Review: Sweet Taste of Betrayal by Harleigh Beck

Sweet Taste of Betrayal by Harleigh Beck

Publication date: May 7th, 2022

Pages: 90

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

It's my eighteenth birthday, and my mom let me invite my closest friends to stay in a rented log cabin.

One night, no parents.

It's said three masked men step out from the trees once every year to claim the blood of young souls.

It's just a myth.

Or is it?

*Not intended for readers under the age of 18.

This novella contains murder, graphic sexual scenes, and dub/non-con.

Please see the author's note for complete CW.

Available at:

Review:

Every girl wants a little independence on her eighteenth birthday where she can let her hair down and not have her parents hovering over her every move. Layla didn't honestly think that her parents would allow her to venture out into a log cabin at night without their supervision but she managed to convince them somehow. Before she knows it she is unpacking the car with her friends, Maddy and Jess while Maddy's boyfriend, Brian, Layla's ex, Adam, and Jess's crush and Layla's hookup, Zach, help. But the cabin they are staying in comes with a scary story all its own. It is said that on that night every year three men come out of the woods and kill any who inhabit the cabin that night. It is laughed off until three men do appear and set the friends' trip on its head as they fight for their lives. But is it real or someone's twisted joke?

For some reason this book gave me anxiety to read at night. That normally doesn't happen to me. I usually can stomach some pretty gnarly stuff even in a pitch black room with only my Kindle to light my way. But for some reason I needed to approach it in the daylight hours. When I did it was a quick but twisted read that would make even Stephen King sit up and go, 'whoa, way to mindfuck your audience, Beck.' There are aspects of it where I was like, 'wait, I don't recall reading anywhere that the book was a paranormal book, what is all this?' It was more the realistic-type vibes of a scary story being potentially rooted in facts that made me decide to wait to read the short story.

I did not expect to like the book as much as I did. Oh it is twisted and it is grotesque. There are moments where I curled my lip and others where I was rooting for one person one minute and their opponent the other. I didn't know who was good and who was bad at any given time and that fact kept me on my toes. The sexual aspects of the book are what you would expect. They are meant to shock and they are meant to turn people's stomachs a bit. At least there was no necrophilia. That would have been the old hard pass for me into DNF territory. I will tell you, you won't see the ending coming. Just when you shrug and give yourself over to the unusual plotline it gets flipped on its head. It's the damned Tom Gordon bear reveal again! Iykyk.

I feel this was a good little read if you like things that twisted but with a little bit of macabre sex appeal as well. I would be interested in reading more by Beck.