Is Carter toxic, manipulative and controlling? Yes. But somehow his relationship with Zoey makes sense? Yes. Was their relationship toxic and sweet at Is Carter toxic, manipulative and controlling? Yes. But somehow his relationship with Zoey makes sense? Yes. Was their relationship toxic and sweet at the same time? Yes.
If this was a contemporary romance, I would not have been pleased with it at all. But it is a dark romance, so um yes whatever. Don't judge me. ...more
I love this book as much as I hate it. How is that even possible? I loved it so much yet I would never recommend this to anyone.
The writing is near pI love this book as much as I hate it. How is that even possible? I loved it so much yet I would never recommend this to anyone.
The writing is near perfect. It is very touching without being pretentious. The book is over 700 pages long but it never felt boring. But still, it was quite difficult for me to get through this book. It was too heartbreaking and gloomy. It portrayed raw emotions brilliantly.
The first 50 pages introduced the four friends and their relationships. As I kept reading, it became clear that this book was about Jude's life. I think a better title for this book would be - 'The Tragedy of Jude St. Francis'. More appropriate, don't you think so?
Jude has a truly horrible and abusive childhood which changed his life forever. I think Jude's POV was the most difficult for me to read. His self-hatred, his belief that nobody could ever love him and his constant self-harm was truly heartbreaking. I don't think he has ever been truly happy in his life. He is a very kind and caring person yet he doesn't believe himself worthy of love. (view spoiler)[ The way his life ended was truly terrible. He chose the most painful way to end his life because he felt like he deserved it. (hide spoiler)] I desperately wanted him to be happy and to get better. But of course, that's not what happens. He keeps suffering.
Willem was the best of them. His unwavering love for Jude was one of the best parts of the book. He was loyal, kind and loving. (view spoiler)[His shocking death was a particularly cruel decision made by the author. (hide spoiler)] With him Jude was the closest to being happy for once in his life. This quote says it all-
Jude had smiled at him. “Oh, dying,” he said dismissively. “We’re all dying. He just knew his death would come sooner than he had planned. But that doesn’t mean they weren’t happy years, that it wasn’t a happy life.”
Malcolm was an unwavering friend but he was the most cowardly out of all of them. He didn't take any sides nor did he make any difficult decisions. Yet I did like him. His behaviour was directly connected to his childhood and his father's blatant favouritism towards his sister.
JB was a particularly interesting character. At first, his shallowness and blatant cruelty reminded me a lot of Bunny from The Secret History. But JB turned out to be very different from Bunny. He was a very loyal and caring friend. He could be very cruel at times, the same way he was very kind at times. (view spoiler)[ The worst part is that all his closest childhood friends are dead now. I don't think he will ever be able to recover from this loss. (hide spoiler)]
They were other major characters too. Andy and Harold cared deeply about Jude yet sometimes they acted very passively about Jude's situation.(view spoiler)[ Both of them felt that they should have done more to help Jude. Shockingly, by the end of this book, almost everyone is dead and Harold is left with survivor's guilt. (hide spoiler)]
This book was simply too bleak. There was no happiness and no happy ending. Everyone was miserable until they died.
This book is brilliant, no doubt about it, yet sometimes I wondered what was the point of it. That some people, no matter how good they are, will always suffer till the moment they die?
If anyone ever wants to read this book, be warned that this book is about suffering and has no happy ending. Also, please read the trigger warnings....more
Ana (Hiatus)
>
Books:
disturbing
(33)
Loading...
