The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
A review by ilibra
By Way of Pain by J.M. Dabney
4.0
This was exactly the kind of DARK story I expected from this book (and the Criminal Delights series in general) and I loved it! It didn't make any excuses, it didn't try to redeem its main characters(s) and that's exactly what I wanted. Cowen is a cold-hearted psychopath who doesn't understand what emotions are until he decides to hold his assistant captive.
My biggest problem is that the story didn't give their main characters enough time to develope. Harrison went from a captive that wanted to escape, to a love-sick puppy pretty much in the blink of an eye. I was looking for more of that slow stockhom syndrome. Another thing that bothered me is Cowen's way of "training" Harrison, using punishments and rewards, was mentioned multiple times, but I could never quite grasp what they were doing exactly and how it had an influence on Harrison. Ijust felt like Cowen was pretty inconsequent with his training. He said Harrison would get punished for misbehaving, and yet the next day he starts Harrison's "training" by whipping him. The rewards were also never quite made clear to me. I guess you can look over that, since Cowen says he can do what he wants, just because he can. But I would have liked to see more consistency.
But, overall, this is a great story if you want something dark, bad and wrong!
My biggest problem is that the story didn't give their main characters enough time to develope. Harrison went from a captive that wanted to escape, to a love-sick puppy pretty much in the blink of an eye. I was looking for more of that slow stockhom syndrome. Another thing that bothered me is Cowen's way of "training" Harrison, using punishments and rewards, was mentioned multiple times, but I could never quite grasp what they were doing exactly and how it had an influence on Harrison. Ijust felt like Cowen was pretty inconsequent with his training. He said Harrison would get punished for misbehaving, and yet the next day he starts Harrison's "training" by whipping him. The rewards were also never quite made clear to me. I guess you can look over that, since Cowen says he can do what he wants, just because he can. But I would have liked to see more consistency.
But, overall, this is a great story if you want something dark, bad and wrong!