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A review by celandine
Darling Venom by Parker S. Huntington
3.0
This book should have come with a trigger warning. Well, actually… two.
Suicide ideation. Legit, though. A warning would have been nice. There’s glossing over it happening, and there’s punching you in the face over and over again. This book took the latter route. (Hence the star rating).
That this book would make me sob. Like ugly cry, loud howling sobs ripped from my chest. The epitome of gut-wrenching.
I kept going though. And after a while, the book became less about the romance (slow-burn) orthe spice-factor (adequate), and more about life and death, living with the aftermath of death. How they would pick up the pieces after “The Big T,” how it would all fit together again. How they would forgive each other, forgive themselves. And in some ways, all reminders, huge flags and flashing neon signs that should be signs directing me on my own path. (I don’t recall wanting a self-help book, Huntingdon!)
This book wrecked me. Third trigger warning. This book will turn you inside out, and continue to shake you like it’s looking for any and all pocket change in the form of emotions.
I didn’t like half of these characters in this book for the first half of the book. I’m still not sure if I really like them at all or not. Or if I love them. I feel like that makes them lifelike, redeemable in a way.
To summarize from Darling Venom itself - after I devoured this book in a day: “When I finished, there was nothing left of me but bones, flesh, and blood. I sprawled across the hard-wood planks, loose-limbed and exhausted.”
Suicide ideation. Legit, though. A warning would have been nice. There’s glossing over it happening, and there’s punching you in the face over and over again. This book took the latter route. (Hence the star rating).
That this book would make me sob. Like ugly cry, loud howling sobs ripped from my chest. The epitome of gut-wrenching.
I kept going though. And after a while, the book became less about the romance (slow-burn) orthe spice-factor (adequate), and more about life and death, living with the aftermath of death. How they would pick up the pieces after “The Big T,” how it would all fit together again. How they would forgive each other, forgive themselves. And in some ways, all reminders, huge flags and flashing neon signs that should be signs directing me on my own path. (I don’t recall wanting a self-help book, Huntingdon!)
This book wrecked me. Third trigger warning. This book will turn you inside out, and continue to shake you like it’s looking for any and all pocket change in the form of emotions.
I didn’t like half of these characters in this book for the first half of the book. I’m still not sure if I really like them at all or not. Or if I love them. I feel like that makes them lifelike, redeemable in a way.
To summarize from Darling Venom itself - after I devoured this book in a day: “When I finished, there was nothing left of me but bones, flesh, and blood. I sprawled across the hard-wood planks, loose-limbed and exhausted.”