and secondly due to some inconsistencies in the writing. Although I found it profound for the most part, some chapters and specific passages didn't deliver as well as others, which in turn made the characters seem incongruent; it felt like you'd gotten to know them behaving and speaking in a specific manner, only to then have some dialogue or inner thought that seemed out of place (for example,
Despite this I've grown attached to the main characters, and although it is a violent story in nature I could still see the tenderness woven throughout by the author. It was easy to sense how much thought and care they put into this book. These two will pretentious teens always haunt me, and honestly I'm happy about it.
"I need to make something beautiful, something that lasts. I don't know what, but I have to, if I want my life to matter at all."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Self harm, Suicide, Violence
Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Antisemitism