Reviewed by Becca
TITLE: Joker
SERIES: Executioners #2
AUTHOR: J.M. Dabney
PUBLISHER: Hostile Whispers Press
LENGTH: 175 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 23, 2018 2nd edition
BLURB:
Joker, what a misnomer, but Jackson Webb’s friends were idiots. He’d joined Executioners almost three years earlier after the lead singer King caught him playing his guitar behind his garage. It broke up the monotony of his life, but once he got bored, he’d move on to another distraction. He wasn’t nice. He sure as hell wasn’t friendly. He was what he was, his friends handled his attitude and standoffish nature just fine. At thirty-eight he was pretty sure he was too stuck in his ways to change shit now.
Demetri “Dem” Urban was settling into a new life in the middle of nowhere. Okay, he was hiding from everyone in a kitchen as far removed from his five-star kitchen back in New York as he could get. Gideon invited him to stay with him and his wife for a while just until he could get everything back on track. He didn’t see it happening, but he had to admit the scenery wasn’t bad even if the man had the personality of a rabid, man-eating bear. Dem did like a challenge and that fit Joker Webb perfectly.
Author’s Note: This story contains scenes of a violent nature, mentions of rape and torture (All off page from characters pasts) and severe abuse. If you, as a reader, find this objectionable or triggering in any way, you can skip this story without losing the transition to the next book.
REVIEW:
Ok, if you have not read the blurb, pay attention to it. It is not a joke in any way. This is probably one of, if not the darkest stories of all the boys. Joker has had one hell of a life. Between him and his mother, there were days and days and days, of rape, torture of all kinds, abuse and the list goes on. The scars are not just mental and emotional, they are a road map on Joker’s skin. If you can’t handle this kind of story, it would be best to skip it.
Joker knows he’s an angry man. He’s constantly filled with rage, and it doesn’t take much to make him snap. Especially if someone is being done wrong. Or mistreated, like children or women or someone considered ‘weaker’. Jail time is not an unusual thing to him. He’s used to it. He has no problem with beating someone who deserves it or warning them off. What he isn’t used to though, is someone who actually wants him. And wants to be with him. And Dem has wanted him since he laid eyes on Joker. But everyone has warned him to either stay away or be very careful. Well, Dem is not staying away, so that means he has to push a bit to get to Joker. But he knows not to go to far. He knows with what he knows of Joker’s past, not to push too far and to give him space. But they had finally gotten to the point of making love and yes, it was a little rough but it was everything Dem had wanted. But all Joker saw was his father in him, hurting Dem, and he ran. He was gone for weeks and it was taking its toll on Dem. But Dem refused to give up. He needed Joker to see he was still in for the long haul. But at some point, Dem really started thinking maybe he wasn’t enough for Joker and was prepared to let him go. But now Joker was invested and he couldn’t do without the one man who cared for him as no other. And he had to make sure Dem was there to stay for good. No matter what he had to do.
Stories like this are so hard for so many reasons. It pisses me off so bad when I think of people who think it’s ok to beat up or abuse someone just because it’s fun for them or they get off on it. They are warped in the head and need to be taken down. But the worst part is the victims. Everyday they have to live with some kind of scars. Whether mental, emotional, or physical, or all three. It is something they have to live with for the rest of their lives. And some can’t live with it at all. They commit suicide or have to be put away because they can’t cope with it. What gets me the most though, is the children. Especially when they look like their abuser. And Joker had to live with that face every day. But the one thing I loved about Dem, is Dem tried to make him see him as himself. Not as the man who abused him. His face was his. Jackson. Joker. Not some asshole who should have been put down long before he was. Dem loved Joker, scars and all. And Joker had a hard time with that. When you live a life of constant abuse, it’s hard to accept the good in life, no matter how hard some people try. You just can’t. But little by little, he was seeing Dem as loving him and not pitying him. Or something else. He was seeing that Dem saw his scars as just being a part of him. He wept for them at times, not out of pity, but out of hurt and anger that Joker had to endure such pain. And a bit at a time, Joker’s walls started finally coming down. Not that it was easy, not that they didn’t sometimes go back up. But he was trying. He was trying to accept that someone truly loved his grumpy ass and all.
This really is a hard story to read. But it’s so worth it. To see Joker finally accept that someone loves him like Dem does, it makes him blossom. Ok, it’s Joker, so it’s not a huge change, but it is there. Between Dem and his little dog, Killer, he finally felt like he belonged and had a sense of belonging to someone. And it was beautiful.
RATING: 
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