Gillian Flynn, otherwise known as the Gone Girl priestess, wrote a blurb for Araminta Hall's Our Kind of Cruelty. In it, she stated that the novel was disturbing but that she loved every minute of it. It seems every dark and twisted thriller nowadays is judged on how it compares to GG, but I will put myself out there to say that this outranks it in the need to "feel like you must take a shower afterwards."That's not to say it's not a great read -- I couldn't put it down! Our narrator is Mike Hayes, who is totally, completely, and blissfully in love with Verity Metcalf. Mike and Verity do a sick and twisted role play game called the Crave. While they were once together as a couple, Verity breaks it off over Mike's one night stand and rebounds quickly into a happy marriage with Angus. But Mike sees Verity's new stage of life as just a part of their "game," and eventually goes deep into stalking her, with things taking a very dangerous turn.
You won't find the twists in Our Kind of Cruelty that you found in GG, but the suspense is the real "killer" here. From the very first page, the reader knows that Mike and Verity's story will not end well. It's getting to that point that keeps you turning the pages fast.
MY RATING - 4
