I can't believe I've reached the other end in one piece... I. AM. EXHAUSTED! I need cute fluffy reads ASAP to purge myself. I need to shower in holy water together with my kindle and be exorcised. I haven't been to church in years but this Sunday I'll be booking a seat for confession.

Why? Do you see my rating for this book? Do you see it? It's five stars. FIVE. Five stars!

I'm gonna tell you why I rated the book with five stars but first I'll give you 3 chances to step away.
1. This will be the book for you only if you are interested in deep dark reads with murder and psychopaths and characters like in The Silence of the Lambs.

2. The Trigger warnings:
abusive relationships, blood, corpses/necrophilia, cannibalism, claustrophobia, death, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, drug use, forced captivity, graphic sex, kidnapping, rape, suicide (attempted), torture, violence, watersports/urine

3. More details on the trigger warnings under a spoiler tag:
-> Will there be necrophilia sex described on page? To my horror, yes, just when I thought it was gonna be only in Chris's head it appeared and made me sick
-> Will there be cannibalism on page? There is so much cannibalism that it will render you vegan for half a year
-> Will they be eating someone still alive? *Gags* *fans the memory away* *gags again* yesss *vomits*
-> claustrophobia, how bad is it? Chris is locked in a small box and kept in there for weeks. Then he is locked in a drawer size cage with electrical bars
-> Is there any eroticism in the book? There are sex scenes. But for more than half of them you might need a bucket for puking close by and some holy water
-> How bad is the violence? The worst I've read about. Ever.

This book is the final boss for every dark thriller reader. You think you may have battled and won dominion over darker books. Nah. This is the darkest thing you can read. This is the abyss. This is so f**ked up that it twists the entire meaning of "f**ked up" to a whole other level.
Don't read it just out of curiosity, especially if you don't tend to read dark books. Don't do it. You're gonna get crushed and scarred forever and it will not be the author's fault but your own for choosing this book.

If you still pick this book up, it's your choice and your choice only. Don't say you haven't been warned. Any emotional distress will be your own doing.

I gave it five stars because:
1. The writing, editing and book structure is absolutely brilliant. I was uncomfortable and distressed most of the time and the superb writing kept me going page after page after page
2. The characters blew me away. There are two pshychos not one, the only difference between them being the level of depravity and deviation and the fact that one shark is a Great White while the other is a Megalodon. I am in awe and flabbergasted by the character development. Ivan and Chris were completely unapologetic for their deviations. At no point did the author try to make the reader root for them and make any apologies for them. Nothing wrong had happened to them in their childhood. They didn't come from bad families. They just were born with these unspeakable deviations. Chris has more remorse for his killings and urges, while Ivan has none.
3. The mental conditioning: at one point I did not know whom was being brainwashed, Chris by Ivan or myself by the author.
4. I read the most atrocious things possible, not because they were enjoyable, but because they were keeping me on the edge of my seat, in a twisted addiction to the story and the characters, wanting to know what will happen next
5. This book pulverized my boundaries. I might never read a book with these tags ever again. It was enough for me, but if I ever get back the courage to read something like this, Claustrophilia will stand as reference
6. Claustrophilia made me want to rate down all the psycho books I've 5 stared because they can't hold a candle to this.
7. This book is present tense, has dual POV and is split in 3 parts. For the last two parts we move from present to past. I hate these things. They make me rate low. This being said, I loved the past and present exchanges in this book. They improved the book. They improved the plot. They improved everything.

Now I need drown myself in sugary fluffy reads for recovery.

Free exchange for an honest review under the DBML Program ( )