These Violent Delights
by Micah Nemerever
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Pub Date 16 Jan 2025 | Archive Date 1 Jan 2025
Oneworld Publications | Magpie Books
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Description
The Secret History meets Lie with Me in Micah Nemerever's compulsively readable debut novel about two college students, each with his own troubled past, whose escalating obsession with one another leads to an act of unspeakable violence.
When Paul enters university in early 1970s Pittsburgh, it’s with the hope of moving past the recent death of his father. Sensitive, insecure, and incomprehensible to his grieving family, Paul feels isolated and alone. When he meets the worldly Julian in his freshman ethics class, Paul is immediately drawn to his classmate’s effortless charm.
Paul sees Julian as his sole intellectual equal—an ally against the conventional world he finds so suffocating. Paul will stop at nothing to prove himself worthy of their friendship, because with Julian life is more invigorating than Paul could ever have imagined. But as charismatic as he can choose to be, Julian is also volatile and capriciously cruel, and Paul becomes increasingly afraid that he can never live up to what Julian expects of him.
As their friendship spirals into all-consuming intimacy, they each learn the lengths to which the other will go in order to stay together, their obsession ultimately hurtling them toward an act of irrevocable violence.
Unfolding with a propulsive ferocity, These Violent Delights is an exquisitely plotted excavation of the depths of human desire and the darkness it can bring forth in us.
Advance Praise
‘An utterly captivating fever dream of a novel.’ Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life
'A clever novel of manners.’ New York Times
‘An utterly captivating fever dream of a novel.’ Brandon Taylor, author of Real Life
'A clever novel of manners.’ New York Times
Available Editions
EDITION | Paperback |
ISBN | 9781836430438 |
PRICE | £9.99 (GBP) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
These Violent Delights is honestly one on the best books I've had the chance to read. It is a triumph of the horror genre, masterfully blending dark academia with psychological horror and toxic co-dependency to create an atmospheric and unforgettable read.
I found the prose comparable to other genre veterans such as M.L. Rio and Donna Tartt - using violence and possession as a toxic form of love which just perfectly draws the reader into the twisted world.
From the first chapter, where the audience is clued in to the horrors we are to expect, I was captivated. This book left me haunted, horrified and enamoured in equal measures and it’s one of those books that will stay with me forever.
I’m not sure if I should be more concerned that someone can write a story like this so magnificently on their first try; or more concerned by how much I enjoyed every single moment. I could have read on forever.
I am not going into detail on the plot (as a story like this needs to be experienced), but all I will say is that this might be one of the easiest 5-star ratings I’ve ever given. The toxic, obsessive, and downright terrifying (in that, I-can’t-look-away-even-if-I-wanted-to way) relationship between Paul and Julian is one of the most incredible achievements of writing that I have found.
If you like twisted stories, an impeding sense of dread and books that invade your brain so entirely your partner will stop you to check you’ve taken your meds (which I had – my brain was just not in the real world); then PLEASE, do yourself a favour and go read this monstrously alluring book.
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