Review: Things That Were Broken (Everything That Dies, Book 1) By Will Tyler

Review: Things That Were Broken (Everything That Dies, Book 1) By Will Tyler

Before I get into today’s review, some trigger warnings are a must. This book contains multiple graphic depictions of suicide, self harm, rape, conversion therapy, and child abuse. This read is not for the faint of heart.

Michael and Leah run an interpretive dance class at their local youth centre. One night, they get a message from one of the classes’ attendees, Cameron, who is on the verge of suicide. Michael and Leah go after Cameron in the hopes of talking him down from his suicide attempt, and reminding why life is worth living. Cue the rest of the book.

First of all, I understand why this book was written. The author has a very deep understanding of religious trauma, especially religious trauma stemming from sexual abuse and conversion therapy, and the individual traumas of the characters were things that many people who faced religious trauma will be able to relate to. The subject matter is handled with grace and sensitivity, which I think that many people will appreciate. However, the book just wasn’t for me. I found myself repeatedly skipping pages because the constant vivid descriptions of the characters’ trauma were too much for my taste. All of the characters had a never-ending trauma conga line, and there was nothing to balance it out, and the emotional impact that their trauma should have had on me just wasn’t there because of it. The characters felt one-dimensional, and like their only defining features were their respective traumas, and their dance group. I understand that these things happen in real life, but this is fiction, and I would have preferred to see the characters properly fleshed out so that I could care more about them, and in turn, care about their traumas. I’m also confused as to when this book takes place—It was released in 2021, but the characters use flip phones and communicate in text speak with them, which seems to suggest that the setting of the book is in the early 2000s.

I know that this book will be extremely important to people, especially those with religious trauma, but it wasn’t for me, and I will not be reading any more books in this series. If you’d like to check it out for yourself, however, you can find it below on Goodreads, where you can be redirected to the right Amazon page for your country:

Goodreads

Things that Were Broken (Everything that Dies Book 1)

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I don’t know why I still feel the need to private my browser, lock the room, and close the curtains whenever I write a sex scene. I’m 26 years old FFS

‧⁺✧ news for my eldritch romance novel ♡°‧

Get it at playstore | amzn | iBooks | kobo | Everand | BoD and more! Read a tumblr snippet here ☆

I’m super happy to announce that the revised second edition of “Far Beyond The Moon” is finally available internationally! It comes with a 10k words bonus chapter full of monster goodness ♡

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Blurb of “Far Beyond The Moon”

The life of Christopher Ennington is in shambles. Volunteering at his local dog shelter is what gets the 38-year-old through the days. Battered by abuse, disease, and that particularly messed-up thing dragged into the shelter, he cannot believe his luck when he crosses paths with a mysterious stranger: Gyth is kind, dreamy, and just as much of an outsider as Christopher. Frankly, it has seemed impossible to ever find love again – but here he is, enamored by brown eyes and a voice like honey.

Gyth has never planned on returning to this dimension. But after his crash into it, he is connected to the lonely creature who has saved his life. And so, he decides to stay and masquerades as a ‘human’ himself. With Christopher to teach him, it’s not too difficult – and even fun! Birds of a feather flock together after all. But people in rural Massachusetts do not take kindly to this blossoming relationship. It is only when Christopher learns of Gyth’s eldritch nature that this world finally starts to change – and they themselves with it…

What lies beneath the flesh must break free: Cosmic horror and body horror entangled in a steamy queer romance – literally!

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More about “Far Beyond The Moon”

130,200+ words

460 pages for you to devour

15 chapters full of hurt/comfort

8 smut scenes with eldritch body horror

2 loners who finally find their perfect match

1 cosmic-mad, brain-melting, sweet-as-honey romance

and too many tentacles to count!

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Since it deals with trauma and mental illness and serves as an abuse survivour fantasy, parts of the book are fairly dark even outside of the body horror genre aspects. I have written this very much in the spirit of a hurt/comfort fanfic. Still, I encourage you to check out the CWs on my carrd before buying or renting the book.

I’d be overjoyed to hear what you think! I’m still starting out as a selfpub writer and it is a scary road, but I literally have so many more horror couples I want to pour into novel-length stories – so I’m trying my best to make this work! Thank you to everyone spreading the word, it means the world to me ♡ Cheers!

Hello Alina!

You have gorgeous OCs! What inspired their designs? Did it take a few attempts to get their designs just right, or did you have a vision and immediately actualize it? Either way, incredibly impressive! Love the poses, love the style! ✨

Hello, thanks for the ask! I actually had the art of them commissioned by yhelsstuff, and the cover by Marvinsedit, but both were made under my instruction lol XD I wanted the character stills to reflect their interests, so I had Nathaniel drawn in a Victorian outfit (He’s a Victorian goth who makes most of his own clothes, and he owns a fashion label called Black Rose), meanwhile Kunio’s aesthetic is more 90s punk, but it has a touch of goblincore to reflect his tengu motif. The wings on the cover are purely metaphorical, and are based on Kunio’s perceptions of himself, and of Nathaniel—Kunio has black tengu wings because he thinks of himself as a tengu—He was a disgraced, unloved child who died, and was reborn as an invincible being far stronger than his old self could ever hope to be. Nathaniel has white angel wings because Kunio thinks of him as an angel—He’s selfless, kind, and pure of heart, but he’s too pure of heart for his own good.