The Need, from S. L. Hannah

Hello, guys! In July, I received from dear S. L. Hannah her new release, The Need, in exchange for an honest review. Thanks again, Hannah! ❤

from my Instagram 🙂

The Need is the story of Angie, a very insecure girl that has a fight with her boyfriend and is left alone to wait for him in a club. After more than an hour waiting for him and observing a beautiful woman on the dance floor, Angie engages in conversation with the object of her attention. Heather seems a strong and wild woman and Angie finds herself accepting to go to her house, tired of waiting for Eric.

After a good and passionate night, things start to go very wrong with Heather when Angie tries to go home and finds herself drugged and tied up to Heather’s bed. A new deal is on the table: Angie must stay a week in Heather’s hands and then, if she still desires to go home, Angie was free to go.

However, a week in the hands of the most amazing and terrifying woman that Angie has ever met is a journey to self-discovery – will Angie be able to walk away without a broken heart?

Now, the best part: analysis! Just remembering that this is just my opinion and impressions of the book 🙂

I was very excited to read this book, as I’m a big fan of LGBT romances and the fact that this was a thriller romance only spiced things up (also, the cover is breathtaking <3). The book was a good passing time, but I expected more. At Goodreads, I rated it 3 out of 5 stars because I had some issues with Angie – the narrator character – and I got so excited and happy with the end’s twist just to be disappointed by the end itself

I commented before here on the blog that I tend to have problems with first person narratives because I get too angry at the narrator’s actions and can’t take a break from their thoughts, besides the basic problem that no one never knows everything that is happening or will happen with everyone – which leads to inevitable holes on the story.

The narrative had a good pace – the book is a fast read, easily finished in one sitting (it took me more time because I buddread it with some Instagram friends <3). Angie is very accurate on details, sometimes a little too much, as she lives a true horror story in the hands of Heather, haha! You can feel her horror, her force and her excitement through the pages; you connect with her and wants to help her. And because I wanted her to see reason is that I got angry. Angie edges between a Stockholm Syndrome and the acceptable since the moment that Heather locks her up and it tired me a little. It all happened too fast to justify it, you know?

The plot is freaking awesome. The idea was very original and Hannah executed it very well, leaving the reader in the edge of tension, not knowing until when Angie will survive or if Heather will push her to the point of no return. You keep asking yourself in Angie will leave the apartment in one piece, literally! I admit that, in this aspect, the first character narration worked perfectly, as it intensified the reader’s feelings as well as Angie’s. We feel what she feels: you get confused, agonizing, scared, everything. And, at the same time, there’s all Heather’s complexity, her contradictions, her humanity – this last one is defied until the very last moment, haha! But I can’t with the end of the book. No spoilers, easy now, but I really found the way things turn up very inconsistent. The story was too fast for the characters relationship to grow as it did, in the way it did, you know? Even being an insane and crazy experience, in the sense that normality just pushed itself from the window, the end was too much for me…

Moreover, we never find out what happened with Heather’s company, with Eric, with Angie’s parents and, to be very honest, I’m not even sure of what happened with Angie and Heather. Maybe that’s me, I do have a closure problem, haha!

Now, let’s talk about characters. Hannah has such rich describing powers, it’s amazing. She builds each person of the book for her reader and we can feel the reality of it all – from abilities to insecurities, from looks to small habits (like Heather’s one, to chew her nail when she got unsure about something). For the first time in a really long time, I felt during the whole book that I was dealing with real people all the time. Even with all the mental sickness of everything that happened in Heather’s apartment, I felt the human essence of each character, in kindness and evilness. You can understand even uncle Johnny and Rachel’s need of being there. All the time, each character needs something, is moved by a stronger force of desperate desire that can’t be full filled – even Angie herself and Eric, the worst boyfriend ever, haha! Hannah plays with her reader from beginning to end, trying to break them as Heather tries to break Angie. What’s real? We don’t know and so doesn’t Angie.

However, the book key is the breaking. In the story, Heather uses a metaphor about the butterfly that leaves its cocoon. The break of the cocoon is the real start of the butterfly’s life and it applies to all characters. While they are at their comfort zone, they are not really living. They are not getting any satisfaction, just like The Rolling Stones, they can’t be truly happy. This was ingenious.

Another strong aspect of The Need is the sex scenes. I admit that I kept questioning myself how on earth could Angie feel any pleasure some acts, but it’s because of personal beliefs and views – I have a strong feminist trace in my personality, haha! In quality, form and intensity matters, the scenes were unique and perfection.

Overall, the book was good and got my attention in a high level, but my personal problems with Angie and with the book’s end were too high for a totally fair rating and I’m sorry for that – this is the shit of having strong opinions, haha! Still not giving any spoilers, but I would like to leave a reflection here. If Hannah’s intention is to make Angie grown into a real woman, capable of fending for herself and sure of her desires, why does Angie have to choose between Heather and Eric? There are 7 billion of people in the world. She is not trapped with only two people and gained the capacity of seeing what’s good and what’s bad for her after this insane week.

That’s it, guys! Thanks for reading this review and thanks again to S. L. Hannah for sending me this, it was a very interesting book! The Need will be officially out on August 25^th (really soon!), don’t forget to check it out on Amazon 🙂

What do you think of psychological thrillers?