At the beginning of this book, author Jessie Rose gives the reader a page of trigger warnings. If you consider that a spoiler, there is enough notice at the top of the page to allow you to proceed without foreknowledge of what you're getting yourself into. You should know, however, that this content warning means business. Inside this book, you're going to come across just about every objectionable thing you could imagine.

If there are certain themes and happenings you don't like to read about, there's a fair chance this book might not be for you, but if you like books in the Ketchum tradition that aren't afraid to go there, then I can't recommend this highly enough.

Atomic Love doesn't fit traditionally into the horror genre, but I recently heard an episode of This is Horror where Bob Pastorella posited that horror fiction is less about what scares you and more about what scares the characters. With this sentiment in mind, the story at hand is positively terrifying.

Our main character is Jenny Stone, an artist who manages to catch the eye of the biggest rock star of the 1980's. What follows is a detailed description of approximately ten years of their relationship. Reed, the rockstar in question, is a bad dude. The author pulls from what is unquestionably a vast knowledge of 1980's figures and their legendary exploits to craft an amalgamation that embodies the decade and genre, but goes a step further. Maybe a few steps.

As a reader, it would be very easy to chalk many of the things that happened throughout the story up to exaggeration and an extreme view of potential true life events. What got under my skin the most, is the extreme plausibility of everything that happens here. Reed is a sociopath, no question, but he's also a prime example of the way things can go when someone is unchecked because of celebrity, and when society at large does not respect women or take them seriously.

Jenny is by no means a perfect character, but just like the recent True Crime, by Samantha Kolesnik, we see a character make choices that we wouldn't condone or understand, and have to simply realize that we may not be able to comprehend what they've been through.

The results of these deep character studies left me broken and feeling all the feels a number of times. Seriously, I can't even count how many different parts of this 409 page book hurt to get through. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I can't pinpoint another book that went 400 pages and managed to hit me so hard the entire time.

At the risk of repeating myself, if you think you can take the heat, this book needs to find its way into your kitchen. Just don't say I didn't warn you.

I received a copy of this book from the author for review consideration.