Blog Tour: Carnivore by Jonathan Lyon

I've been lucky enough to take part in quite a few blog tours already this year, so much more than last year and today's post is another with the lovely people over at HQ - Harper Collins UK (thank you!). I'll have a few more blog tour posts coming to my blog over the next few weeks as well so stay tuned for those. If you want to see my book ratings early and know what I'm reading, you can follow me on GoodReads.

*Carnivore by Jonathan Lyon (400 pages) ★★★

I partly read the arc I was kindly sent and I also listen to it partly on BookBeat as an audiobook (we all know how much I love BookBeat). In Carnivore, we follow Leander who seems to be suffering with some kind of chronic pain (myalgia) and synesthesia, among other issues as he leaves a trail of drug use and manipulation in his wake as a result. We have a glimpse into his incredibly chaotic and self destructive life in which pain is a kind of pleasure, self harm in various ways is a constant and his view of the world is very abnormal due to the issues and the crippling chronic pain he experiences. The main point I found interesting about the book was the characters life with synesthesia which is something I've never read about before, for example, how sounds could be associated with a colour or a scent.

This novel is described as 'the most controversial debut literary thriller of 2017' and I think that's a great way to describe it as it's definitely a polarising book - some will find it raw, unique and eye opening but ultimately well written and intriguing; however I think that others will view it as shocking and very uncomfortable. I fall in the middle as I found it to be very unique, shocking and interesting with regards to synesthesia which made for a very surreal read; however it was very disturbing at times and for most of the book it left me with an comfortable, uncertain feeling. Thankfully the more thriller elements, police involvement and the ending which was much more positive than I thought it would be, made for a more familiar read.

I would recommend it, for me a three star read is a good book with a couple of flaws but one that I'd still recommend. However I'd recommend it with caution and only if you think you will be ok with the potentially triggering topics of chronic pain, illness, manipulative relationships, abuse/rape and drug use - there are some extremely graphic, disturbing scenes so just be aware of that. I'd recommend the audiobook but it definitely made for very difficult listening at times...well most of the time. I think you can tell how mixed my thoughts are about this book but ultimately I would recommend it as a very dark, unique read!

Will you be picking up this book? What are you currently reading? Do you like books featuring darker, controversial or taboo topics?