I haven't wanted to read these two last books in the Pretty Broken series for a while because of the trigger warnings and the angst and fucking dick-head manager Alexander (fuck him), but I'm in a dark romance era right now and a crossing books off my TBR lists era, and I'm trying to stick to it. J.R. Gray, the fabulous and the fabulously cruel (I always cry) wrote this series. The fifth and final book is titled "Pretty Black."
I've always wanted the best for Iris, but Iris is also the most broken of all the men in this series. By himself, by his past, by his manager, by his friends. He needs so much love.
["Iris Black
There are moments in music when the crowd becomes part of the song and we all lose ourselves to the energy. I wanted to drown myself in the music. It became my escape and my savior.
I thought success was what I wanted, but it only intensified my misery. Fame is a monster, and it ate me alive. I tried it all to get out of my head: sex, drugs, and rock and roll. I’m living the dream, but it only numbs the pain.
Caspian came into my life like a storm, and I knew he’d leave the same way.
We were two vessels made to fit. Chemistry woven in creation.
There’s no escape, there’s no surrender.
His Pretty Black forever.
But he broke me and I don’t know how to forgive him.
Is it foolish to do it all again?
To find our way back to the place it all began.
I’ve mourned his leaving so many times, I don’t have it in me to do it again."]
This title!! We found out in the previous book that Caspian called Iris "my pretty Black" and just...add that to the maaany reasons I (quite violently) sobbed through most of this novel.
And sobbed I did. During a lot of this. Most of this. My throat hurt. My tissue pile is insane. I'm all congested. Because these poor boys and that asshole Alexander.
This book was about happiness and redemption. But it was also about the very, very thin line between things (like love and hate): therapy versus imprisonment; feeling something, anything versus self-destruction; hate versus self-preservation. About walking that fine line, being thrown over it versus diving head first over it. It's emotional and poetic and devastating.
I forced myself to take breaks so I could breathe and calm down. And not strain my eyes (I was reading sooo fast). And even though we knew the band would win in the end, it wasn't an easy read (as if any of this series was easy to read).
Also, totttttally off topic, not sure if it's the last name or just...something, but Iris Rose Black reminds me of Sirius and Regulus. A lot. Which makes/made me cry more.
Trigger Warnings: alcohol/alcoholism, major descriptions of depression, talk of involuntary treatment, drug use, talk of suicide, suicide, assault, domestic abuse, domestic abuse isn't always physical, blackmail, lying, gaslighting, manipulation, and more
#prettyobsessed #prettytoxic #prettywreck #prettyfucked #prettyblack #prettybroken #prettybrokenseries #jrgray #books #queerbooks #queererotica #bodicerippers #bookstagram #bookphotography #ilovebooks
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