so ill be honest, when people said this was disturbing and disgusting, i was expecting more. but its mainly just... a lot of rape scenes which kept repeating. the whole "oh no im scared, this is rape!" switching to "no wait i actually like this, lets do it again" over and over was tiring. everytime they had sex after the first few times, it genuinely made me roll my eyes in annoyance.

there was initially a mystery plot about the FMC grandmother but it gets very anticlimactically wrapped up towards the end of the book. besides that, there are a bunch of other storylines that happen at the same time. something about sex trafficking, some murders, the whole stalking, yadda yadda.

theres also some sort of ghost girl which appears once and makes a bit of an impact, and then is never heard of again. unless she's in the second book.

Z is so... cringe? and contradicting. he portrays himself as someone who cleanses the world from pedo rings and traffickers or whatever, but then also proceeds to rape the FMC? dude got some shitty twisted morals.

the only reason im rating the book a bit higher than 3 is due to it finally picking up in some action and drama on the last quarter of the book. if it weren't for that, i probably would have given it a solid 2. the writing is pretty wattpad-ish, which is a guilty pleasure of mine, but nowadays comes off as a bit cringeworthy.

i wouldnt call it dark romance, but i wouldnt call it psychological thriller or horror either. something along those lines.

either way, is this worth a read? eh. you can live with it, and you can live without it.

the only reason im getting the 2nd book is due to how it ended up in a cliffhanger, and i was acc getting invested on this drama takedown storyline.