Content Warning: Abortion, Abusive Relationships, Castration, Female Genital Mutilation, Gun Violence, Referenced Drug Use and Overdose, Characters being Drugged, Kidnapping, References to Prostitution, Racism, Torture, Transphobia, and the one thing that is implied by the content warning Sexual Assault.

Heads up! This Book is also 1 of 2!

Let's start from the beginning, I think that they did themselves a disservice with the cover design, especially as it doesn't really represent the art style that is contained within the book. Which I guess is also a boon as this book is in no way marketed for anything other then a Mature Audience.

I liked the premise of this book, I haven't read A Picture of Dorian Gray, but lines in Net Galley's synopsis like "white men don’t always win, how the powerless can find justice, and about how a murderous demon and a law-abiding detective can be soul mates." had me hooked. what I took for granted was the "violent fantasy" part earlier in that same sentence.

This gave me the same feeling that watching clips from Saw does, violence for violence sake. Especially later in the book, upon my initial read through my brain unconsciously had me skim over a page, but I ended up going back having realized I didn't know what happened to that dude. I have REGRETS, that image will be haunting me at least for the rest of the day, quite possibly for the rest of my life. (Additional Content Warning for Possible Animal Abuse? Like what the fuck was that.)

I am all for Morally Gray characters, this crossed that line. It didn't even really feel cathartic in the way that revenge stories often do. And I have to wonder if some of that comes from the fact that this is a man writing a story about Women's Revenge.