Ghosts & Liars

What the fuck. This book is super rapey and it gave me the ultimate ick. I feel so grimy and like I can't get the stench of this horrible fucking book off me.

Let me start off by saying I do not often leave reviews. This is my first one since I've had this account and unless I eventually read a worse book, this will likely be my only one. This book pissed me off so badly that I had to leave a review.

Holy shit this book was incredibly disturbing. Like I cannot even put it into words. It surely left an impact on me, albeit a VERY horrified impact. I am literally going to remove all books by this author from my want to read list, it destroyed this author and all of her works for me.

I actually kinda enjoyed the first book. Not the best book ever or one I would even consider to be “good” but it was interesting and kept me engaged. The plot was kinda unique and sounded intriguing and I actually read another book by this author and liked it so I gave this one a chance. There were alarming abusive things in the first book but honestly I had faith (stupidly) that maybe things Julian did or the ways he acted would be explained and justified or some shit idk, I was hoping for the best and thought it could still pivot and make me change my opinion on him. Nope. He gets way worse as the second book progresses.

I finished it only because I literally could NOT believe the book was going to end like it seemed to be ending; it would be TOO creepy and awful. It ended way worse than I was expecting. Super abusive and creepy and I really am quite disturbed by this book. I didn't really read the other reviews before I read it and that is something I regret. I hate that I spent time reading this that I will never get back. I don't mind spending time to write this review though; I feel like it is my duty to warn other people wanting to read it.

Nobody deserves to be treated like Julian treated Alice, even if it's a silly paranormal romance fiction and they aren't even real. Obviously books can be disturbing with disturbing characters and that is not necessarily bad. Books don't always end happily, or have morally upstanding/likable characters, or lack tragedy. That's fine. Life and humans are incredibly messy and complicated and this is often reflected in books and their characters. Where this book went wrong though: this book took “evil undead madman” to the highest level. Way too far. Rape is never ok. There is also no underlying statement or commentary by the author like I was thinking could be possible. In fact, the author treated their relationship as it was normal and healthy and swoon-worthy.

I felt like it normalized and romanticized physical and emotional domestic abuse to the highest degree. It romanticized manipulation and abuse and disguised it as “love.” Julian jump scares her constantly; he kills Billy and then she has to find his body; he throws her down a chute where she lands in pile of bones of the 30 something people he killed; he hits her in the face; he rapes her; he lies about who he is/Charles; he murders her and forces her to live with him forever...omg I could go on and on. There is literally nothing redeemable or enjoyable or even tolerable about Julian. Really fucking gross.

Do not read this. I am warning you. I am deeply uncomfortable and disturbed by this book.




**editing my review to add: I just realized this book says in the description that it has a HEA. NOTHING was happy about this ending. On what fucking planet is that a happy ending? I feel like saying it has a HEA is a really big lie and incredibly misleading. This book was released out in the world though and unfortunately it is going to continue to exist and be read, so I definitely think this book needs more specific trigger warnings than just “mature content” and should not be labeled as having a HEA.