Having been approached by Larry Rodness to review Perverse, I was intrigued by the blurb. It's not often I read about Goths, let alone second-generation Goths!

Being honest though, I wasn't overly impressed with the beginning of the book. While it wasn't bad, I was a little disconcerted by the disconnected narrative of Emylene's life that led up to the start of the plot. There's setting the scene, and then there's over-egging it a bit. I didn't understand why such a big deal was made about Emylene being a 'princess' (except maybe to explain why she acted so spoilt), and certain characters (such as Nostra-Dame) have no bearing on the ultimate plot, so I'm sorry to say that if I hadn't agreed to review it, I probably would have put it down.

However, upon hitting the middle of the book, the plot got decidedly better and I found it really enjoyable. It was fairly different to anything I'd read before, and I loved the idea of there being a certain part of town that offers your wildest dreams at night in exchange for a piece of your soul and a slightly hungover feeling. Then, there were different aspects of Goth lifestyle I found interesting and were explained well by Rodness. Once it got going, it was fast-paced, and Emylene became less annoying as she had more of a purpose. There's also a sense of dystopia the further in I got (revenants taking over parts of town and slowly expanding), and you should know how much I love those by now!

So, while I admit it was a weak start, the book gets a healthy 3 stars from me for pulling it back and creating an unusual and interesting plot.

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