Bang (Black Lotus, #1) by E.K. Blair ~*Review*~

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REVIEWED BY:

BANG!!!!!
Every time now I here that word I'll think of this story! A story so gut wrenchingly moving it's hard to put words to a review. My heart broke so many times for Elizabeth/Nina. How a young girl can survive so much hardship in life is amazing. If I knew someone like this in real life I'd be amazed in just how strong she is. The horrific things she endured can cause anyone to choose the life she was now perusing. I don't blame her. I do like that along the way she found something real something she deserved to have but.....you'll have to read what that is and how it gets away from her, maybe, I don't know hahaha I however will question Pike!! WTF?! I hope in book 2 we get a more clear understanding what he's really about with Elizabeth. I thought at first that I liked him. I thought he was stuck in the same hell how could he be so bad, but maybe his reality is just as twisted from those events as Elizabeth's. I still feel for him even though I'd like to ring his neck!
This is a very fast paced story and a vey emotional one, with some extreme dark undertones but not dark like you would typically read, this is a whole other level of dark more a sad dark. When did there become so many levels of dark lol I'm really glad there are!! We'll need to start sub categories of the dark lol
All in all Bang was a phenomenal read, don't question it to much just go in and read the story, you'll be glad you did, you'll for sure walk away with something, then sit your ass in front of a wall and just.........stare

Goddamnsunnofafuckingfuckershitbitchassfuck!!!!!!

Where to start... let's start with the fact that I could only read 2 chapters at a time before having to take a break. I've never been SO consumed by a book like this before. the reason for the breaks was because it was so intense for me that I had to decompress before moving on. There was a lot of twisting in plots that I kept trying to figure out but this author stumped me every time ((except once)).

One of my favorite characters in this book happens to be non-human. Carnegie, the talking caterpillar. He's the new Jimminy Cricket. Don't judge this sentence until you read it :)

"Go be a Caterpillar"

Tears, pacing, nail biting, texting, and phone calls to release it all. This book is a COMPLETE head trip and leaves you with a big ass clusterfuck ending.....and I LOVED it. I know, I know, I'm a damn massochist, so fricken sue me!! ;) 

I am reeeeeling... its going to be a wall staring night for sure!!!! 

EK, I love/hate you right now hahaha

5 Stars for me... and will probably be the most unforgettable story of my life

 OK, so almost everyone I know has been raving about this book, like going mad over it. They are so mindfucked and book hungover they can't pick up anything else. They're just blown away. I'm thinking maybe it's just me or something, but it do not have that effect on me. First off, I've watched that show Revenge which is very similar so I think that ruined much of the wow factor for me. I'm jealous of those that hadn't watched it because I think they got a lot more from the book. That being said, I thought the book was very good, better than many books I've read. It wasn't a life-changer for me, but I did enjoy reading it.

I feel like I live in the dark more than I do the light.

Elizabeth and Pike have always been the other's person, each other's ONLY person. These two have been through some deep shit. I do not envy them at all. I was really attracted to the idea of this relationship very much.

"You tell me all the time that I'm all you have, but it goes both ways. I have nothing but you. You're my only family, Elizabeth. Please don't let him take you away from me."

Pike never has left my side.

"You're the only one who can make it go away, Pike."

Nina and Bennett are a couple I don't really know much about. I don't know how their merger came to happen. He's almost like an abstract thought. Do we feel sorry for him? Do we believe he is guiltier than he appears to be? Hmmmm.

Bennett is everything a husband should be, so it was essential that I create fissures within him. Purple flowers being one of them.

Nina and Declan could have been a love story. Coulda, woulda, shoulda, ya know. Declan may just turn out to wiser than previously suspected.

"Taste your lies, Nina."

"Nothing is real until you break down the walls and reveal the ugliness."

"Let go, Nina. Stop fighting me," he says, as if he knows I'm trying with everything I have not to come.

I actually think all three men may be more clever than we've been led to believe.

This story just begs to be discussed. It's that type of book. I have so many little points that I think I caught and so many theories of what has happened or will happen. It's hard to keep a review spoiler free. I believe that every character mentioned has a role from the first social worker to her husband's friend/business partner to her husband's driver to her foster brother's friend/previous roommate to her lover's father. In my opinion, it's a web much larger than for what she was trying to get payback. I plan to go into the future books with no preset notion of who is bad or good or alive or dead.

One of the most interesting things about the whole book to me was Carnegie. I loved how he continued to pop up throughout the story. Caterpillars symbolize being unable to move past an early stage of development. She has not been able to move past the perfect life she had at the age of five.

Neither of us could have possibly imagined how our lives would be forever changed when he opened that door.

I want my daddy. After all these years, I just want my daddy.

Another topic I want to bring up is the series name Black Lotus. A lotus flower's roots grow from mud at the bottom of a murky water source and the bud rises until it is above the surface to bloom into a beautiful, elegant, pure, full flower. This could have been her life after her horrible past, but it isn't. Because of the "black" which does not occur in nature for lotus flowers, the meaning is altered. The following are some meanings associated with unnatural black flowers: the dark side of human nature, the undertaking of a perilous journey from which not expected to return safely, the death of old habits, the end of an era, never fully opened, tragic love, hatred, resistance, vengeance, and of course the ideas of death and mourning.

"There's something about a beautiful, nearly flawless flower, emerging from muddled water."

"Everyone has something beneath that they're hiding."

I've noticed some people had issues with the sex. I feel that the past sex scenes were necessary so that we truly knew the depths of her pain. It also reinforces the bond between the Elizabeth and Pike, everything they went through. There is no way they could come out of it unchanged. The current scenes were so that we could see how not mainstream she was. Nothing about her sex life was anything most people would be doing. And the scene that made many cringe, made perfect sense to me because it lends to the state of mind of both Nina and Declan. The want between them is so much that it can't be expressed through normal means.

I thought it was a good read. I recommend it and plan to read the future releases in this series.

Lights. Camera. Action. 

BUY LINKS

Amazon US 

Amazon UK