Black Dahlia

Vivian Winslow
85 pages
Release Date: November 13, 201
ARC provided by author in association with Book gossip promotions

Hmmm, I was not expecting this. Er… this review will be short because I am very pissed or sad… I still haven’t made up my mind yet! *sigh* Black Dahlia… where to begin…

First, I won’t be spoiling you when I say that Shane dies. There, there you go, now you understand the turmoil of my feelings. I enjoyed Dahlia’s relationship with Shane, it was real and she settled down with a man she loved. So the first chapter is basically he dying and Dahlia coping with the loss. As far as feelings go, they felt real, I’m not gonna lie, it all felt very real and heartfelt and emotionally right, not too overwhelming, but you can’t really help to feel extremely sorry for Dahlia and Shane. I was angry… very angry. And I don’t know if that’s a good thing. 

Personally it kinda blows that I had to get so frustrated at the beginning with such a blow to the gut. I mean wow that was cruel and this is the girl who basically dismembers ALL her characters! Oh look, there goes a limb! But killing your main character’s romantic partner just as they get together seems so… hm, I still don’t have a word for it. Cruel is one. The only thing is I don’t believe it was for plot convenience. And I am very glad that I am not Winslow editor because I would basically tell her DON’T DO THIS TO ME, DON’T KILL HIM, kill his legs, remove his balls but don’t kill the poor guy! 

But anyway the guy was dead as a doornail, so I realised that if this was going to be the plot, might as well go with the flow. And I did very much enjoy the first sex scene, the drunk hook-up, because it was amazing!! Yes, raw, drunken, regret sex and it was hot! It was passionate, it was aggressive, it was needy. I was kind of looking forward a relationship between her and the bff, but I was also relief that the plot was really around Dahlia and Shane. The abandonment, the hollowness you feel when someone leaves… forever, the black hole that drags you to the bottom of hell. I don’t know, maybe it felt too real for me. I’ve lost a couple of dear people and it feels so odd that they will never be there again so surprisingly this was a novella that really made my less-happy feelings emerge. It felt too real. People die, but these are characters and yet it felt like reality. And reality sucks! Good people die and that should be forbidden!

Also while I really enjoyed the quick hook-up, I can’t really say the same for the other sex scenes. The first one felt so raw and desperate and the others were more peaceful. I missed the aggressiveness of sex, it was really well written. And I also hate the other guy, blergh! I want her to be mad at the world, not at peace! Go, stay mad at the world is a bad place and stole your husband and the love of your life! 

The cliffhanger was surprisingly a real cliffhanger… I can’t say more, I’m not a party killer.

Black dahlia is a bold novella. It takes a lot of courage to do what Winslow did with the plot, whether people will like it… I don’t know. There are people who will surely recognize that damn, I haven’t seen an author going like this, since (that character from Harry Potter) died. And he dies in the end of the novel, not at the beginning. But once again while I am not entirely a fan of the plot’s initial problem, Winslow manages to pull it off. The anger, the desperation and the loss, the feelings are raw and it is amazing how in such a short amount of pages we can experience such devastating emotions. I did not finished the book loving it, but it has grown on me as one of the boldest moves I ever saw in fiction. So yeah, no fangirl actions, I am saving that for later. And for God sake, go slow my heart can only take an amount of knives with fictional characters!