Jude1111

*** Raw,Gritty,Disturbing,Emotional but definitely one of my top reads this year ***

They called him the Badger because he was rabid and aggressive,black and grey

I don't even know where to start to try and review this book...I read this in just over 24hrs,it was so good I couldn't put it down.

Badger is a vigilante bicyclist in Boston and he first meets Adrian when she has been knocked down by a driver that he avenges for his action.
She becomes obsessed with meeting him and puts into motion a plan to do just that.
There follows a kind of cat and mouse game as they both skirt around each other.





Badger is around 30 and is a truly damaged man after being in the Foster Care system from a young age.He comes across,initially,as an asshole but the more I got into the book the more I loved him.
There are a ton of books out there about characters with disturbed pasts resulting in the person they are today.
But, this is one of the rare books that I could fully appreciate the man he was due to his past.
The abuse he suffered isn't gone into in great detail but enough is told for the reader to truly understand exactly what he suffered.






Adrian is 27 and at a point where she is trying to get her life together after being addicted to a drug.She has always lived her life in the shadows,never wanting to draw attention to herself.

So the game begins....

Badger can only be sexually satisfied by pain being inflicted on him,something that Adrian struggles with but she's willing to try....
I don't know if she consciously thought she could change him and make him love her but he wasn't someone who wanted to change or love.

"I'm pretty sure I love you"

"I won't ever love you back,"he said

Badger doesn't understand love...he's never know it and thinks he can't love so he pushes Adrian away...in one of the most heart breaking scenes I've read.But the more he pushes,the stronger Adrian becomes.

This is definitely not a romance and while there are sex scenes I didn't find it erotic and one scene in particular was hard to read.The scene in question is quite shocking in content but I don't think it was included for the 'shock' factor...more for the reader to fully understand the point that Adrian had got to in her involvement with Badger


A lot of reviews have commented on this being dark but I would class it as more disturbing than dark.I find a lot of 'dark' books quite unrealistic but this was totally believable.
The more I read,the more I got the feeling of dread.
But I wouldn't have missed reading this for anything.
An amazing book that just makes you feel.....