Rating: 4.25 Stars

Publisher: Self Published 

Genre:  Genre Fiction/Romance

Tags: Emotional, Psychological, Addiction, Trauma, Content and Trigger Warnings Below in Review Body

Length: 294 Pages 

Reviewer: Kazza

Purchase At:  amazon

Blurb:

Their love was innocent and pure…
Until they were forced to believe differently.
Until they were brutally schooled on the “right” way to love. Oakland is not gay.
Jameson is not gay.Being gay is wrong. It is immoral. It is a sickness they must fight. It is the devil inside that needs to be purged.At least that’s what they’ve been conditioned to believe.They’ve spent years trudging through the wreckage left behind after eight months in conversion therapy as teenagers.When their lives collide again fifteen years later, the denial they’ve lived with for years gets harder and harder to fight.They loved each other once. Can two broken men find a way to love each other again?**Please heed trigger warnings. Use Look Inside feature before purchasing to view them**
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Review:                                                  **CONSIDER MY REVIEW TO BE A SPOILER**
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This is a hard book for me to give a genre or reading tags to. It features two gay men who have never been able to let feelings go for one another. So, yes, there is a romance at the story’s heart. A now dysfunctional romance trying to re-find its footing, one that definitely transcends brutality. BUT… for the most part, it is psychological, emotional, painful, and fits within the realm of gay or queer (genre) fiction. A lot of this book is spent dealing with the fallout for two thirty-two year old men who have battled inner demons for fifteen years after conversion “therapy.” In the audio review I call it “conversion quackery,” because that’s what it is. It’s unscientific, has been debunked repeatedly. People are born as they are, and there is absolutely nothing therapeutic about it. It is abuse. Torture. Brainwashing. Assault. Bullying. Thuggery. Emotionally crippling and dangerous.
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The writing in this book is good. Psychologically gut-punching. Emotional – you’ll likely feel sad, you’ll likely feel angry, you may feel a kernel of hope as you read. A hope that somehow, someway there will be a balance and peace afforded Jameson Davis and Oakland Corbitt, for the people they represent in our world. There are some excellent secondary characters too – Dr Husein. Dr Mercedes. Amanda. Micah and Wally. Where I felt the women in the taboo Secrets & Lies were bitchy caricatures, in The Devil Inside, there are good women representing. Amanda, Oakland’s wife, is very supportive, and at a personally difficult time for her. Dr Husein as well. Then there’s the wonderful Geraldine who adds lightness and humour and determination. Even in a state that wanders between lucidity and partial dementia, Gerry has more clarity and insight and decency that some younger and supposedly of more sound mind individuals. If ever given the chance in your life, don’t be the Corbitt/Davis parents of this world, be Geraldine. Always Geraldine. 4.25 Stars!    
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CW/TW: Suicide ideation, drug and alcohol abuse/addiction, cutting, major depression, past and current trauma, violence, homophobic religion, internalised homophobia.
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PS: I wish this book had a more thoughtful cover. It makes the book seem like you’re getting a bad boy story. It’s an injustice to the story and the writing.

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