A review by christikb
The Sinner by Shantel Tessier

challenging dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Alright, y'all, I have even more thoughts about The Sinner than I did about The Ritual and they aren't necessarily quite as positive. To catch everybody up to speed about the series: the L.O.R.D.S. are a hereditary fraternity society filled with rich edgelords that are initiated into a vast murder cult over three years of abstinence and homicide ; in their senior year, they receive a chosen, a (mostly-willing) participant in the Lord's dark romance fantasies. These are their stories (*insert Law & Order gavel sound here*). The Sinner is Sin (Easton Sinnet) and Elli's story and it is so much more dark than The Ritual. Our FMC is a sexual abuse survivor...and that's not even the darkest part of our story. Sin is one GIANT red flag, somehow even more so than Ryat, and he's intensely protective of Sin (aww, sweet) unless he's the one making her cry (less sweet). He would absolutely die for her and does his damnedest to prove that fact, which is simultaneously heartwarming and -breaking. Elli's story is...god, so freaking rough from the beginning. She was groomed from a young age and is trying to outgrow her grooming, however, she keeps getting surrounded by Lords who are nebulous (at best) on the subject of consent. To escape her devastating emotional, physical, and mental trauma, she uses drugs prolifically and engages in ever-increasingly physical BDSM play that not only toes the line of consent but sometimes bounds effortlessly across it. I'll be honest; it's a thorough, fairly chilling portrayal of a spiraling sexual assault victim and, although I'm not sure if that was necessarily the intent, it drives home the point time and again, making this an extremely difficult and emotional book to read. Elli overcame a bunch of her trauma and embraced her bad b*itch self, but it's about 90% of the book before we get there. It also reads a bit like a soap opera because the hits never stop coming. Bad thing 1 resolved? Nope, think again, Bad Thing 2 is here plus Bad Thing 1 has mutated. Silver lining here: Tyson Crawford continues to be my precious, problematic assassin dad.
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