Stalker by Clarissa Wild
This story is as dark as I have read in a long time.
It will take you to places that you, may not actually be ready to go but hang on in there because the journey is worth it.
The book tells the story of Miles and Vanessa and it tells it form both of their points of view and I was really pleased that it did so, I’m not sure I would have been able to cope with just hearing from one of them, I needed the balance that both their thoughts being open to me gave.
I loved the back story and the fact that the path that they have taken to get to where they are now is laid before us, they are unravelled and laid bare before us and it is a necessary action because they’re complicated creatures, and their thoughts and actions require detailed clarification wither that or you would be rocking in the corner yelling at the pair of them that they are just batshit crazy and taking you with them.
Their pasts were a complete mess but it is because of that mess that they have reached the status of complete hatred that they are in now.
Revenge is a cruel mistress but when that is all you have it can also be a powerful motivator.
I was reluctant to like Vanessa but I formed an opinion early on and was surprised that she eventually managed to change my mind.
She was mean to Miles when they were younger but we soon learn that she had her reasons and in her own way she was trying to protect him but she made a poor job of getting that across because Miles (Phoenix) could see nothing of her intensions he just saw a girl that gave him nothing but lies and hate.
Time burdens him with a hatred that is not only unhealthy but unwarranted but he has one goal and that is to make her suffer.
But can he really be as actively cruel as he feels, I had my fingers crossed that he would see why she had done what she had and that he would understand but I was fraught when he started to put his plan into action, I thought that he had gone too far – I wasn’t aware that the length they both had to travel was about to be thrown a curveball because their hate was beginning to morph into something neither of them had been willing to consider.
The story was sadistic in many respects, it was twisted and depraved almost but it was one that I could not tear my eyes away from.