WOW this book was bad. wow. good lord. wow. contender for worst book i’ve read all year.
okay, lemme get my thoughts in order here.
the characterization of these two is atrocious. they both act in ways that completely contradict their stated interests and beliefs from earlier in the book, but not in an “interesting character development” way, more in a “these characters are paper dolls and don’t exist as real people” way. the contamination ocd and adhd that marlowe is set up with at the beginning of the book barely matters once we’re past about the 40% mark, minnie just kind of fixes him. marlowe switches back and forth between being the most pathetic loser alive and being a john wick badass. the man’s kill count would make him either the second or third most prolific serial killer of all time, something he purports to have done by killing people in very specific and thoughtful ways, but he is literally immediately violating his own “rules” surrounding who he kills and why, with no real reason as to why, except that minnie is here now. at least in the first third, i was having fun because marlowe’s characterization is so pathetic that i would laugh at something insane he said like every few pages. by the end of the book it was just exhausting because i really had to confront that the author thought he really was cool
for a good 30% of this book, i thought we were getting set up for a really interesting twist where marlowe was actually the victim. the idea i was having was that minnie had made her way into marlowe’s life and was keeping him under a spell to make him super protective and obsessed with her, so she would be protected from whatever was coming after her. it made sense, because marlowe’s characterization was getting clumsier and more flanderized, was really off the wall, he was getting so over the top that i was rolling my eyes every other page, and i THOUGHT it was because minnie was secretly masterminding this whole thing. but no. this author just doesn’t know how to maintain a character voice that doesn’t make me want to blow my brains out.
in general, there’s a lot going on here for plotline value rather than because it makes any sense. marlowe’s whole family knows that he murders people. why? we don’t really know. this makes him insanely more likely to be caught, and because the rest of his family hates him, they’re also more likely to turn him in, but it’s cute to have them snarkily comment on it to him, so it’s in the book. marlowe doesn’t remember what happened during the car accident, but then he takes a nap, and he suddenly dreams it all again. why? we don’t really know. it’s because it needs to happen to make sure the story make sense. marlowe’s killed 160 people, and this is the first time he’s ever considered that him killing his dad and him killing other abusive men Might Be Connected. why? we don’t really know. mostly it’s here because it gives us a cute “romantic” moment between these mcs.
outside of this, there are a lot of incredibly clumsily handled very heavy topics in this book. without getting too far into it, the one that sticks out to me is that minnie indicates she almost wishes that marlowe would have assaulted her so she would no longer have to worry about her “chastity.” she indicates that she flirted with marlowe for this specific reason. but she expressly says that he didn’t, and that he “proved he was the man she knew he was” by not assaulting her. this is an insane thing to say. it drives me up the fucking wall to paint Not Doing Sexual Assault as a good thing to do. it is a neutral thing to do. the bare minimum should be not doing sexual assault. this guy also has an insane kill count and he is a bad guy, if only because of how much excitement he takes in doing insane murders. stop trying to convince me he’s normal because he won’t assault this woman he’s in love with. oh my god
these two also have mf sub-zero chemistry. their freak kink play (usually positive. i love freak kink play. just not in this book) is attempting to convince me that they care about each other, but they hate each other. they’re so awful to each other all the time, and not in a fun “they’re terrible. they deserve each other” way. in an awful “i hope they fall into a lava pit together” way. marlowe is constantly doing like, severe emotional abuse to minnie. and to an extent, she’s doing the same thing to him!!! they don’t trust each other, they get incredibly self-absorbed and mean when the other brings up any kind of concern to them, and they’re both INSANELY insecure about the idea that the other’s ever even looked at another person of their preferred gender. if this was explicitly a story about two awful people being awful with each other, i might be willing to take it, but minnie is dead-set on the idea that marlowe is “a good person,” and it really seems like as the audience we’re supposed to agree with him. he’s a good guy because…….. he kills rapists?? i guess????? and he had a bad childhood?????? even though he’s emotionally abusive to his girlfriend and is so desperately insecure that he’s mogging a goddamn tuberculosis mummy. OKAY!!!!
also, a decent amount of weird rhetoric surrounding addicts for no reason??? why does this author constantly reference how disgusting it would be if someone was “shooting up” and also looking for arm scars to determine if this is happening. it’s so unsettling
to quote myself reading this train wreck: it ends on a cliffhanger but the only thing i want is for both of them to be dead. so