Formaldehyde by J.N. Bamforth
18+ Contains Adult Content
Formaldehyde follows Ethan, who is obsessed with his younger sister, Alina. He loves her and will do whatever he can to be with her and claim her. This is a taboo erotic horror with no happily ever after. I received an advanced copy of this book at no charge. This is my honest, voluntary review.
“You’re damn right I am. I’m crazy about what belongs to me.”
•Mortician (who crosses all the lines) •Blood siblings •Brother x Sister •Morally black MMC •Obsession overload •Frankenstein x Reanimator •Twisted HEA •Arts & Crafts •’She could call me Daddy’ •Feels like a fever dream •Innocent FMC •Scary big brother •’I’ll be your dirty little secret’
•Blood relations •Graphic details •Autopsies •Autopsy instruments •PTSD •Panic attacks •Possessive MMC •Mentions of alcohol •Drug use •Primal Play •Murder •Broken bones •Dub-Con •Spitting •Suicide •Abusive parent •Grief •Sibling death •Sick fantasies •Insects •Meentions of overdose •Suicidal thoughts •Hallucinations •Ghostly mirror sex •Improper use of a teddy bear •Autopsies & emblaming on a living person •Thoughts of cannibalism •Patchwork bodies •Necrophilia •Cum stuffing •Defiling a corpse •Body horror •Removal of limbs •Cooking human meat •Mental voices •Chicken nuggets
“Be my good little sister.” He whispers and my legs threaten to give way.
Well, where do I even start with this review?
Ethan is obsessed with his younger sister, Alina; he loves her in an unhealthy way. He craves her in a way he knows he shouldn’t, but doesn’t care. He knows she loves him the same way and is determined to show her that it doesn’t matter what everyone else thinks.
“I know, somewhere deep down, that what we have between us is wrong, but for the love of God, Alina. I can’t find an ounce of fucking care inside of me to fight it.”
Alina, on the other hand, can’t accept these feelings for her brother. She does love him, and she does crave him in a way that is so, so wrong. She can’t live with the way she feels; she wants Ethan to be happy and live a normal life, so she steps in front of a moving car. Ethan is sent to prison for this, and upon his release, he goes back to the funeral home where he worked. His boss and mentor have kept Alina’s body in storage for Ethan. Up to this point, it is a fairly typical dark, taboo romance…here is where it gets weird and horrific. Ethan never had a chance to have sex with his sister, now he can…and he does. However, her body starts to fall apart on him…ya know, as a dead body does, and so he starts keeping limbs from bodies that are due to be cremated so that he can put her back together again.
Yep, think Frankenstein and Sally combo… poor Alina.
So this was a fast-paced book that is set in a small town. Ethan & Alina’s dad is a drunk and not a very nice one either. Their mum is his punching bag and seems very switched off.
I’m fucking starving for her. I want to taste what’s hidden in between her cold slabs of meat. My mouth practically waters at the sight of my sister’s frozen
cunt. Water droplets like shining diamonds gather on her raw chicken-like lips, getting lost inside the smattering of dark hair she has there.
Yep, that quote above does refer to it as chicken-like lips…I suppose that’s one way to describe it 🤢
Ethan…okay, this dude is obviously weird. He has sexual thoughts about his sister & then has sex with her dead body…But I couldn’t help but feel for him. Like you shouldn’t want to hold him & protect him, but you do want to. I really felt for Alina, so young and so much life ahead of her just gone. The kicker is the end of this book is a huge WTF moment…which I shall not spoil.
I enjoyed reading this, and had I not read Crawl Space by this author, I would have maybe rated this higher than I did. For me, however, it didn’t hit the same as Crawl Space & even Eat Your Heart Out. Yes, the themes of this book were horrific, but I don’t know, something was missing…maybe the shock factor. All I know is it didn’t grip me the same way the other 2 books did, and I didn’t feel as strongly for the characters in this book as the others. I enjoyed it, but I didn’t love it or get obsessed with it, which is why I rated it 3 stars. I still recommend it, because it is fucked up and you should read that…If you like fucked up stuff, plus you should read it for the end when I sat there and went “say what now!”
Thank you, JN Bamforth, for the ARC.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
🌶️🌶️🌶️/5
