TITLE:  Pretty Little Monster

SERIES:  Stand alone

AUTHOR:  Z.S. Storm

PUBLISHER: Self Published

LENGTH:  200 pages

RELEASE DATE: February 26, 2022

BLURB:

Ollie

It started with a curiosity. I watched him, followed him around, wondered why he did the things he did. He just looked so heartbroken all the time.

Then he moved away, and I distracted myself with other stuff. Because why would my dad’s best friend notice me? The boy he used to babysit and who wasn’t even allowed to buy his own drink yet.

But one crazy day, things changed between us. He did look at me differently. And my desire for him turned into an obsession. That was when I decided that Leo was mine, and he wasn’t allowed to tell me otherwise. It was incredible, the way he calmed the storm inside me without even knowing it. His love was addictive, and I became a junkie.

But the monster messed it all up. It made me do something really bad. Everything turned into a fucking nightmare and Leo thought it was all my fault.

I didn’t know how to make him understand that it wasn’t. And I couldn’t handle the pain anymore. It was too hard…fighting the monster all the time.

Letting it destroy me was easier.
…

Note: This is a dark, age gap MM psychological fiction and contains heavy themes and triggers. Content warning for graphic descriptions of self-harm, assault, murder, recurring theme of mental illness, ow/om scenes, homophobic slurs, misogynistic language, mentions of rape, age play, dub con, younger MC is still in high school (17) when story begins.

Read at your own risk.

I don’t think I was prepared for just what this story was about. It took a little bit to get going with details being time released until we had a pretty good idea of what was going on and then the story took off from there.

This story is about Ollie, a teenager when we meet him, who suffers from some pretty strong mental issues. We learn these stem from his childhood, but we never get too many details about that to explain the extent of what he’s dealing with. Essentially, he has another personality who does bad things. Ollie calls him his monster.

Leo is Ollie’s dad, Olliver’s, best friend with whom he has unrequited love for. He has learned to live with this but has always been there to help with Leo. Although he tries to keep his distance when he feels things starting to change with Ollie, he doesn’t stand much of a chance once Ollie sets his sights on his Uncle Leo.

The rest of the story is about Ollie learning to control his actions. He takes a few steps back and has to seek help, but he eventually finds his way back to Leo. Ollie has some pretty strong possessive issues, and while Leo doesn’t usually mind them, when Ollie acts on them in a violent manner, they must be dealt with.

This story sucked me in. Ollie and Leo had some major chemistry making this taboo relationship pretty high on the heat meter. However, things cooled down when the underlying issues flared up.

I really wanted to see these two find peace and happiness together and while they seem to have achieved that, we are left wondering how much Ollie may have gotten away with in his life and that perhaps he hasn’t been as healed as he led everyone to believe.

This was dark, psychological thriller-ish, and I was turning pages to gobble up more details. There are a number of potential triggers to heed, but that aside, I recommend it for those who like their stories a little on the darker side. I’ll definitely be looking for more from this author in the future.

RATING: 

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