A review by imme_van_gorp
Scum by K.A. Merikan

3.0

|| 3.0 stars ||

Okay, so this wasn’t amazing or anything, but it definitely wasn’t bad either.
It was extremely toxic, and it was insta-love with a connection mostly build on lust: those are things I usually don’t really appreciate. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading this and it was just... fun!

The book is about Rosen and Shane, who couldn’t possibly be any more different. Rosen is gentle and angelic, while Shane is rough around the edges. Rosen goes to college as an art student, while Shane just came out of prison and is already back to his usual criminal activity. These two would have normally never met or connected, but Shane has different plans. After all, it was Rosen’s father who falsely accused Shane of a crime he did not commit, which led to his 10 years in jail. Shane is out for revenge. And he wants to get it through Rosen. What he didn’t account for, however, was to fall in love with the boy in the process.

Ros was so cute it was impossible not to notice. Like a Disney Princess, he was sweet, and wished everyone well, and if he started singing in the woods, birds and rodents would flock to him as if he were made of grain.
Shane shouldn’t have liked it. But he did.
He just couldn’t understand what a guy like that saw in him.


What I loved about this book is the fact that Shane was so adoring when it came to Rosen. He really thought the sun shone right out of his arse, which is just adorable. Nonetheless, Shane still treated Rosen badly from time to time, which annoyed me. Rosen was definitely a push-over and I would have liked him to be a little less naive. Then again, I found his trusting nature also quite endearing, so it wasn’t all bad.

“You’re my first, my only, and I love you so much.”
“Me too, baby. You’re the only one who ever counted.”


There is a big betrayal in this book, obviously, so we do get some good groveling from Shane. I personally would have never forgiven him for what he did (I won’t spoil what it was, but it was truly bad), and I find it a little hard to believe that Rosen would either, but it was what it was. I did like that Shane was truly apologetic and he would have done anything to earn Rosen's forgiveness; he would have literally walked through fire to get Rosen’s trust and affections back.

All in all, I thought this book was very entertaining and it had some tropes I really like. Was it executed in the most hard-hitting way possible? No. But it was decent at what it tried to do, and the writing was addictive enough to have me enjoy this book quite a lot.


'Wrong Side of the Tracks' series:
1. Scum - 3.0 stars
2. Primal - 4.5 stars
3. D!ckhead - dnf
4. Grind - 3.5 stars
5. Wanted - 3.0 stars