A review by xiaxia
Hiroku by Laura Lascarso

5.0

Wow! I couldn't put this book down. The abusive, dysfunctional relationship between Hiroku and Seth was like a siren's call at midnight. When I was not reading, I was thinking about Seth and Hiroku. Before sleep and after sleep, I was thinking about Seth and Hiroku. I completely became obsessed with their story.
Seth was the type of character I enjoy reading about, the yandere of Japanese manga culture, so obsessive with the object of his love that he would rather destroy his lover, than bear the thought of losing him. And Hiroku, so young and loving and ensnared in the clutches of a fallen angel, mistaking hell for paradise, broke my heart.

"The first time I saw Seth Barrett, he was leaning against a chain-link fence with his fingers hooked on the metal, arms spread wide, and I remember thinking he reminded me of a tiger or some other large predator. Caged, for the time being."

He was not a tiger, Hiroku, but a giant boa constrictor.
They fell in love, and Seth, who had a fear of abandonment, became ferociously possessive and obsessive with Hiroku. And Hiroku, who was only 15 gave him everything he had.
With each word, with each action, Seth looped his giant serpent tail around his lover, feeding his obsession with every portion of Hiroku's soul.

Seth hugged me tightly with one arm and grabbed the side of my head with his hand to draw me in closer. He whispered in my ear almost desperately, “I love you so much, Hiroku.”

When Hiroku tried to leave, Seth clung to him tighter.

“I love you, Hiroku,” Seth said in a choked voice. [...] All I ever see in my mind is you. I love you. You are the only person I want to be with, now and forever. You are so much more than a boyfriend to me, and I understand if you don’t want to be with me right now, but if I can’t have you in my life, even a little bit, then I just want to die.”

And when he felt him slipping through his fingers. he gave him drugs to take his free will away from him.

“I love you more than anything else in this world,” Seth whispered with tears in his eyes, but I was a helium balloon, and he was so far away and getting smaller and more irrelevant by the second.

This is not a romance, but the struggle of one boy to escape from a love so consuming it nearly killed him.
Laura Lascarso is one of my favorite YA writers and I think she improved her game with this book.
Don't skip [b:The Bravest Thing|34515023|The Bravest Thing|Laura Lascarso|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1489014291s/34515023.jpg|55643895]. Hiroku's story continues, where he meets Berlin, the opposite of Seth who tries to bring him back to the light. But Seth's shadow is always there, clinging to him. For me it worked really well reading Hiroku first, then [b:The Bravest Thing|34515023|The Bravest Thing|Laura Lascarso|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1489014291s/34515023.jpg|55643895]



Fully recommend this book.

Free exchange for an honest review under the DBML Program