REVIEW: Is This Love? By C. E. Riley

Genre: Adult Fiction

Released: 4th August 2022

Publisher: Serpents Tail

"I'm divorcing you.", You said.

You just told J you're divorcing them. There isn't going to be a conversation about it. J can't figure out why, how someone could love them yesterday and resent them today. J doesn't understand why you're saying all these awful things about, throwing evil accusations, and why you're acting like a stranger when all they wanted was to love you.

But as your marriage falls apart, you both tell a story - could they both be true? Or does the truth depend on what you want it to be?

"You've done a tremendous job of labelling me as a monster. I half believed it myself now."

This is a story about love, but it's not a love story. It's a story about the complexity of relationships, about the dangers of idolisation and desperation. It tries to shine a light on the grey and unspoken homes that are filled with abuse and terror that they can't even see.

Told from J's point of view as the chaos unfolds, and interspersed with their wifes diary entries and letters, we hear very two different tales of a marriage and it's death. J takes us back to the beginning, to the first kiss, to obsession and love and lust, to a relationship that explodes and burns out without them noticing.

The story moves freely, like a conversation - J addresses the reader as though they are speaking directly to their wife, seducing us, pulling us closer and willing us to be a part of their story, to take a side. Although the prose was long and dense in parts, there was an intrigue, an uncomfortable curiosity that keeps you reading.

It's impossible not to find yourself in the pages, and you might be surprised to find yourself in both characters at times despite them being on opposite sides of a war. The thing is, J is unnamed, ungendered and unidentified. J is nothing less or more than we perceive them to be, what we believe them to be. You are forced to think - if you knew them, who would you believe? Would it change your mind if you knew more, if you knew their names, genders or identities?

Both characters are flawed, toxic and problematic - but who is really the victim? And who is blurring the truth?

"Maybe, just maybe, you would keep it and remember me and , in time, remember what you did and what really transpired between us."

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced reviewers copy of this title in return for an honest review.

CW; Divorce, abusive relationships, violence, swearing, alcohol.

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