Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Tragedy comes in all forms, and you never know how you’ll deal with it. Four friends have all dealt with their fair share of struggles. Dillion, an aspiring writer with writers block because of his brothers sudden death, Jesse the emotional stunted drink thanks to his boyfriend’s suicide, Ivan the abused victim just looking for a place to call home, and Leo the stubborn romantic trying to get his friends to open up, while keeping his issues close to his chest.

 

With these four friends, they avoid all their elephants in the room like a death card agreement between Dillion and Jesse, Ivan completely hoping his abusive lover with change or even Leo focusing on his friends problems instead of his own. Can these four friends learn to embrace and accept their own tragedy or will they be stuck in the past?

 

Book Review

First of all, I want to start this review with a couple of trigger warnings: domestic abuse, alcoholism, talk of self-harm, and suicide. Now that I have those out of the way, I can start my review. 

 

This is a book about four friends – Jesse, Ivan, Leo, and Dillion – with four very real problems. These four men are as close as they will allow themselves to be to anyone. But is that closeness enough? Does having best friends really help when you have some major issues that you are dealing with, or does the fact that with friends you are able to hide the deepest part of yourself without being judged actually make things worse?

 

Leo and his husband Will decided that it was time to put some distance between them. There are some major issues in their marriage and they seem to be only getting worse. So calling a hold on everything and seeing if they are better off without the other is their last option before ending things permanently. Leo is having a hard time with it though, because he does not like seeing his husband go out with other people. Especially since he has not been able to go out with anyone yet in hopes that Will is coming back. What Leo does not understand though, is that he is one of the main reasons things are going so badly with him and his husband. Leo puts too much of his time and efforts into trying to fix his best friends and nowhere near enough time in his relationship. So what is it going to take for Leo to open his eyes once and for all?

 

Jesse is an alcoholic. It has not always been this way but Jesse finds it extremely hard to deal with his emotions about finding out that his boyfriend, Ian, had given up on life and decided dying was a better option. Since Jesse found Ian after he committed suicide, Jesse has shut his emotions off by drinking them away instead. Not only did Jesse lose Ian, but he feels he lost his first best friend as well when Ian died, his dad. Jesse’s dad did as Jesse did and shut himself off. He does not know how to help his son through this pain and grief so his only option is to not deal with it at all. What is it going to take for Jesse to realize that he is spiraling further and further in the rabbit hole?

 

Ivan has probably the most volatile of problems of all the friends. He is in an abusive relationship. Though he tries to hide it from everyone, no one is fooled. They have all seen the bruises. Each of them are concerned but Ivan denies everything. In Ivan’s mind, he feels he deserves the abuse. He messed up and cheated on his boyfriend so he feels that this is his punishment. How far will Ivan let the abuse go? Will he continue to deny that it is happening? 

 

Last but not least is Dillion. Dillion is the “slut” of the group. He is the type who never lets anyone get close to him including his family. After losing his brother Wade to a sudden death, Dillion has decided he needs to be the man that his brother would have been. The only issue is, Dillion has lost who he is along the way. After meeting a guy named Dean, Dillion really begins to lose himself because for the first time in forever he has met someone who makes him want to feel. Now the question is, will Dillion allow those feelings to progress or will he push Dean away?

 

These four friends have very real problems that they are trying to ignore. Can they continue to live this way or will everything finally come to light and make each of them deal with the issues at hand?

 

This was a good read. I enjoyed reading the journey that each of these guys had to take to find their true selves in the end. It is not a pretty ride for them but if they can hang on it may just be worth it in the end. 

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by the author for the purpose of a review.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Novel, 228 pages
Heat Level
Publication Date	04-November-2019
Price	$2.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.amazon.com/Thirst-Trap-Zachary-Ryan-ebook/dp/B07ZL4DSC7