I was worried with how hyped and beloved this book is out of the LoG series, but I get it. I totally get it! I was going to give it a 4.5 as that's the average with the way I rated the categories, but screw it. 5 stars, baby!

This book definitely had the most emotional and character depth in the series. I was rooting for Nikolai and our dear sweet Bran that my heart kept breaking for. Niko wasn't just the fun-loving party guy that wanted to fight everyone and Bran wasn't just the polite soft boy that bends to everyone's will. Even Landon surprised me with the depth he had. I assumed (I've only read the Heathens' books, so I skipped his so far) he was like Killian and didn't have the capabilities to feel most emotions.

And as much as I still want to just see the Heathens' day to day life together in college or doing bratva things, I like that there wasn't any outside mafia random plot that served as the break-up and/or reunion.

This book could have been an email.

Krypt is so beautifully unhinged and exactly what I've been looking for in a true morally grey character! I don't even want to say more so everyone else can go in blind and see his layers and what he gets up to.

I can see why some people don't like Remi, but I enjoyed his descent into Krypt's world and followed the logic in his decisions.

The world itself is fascinating with a town full of cults, gangs, and secret societies. They somehow all work together to keep the town safe and don't overly mess with each other. We don't get a lot of details and an overarching plot dangles a few tidbits as well, but I feel like more will be explained as we go since the author said this will be an 8 book series. And I will definitely keep reading as I'm interested in the rest of the Vile Boys.

I will also add that this book can be dark at times, so check the triggers at the back of the book. Nothing bothers me aside from animal cruelty (which is not in this book!) so I went in blind. The two biggest triggers I'll mention here are suicide and rape (between the MMCs).

This book isn't perfect, but my enjoyment brings it up. A couple of the flaws that kept jumping out at me: It bugged me that 2 of Remi's brothers never received names no matter how many times they were brought up. Also, get used to the word 'sick', and phrases about monsters/demons in his eyes and how they're rattling their chains.