Alex ✰ Comets and Comments ✰'s Reviews > Gods & Monsters

"Every day I fucking drown in you and I don’t wanna come up for air."

Don't read this review.
Especially don't read this review if you plan on picking up this book in the future.

However, if you do plan on reading this review - I will hide the spoilers, but that will not take away from the fact that I am going to be addressing a very important issue in today's reader society. Specifically, that which occurs in the New Adult / Romance genre.

→ Some of you will agree.
→ Some of you will choose to ignore it.
→ Most of you will be fucking furious.



______________

Recognition
I'm going to start this off with some facts.

A survey done in 2014 (out of 815 participants) showed that 98% of the reader-based audience that reads romance novels are female.



It's human nature to learn from external stimuli, so everytime a person picks up a book. Without a single doubt, we take away something from it. Even if it's a new word we don't understand or a scenario that we know now can be solved a certain way in life.

We are social beings. A lot of the time, what we do also affects others.

Here's something that (and I can explain this in no other way) literally makes me want to cry and throw up at the same time:
I imagine a girl, or any influential person picking up books like this one. Reading till the bitter end, and taking away that no matter how fucking toxic and unhealthy a relationship can be. It's okay to get back together with that source of toxicity in your life.



Corruption
I have experienced the toxicity that a relationship can come with and I've grown stronger from it. It can destroy every single thing, and love is a fickle thing that can make or break you as a person.

Enter our characters.
Evie Hart and Abel Adams.

We get the dichotomous retelling of Adam and Eve, as the towns princess falls for the local outcast. Leaving aside all the cliche tropes and the cringey lines, we also get their story from start to present. The time jumps can get confusing, but it's cute so we'll stick with it..right?

I started seeing the signs at about the 20% mark, folks.
It was like a chill that very eerily ran down my spine and I couldn't stop reading because for the life of me, I was hoping that this would be a story that showed how wrong love can get.

There's this quote that comes to mind now that I've read till the end page.

"You made flowers grow in my lungs, and that was beautiful... except I couldn't breathe."

I thought that this story was going to end telling the readers that it's not okay to let yourself go through an unhealthy and mentally abusive relationship because "she/he loves me and I can't live without them." However, it ended with both characters getting back together. Right there for that "Happily Ever After".



A Timeline

SPOILERS AHEAD!! PLEASE DON'T READ IF YOU PLAN ON READING THIS BOOK.

1) This may come as a surprise, but I actually started this book thinking this was going to be the best damn thing. The writing was good, the young love trope was going well, and the narration was spot on for the visual image of the characters in my head.

"Abel’s watching me in a new way. I’ve never been watched like that. Like if he moved his eyes, I’d disappear and he’d never see me again."

2) Then I saw it. Not through the characters words. Through the words from the characters father.

"He used to say, don’t ever take no for an answer from the woman you love, Abel. Keep at it. She’s gonna give in eventually. She’s gonna see how much you love her.”

3) Then it became this uncomfortable feeling because I hoped this book wouldn't be exactly what it was to me.

“No, I don’t. If this is how you want sex, it’s not going to work.”
“Oh, I’m gonna wear you down, Pixie. You’ll see.”
I think he loves it when I say no.

4) Here's the argument that I told myself, Evie gets it. She sees that this is a toxic relationship. The author is indirectly showing the audience how wrong somethings can get with unhealthy and obsessive love. So I told myself that this story would end unconventionally, that even though this is their love story. It's not one that shows how beautiful love can make a person, but shows how heartbreakingly ugly it can get. Truly, it would have gotten all the stars in the galaxy if it had done that.

"In fact, even our arguments end up in sex. Especially, when I scream at him to pick up his clothes because he’s a slob, or demand that he close the door while taking a piss, as he calls it. “Boundaries, Abel!”
He laughs, finishes up his business in the bathroom and fucks me against the wall of the hallway."

5) Now we see how the heroine is weak. It dragged with how tedious it was. I wanted to scream at my kindle because even after our Evie starts to understand how wrong their type of love is, she is too weak to make a stand.

"As he opens the flap and gets it going, I realize I don’t want the camera. I don’t want Abel to tape our sex. I want him to look at me, be with me in the moment. In the next second, he thrusts inside me once again and my back arches, making my protests dissolve on my tongue."

6) It got near the end and we finally got Abel's point of view.

"I will tie her to the bed and fuck her and fuck her until she forgets everything else but me. Or until I put a baby in her and can’t run from me again."

(view spoiler)[Then finally, the story ends with Evie pregnant after having gone away for 70+ days, only to argue with Abel about getting back together. After he practically tells her that he wouldn't be good to her or the baby because of how he is. She tells him he needs to be there for both of them. what does this teach girls? What does this teach people who are trying to get out of toxic relationships? (hide spoiler)]

"You don’t have bad parents and do porn to get revenge. Risking as well getting pregnant. Not in a book where the writer can control the content and we’ve seen enough documentaries to know the truth. " - A Note from Tia's Amazon Review.

A Note
I really don't have any ill intent towards the author or the people who loved this book. I love that every single person in the world can read a book and perceive it in a different manner. This is my opinion. I wanted needed to share it because that's what writing reviews is all about. I wanted to love this book. I really did.