Tag Team NSFW Review: Of Gods and Monsters: Komainu by Wulf Francu Godgluck

Hades

His innocence was the fire that blighted the deepest dark, but even he can't save the King from a past stained so black, the devil won't even touch it.

Years creep up on you, like a rotting hand: cold and wet, it will drag you down into your grave.

Life will hand you eternity only to rip it away from you.

Love will slaughter you in the most beautiful way and still manage to nail you in the ass, bareback, when you see him choose the heart of another man.

But Death... He is a patient soul. He waits, and he waits, and he waits.

'Cause the bastard knows he will always have the last laugh when he knocks at the door.

Kemono

Memories were all I had, all I had clung to as my heart turned to stone and finally to dust.

Now he is mine and I will hold him, and I will kiss him. We will dance and we will laugh, and we will cry... We will be human together...

I did not know heaven until I knew him.

There is no greater power that can tear and rip your world apart as when their lips finally kiss yours again.

But being human comes at a fatal price.

Sometimes you have to let go of the hand you hold onto so tightly that it brought pain, because that is the only way you can save them from Death.

Rex

Why did she take them away, hand them back, then force me to choose?

Is love really that cruel, that she would enjoy tormenting you as you watch the two men you love with your whole heart, kill each other...?

And then, my worst fear, my deepest darkest nightmare became a living breathing thing.

Death had come to take from us what we could never replace.

3.25 Hearts average

Chelsea - 3 Hearts

This was as dark and gritty as you'd expect it to be. If you can get through the first chapter full of very descriptive torture the rest of the book will be smooth sailing.

I was sooooo anticipating this release. After the build up and damn cliffhanger of the last book I was dying for this book!! Did it live up to those expectations? Yes and no.

If I am being honest, I was really looking forward to some threesome action! And it took a long time to get there, but when it did, it was everything I wanted.

The sex was super dirty and primal but there was that underlying emotion and possessiveness to everything these three did together. I loved Komanu, he seemed so essential to the threesome even though Hades and Rex worked so well in the previous book. There dynamics worked really well. Now if this threesome perfection formed 80% of the book not 30%, I would have given this 4 or 5 hearts easily, but it was not to be.

In the foreword Wulf warns us that our heart will be ripped out, and it was, and not in a good way. The ending felt a little unnecessary and not necessarily the death, that I'm sure lots of people know about, but what happened after it. The epilogue was super depressing and not in a, 'this is sad but there is hope' or, ‘my heart is breaking but this is beautiful’ more a, 'holy fuck, how did it come to this?!?’ kind of way. I mean I do not expect hearts and rainbows in these stories, but something similar to….affection… or hope would be nice.

The writing was also a bit too choppy for me, but I know that's Wulf's style. I was a bit lost with who was who and what relationship everyone had and the time frame… generally I was a bit lost throughout the entire story, which isn't a good thing.

The ending was a bit too much for me to rate this highly, but the time these three had together was just what I wanted!


Fantasy Living - 3.5 Hearts

If you have not read Hades then you will need to stop reading this and go and read that first. This is the second installment and background is required. This story starts off a few weeks from the end of Hades, and he is caught by the Russian’s.

Also required reading…. The dedication. Pay attention.
To the author…. I do not forgive you.

This story continues the brutality of the previous books, in language and action. It is rough, and you need thick skin and an iron stomach to read this. It is very dark. I would not recommend it to a newbie. It will definitely scar.

For those who enjoyed the other two books as I did, this will probably push your limits, as it did mine. I’m not a novice at dark stories. In fact I’ve read some pretty grungy stories over the last few years, but between the violent language and the torture in the intro, this maxed me out. It was one of those stories where I needed to take a few hours out from reading my next book to fully absorb everything I’d read and work through my feelings.

I will need to reserve judgment on whether I agree with how this story panned out. Obviously it is not up to me, on where the author’s characters take them, but to be honest, I am deeply unhappy with some of the plot. Obviously I was invested in the story enough to care what happened during it, so this is a mark in the story’s favour. But I am not pleased with the direction, and I will need a compelling reason to change my mind. I hope this is offered in the next book.

Hades and Kemono are both very alpha and they have very different relationships with Rex and each other. It is up to them to pave their own way, but first they need to find their boy who has been missing since Hades walked into the lion's den. Hades is even more disturbed in this story than he was previously, so of course there is a lot of drama.

The angst in this story is extreme, and there is no break. I don’t think there was any lightness to relieve the tension, and this made it a stressful read for me.

I did enjoy how Rex transformed. The extra layers and his side mission was a nice touch. It showed his independence and his willingness to survive devastating blows. I was more invested in him in this story than I was in Hades, and not just as Hades’ little.

This ends sort of on a cliffhanger, so people who hate that, be aware. I think enough of the story was resolved for this to be a ‘next stage’ ending, where the story is left open, but you can use your imagination to extrapolate what will happen in the future.

If you enjoy brutal and dark, then enjoy. And when you’ve finished it, feel free to tell me all about how you feel, because I need to vent too.

A review copy was provided for an honest opinion.