Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Butcher & Blackbird

you know in Brooklyn 99 when Captain Holt is stood at his office door shouting “BONE?!” That was me shouting “DAVID?! for 10 solid minutes during chapter 22

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iszie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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rainbow_bookish_owl's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ktbeth143's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

“He knows my darkest secrets. I know his. We can be monsters, and maybe we don’t deserve the same things that other people do. Happiness. Affection. Love….Maybe I don’t deserve it for the things I’ve done. But I want it. I want more with him than what I’ve got.”

If you like romance and spice, you’ll probably love this book (if you can get past all the gore). If you like vigilante stories, you might think this is okay. If you like horror, you’ll be impressed by to gore but probably disappointed with the overall plot line.

I absolutely loved the chemistry between Rowan and Sloan. It was fun and flirty. And any guy who is trying to win over a girl—especially one who tends to be reserved or very independent—needs to take lessons from Rowan (not about serial killing, but about pursuit). He meets Sloan where she’s at emotionally and slowly coaxes her into intimacy. And I’m not talking about spice (although there is a lot of that in this book). I’m talking about how Rowan recognizes almost immediately Sloan finds it hard to trust and open up to people, so he takes his time and does things intentionally to show her he’s a safe person (for her to be vulnerable with. I mean, she’s probably one of the only people who’s also physically safe with him too since they are both serial killers).

However, as much as I love the chemistry between these two, their character development is lacking. More so with Rowan.

While there is so much time spent showing how he’s amazing partner material, there’s nothing other than his backstory that makes him believable as a sociopath/serial killer. Unless of course he is the most emotionally balanced guy to every walk the earth. After all, he owns not one, but two successful restaurants where he works as a chef. So forget having sociopathic tendencies, when does he have the time to be a serial killer? But also, his backstory is that his dad was abusive. But that doesn’t make a sociopath. There are thousands of people with abusive parents who do not grow up to be serial killers and there are lots of serial killers who had perfectly loving families. It’s mentioned he killed his father for being abusive, and he realized that he didn’t regret it, and that’s when he realized there was something “wrong” with him (alluding to him being a sociopath capable
Of killing). Except, even that’s a stretch to believe because no one would blame someone for killing someone else who was physically harming him and his siblings. There’s literally nothing else in the book that offers adequate evidence of Rowan being a sociopath.

He’s less of a serial killer and more of a Batman type character.

Sloan is a little more believable.

She has an equally traumatic backstory, and her desire to hunt down her victims, torment them, kill them, and then make art out of their bodies comes from a morally gray sense of justice. In fact, you could argue the reason she finds pleasure in being a killer is because it gives her the control she didn’t have in traumatic backstory, which would track with a sociopath. And, unlike with Rowan who seems to get all his info from his brother’s partnership with the feds, we actual see Sloan hunt and track the way a sociopath does. It’s believable that she’s a sociopath because she thinks like a sociopath does when it comes to choosing her and hunting down her victims (who are all sociopaths)

The plot moves super fast and hinges mostly on their romance. Despite the gore of their serial killing escapes, the action— which is very relevant to the premise—feels kind of irrelevant to the plot for about 60-70% of story. And then there’s the third-act breakup, which the author uses to add weight to the plot. It does, but the reason so many people (myself included) don’t like third-act break ups is because it’s a cheap way to throw conflict into the plot arc.

What almost makes the third-act break up okay is that it is caused by Rowan’s desire to protect Sloan from another serial killer. And you could argue it’s not a real break up because he gives her the clues to figure out he’s being threatened by a sociopath.

Character flaws are a major part of the story and yet at the same time they aren’t. They’re serial killers, so the judgement area here is kind of gray. Both characters do struggle with “can this person love me/do I deserve love?” moments that do influence some of their decisions, but isn’t that one reason we’re all okay with loving morally gray characters?

Overall, the romance vibes are fun but it could be a better story. I am looking forward to the next book in the series though. I would recommend this to romance lovers, especially those looking for spice, during spooky season.

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fictionwitch's review against another edition

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dark funny

5.0

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