The female side characters were better but not very interesting.

I got whiplash from them and could never get a feeling for where they truly stand. One minute the care for the female lead, the next, they are next level hateful and then back to liking her. 😩 I'm into dubcon but I pass on rape so I just had breeze past that disaster. Completely didn't understand this train of thought at all. Which was like 'Girl, you literally just got sexually assaulted and it didn't even seem like dubcon because besides the orgasm, everything else was describing that you were hating what was happening!'.

She also didn't start having feelings for him for little bits here and there as she got to know him better, it felt more like 'Orgasm must equal feelings/love.'. Her kinks and desires seemed more brainwashed and manipulated into her rather than her own hidden desires (as they try to implicate within the story). For most of the story it seemed as if they weren't even her own desires but her physiological reactions (which can have nothing to do with kinks nor desires as it can simply be a body's natural reaction to physical stimuli regardless of whether you are enjoying yourself or hating it) gave her the 'Oh! I came, that must mean I'm into this and I like it! Do I? I guess I do.' reaction and monologue, making her a character who seems like she cannot think or decide anything for herself. I think most of us are familiar with the kinks and dark desires that are common in these types of stories and I also personally have experience of my own but her lack of intelligence was highly grating and the way she dealt with her dark side and discovering it, was unrealistic. The female lead was honestly pathetic and gave off major 'bimbo' vibes. And the 'hot and cold' aspect we also expect was very misplaced so it felt even more like he genuinely didn't give a shit about her unlike appearing to 'not giving a shit' in front of others but actually being affected, even just slightly, internally. The male lead was just eyeroll immature, with barely any signs of the resistant attraction we all expect. It only got better near the end but I never got to enjoy the initial 'dark' part for the beginning (and middle) of the story. I love dark romance but this one was unbelievable in a bad way and annoying most of the way through.

Brutal obsession s massery