This was a dark story primarily centered around sexual assault so trigger warning if that applies.
Owen Pick is a loser by most people’s definition. He’s in his thirties, has never had a romantic relationship, and lives in his aunt’s spare bedroom. (He’s not even allowed in the living room.) And while he starts out with a job as a teacher, he’s accused of sexual misconduct by two of his students, and put on leave. When he goes online to try to find some help, he finds himself taken in by the world of incels.
Saffyre Maddox is a teenager who carries a dark secret about something bad that happened to her when she was ten. She goes to a therapist for a while, Roan Fours, but after three years, Roan tells her therapy is over, and she’s left crushed. Instead of moving on, she starts following him, learning more about him and his family than she bargained for. Coincidentally, Roan lives across the street from Owen Pick, and when Saffyre disappears one day after being seen outside Roan’s house, Owen’s the prime suspect.
This wasn’t necessarily a fun, light read. It was definitely very dark and very heavy, and so many of the characters were just yuck. Saffyre and Josh (Roan’s son) might have been the only two likeable characters in the whole book. Generally, I don’t mind not liking characters as long as they are well developed and add something to the book. In this case, Roan just gave me a bad feeling from the beginning and didn’t really improve from there.
On the other hand, I at least felt bad for Owen, even if he wasn’t a good guy. From losing his mother right when coming into adulthood to being ostracized by his new stepmother and having to move in with his aunt who really didn’t like him, he never really had much of a chance to become a good human. But he tried to function, even if he made a lot of really big mistakes.
But I did like Saffyre, and I liked her character being the antithesis of Owen’s, especially given that they have so many parallels, including both starting out being abandoned as young adults with only a distant relative to buoy them up.
In terms of the ending of this book, though, while creepy was also predictable. I would imagine most people will see it coming from pretty early on in the book.