Arsenic Flavored Bubblegum

Haunting, Fascinating... Confusing

This is a very surreal and also very quick read. I'm not sure how I feel about it. Confused? Intrigued? I think I liked it in concept and mental imagery (which is dark and surreal), but the ending left many unanswered questions and the writing, while not horrible, wasn't particularly great.

The poetry often had odd attempts to rhyme and the prose contained too many stylistic tense changes and sentence fragments... but I only found myself struggling once to understand the intended meaning. It grates a bit at times, but doesn't hinder understanding.

Overall, I'm not even sure what I just read. I thought I knew, then everything changed not once but twice.

I spent most of the book believing the main character was a victim of sexual abuse who killed herself and suffered through her life's torments in hell until Satan came to rescue her and make her his queen... only for her to be drawn away by a wolf who was a metaphor for the innocence she'd lost and guilt she compartmentalized over helping her demon king. It's HEAVILY implied that the girl and the demon (named Vin) have a sexual relationship and they explicitly torture each other for pleasure and do horrific things to other people. The wolf lures her away from the demon with kindness then attacks her when she least expects it.Late, she seems to wake to her family being alive only for it to be revealed as all in her head. Her parents and brother are dead. Her father is named Vincent, Vin, like the signature on a painting in her room. Her imagined brother (he actually died as a child) is shown to have the wolf as a tattoo. She seemingly kills her aunt and then herself to return to hell in the end.But what's real? Why did her demon lover have her father's name? Why did the wolf who lured and attacked her share things with her brother? Was she just deeply disturbed and confused or was she a victim of incest?

Had these questions been more clearly addressed, I think I'd have loved this book. As is, I just think it's okay. Not bad. Not great. Halfway good and halfway mediocre. Haunting and fascinating. Interesting.

If nothing else, I wish this had been about four chapters longer.