I’m really enjoying the commitment to naturalistic storytelling here. No exposition or explanation, just throwing you in with the characters and slowly figuring out how they are all related and what the dynamics and motivations are. It’s like a puzzle you are putting together, but most authors don’t have the skill or confidence to pull it off.
It’s also so much more interesting to have the villain be abusive and manipulative but also be trying to hold himself back from going too far. It makes the lines between the main love interest and the abuser a little less defined while also being very clear somehow.
After finishing it, I feel like they took the thing I liked too far. It was hard to follow at certain points with no explanation or context, but overall an enjoyable story with a mystery element.
Siren's Song