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A review by rickyschneider
Bath Haus by P.J. Vernon
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A wild ride was promised and a wild ride it was! P.J. Vernon's propulsive queer thriller is steamy, stylish and sadistic. This is really more of a 3.5 star read for me but I rounded it up to four purely for the enjoyment factor. The writing wasn't as slick or sharp as I would've liked but the author delivers on the premise with tense, exciting thrills delivered with a sexy, dark aesthetic. The result is a fun, entertaining romp that kept me hooked to the dramatic conclusion.
On a plot level, Vernon is bursting with ideas and the pacing is brisk and engaging. However, on a sentence level, the author relies too heavily on quick, easy metaphors and the characters are generally homogenous-feeling. The latter becomes almost painfully clear because the narrative alternates between Oliver, our protagonist, and his almost husband, Nathan. While the two men's perspectives are ostensibly very different, one coming from wealth and privilege while the other hails from small town poverty and trauma, the two POVs blend so seamlessly together so that, even with large capitalized headers before each section, I found myself constantly having to refer back to those headers in order to determine which character was speaking. The author's propensity for metaphor shouldn't be a problem, as I love metaphor and simile in my books, but a broader and more sparing approach to the literary device would've served the reading experience better. Instead, Vernon peppers nearly every paragraph with obvious comparisons that add little to the atmosphere or emotional interiority of his characters but does manage to muddy the prose and confuse the narrative with its distracting tangents. There are also some regrettable lines that come off as cringey, self-indulgent or pedantic. I admittedly shook my head at the line about "Alexander Scares-gard". That being said, there are some hints at promising ideas and real potential for well-crafted storytelling in Vernon's writing. I particularly liked the structuring of the novel into the stages of asphyxiation. More of that and less of the easy metaphors and cheesy puns, please.
The who-dunnit element was executed skillfully, keeping me guessing at every turn. Though I liked one of the red-herrings better than the actual reveal at the end, the mystery and danger that soaked every page was salaciously fun and the break-neck pace was intoxicatingly immersive. I was skimming the last chapters, not to rush to the conclusion of the novel but simply out of pure excitement and curiosity for what Vernon had in store for this twisty, taught thriller.
All the characters are intensely flawed and most are pretty detestable. The detective felt like a pet-favorite of the author and she was certainly the most likeable of them all. Our main protagonist, Oliver was self-destructive to the extreme but I did find myself caring about him and hoping for the best for him by the end. The villain was intentionally sexy and sinister but I honestly was on his side for the first third of the novel. It seemed clear to me that Oliver was intensely anxiety-ridden and paranoid so I honestly thought he probably made up the murderous intentions behind the studly Scandinavian's advances. I was worried that Oliver was yet another unreliable narrator that would have dreamed up most of the events taking place but I'm happy to report that Vernon did not fall into that trope. Instead, Oliver's seemingly unbelievable plight is, while still highly implausible and riddled with coincidental convenience for the plot, terrifyingly real and full of urgency and tension.
By the end of the novel Vernon had largely won me over with his engaging and exciting story of a bathhouse tryst gone horribly wrong and I genuinely loved getting to read from the perspective of a modern gay couple in all their messy domesticity. Though a flawed and somewhat frivolous novel, the overall effect was satisfying and scintillating. I will definitely look forward to P.J. Vernon's next smartly stylized thriller with the anticipation that if it's anything like Bath Haus, it will be a messy, addictive, simmering sauna of sexy thrills!
On a plot level, Vernon is bursting with ideas and the pacing is brisk and engaging. However, on a sentence level, the author relies too heavily on quick, easy metaphors and the characters are generally homogenous-feeling. The latter becomes almost painfully clear because the narrative alternates between Oliver, our protagonist, and his almost husband, Nathan. While the two men's perspectives are ostensibly very different, one coming from wealth and privilege while the other hails from small town poverty and trauma, the two POVs blend so seamlessly together so that, even with large capitalized headers before each section, I found myself constantly having to refer back to those headers in order to determine which character was speaking. The author's propensity for metaphor shouldn't be a problem, as I love metaphor and simile in my books, but a broader and more sparing approach to the literary device would've served the reading experience better. Instead, Vernon peppers nearly every paragraph with obvious comparisons that add little to the atmosphere or emotional interiority of his characters but does manage to muddy the prose and confuse the narrative with its distracting tangents. There are also some regrettable lines that come off as cringey, self-indulgent or pedantic. I admittedly shook my head at the line about "Alexander Scares-gard". That being said, there are some hints at promising ideas and real potential for well-crafted storytelling in Vernon's writing. I particularly liked the structuring of the novel into the stages of asphyxiation. More of that and less of the easy metaphors and cheesy puns, please.
The who-dunnit element was executed skillfully, keeping me guessing at every turn. Though I liked one of the red-herrings better than the actual reveal at the end, the mystery and danger that soaked every page was salaciously fun and the break-neck pace was intoxicatingly immersive. I was skimming the last chapters, not to rush to the conclusion of the novel but simply out of pure excitement and curiosity for what Vernon had in store for this twisty, taught thriller.
All the characters are intensely flawed and most are pretty detestable. The detective felt like a pet-favorite of the author and she was certainly the most likeable of them all. Our main protagonist, Oliver was self-destructive to the extreme but I did find myself caring about him and hoping for the best for him by the end. The villain was intentionally sexy and sinister but I honestly was on his side for the first third of the novel. It seemed clear to me that Oliver was intensely anxiety-ridden and paranoid so I honestly thought he probably made up the murderous intentions behind the studly Scandinavian's advances. I was worried that Oliver was yet another unreliable narrator that would have dreamed up most of the events taking place but I'm happy to report that Vernon did not fall into that trope. Instead, Oliver's seemingly unbelievable plight is, while still highly implausible and riddled with coincidental convenience for the plot, terrifyingly real and full of urgency and tension.
By the end of the novel Vernon had largely won me over with his engaging and exciting story of a bathhouse tryst gone horribly wrong and I genuinely loved getting to read from the perspective of a modern gay couple in all their messy domesticity. Though a flawed and somewhat frivolous novel, the overall effect was satisfying and scintillating. I will definitely look forward to P.J. Vernon's next smartly stylized thriller with the anticipation that if it's anything like Bath Haus, it will be a messy, addictive, simmering sauna of sexy thrills!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Stalking, and Toxic relationship