These Violent Delights

A Novel

By: Micah Nemerever

Narrated by: Michael Crouch

Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

An O Magazine LGBTQ Book that Is Changing the Literary Landscape in 2020

An Electric Lit Most Anticipated Debut of the Second Half of 2020

A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Year

A Paperback Paris Best New LGBTQ+ Books to Read This Year Selection

The Secret History meets Lie with Me in Micah Nemerever's compulsively enjoyable debut novel - a feverishly taut Hitchcockian story about two college students, each with his own troubled past, whose escalating obsession with one another leads to an act of unspeakable violence.

When Paul enters university in early 1970s Pittsburgh, it’s with the hope of moving past the recent death of his father. Sensitive, insecure, and incomprehensible to his grieving family, Paul feels isolated and alone. When he meets the worldly Julian in his freshman ethics class, Paul is immediately drawn to his classmate’s effortless charm.

Paul sees Julian as his sole intellectual equal — an ally against the conventional world he finds so suffocating. Paul will stop at nothing to prove himself worthy of their friendship, because with Julian life is more invigorating than Paul could ever have imagined. But as charismatic as he can choose to be, Julian is also volatile and capriciously cruel, and Paul becomes increasingly afraid that he can never live up to what Julian expects of him.

As their friendship spirals into all-consuming intimacy, they each learn the lengths to which the other will go in order to stay together, their obsession ultimately hurtling them toward an act of irrevocable violence.

Unfolding with a propulsive ferocity, These Violent Delights is an exquisitely plotted excavation of the depths of human desire and the darkness it can bring forth in us.

©2020 Micah Nemerever (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Beautiful!

This book was so incredibly beautiful, but in its own tragic way. I loved it.

i love this story

i’m getting the title tattooed on my body lmfao. i was enraptured with it to the point where i was afraid to finish it because it would mean the end

Eh

I could take it or leave it. The overall voice performance was great but I found myself wanting more with the book itself. The story was compelling enough for me to finish but it was rather bland in many parts. It didn't help that almost none of the characters are all that likeable, especially our main character Paul. I will say I found myself starting to see a softer and better side of Julien as the story progressed but that wasn't till towards the latter half of the book. If you're a fan of an incredibly slow burn check this out, otherwise you should probably just find another book.

Awful people

What a miserable book. And is Michael Crouch the only guy that narrates gay books? I really can’t hear him any more.

story is great

sometime I had a hard time remember when I was at because the preformed was a bit monotone.

Must read. This is the best, most emotionally provocative book I’ve encountered in a long while.

I wasn’t emotionally prepared for this book to be what it is, and I’m actually really glad for that. The depth of character development is seemingly bottomless and the acuteness with which the author conveys the most nuanced of complex emotion is uncanny without being overly prosaic.

This gave me a similar feel to “A Little Life” without being as overwrought with plot. Yes, the plot is solid but it’s there to serve the tragedy intrinsic to the protagonists and their relationship, not to foist tragedy upon them.

I spent the entire listen almost completely undecided on how to feel about the characters and the narrative, not ambivalent or agnostic, but looking inwardly and experiencing my own empathy and self-assumed values played in am intricate battle with one another.

Michael Crouch’s voice acting is truly inspired and I can only imagine that recording this was a gut-twisting labor of love. I’ve read or listened to >50 books over the last year and this might be my top recommendation. I usually finish a book and am fast to follow with another, but I need to let this one settle and breathe for a bit.

Nerve-wracking

These Violent Delights is a dark gay psychological thriller in the tradition of In Cold Blood, Burnt Money, and Tim & Pete. Powerfully narrated by the magnetic Michael Crouch (I'm such a fanboy) and written by Micah Nemerever. If you like your fiction shadowy and transgressive, I highly recommend.

Haunting

Haunting. Chilling. A hard, but well worth it read. I found myself having to stop every so often to take a break. This was very heavy material that made my heart ache. It was difficult to get through in the sense that this is such an emotional rollercoaster and you need time to meditate and absorb what you are experiencing. This book will stay with you long after you have finished it.

LOVED this book

My only disappointment related to this book is that it's a first book so I can't yet read another by this amazing author. Cleverly written and suspenseful from the first chapter. Written by an obviously bright young person, I was interested enough to do a bit of research on the author where I learned Nemerever's MA thesis in art history was Gender Anxiety in the Art of the Weimar Republic. Though perhaps a bit esoteric it speaks of a detail oriented mind that thinks outside the box. The book's story echoes the relationship of murderers Leopold and Loeb and explores the inner workings of how a relationship can take such a dark turn. At the same time it captures perfectly what it is like to be in love. A line from the book describing the two main characters is one of my favorites. "All they were, all they ever had been was a pair of sunflowers who each believed the other was the sun". I love finding a book that has me reaching for a pen to write down passages I like. This one left me with quite a stack of index cards. If one's mind is too closed to enjoy a story about two young men in love chances are they wouldn't enjoy the beautiful prose either which reminds me of another favorite line. "He hated her hopelessly for refusing to deserve this".

Disturbing and Brilliant

I had no idea what I was getting when I purchased this one and I can't recommend it enough. I'm not sure if I've ever left a review on Audible - if I have, there haven't been many. The performance was a critical piece of my enjoyment and I think it lent so much to this story. I enjoyed the the story so much that I'm going to purchase a hard copy of the book for my library but when I recommend it to people I am going to recommend they start with the audio because it was just stunning.

I thought the world and characters Micah Nemerever created were amazing and I really hope we get more from this author.