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A review by lilacbookpages
Heartless Hunter by Kristen Ciccarelli
1.5
I don't remember the last time I was this mad about a book wasting its potential. Like COME ON.
Don't read this if you want to be spoiled. All I will say is that if you don't want your love interest to be blood thirsty for your MC's death, I would skip this one. And I do fully mean it when I say he wants to kill her. Also if you don't want to be repeatedly told that a victim of SA is "broken", this might not be for you. Oh and the magic in this book is conducted via self-harm, but the self-harm isn't graphic. Just a heads up for people who might not vibe with that.
But anyway, on I go spoiling this book.
This book has so many things about it that made me mad, but it also had some things that I thought were really good. The romance was both of these things.
This is a "true" enemies to lovers, and it has forced me to make a rule about whether or not I can tolerate this trope;
If the FMC and MMC are actually genuinely enemies, their desire to kill each other has to be equal.
Which feels like a weird thing to have to specify, but trust me; it's necessary here.
The romance was really well written, and if the circumstances had been different, I would have LOVED them together. They had good tension, banter, and I could really see their fake desire for each other turning into real desire as they spent more time together.
The problem is this: Gideon wants to brutally and efficiently murder Rune.
And I know what you're thinking. This is witch and witch hunter. Obviously he wants to kill her. But Rune has nodesire to do the same. All she wants is to protect innocent people. She doesn't hate him with the same violence or bloodlust. It is completely unequal in a way that makes the romance unconscionable to me. Why would Rune, who by all accounts is a cunning and kind badass, be falling in love with someone who not only wants to kill her, but wants to kill everyone she's trying to protect? I don't believe in the "power of love" overcoming all when the issue is that one half of the couple is participating in GENOCIDE. Because that's what it is. They are indiscriminately and violently slaughtering an entire group of people based on something they were born as.
And Gideon fully supports this.
He is fully behind the genocide of an entire (race? species? whatever witches are) for like 70% of this book. I HATE the trope of "big murderous man only decides murder bad because a woman cares about him". It shouldn't take Rune showing him a witch can have humanity for him to believe the people he is killing are human. Some of the witches he's killed are CHILDREN. It's giving very much "woman has to fix the man".
Rune deserved to fall in love with someone who didn't need to be taught to see her as human.
And I fully understand the reason he is the way he is. But having his character basically say "one witch evil = all witch evil" as a response to being sexually assaulted is gross. This book fully uses his trauma as a justification for why he is so violent and murderous. It wants you to sympathize with him because he has been abused, and therefore sympathize with his actions. It is an INSANE take. It's like if a woman was assaulted by a white man and decided that she had to participate in the government sanctioned murder of every single white man. It is a ridiculous idea.
Speaking of Gideon being a victim of SA. The way he talks about himself and what happened to him is just so bad. He constantly refers to himself as broken and unworthy and genuinely hates himself for what happened to him. Which is a thing people do actually feel, but the narrative almost never challenges this. Rune says one time that he is not responsible for the things that happened to him, and it comes up like two more times, but that's it. I wanted something more.
AND the last like, 40% of this book involve Gideon basically being forced into sleeping with Rune (not by Rune herself) in order to see her scars. This man is like 18, and was sexually abused for YEARS. The weird focus on having him sleep with Rune made me so uncomfortable. And after they do have sex, he literally thinks about the last time he slept with someone and it was assault!! And he just tells himself to ignore it and move on!! It's weird!!
There was so much interesting and good things going on in this book, but it was completely overshadowed by how much I couldn't stand Gideon "My Mission is to Murder Innocent People" Sharpe. The friendships were solid, the twists were good, the romance could've been great. The setting was cool, the Bridgeton-esque world of balls and gowns and tea parties was so fun. The actual plot was really good! I loved the idea of Rune leading a double life to save innocent people. I loved the Crimson Moth plot line. I thought it was so interesting. And I really liked Rune! She was smart and complex and kind. She was interesting and determined and scheming. I genuinely liked her as a character when she wasn't forsaking her entire cause for a mediocre man.
To explain myself better, here is my pitch for a way this could've been done that I think would've made it less icky:
Gideon is a part of the revolution in the beginning, killing the queens and helping to establish the new republic. He is traumatized and has been convinced (through Creed's careful propaganda and his taking advantage of an abused child) that witches are the enemy and must be eradicated. At first, he is okay with it, even if it is violent and maybe a bit much. He is good at his job and enjoys the company of his team. Eventually though, he starts to become disillusioned with the cause. He talks to witches and realizes that he was generalizing the entire race off of his abuser. He wants to quit, but because he is the best at it and because he was part of starting the revolution, Creed won't let him. He threatens to kill Alex if Gideon doesn't keep doing his job and doing it well. Enter the Crimson Moth, who Gideon is tasked with finding and arresting. He doesn't hate Rune because she was born a witch. He hates her because she is vain and privileged, because she comes from a class he can never attain. She hates him because she thinks he WANTS to kill witches. She doesn't know that he doesn't want any of this. He is trying to find the Moth not because he desperately wants to kill her, but because keeping his brother alive is most important to him. They fall in love, and their tension comes from the perceived bloodlust between them and the class differences. In reality, they share the same beliefs and love for Alex.
TELL ME THAT'S NOT BETTER THAN GIDEON SPENDING ALMOST THE ENTIRE BOOK WANTING TO GENOCIDE RUNE. TELL ME IT'S BETTER THAT HE GENUINELY WANTS TO KILL HER WHEN SHE DOESN'T WANT TO KILL HIM AT ALL.
Hell, I'd even take it if Rune was spending the entire book wanting to kill him too. If the Crimson Moth was created specifically to kill Blood Guard members. That would be better!
Anyway I'm honestly more mad than if this book was just outright bad. It could have been SO GOOD and I'm almost offended it wasn't.
Thank you to net-galley for the arc in exchange for review. (Very obviously) All opinions are my own.
Don't read this if you want to be spoiled. All I will say is that if you don't want your love interest to be blood thirsty for your MC's death, I would skip this one. And I do fully mean it when I say he wants to kill her. Also if you don't want to be repeatedly told that a victim of SA is "broken", this might not be for you. Oh and the magic in this book is conducted via self-harm, but the self-harm isn't graphic. Just a heads up for people who might not vibe with that.
But anyway, on I go spoiling this book.
This book has so many things about it that made me mad, but it also had some things that I thought were really good. The romance was both of these things.
This is a "true" enemies to lovers, and it has forced me to make a rule about whether or not I can tolerate this trope;
If the FMC and MMC are actually genuinely enemies, their desire to kill each other has to be equal.
Which feels like a weird thing to have to specify, but trust me; it's necessary here.
The romance was really well written, and if the circumstances had been different, I would have LOVED them together. They had good tension, banter, and I could really see their fake desire for each other turning into real desire as they spent more time together.
The problem is this: Gideon wants to brutally and efficiently murder Rune.
And I know what you're thinking. This is witch and witch hunter. Obviously he wants to kill her. But Rune has nodesire to do the same. All she wants is to protect innocent people. She doesn't hate him with the same violence or bloodlust. It is completely unequal in a way that makes the romance unconscionable to me. Why would Rune, who by all accounts is a cunning and kind badass, be falling in love with someone who not only wants to kill her, but wants to kill everyone she's trying to protect? I don't believe in the "power of love" overcoming all when the issue is that one half of the couple is participating in GENOCIDE. Because that's what it is. They are indiscriminately and violently slaughtering an entire group of people based on something they were born as.
And Gideon fully supports this.
He is fully behind the genocide of an entire (race? species? whatever witches are) for like 70% of this book. I HATE the trope of "big murderous man only decides murder bad because a woman cares about him". It shouldn't take Rune showing him a witch can have humanity for him to believe the people he is killing are human. Some of the witches he's killed are CHILDREN. It's giving very much "woman has to fix the man".
Rune deserved to fall in love with someone who didn't need to be taught to see her as human.
And I fully understand the reason he is the way he is. But having his character basically say "one witch evil = all witch evil" as a response to being sexually assaulted is gross. This book fully uses his trauma as a justification for why he is so violent and murderous. It wants you to sympathize with him because he has been abused, and therefore sympathize with his actions. It is an INSANE take. It's like if a woman was assaulted by a white man and decided that she had to participate in the government sanctioned murder of every single white man. It is a ridiculous idea.
Speaking of Gideon being a victim of SA. The way he talks about himself and what happened to him is just so bad. He constantly refers to himself as broken and unworthy and genuinely hates himself for what happened to him. Which is a thing people do actually feel, but the narrative almost never challenges this. Rune says one time that he is not responsible for the things that happened to him, and it comes up like two more times, but that's it. I wanted something more.
AND the last like, 40% of this book involve Gideon basically being forced into sleeping with Rune (not by Rune herself) in order to see her scars. This man is like 18, and was sexually abused for YEARS. The weird focus on having him sleep with Rune made me so uncomfortable. And after they do have sex, he literally thinks about the last time he slept with someone and it was assault!! And he just tells himself to ignore it and move on!! It's weird!!
There was so much interesting and good things going on in this book, but it was completely overshadowed by how much I couldn't stand Gideon "My Mission is to Murder Innocent People" Sharpe. The friendships were solid, the twists were good, the romance could've been great. The setting was cool, the Bridgeton-esque world of balls and gowns and tea parties was so fun. The actual plot was really good! I loved the idea of Rune leading a double life to save innocent people. I loved the Crimson Moth plot line. I thought it was so interesting. And I really liked Rune! She was smart and complex and kind. She was interesting and determined and scheming. I genuinely liked her as a character when she wasn't forsaking her entire cause for a mediocre man.
To explain myself better, here is my pitch for a way this could've been done that I think would've made it less icky:
Gideon is a part of the revolution in the beginning, killing the queens and helping to establish the new republic. He is traumatized and has been convinced (through Creed's careful propaganda and his taking advantage of an abused child) that witches are the enemy and must be eradicated. At first, he is okay with it, even if it is violent and maybe a bit much. He is good at his job and enjoys the company of his team. Eventually though, he starts to become disillusioned with the cause. He talks to witches and realizes that he was generalizing the entire race off of his abuser. He wants to quit, but because he is the best at it and because he was part of starting the revolution, Creed won't let him. He threatens to kill Alex if Gideon doesn't keep doing his job and doing it well. Enter the Crimson Moth, who Gideon is tasked with finding and arresting. He doesn't hate Rune because she was born a witch. He hates her because she is vain and privileged, because she comes from a class he can never attain. She hates him because she thinks he WANTS to kill witches. She doesn't know that he doesn't want any of this. He is trying to find the Moth not because he desperately wants to kill her, but because keeping his brother alive is most important to him. They fall in love, and their tension comes from the perceived bloodlust between them and the class differences. In reality, they share the same beliefs and love for Alex.
TELL ME THAT'S NOT BETTER THAN GIDEON SPENDING ALMOST THE ENTIRE BOOK WANTING TO GENOCIDE RUNE. TELL ME IT'S BETTER THAT HE GENUINELY WANTS TO KILL HER WHEN SHE DOESN'T WANT TO KILL HIM AT ALL.
Hell, I'd even take it if Rune was spending the entire book wanting to kill him too. If the Crimson Moth was created specifically to kill Blood Guard members. That would be better!
Anyway I'm honestly more mad than if this book was just outright bad. It could have been SO GOOD and I'm almost offended it wasn't.
Thank you to net-galley for the arc in exchange for review. (Very obviously) All opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Self harm and Sexual assault