Difficult to give a rating because I thought the beginning and ending of the book were really strong, but the middle was so boring. I really feel like the author could've pushed it further. I was disappointed that very little of interest happened in the middle of the book otherwise this would've been a 5 star. I think it could've gone further with the gothic/erotic elements it started to lean into at certain points in the book. The strongest elements of the book were reminiscent of The Bloody Chamber, it just unfortunately didn't deliver as a whole.