Book 2 of 2021 Done!

From the inside cover: “These Violent Delights” by Micah Nemerever is a “Hitchcockian tale of two college students, both with troubled pasts, whose escalating obsession with each other will radically alter the course of their lives”

I really wanted to love this one because it’s been on my TBR since August, but it just didn’t hit my mark. 

The main character Paul, is deeply disturbed and enters into a mutually abusive relationship with a classmate, Julian, who together keep challenging each other’s views on ethics and morality. The book picks up when they decide to apply their deranged theories of ethics in the real world.

My favourite thing about the novel was the ethical debates that happened in the university classrooms, but that went away very early on. I kept asking myself in every chapter “why do these two hate each other so much?” - and they tell each other they hate each other so other. I felt like I missed something in every chapter and kept re-reading sections but didn’t find I missed anything relating to character or relationship development (if there association can even be called a relationship).

I gave this book a 2.0 / 5.0 rating because it slogged on, didn’t keep my interest, and I felt really confused.