Sometimes the path to weird literature you end up reading is worth noting. This one went like this: found book that looked interesting through recommendation on Kobo, checked it out on Goodreads, saw that it was featured on one of the weirder list-names I've come across, and wondered which was number one on said list. Which was this thing here.
It had pretty high ratings, but at the same time, the first reviews I skimmed all mentioned man-rape of pretty nasty proportions. By ogres. And the cover is pretty bad. And I thought uuhhh, weeeellll.... Ok, how much does it cost? Went to Smashwords. They offered the first 50% of the book for free. So I figured 300 pages for free? Fine, I try - then I can decide to buy if I get there.
So I read half, and even though it wasn't the BEST book I've ever read, it still sucked me in and I wanted to know how it ended, so here I am, having read the entire thing.
Basically, I thought the world building pretty good, character development well paced, Stockholm syndrome and all. Didn't mind the brutality, got a bit bored with the amount of the sex. There was just too much of it. Did find that it was labeled erotica after I read the entire thing - how did I miss that, BTW? - which would explain the amount of sex, and also probably would have prevented me from reading it in the first place if I'd noticed. I never could get into erotica, gay or straight - too much sex just bores me.