Reviews with content warning for Torture - Headcase

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Headcase by Onley James

12 reviews

wii3rdo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

ASA MULVANEY MAKES ME SO FUCKING FERAL OH MY GOD 😫😫

ahem, anyway. 🙂

WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN? i’m so fucking serious when i say: every SINGLE book hits harder than the last! there’s a pattern to the flow (unraveling) of the story, but there’s certain elements about each story that make them distinctly different according to the mcs.

i love seeing how much the Mulvaney family has grown, and seeing different sides to each character whenever i read their story? 🥰 it makes them REAL instead of whatever two-dimensional view of them i had prior to their story.

Zane is such a national treasure. maybe i’m biased because he’s a journalist and journalism is my major, BUT THE WORLD MAY NEVER KNOW 😼

but let me shut up so i can get started with Avi and Felix’s story 🫡🤭

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skullqueen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

4.5

How is every book in this series so perfect??? Asa and Lois are perfect!

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ghosthills's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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haloblues's review against another edition

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4.0

Okay, I don't know how this series keeps hitting on my very specific kinks every time, but hot DAMN these two. (Also, it was really nice to see an actual conversation touching on sub-drop in a book; that's a first for me.)

I do concur with other reviewers that I wanted more of the Asa/Avi dynamic, though! Hopefully that shows through a bit more in Avi's book (I was also very intrigued by that discussion re: possibility of Asa/Zane/Avi/Felix).

Details: Alternating POVs, third-person, past tense
Favourite character: Asa
Happy ending?: Yes

Favourite quotes:

“Your mom’s a two-time felon who runs with one of the most violent biker gangs in the US territories.”

Blake fell into the swivel chair in front of Zane’s desk, spinning it a few times before he peeled back the paper on his pastrami sandwich. “And your mom is a gin-swilling narcissist who spends her days sucking the hopes and dreams out of people like a dementor. The only difference in our moms, man, is capital. One’s rich, one’s poor. They’re both shitty people.”

He was heroin-chic pretty. Rock star pretty. Just this side of too thin, but put him in a pair of leather pants and a fur-coat and girls would throw their panties at him before the house went dark.
Somehow, it worked.

The rules on reporters—and wannabe reporters—were very clear in the Mulvaney house. Don’t talk to reporters. Don’t react to reporters. And while his father had never uttered the words ‘don’t fuck reporters,’ Asa assumed it was implied.

If anybody had told him five years ago that August would be the first of them to have kids, Asa would have laughed himself sick. His older brother was the most twisted and depraved of them all. He loved killing more than Asa or Avi. More than that, he loved torturing them. Reveled in it, even. And now, he had babies. Tiny human babies, who gazed up at him with huge green eyes, implicitly trusting his maniac brother to care for them.

And he did.

“Yeah, they’re babies being raised by a psychic and a serial killer,” Asa reminded, eyes widening as something occurred to him. “Oh, God. And the serial killer is the voice of reason.”

"Atticus obsesses over that dumb cat of yours—”

Jericho pointed the ax at him. “That cat is his. One hundred percent. Every time I come home, that fuzzy little shit is sleeping on my fucking pillow now.”

When they reached the Rover, Asa gestured to the backseat. “Chop-chop, young lovers. There’s fuckery afoot.”

“You probably shouldn’t tell people that you became an architect because you wanted to play God by turning skyscrapers into your own personal ant farm and that you’re just one bad day away from shaking it like an Etch-A-Sketch.”

Asa smiled. “I keep my thinking thoughts to myself.”

“Your what?”

“Noah says, ‘Those are thinking thoughts, not speaking thoughts.’ But you asked why I do what I do, and I told you I wouldn’t lie to you.”

Asa looked so proud of himself for not lying about secretly being a nihilistic anarchist that Zane almost felt guilty for saying, “You’re batshit crazy.”

"But your husband was an FBI agent when you met, no? Did he know your secret before you started seeing each other?”

Lucas grinned. “Yes. He broke into my house, told me he was Batman, and then stabbed himself.”

“What’s up, baby daddy? Or daddy of babies? How are the littles? Give them a squish for me.”

August sighed. “Calliope, please stop calling me that.”

“Don’t,” Lucas cut in. “Don’t ever stop calling him that. The girls are good. I’ll give them all the squishes."

“But really, Dad. Zane likes me. Well, okay, I don’t know that he likes me exactly, but we have this thing, this connection. We get each other. I think he might be my person.”

“Your person?” Thomas echoed.

“Yeah, you know, like Noah, Lucas, and Jericho are for the others. I think Zane’s supposed to be my person.”

But nobody was safe around Asa. Except Zane. They’d barely known each other a day but Zane knew, deep down, that Asa would gut anybody who looked at him sideways, and that knowledge made Zane want to do very bad things for Asa. Made him willing to hurt for him, debase himself for him.

“That’s not going to happen, Lois. Relationships are what you make them. Our goals and values are very much aligned. We have an amazing sex life. You’ll never want for any material possession you desire. If you need something from me emotionally, I’ll learn. I’ll figure it out. You don’t have to be afraid of me. I decided you were it for me the moment you put those handcuffs back on.”

Zane wasn’t sure he was still breathing. As far as proposals went, it was a pretty good one.

He looked at Zane and there was this gut punch of need, this primitive, animalistic knowledge that Zane belonged to him, was made for him, was meant to be loved and fucked and protected by him. He wanted to hurt him so he could heal him. He wanted to know that he was the only one Zane trusted to bend him without breaking him.

Zane tried not to be obvious, but when Asa pinched his side, he forced himself to drag his gaze away. It wasn’t his fault Thomas Mulvaney was a snack.

He gave him the vodka. The emotional support vodka. That was what it was called. Somebody had even written it on the label with Sharpie. Noah’s Emotional Support Vodka. Do Not Touch. But he had touched it. So much of it.

Sorry, Noah.

Zane stared at him for so long, Asa thought, for a minute, he’d broken him somehow. Then, finally, he said, “Did you ask me to fuck your brother last night?”

Asa blinked at him, dumbfounded. “Well, that was a hell of a non sequitur, Lois. No, I absolutely did not ask you to fuck my brother. Which, by the way, is a sentence I never expected to utter out loud.”

“Did I imagine that?” Zane said. “God, that’s embarrassing.”

“No, what I said was that my brother and I have shared…bedmates…in the past, and then you asked if I expected you to have sex with my brother.”

Zane frowned until creases formed between his brows in that way that he did when he was concentrating really hard. “What did you say?”

“I countered and asked if you wanted to fuck my brother.”

“Then what did I say?” Zane asked, dread leaching into his tone.

Asa grinned. “I believe you said it wasn’t a deal breaker.”

“Oh, my God,” Zane said around a groan. “That’s so embarrassing.”

“That you’d consider fucking my brother and Felix?”

“And Felix?” Zane shouted, then winced. “I’ve never even seen Felix. Why was I so horny?”

“I don’t know, but you definitely wanted to get down last night. Were rather insistent, even. I feared for my virtue,” Asa teased.

“Yes,” Zane added fiercely. “When can we start cutting off appendages?”

“I like him,” Archer said, pointing in Zane’s direction. “You can keep him.”

“Lois, believe me when I say this. It will be a cold day in hell before I ever let you do anything murdery without me.” There was no missing the way Zane’s pupils dilated, his tongue darting out to lick over his lower lip. Asa pressed his lips to his ear. “That turned you on, didn’t it? You're such a freak, I love it. Let’s go eat, Lois. I’ll even let you give me a handjob on the way.”

“Wow, what a treat,” Zane quipped.

Asa grinned. “I’m a giver.”

Zane nodded. “Okay. Then you can feed me. I’m starving.”

Asa gave him a funny look. “I remember when I had to force-feed you. Now, you’re hungry all the time. Like a baby bird. ‘Feed me. Feed me. Feed me.’”

Asa’s brows knitted together. “I tell you I love you all the time.”

“Yeah, but you tell me you love Swiss Cake Rolls with the same level of fervor,” Zane reminded him.

“Duh, because I do. A man can love more than one thing. It doesn’t negate the other.”

Zane leveled a flat stare at him.

“Okay, like, if I had to choose between you and a box of Little Debbie’s, I’d definitely choose you. But you both hit just right,” he said with a grin, giving Zane a deep kiss.

Zane slapped his shoulder. “Come on, Asa. Be serious. I know psychopaths can’t love. Is what we have enough to keep you happy forever?”

Asa sighed. “Are you asking if I feel that weird goopy feeling when I look at you that people talk about in romance novels? If so, the answer is no. I don’t have the ability to feel that. But whenever you walk into a room, I feel grateful you’re mine. I feel calmer knowing you’re there, where I can see you, protect you…” He kissed Zane’s lips softly. “Do dirty, dirty things to you whenever I want.” Zane opened his mouth to speak, but Asa pinched his lips shut. “I know people who’d give anything to have what we have. I’ve killed for you. I would die for you. I will put your wants and needs above mine forever because I want you to be happy. Is that love? Because when you’re not around, I feel like there’s…a splinter under my ribcage, and it only goes away when I see your face. That’s enough for me. Is it enough for you?”

Zane swallowed hard, tears rolling down his cheeks. “That’s enough.”

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unusablebooklore's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Asa and Zane. Not my favourite NE book but still good.

So much violence that seems overlooked…People not being startled by a rich guys bf having bruises all over his face and neck…

Also, some how people are cool with essentially a celebrity investigating suicides? I imagine I would find it all kinds of weird if Matt Damon turned up on my door step asking questions about something like a friends suicide. I love temporarily pausing reality…but this was straight up fantasy.

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lovelyinnature's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

Another banger. I love their relationship so much. Again while insta lovey its so much fun and they go fully into their dynamics. Each couple doesn't feel the same and I love Zane so much. He was really going through it because how awful the villians are. I just like since it's like 3 husbands in they really know to take care of the new members of the family. I don't know if it was the break between the books but this one was incredibly funny (I mean dark humor but still funny) I couldn't really gauge the twins separately but I love Asa and he's so interesting. I like that they introduce their bdsm relationship really well and the scenes were so good. Power couple indeed. The villians man fuck them throughly and I'm glad they're gone. Just a another great part in the series

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shybookstagramer's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense

3.75

Before I get into my review of Headcase I want to say if you skipped over "Damaged" the 3.5 book, I highly recommend checking that one out before reading this one because it gives some much-needed context and background to some new characters that show up.

Now onto the Headcase review
I'm going to be honest, I really struggled with this book. At one point I even considered stopping and skipping it entirely. I'm glad that I held out though because I ended up liking it more than I expected, but it was still a rough read for me. The plot is what saved this one for me. I didn't care for Asa at all. Zane was ok but not my favorite boyfriend. The spice, especially that first scene, my god it was a lot. I know a lot of readers will enjoy it but it is not my kind of thing. It was very predator/prey kind of kinky sex. The consensual non-consensual type of role play. It was a lot for me. There were some spicy scenes that were less of that and I liked those a bit more. With this type of rough role-play stuff happening, I really appreciated that the story was told from both men's POVs so I could see that it was more consensual than it seemed. That helped me through it.
Now to talk about the part that saved this book for me, the plot. Oh my god, that plot was dark and twisted but so damn intriguing! I was invested.
Overall this is definitely the darkest and most twisted book in the series, so far, with the plot and the spice. So be prepared for that.

content warning: very rough sexual content (consensual/nonconsensual roleplay), murder, torture, suicide, grief, emotional abuse, panic attack, and much more so be sure to look up the triggers for anything I may have missed

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littlebit2991's review against another edition

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dark

4.25

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booksbutmakeitgay's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.0

*trigger warnings: graphic unaliving event, suicidal ideation, psychological torture, consensual kink/fetish play, predator/prey, vomit, multiple hp references*

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aromarrie's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

i’m honestly just in complete shock rn at how much i loved this book , i’ll be more coherent once i get out of work later.

update: sigh. okay. first things first, i went into this book with sort of low expectations because of the fact tha i saw a couple reviews that expressed how some readers felt pretty lacklustre about asa & zane's story; how even one person dnf'ed because it just wasn't hitting the right chords for them. there also was some disappointment on my part because there's a certain pairing that is teased at near the end of moonstruck that i was expecting to play the starring role up next in this series, but then i found out that we would be reading ab0ut asa and zane first. both of these expectations ended up having me feel like i was treading through uncertain waters, in danger of losing my momentum in this series and having to slog through this book just to get to the next. so you can imagine my complete surprise when i actually ended up absolutely tearing through this fourth installment in a very dark & thrilling romance series with incredible depth for its main characters.

asa's character, specifically, really threw me for a loop because i had always been so curious about him & avi--twins, who unlike the rest of the Mulvaney family, do share blood and have been connected since the day they were born, literally a mirror of each other. finally having the opportunity to get inside asa's head and learn about who he really is beyond just being a vengeful psychopath, beyond being joined at the hip to his twin brother, it made the story more interesting as we were seeing him evolve in this new dynamic he shared with zane, a prospective crime journalist who is absolutely inconvenient for the Mulvaneys as they are way too far gone in their crimes up to this point in the series to have someone like him end up joining their mix. and yet he does, and he's so good at it, too. i found zane's pov to be kinda refreshing, because yes he was a completely new character, but he has always had his eyes on the Mulvaney family for a long time, finding connections to these murders that we know as the reader, they were certainly involved in from previous stories, but the public doesn't--and yet zane seems to be the only one who sniffs them out. his theories at the beginning are more than superficial and he doesn't even realize how far he was from reaching any sort of conclusion about this family until after he hooks up with asa, but he does still have a very keen eye as someone who's getting into journalism, and he's also very determined.

it's this kind of passion & intellect that draws asa to zane like a moth towards a flame, and it leads to such a wild & pretty fucking dark romance that on the surface, exploring their kinks and all, was just on a whole other level of intense. i thought that the previous books were something, but then i read this and i was just like "holy shit", and i actually loved this story all the more for it?? i love asa & zane's relationship, i love how they have a lovers to frenemies thing going on that quickly jumps back to lovers--i love how even as violent and obscene it is the way that asa treats zane during sex, the author didn't hesitate to show how in this display of passion, it was possibly the most gentle & assuring that asa could be as it meant way more to zane than anything else. just like we know from some of our previous main couples, zane himself has also had to face his own rough past where he lost his older brother to suicide and had parents who treated him like he was barely a speck on their radar. being pushed to the background so often with no one to be there for support, the dominant way that asa holds himself when he & zane are being vulnerable with each other, the way he pushes zane to just be more and not simply stay silent because he has so much to explore inside himself--it develops zane in a way where the prospective journalist who approached asa despite all his fear just for the chance to get a big scoop ends up becoming a a huge media icon that proves him an essential part of the Mulvaney clan because his way with words and selling a good story is a weapon he can carry well on his own.

i said before regarding this series how one of my favorite things was in how much depth there was to our main characters, but i really have to toast to the mysteries that play at the center of each romance, this one on yet another level of fucked up that pushes zane into the mix when he learns that his brother's suicide could've been about something bigger. learning all the details of it the more i read this story, the more sick i felt because this game that was involved preyed on the minds of people who quickly become husks of themselves over a short period of time, so lost in the reality that was created for them just for the sake of losing themselves inside it, so lost that their only way out was to simply kill themselves....it was just a level of intensity i wasn't anticipating and yet feel like i should've for the way that this story stretches beyond its limits as the author takes it to new heights.

this counts not just for the mystery but the romance, the characterization, the writing--all of it was so addicting to read, i couldn't put it down for more than a couple of minutes. i loved everything about it, even from the beginning, because even as apprehensive as i felt about how i might feel for the story, the chemistry that there was between zane & asa was absolutely incredible. it meant something to me to see how asa connected to zane in a way that even he didn't know how to navigate it despite all his confidence, because this was something completely new for him. and yet not for a single second does he hesitate to prove to zane that they're a package deal of their own, a complete whirlwind that's so different from the certainty that's always been asa & avi as a pair from the day they were born together. with zane, it's a connection that's not tethered by blood and being one half of a whole, but simply something born from interest, something like as i said earlier, drew asa to zane like a flame, and it ignites a romance that sets itself in a glory of fire--and asa was as obsessed with this feeling as zane was to him. they really are a huge power couple, and i'm obsessed with them for that.

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