Reviewed by True
TITLE: Everything That Kills Me
AUTHOR: Barbara Elsborg
PUBLISHER: Self-Published
LENGTH: 422 pages
RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2025
BLURB:
Two boys. One deadly secret. A love worth risking everything for.
Rescued from a raging inferno as a young child, Jack is homeschooled in more than English and maths. His saviour is training him to be an assassin. But when Jack is compelled to attend an ordinary school, in an ordinary English town, his carefully controlled life unravels.
Zeph, brilliant, passionate and determined, has his eyes set on Cambridge and a future in intelligence. He has no time for distractions, at least, not until Jack turns up at his school. He’s everything Zeph has secretly longed for but he has no idea his life will never be the same again.
As boys turn into men, the cost of their connection becomes clear. Jack’s secrets are dangerous, and each time he sees Zeph, the more the two of them are at risk. Jack knows he should walk away and not look back. Is a happy-ever-after possible when his life is full of secrets and lies, disappearances and deception?
But some things are meant to be.
Warning
Violence – this is about an assassin after all!
None of the following are major themes but occur in the story: cruelty to a child, bullying, homophobic and transphobic remarks, cancer, brief mention of eating disorder, brief mention of suicide, gambling, death of parents.
REVIEW:
First, this was an amazingly well-written story with a genius plot, and super duber intriguing.
Second, it will be difficult, but I’ll try to give a short impression!
Jack was saved from a deadly fire by a man when he was only six. Thomas (not his real name) took him in, learned him everything he wanted him to know. Especially to be an assassin. Throughout this story, we get to know what this exactly involves! Be amazed!!
After being trained for years, Jack excels on all fronts!! Think about something and he has the skills.
Jack is also fluent in six languages: English, Russian, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Farsi.
Ten years after his rescue, Thomas wants Jack to attend an ordinary school. Become an ordinary student, at the Fishbourne Academy, it’s all part of a bigger plan.
Zeph is a survivor, he has his late mom’s delicate features, he’s a math genius, and he’s quiet and lonely.
His bullies always seem to have a reason to bully him at the Fishbourne Academy.
School is not the only place where he got bullied
Let’s just keep it at Zeph has a hard time with his homophobic father, stepmother, and stepsisters, an unfair very hard and mean time.
Zeph and Jack secretly became friends; they were attracted to each other, and they even fell hopelessly in love! Jack knows it all has an expiration date!!
This is as much as I can give you. It’s just a tiny TINY piece of the whole story!
With both the lives they live in mind, will they be each other’s downfall, or maybe each other’s strength?
The story will tell. I can spoil there’s a lot to overcome.
It covers quite some years, the story bursts with events, so fasten your seatbelts and get wrecked, intrigued, fascinated, and emotional, but above all enjoy this masterpiece!!
This author is on my top favorite list! Every story she writes is a deeply moving, layered, finely designed gem!!
RATING: 
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