Our Kind of Cruelty

by Araminta Hall

[kristy]

I received this book from the publisher through Netgalley for a review. Mike and his girlfriend Verity are in love, just no one else seems to realize it, including Verity. For some reason Verity has broken up with him, gotten engaged to someone else, changed her phone number and wont respond to Mike's emails. Oh well, Mike will just have to make her realize how much he loves her and is devoted her. Just like the games they use to like to play when they were a couple he will succeed in this larger game and in the end they will be together forever, whatever it takes. I thought that this was a an interesting novel. Overall the story tone in my opinion was more of a slow burn, even when events took the turn that they did I wasn't overly shocked and thought that it was an expected outcome. It took me a while to get in to the story, but once I did I was engaged and read through the rest quickly. I liked seeing how the same event cant be interpreted so differently by all of the individuals involved. I thought that the author did a good job expressing Mike's reasoning and justification behind his actions, even if they could be considered delusional. I feel that the author did a decent job trying to demonstrate her point regarding the negative view society as a whole can have regarding women's sexual liberation and that there is often the double standard of boys will be boys v.s. the demonization of women for having the same sexual appetites. I didn't overly like either character of Mike or Verity which made me feel somewhat eh about the ending of the story when I feel like potentially it was meant for the reader to have more sympathy/outrage regarding how it all turned out. Overall though it was an engaging, entertaining read and I would recommend it to others who enjoy skewed, potentially unreliable narrators and more of a character based, thought provoking story compared to non-stop action.