The Decimation of Mae by DH Sidebottom Review

5 Smooches!

Synopsis

***WARNING*** This story doesn’t contain hearts and flowers, it doesn’t even contain the word ‘love’. It isn’t for the fainthearted, nor those who want romance and happy ever afters. It’s dark, in fact it goes beyond the dark realms of misery and despair. It makes your heart suffer, it will beat you down and it will still demand more from you. Yet, it is still a story of hope and courage. Friendships develop and understanding digs deep, whilst acceptance and surrender give way to reverence and sacrifice. It contains disturbing scenes of sexual violence, cruelty and torture. It also includes self-harm, pain addiction and brutalisation. Please bear this in mind before purchasing this book. Thank you.

The Devil visited me three times in my life, albeit, my short life. Not in the physical sense you must understand, but very much literally. He was persistent, if not resolute and tenacious. His ruthless greed to annihilate me was utterly disturbed. I am sure if he had hierarchy, the man at the top would have dragged his arse into Hell prison just for his unscrupulous methods. I was just fifteen when I first became aware of what he was capable of. This initial taste of him set the playing field for how my life was to be lived – for want of a better word. He mocked me at this point, showed me mercilessly how he played the game, and how he liked to cheat at said game. He ridiculed and taunted until six months later, he won and took something of so much importance from me that I would never be the same again. His second visit was, in my eyes, so much more cruel and heartless. I know we’re talking about the devil here, and yes, you have a right to say he had no heart, but even then, even when I was so utterly broken, I begged to differ and hoped – no prayed, that somewhere deep in the caverns of his black and tortured soul there was something that beat and confused his emotions once in a while. But the third visit was somewhat different than the other two. He tried, and at first succeeded, to bring me to my knees once and for all but then something happened. God finally intervened and altered Satan’s intention; he sent hope and morphed the Devil’s minion into an Angel, hoping to break and shatter the anguish and suffering. He gave the ability for me to feel pleasure in pain, order in the chaos and light in the darkness. But in giving me a reprieve, he also gave me something that would finally and ultimately obliterate me. He gave me the capability to love, therefore giving me the ability to be destroyed. And Satan made sure that I was destroyed. Cruelly, viciously and sadistically. I am Mae Swift, and this is the story of my decimation.

Review

The Decimation of Mae is probably the darkest book I have ever read.  I want to start with a huge disclaimer.  This book is not fluffy or sweet.  It is not a romance.  I would categorize this book as a very dark love story.  Sometimes love is dark, evil, and horrible.  Sometimes you do not get a happily-ever-after.  Sometimes all you get is an ever-after.  Mae’s story is brutal and gruelling and most definitely not for the faint of heart.  Proceed with caution.

I absolutely refuse to give you any synopsis in my review.  I just can’t.  If I did, I would simply risk telling you too much and ruining this brilliant story for you.  So, I am going to focus on how I felt while reading this book.  The first emotion that really took hold of me was shock.  I really didn’t have a clue how this story was going to play out from the authors synopsis.  It doesn’t give much away and I am glad it didn’t because I had no idea this book was going to be so incredibly gripping, thrilling, and at moments horrible.  I found myself feeling sick for Mae; praying for her to overcome her horrible past and even worse present.  Every time that I thought Mae would catch a break and get some reprieve from the awfulness that is her life, there would be a huge plot twist and BAM, I was back feeling sick or crying for her.  But Mae is a fighter.  She is tough and resilient an while sometimes I wanted her to back down and accept her fate to lessen her torment, I couldnt help but feel proud of her; always pushing on until the very end.

And her tormentor, well lets just say, that I hated him.  I never loved him, but at least understood.  Understanding is the half the battle because I almost forgave him and hopefully I will in the next book in this series, which I absolutely cannot wait for.

Amie

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