To be completely honest I think I would have preferred the entire Villains series to be in a graphic novel format. It just works. 

Firstly. Bird puns.

Secondly. The second hand embarrassment from Rory's constant antics made me physically uncomfortable. 'Tell me a sin' = 'I spit in his whiskey glass' . Rory who's opening line is "My name is Rory Carter and I do bad things." I thought your sin would have been murdering the people who assaulted you. But no Rory's sins are petty little moments aimed at people whom mentally and physically abuse her on a daily occurrence. Oh and thoughts on what she would like to do, but doesn't action.

Thirdly. What the actual Fuck is the constant whiplash in Rory's character traits and actions saying one thing and doing/behaving the complete opposite two pages later. (This is not word for word but essentially) I hate how men only want to touch my body and use me.... next minute 'I’ll do what ever you want, just let me make a phone call'. NO. To develop on this, the continual mentions of previous assaults > however there's no true discussion about how this actually affected the character other than dropping out of her degree > Rory enters a relationship knowing that she will be assaulted (without any thought) > and continues to make deals with men that they can touch her so long as she gets what she needs. Its so uncomfortable, conflicting and idiotic.


Finally. Don’t use ‘suggested suicide’ as a plot device and surprise twist its fucking distasteful and disrespectful. This nearly ruined the book/author/series for me entirely.

Topics such as the ones approached in this novel can actually be very well done, I'm not opposed to reading any of them. However they where increasingly flawed, lightly mentioned and sprinkled throughout the entire novel, without any real thought, depth or consequence.


I'm so temped to give this book one star, however, I did really enjoy a lot of Angelo's chapters so he managed to drag this book up from the trenches. I mean if this was all from Angelo's POV I would have loved this book, I know that for a fact, since his POV's had me grinning. I might get a sample of the next book to see if the FMC is less of a wet paper towel, Ill be tempted to give it a go. 

I wont rate this book, as what I thought One Hundred Years of Solitude would be VS what it is. Two wildly different things. I don't believe this books deserves the stars I wish to give it due to how uncomfortable the topics and themes approached made me feel. I only wish I had read at least a few of the many Goodread Reviews online first, at least I wouldn't have gone into this expecting a "beautiful and whimsical" story. 

 As time goes on my love for this book increases. Thinking back on all the books I read in 2023, A Dowry of Blood is by far one of my favorites.