I requested this book through NetGalley. I was compelled by the blurb. The writing by Nemerever is outstanding, and this is just a debut novel. It certainly made me uncomfortable to read, but I was driven by my curiosity to continue. At one point in the novel, I did almost stop. In hindsight, I realize that I had reached the top of the roller coaster. I drew in a deep breath and rode the ride to the very end. I am glad that I did. Micah Nemerever is someone that I will follow closely.

The author did a great job of creating a very moody and atmospheric novel, however I found this story to just be so tiring. Both main characters were fully flawed and frustrating, with little redeeming qualities and at times I just longed for this story to be over.

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever is a novel carried in 1970s Pittsburg and centered around a university student, Paul, who is woefully insecure and hoping to move forward following the loss of his father. He then meets Julian, who is magnetic and intelligent, but his life is turned upside down as Paul struggles to earn the approval of Julian. This relationship develops further, but grows into a dangerous obsession, hurting others who may get in the way. Given the intellect of the characters, the writing is dense but is interesting and adds to creates a heavy atmosphere that reflects the nature of their relationship. This writing feels much like a boiling frog with anticipation that steadily builds throughout the book. I have a book hangover after reading this novel and am still reflecting on how I feel about the book, but this is a book I will definitely remember. I highly recommend this book for those that enjoy literary fiction and dark, academic writing.

Many thanks to the publisher HarperCollins and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Would you help kill an innocent person to prove your love to someone? How can you ever trust another person enough to believe that they won't back down in the moment or tell when its over?
When you make a pact to kill with a partner, you are creating a bond that will commit you together forever. Make you more then blood brothers.

This book is intense, raw and tender. Paul and Julian have an obsessive and unhealthy love for each other almost immediately. You can feel Paul's need for approval and praise from Julian, making him submissive and needy to the point where you pity him. Juilian knows the right amount of love to give, to keep Paul hungry for more. Its a push and pull between the two of them, as they switch roles of dominance through the whole book.
I found the way that every thought or word spoken about each other beautiful and full of raw emotion. The following quote from the book made my heart shatter and swell at the same time:

" ..people who started off as two halves of a whole, but then something cut them apart, and they spend their whole lives looking for their other half so they can fit themselves back together. And that's how it feels, it hurts, its like I lost you before I was born."

Oh My God. Most people never feel this kind of love. Thats soul mate stuff.

I loved this book. I can't put into words really how much I loved this book. Its a twisted love story about two people trying to prove the other worthy of their love. Yes there's murder and blood and violence, but its for a reason. Its Romeo and Juliet, or Bonnie and Clyde. Its heart pounding love with bloodlust running through its veins.

Sadly, I couldn't get into this book. I really wanted to like it...it got a lot of great reviews...but it was just slow enough that I couldn't find my way to enjoying the read. I know this is clearly a case of "it's me, not you"...and maybe I just wasn't ready for this dense of a read. It definitely could have been trimmed to a shorter length, as this genre lends more to breezier reads than longer ones. Had the author focused more on the darker elements, than all of the academia/borderline pretentious dialogue everyone talked in, I would have been able to jump in easier. Then again, maybe that was what it was like in the 70s...but it wasn't my college experience.

A unputdownable story of obsession, love, class, and the brutality hidden within us, where both ‘The Secret History’ and ‘Call Me By Your Name’ meld into a gripping book about two damaged young men that form a bond that threaten to tear them both apart.

Paul and Julian meet during their freshman year - Paul is an sensitive, insecure artist, still reeling from his father’s death, while Julian is charismatic and confident, having come from wealth and privilege. The two are instantly drawn to one another, and as their relationship develops into something more serious and intimate - much to the disdain of both of their families - it becomes obvious that neither feel like they can live without the other. Desperate to stay together - obsessive love mixing with casual cruelty towards one another - they agree to commit an act of violence to prove their loyalty. And afterwards, there is no going back to the way things were.

This book was haunting and extremely hard to put down; I read the majority of it in one day, absolutely glued to the pages. Nemerever’s writing was sparse but atmospheric, and the relationship between Paul and Julian, as well as their families, was both engaging and horrifying.

Highly recommended for anyone looking for an engrossing novel - for fans of Donna Tartt, snowy East Coast nights, and dark academia.

Perfect for my queer horror class. A great debut novel. A bit dense (which I mention to just flag that it’s not a beach read), but very well written and worthwhile. Pittsburgh setting is great, the characters are extremely compelling, and dark academia needs its time in the sun!

I had high hopes for this story, but unfortunately I had to put it down halfway through. I initially didn’t like how upset the two boys were all the time and keeping secrets from one another. I had hoped that as their relationship were closer they would open up to one another and I’m a way they did but it was still not the whole truth on things. As a reader, I felt like I wasn’t given the whole story, and I wasn’t able to tell where the story was going or when the “good part” was coming.

A stellar addition to the crowded thriller genre. Highly recommended purchase for all general fic collections, particularly those in need of more queer titles.

A gripping tale of first love that turns to obsession that turns to murder. Micah Nemerever's prose is sharp and insightful. Recommended for fans of dark academia, psychological thrillers, The Talented Mr. Ripley, or NBC's Hannibal.

This is a gripping, shape-shifting story. Nemerever convincingly blends description and interiority to turn his main character into a potentially unreliable mirror for the story’s villain. I was never sure who to trust, and that tension kept me reading and engaged.

These Violent delights is a beautifully written Literary Fiction that takes place in 1970s Pittsburgh. The story follows Paul Fleischer and Julian Fromme, two college freshmen who meet each other in one of their classes. The two young men are instantly drawn to one another and we follow their growing relationship as the story goes on.

To be completely honest, neither one of these characters are good. As readers we get to learn about their difficult backgrounds and family relationships, but we also get to learn about their own views/values on life and other people. With these factors readers are led to believe that one of the characters is worse then the other until the story continues to unfold and we see that it isn’t quite true. Paul and Julian play off one another and they are constantly trying to do what they believe will please the other. Their relationship is all consuming and beautiful, but yet it is so frightening.

Many people may stumble upon this book while looking for something similar to The Secret History or while looking for a book that falls under dark academia and this is it! I am a huge fan of Donna Tartt’s Secret History and I have yet to find a book that comes close to giving me the same satisfaction as it, until These Violent Delights. These Violent Delights has morally gray characters, an unreliable narrative, and a storyline that leads us to an inevitable act of violence, which is really all I can ask for from a great book.

This novel is excellent. The plot is meticulously laid out, the characters are sharp and unique while feeling hauntingly relatable, and the overall mood and tone shift appropriately and deftly throughout. As a book about queer characters, the book is additionally successful in its portrayal of sexuality, coming of age, and familial/community homophobia; however, it doesn't fall into the easy trap of a simple "coming out" story at any point. The book manages to be many things at once; a campus novel, a queer love story, a psychological thriller, a portrayal of grief, all without overdoing it. A really stunning debut that makes me eager to read anything by the author in the coming years.

This book. This. Book. Admittedly, right after I finished reading, I thought it was good, maybe a bit pretentious, but a serviceable read nonetheless. But then I took a minute and I really started rethinking what I had just read, I reconsidered some of the quieter moments, the interactions between Julian and Paul, and it dawned on me just how finely nuanced this novel is and how all of those moments put together made the storytelling all the more devastating. The author does a phenomenal job of forcing you to think beyond what is on the page and put the pieces of this complex relationship together. Because that's exactly what Paul and Julian are - complex, especially Paul. Honestly, Paul has become one of my favorite characters because his development throughout the novel was so drastic and, for lack of a better word, fascinating. This book goes beyond just toxic relationships and obsession, to something infinitely darker.

Ultimately, I'm glad I gave myself the time to let this book really sink in. To go back and re-read passages and pages and chapters so I could have those moments where I said to myself, "Wow, just wow."

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Kristin Cipolla, and Harper Books for the opportunity.

Notes: I anticipate to come back to this review once the book is published to update it with my favorite quotes (which will be a struggle considering how I highlighted almost everything), and my final thoughts that are eluding me right now.

There are sometimes illusions we humor and entertain, even when we are cognizant that what we have created is artificial. These Violent Delights grapples with the visceral themes of obsession, belonging, normalcy, morality, and lies on a scale and intensity I have never witnessed before. And it does this in such a seamless way that it rendered me speechless by the end, attempting to defend the illusions that I established myself as I dived into the depths of this novel. You find yourself constructing and weaving lies to defend a falling house of cards precariously positioned at the edge of a cliff, hoping with all your might that what you are so subconsciously aware will not come to pass.

I don’t think I will ever steel myself for the ultimate act of revelation that occurs between Julian and Paul, no matter how many times I revisit this novel. No matter how many times I will be exposed to the sometimes subdued, sometimes glaring frailty of their relationship, I still find myself fascinated by their dynamic. Even when the truth of their relationship is unmasked, it still does not detract from the enjoyment of watching them completely take over each other's lives and consume the space meant for anything else. It’s searing, it’s scintillating, sometimes it’s so tangible that it hurts. It's not the most palatable thing out there, but the best things are often not.

The expression of moth to a flame doesn’t even begin to encompass the depraved and warped nature of it all. It’s brutal to read, like taking a beating to your heart and sustaining small cuts and injuries from the innumerable skirmishes along the way, being left out to bleed in sweltering heat and still being thankful that at least you witnessed something so beautiful in its monstrosity. It’s an indulging read, not only does it satiate but it leaves you with an overwhelming urge of more, but only when you yield and succumb to it, to the distorted vision and unreliable narration. It burrows into your head, one word and phrase at a time.

I don’t think I’ll ever recover from These Violent Delights, and I don’t think I’ll ever want to.

I have to admit that I had prepared myself for inevitable disappointment when I had stumbled on the description of this novel on Goodreads. It read like something too good to be true, appealing to the exact themes I find myself drawn into whenever I’m parsing for a good read that leaves me devastated and wrecks my sleep schedule for the weeks to come.

And yet...this novel delivered on every promise and more.

I don’t think I have the capability to truly capture or articulate the very beating heart of this piece or successfully encapsulate what feelings it evoked in me. It’s poignant and profound in an almost quiet way until it escalates into something that conjures more dread than I’ve ever summoned in my life.

It’s an intimate read, you feel like you stumbled on the chatterings between friends, confidants, two lovers who *almost* recognize each other so wholly that it almost feels like they’re being stripped bare and distilled to that very raw, human vice that has corrupted them at their very core.

Julian and Paul have such an uncanny ability to seize the worst of each other and somehow seemingly make it poetic. Something that might have started as a passing fancy, a fleeting fascination twists into something much more ruinous, and yet...it miraculously manages to also read as a coming-of-age novel, exploring the depths of Paul’s psyche. There are strong philosophical underpinnings that explore moral and ethical dilemmas, particularly the agonizing events that define Paul’s own internal conflicts with himself and the world surrounding him. The sheer level of pain Paul feels leaps from the pages, forcing the reader to explore just how much it taints every other aspect of his life and question if he will ever stem the source of the wound. Each moment, as fleeting and inconsequential as it may first seem, feels like an elastic rubber that’s being pulled taut, testing the scope of how much Julian and Paul will unravel each other, thread by thread.

This novel forces you to question yourself, and the absurdity of all the tropes you’ve walked in with. The first impressions in this novel are deceiving, elaborately crafted to first comfort you to familiar waters and then lead you astray in a storm that threatens to destroy every tidbit of information you had collected. These Violent Delights functions as a deconstruction of many common romantic and character tropes. Myriads of conversations serve as symbolistic warnings, which I fixated on like a mystery novel, trying to fathom how deep this symbiotic, almost parasitic relationship went.

Paul’s reliance on Julian isn’t anything too new, of course. I think most of us from a young age were spoonfed that we would only be complete with the introduction of another presence into our lives. But this common misconception and romanticization of being “whole” and “complete” is taken into new, frightening heights that are undeniably entertaining to read.

The themes resonated with me, but I have no doubt it will resonate with many other potential readers who feel drawn to the novel based on its synopsis. These are universal themes we find ourselves beguiled with often but feel almost frightened of even uttering their name.

If you enjoyed The Secret History (and subsequently Richard Papen’s idolization of the enigmatic Henry Winter) then this novel is for you. Paul feels far more nuanced and less passive than Richard, but there is a certain symmetry to this comparison that it feels fitting.

I entered this novel expecting to find myself intrigued by Julian but found myself infatuated with both Julian and Paul just as much as these boys were infatuated with each other and their connection.

These Violent Delights absorbed me from the very first few pages to the very last, with a pace that felt just right to dredge anticipation and horror when you are forced to confront how you emphasized just a bit too much with the lies crafted by the narrative.

I cannot recommend These Violent Delights enough (and I’m sure my friends can testify to that regard).

Nemerever wrote an exquisite book full of overwhelming sharp emotions. It hurt all the way down and I loved every second of it, even when I was dreading how deep Paul and Julian would go (or drag each other down). The prose was beautiful and vivid. Paul's emotions felt so viscerally real and disturbing. I never trusted him, but his POV brought Julian (and everyone else) to life on the page in such fascinating detail. Nemerever took me firmly out of my comfort zone and I am so glad I picked up this book and let it push me out of my familiar warm fuzzy stories to this breathless read.