Review: Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas

Review: Dangerous Boys by Abigail Haas
Goodreads
Release date: August 14th, 2014
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Series: No
Source: eARC from the author
Length: 228 pages
Rating: SO DELICIOUSLY FUCKED UP.



Three teens venture into the abandoned Monroe estate one night; hours later, only two emerge from the burning wreckage. Chloe drags one Reznick brother to safety, unconscious and bleeding; the other is left to burn, dead in the fire. But which brother survives? And is his death a tragic accident? Desperate self-defense? Or murder?
Chloe is the only one with the answers. As the fire rages, and police and parents demand the truth, she struggles to piece together the story of how they got there-a story of jealousy, twisted passion, and the darkness that lurks behind even the most beautiful of faces…

My review of Dangerous Girls, which is not a prequel but you should really read it anyway okay go read it I'll wait

*sits* *blinks* Asfsgkd. Words? How do words? WHAT IS WORDS.

Abigail Haas has the unique ability to turn my brain to fondue. She is one of the authorial wizards I was talking about who gets me to love things I normally wouldn't and think and feel things I didn't know I could think and feel. By the time I finish reading on of her dark, twisted, trhilling novels, I no longer recognize myself. I, like, Chloe, become intoxicated by the glittering darkness and the pull of this...something that Haas infuses into her stories. She peels apart the layers of human desire and desperation and makes the face the ugly truth about what lies behind them. About what lies inside of you.



This book starts off so simply, so innocently. Chloe is a small-town good girl with a rough home life and college dreams. She can't wait to get out of Dodge and go to college and leave all this sameness behind. When she's forced to put her future on hold, she clings to the only good thing in her life: new boy in town Ethan Reznick, blue-eyed, handsome, and genuinely sweet. And though Chloe feels stifled and sad and frustrated, she's hanging in there. Until Ethan's dashing, mesmerizing, fantastically attractive older brother, Oliver, comes home from college...

You think you know where this story is going. You are wrong. You think this will be like the Salvatores and Elena. This is the Salvatores on crack and instead of the CW it's HBO or AMC or your nightmares.

I'LL TELL YOU KANYE JUST BE PATIENT

This is a non-linear story split into three narratives: Then, about how Chloe meets and falls in with Ethan and Oliver; Now, the aftermath of the final confrontation; and The End, aka the final confrontation. Aka Oliver, Ethan, and Chloe are in an abandoned home, and it goes up in flames. Chloe saves one brother, and the other dies, trapped in side. WHO? HOW? WHAT HAPPENED? You have to read to find out. I thought I knew, but I was wrong. So wrong. And even when I thought Chloe would take me in a certain direction, she surprised me.

Even as she's dating Ethan, Chloe can't resist Oliver. There's something about the things he says to her, the way he sees inside her and past all her pretenses that's just... dangerous.

There was a silence for a moment, then Oliver's voice came, clear beside me. "Aren't you good too?"

I stopped for a moment, weighing the question. What should I say? Ethan thought I was good. He told me all the time, how kind I was, how sweet. 'I've got a good one,' he'd say, like I was a prize he'd won at a ring-toss at the county fair. The truth was, his compliments just made me feel guilty, like he was blind to the flashes of anger and bitterness that rose to the surface, too often these days.

"No," I admitted quietly, resignation ringing hollow in my chest. "No, I'm not."

I don't want to give too much away, but watching Chloe's development, as she tries to figure out who she is and who these brothers truly are was so much horrible fun. It was subtle and SEXY. SO SEXY. Even when I should have been screaming or vomiting, I was thrilled. Haas actually managed to write a hot and twisted hunting scene. Seriously. I think this book made me a sociopath. THIS BOOK MADE ME FEEL ILL AND I LOVE IT WHAT IS UP WHAT IS DOWN WHAT IS LIES I DON'T KNOW. The characters play this terrible chess game of hearts and feelings and pawns and reckless desires and it is so fucking twisted. And you don't know for sure if Chloe wants to be playing, or if she'll win, or how far it will go before it all comes crashing down on top of her.

I didn't know what would happen next and, God, it thrilled me.

Commentary on the text BY the text! Oliver would love that. I was so hypnotized by Oliver. I felt like Chloe. And even as so many of the characters did such wretched things, I started to adopt their morality and understand their actions and root for terrible things to happen and for terrible people to get away with terrible things and yep I'm a sociopath. THANKS, ABBY.

Stop pretending. Stop hiding. Stop being the girl they all said you should be.
Imagine that freedom. God, can't you feel it?
What harm could it do?

*stuffs book in the freezer*

Sometimes, the only thing to do was burn the whole fucking world down and start again.

When I finished this short roller coaster of a book, I flopped back on my couch and groaned into my hands and tried to calm the nausea in my stomach. It was so enjoyable. HOW DID ABIGAIL HAAS GET ME TO ENJOY THIS? UGH, I'M QUESTIONING MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE RIGHT NOW, I SWEAR.

It's so good. It's soooooo good. Please read it. And know that you are an awful, horrible person, and I love you.