Third Party by Brandi Reeds

Cover Image from GoodReads

I was given an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. 

Me after reading this book...

Okay, so there's really no way to review this book without going into some spoilers, so if you're going to read it (and you should) you might not wanna go much further. The story starts with the suicide of a young college student. It is told in alternating chapters between the dead girl (Margaux), the firefighter who cut her down (Jessica), and Kirstie, the wife of a man with an interesting connection to the other two women. I am actually a really big fan of the alternating POVs and I think this added a bit more to the story than had we been told just through one of their perspectives. 

I HATED Ian/Arlon/Jack whatever his name was supposed to be. I know we were supposed to, but between his need to gaslight everyone around him, his cheating ways, and his smug attitude I didn't feel a bit sorry for him at the end of the book. He might not have committed a murder, but he was a rapist, and let's be real-- as a white man in America if they had decided to ban together and report him for rape and abuse, he would have gotten off anyway, because #patriarchy. I knew that he was going to get his comeuppance, but when he decided to throw his own child into his hole of lies I couldn't deal.

TW: This book deals with a lot of BDSM/auto erotic asphyxiation, rape, and abuse. It was by no means an EASY read, but if you can stomach it, it was a very good one. I finished this book in one day because I had to know how it ended. I couldn't put it down. I did notice a few typos within the text, and some word spacing that was a little bit off, but now that the book has been published I'm sure that those issues have been fixed by now. I can see why it didn't get a ton of hype, given the topics covered; it's not one that you can read and forget about, but for me, it was a compelling read that I will recommend to some of my friends and other patrons that I know can handle it. 

As always,