A review by ppchili93
Die for Me, by Karen Rose
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Who knew Karen was a giant homophobe? There is a part later in the book where the FMC meets her new lover's family and his dad jokes about thinking his son was gay...the FMC laughs and says, "don't worry, he's very manly."* We get it. Your MMCs are masculine, manly, tough, MEN. Also, two of the secondary villains end up being a queer couple and their queerness is mentioned...mmm...about 100 times. One - a lesbian amputee - blackmails a Georgia judge for covering up his son's crimes. The other - her lover - covers up her partner's murder and continues the blackmail scheme after her death, even continuing in a way that helps the serial killer run his con. A bit weird, no?
To be honest, this book left a bad taste in my mouth almost immediately. First, we never get super clear answers about Vito and his deceased fiancée(?). He literally hid his relationship with a fellow cop for years and then killed her (by accident) and still didn't tell anyone. The fact that he was, at the time, investigating her brother's murder? Huge conflict of interest, no?! Also, did he love her, did he not? It's repeated several times that he'll, "love her forever," but in what way? Why mention her not being who he thought she was and having Vito meet Sophie on the second anniversary of her death? The fact that Vito kept rationalizing wanting another woman again by saying, "isn't two years long enough?"* Weird. Second, I couldn't bring myself to like the FMC. She was this giant, beautiful, "Amazonian" blonde, and a brilliant archeologist and historian but she cracked a terribly thoughtless joke about the first discovered victim (she apologizes and feels genuinely bad, but her knee-jerk response was still telling to me) and it kept going downhill after that for me. She proceeds to push Vito away because 1) she thinks he's a cheating cheater (he's not), and then 2) she thinks he's going to thinks she's a slut because she slept with her married professor as a graduate student. I felt for her backstory (being the child of your mom and your grandmother's lover has to be a big Freudian burden), but she and her endless "amazing" abilities were just annoying to me.
The rest of the book was similarly off-putting. If this featured a better romance and stronger, more likable characters, I think the darkness of the crimes would be more balanced. As it is, the book felt very dark and upsetting and purposeless. The serial killer, Simon Vartanian, was completely horrifying. The explicit descriptions and scenes of him torturing his victims using medieval torture devices like a flail, chair of nails, iron boots, or the rack were honestly a bit much. Finally, Simon is revealed to be an amputee as well and one of his disguises was posing as a wheelchair user...making two of the novel's villains disabled and/or using disability as a shield for nefarious purposes. Doesn't seem right when you consider its simultaneous stance on queerness.
*not direct quotes
To be honest, this book left a bad taste in my mouth almost immediately. First, we never get super clear answers about Vito and his deceased fiancée(?). He literally hid his relationship with a fellow cop for years and then killed her (by accident) and still didn't tell anyone. The fact that he was, at the time, investigating her brother's murder? Huge conflict of interest, no?! Also, did he love her, did he not? It's repeated several times that he'll, "love her forever," but in what way? Why mention her not being who he thought she was and having Vito meet Sophie on the second anniversary of her death? The fact that Vito kept rationalizing wanting another woman again by saying, "isn't two years long enough?"* Weird. Second, I couldn't bring myself to like the FMC. She was this giant, beautiful, "Amazonian" blonde, and a brilliant archeologist and historian but she cracked a terribly thoughtless joke about the first discovered victim (she apologizes and feels genuinely bad, but her knee-jerk response was still telling to me) and it kept going downhill after that for me. She proceeds to push Vito away because 1) she thinks he's a cheating cheater (he's not), and then 2) she thinks he's going to thinks she's a slut because she slept with her married professor as a graduate student. I felt for her backstory (being the child of your mom and your grandmother's lover has to be a big Freudian burden), but she and her endless "amazing" abilities were just annoying to me.
The rest of the book was similarly off-putting. If this featured a better romance and stronger, more likable characters, I think the darkness of the crimes would be more balanced. As it is, the book felt very dark and upsetting and purposeless. The serial killer, Simon Vartanian, was completely horrifying. The explicit descriptions and scenes of him torturing his victims using medieval torture devices like a flail, chair of nails, iron boots, or the rack were honestly a bit much. Finally, Simon is revealed to be an amputee as well and one of his disguises was posing as a wheelchair user...making two of the novel's villains disabled and/or using disability as a shield for nefarious purposes. Doesn't seem right when you consider its simultaneous stance on queerness.
*not direct quotes