This is a love story. Mike’s love story.

Mike Hayes fought his way out of a brutal childhood and into a quiet, if lonely life, before he met Verity Metcalf. V taught him about love, and in return, Mike has dedicated his life to making her happy. He’s found the perfect home, the perfect job, he’s sculpted himself into the physical ideal V has always wanted. He knows they’ll be blissfully happy together.

It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t been returning his emails or phone calls.
It doesn’t matter that she says she’s marrying Angus.

It’s all just part of the secret game they used to play. If Mike watches V closely, he’ll see the signs. If he keeps track of her every move he’ll know just when to come to her rescue…

A spellbinding, darkly twisted novel about desire and obsession, and the complicated lines between truth and perception, Our Kind of Cruelty introduces Araminta Hall, a chilling new voice in psychological suspense.

I am not sure how to feel… on what hand I was disturbed throughout my entire read as Our Kind of Cruelty is somewhat dark with Mike Hayes being totally creepy in every sense of the word, but I was also surprised at where the book went in the end. Sprinkled throughout the middle of the book, I couldn’t help but hope for something more to happen because I felt a bit underwhelmed. Let me explain…

Mike and Verity met in college and have been in a relationship for 8+ years. Mike and V have an interesting relationship in their passion, need, and love for each other. Even more interesting is this game they play called “The Crave” (which I won’t get into too much detail explaining it) but in essence brings out the raw magnetism, obsessive devotion they feel for one another.

Mike and V attempt to have a long distance relationship when he moves to NYC to make big bucks while she stays in London until things just fizzle out. He returns home to a complete shock and surprise… V is getting married.

All the while that these things are happening, we the reader, are in Mike’s POV while he obsesses over this woman who is no longer his. It is painfully obvious that he is delusional in what he is thinking—twisting situations in his favor because he believes that everything that is happening is all a part of “the game” and is not reality. I will admit feeling sad for him because I felt that he was on a downward spiral and his thoughts were more wishful thinking… but I also felt like maybe I was missing something… maybe there was something more that was happening that I wasn’t understanding. In Mike’s defense, he grew up in the foster care system and had a terrible upbringing by a terrible mother figure.

Now Verity… I didn’t like her… like at all… but it could also be because we are in Mike’s POV and I felt like I was skewed in my thinking of her… thinking that she was manipulative and possibly hiding something because when we get to that ending… just WOW… I didn’t expect it at all honestly and it made me go back and think about everything I just read with a different eye.

So this book is definitely compelling and it will certainly make you think… you will question things in your mind and even when you get to the end, you will be wondering what the heck you just read. Araminta Hall is certainly talented and I look forward to reading more from her. What prevents me from giving more stars is that I felt some areas were slow and I did end up skimming a bit but all in all, this was an entertaining read that will leave me thinking about it long after I closed the book.

I read the e-mail many times, until I had absorbed it and let it become part of me. It was impossible not to see the implied meaning behind everything V said. When she said, “time spun away from me, as usual,” and “you know the way she does,” she was clearly asking me to remember how well we knew each other. Even telling me to invite Elaine over was like her laying a hand on my arm, the way she used to do when dispensing advice, letting me know she still had the power to make me do things. And then the line in parenthesis saying I could bring someone, a line marked out in its ridiculousness. “If there is someone” she had written, knowing full well there never would be anyone apart from her. “We both said things we probably shouldn’t have” was an apology, and “meeting Angus has put everything into perspective” was like telling me that she was using Angus as a way of understanding our relationship. She would “love” to see my house and promised a “date,” two cleverly chosen words.

But of course the most significant phrase was “still trying to override humans.” We will be masters of our own world, she used to say to me. Don’t worry, Mike, she’d said, I’ll invent a chip that makes you and me cleverer than even the machines and we can ride off into the sunset together while everything else goes to shit. Those words told me that V and I were still on course to do that.

I felt significantly better by the time I looked up and realized dusk was settling over the day. I decided not to reply. We had both shown a tiny part of our hands, keeping most of our cards close to our chests for the fun that lay ahead. The Crave, I felt, had picked up pace.

*Giveaway now over*

Enter to win a copy of Our Kind of Cruelty from the publisher. All you have to do is comment on this post and/or share. Sample post below:

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