Death by the River

September 15, 2018
Beau Devereaux seems to have it all--a beautiful girlfriend, a high school football career, his dad's business to inherit at the right time. Unfortunately, he's also got an uncontrollable anger issue.Beau manages to keep his murderous rage in check, but his girlfriend's twin sister seems to bring it out in him the most. Not because he hates her, though that's what everyone thinks. Instead, he's obsessed with her. He wants to own her and hurt her while still maintaining his reputation as an all-around good guy. But his appetites seem to be growing, and when faced with temptation in the form of other girls, he can't help himself. Weis (The Keeper of the Dead, 2017, etc.) and Astor (Blackwell, 2017, etc.) present a cast of mostly white characters who never manage to escape their respective personas and instead rely on well-worn, overly familiar thoughts and dialogue to convey their novelistic purposes. Likewise, the plot is predictable and repetitive. Again and again, Beau struggles with how to satisfy his urges while maintaining his rep, and his girlfriend wavers exhaustively on the question of true love. Descriptions of sexual brutality, rape, bondage, and violence against women are plentiful.A book that manages to be both disturbing and boring. (Fiction. 16-18)

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