[Review] How to Destroy a Perfect Marriage - danoctober

How to Destroy a Perfect Marriage - danoctober

Have you ever read a story, the first instalment of a series, and really liked it? You liked the setup. The characters. The conflict. It all just works for you, even in spite of the flaws that may be there. But then...

This story did that for me.

How To Destroy A Perfect Marriage is a good starting set up for a potential series. It's high on conflict and tension but low on sex. This is one of those stories that is more about the situation and plot than the on screen sex. (There is no on screen sex) So don't go into reading this expecting some 'wank' material.

It's the start of a story of how I wife became obsessed with the idea of having sex with another man and her husband filming it. And how it quickly destroyed everything.

This isn't a long read. But it's packed full of possibilities.

And had the story stopped with this first installment, then I think it would have been a good flash fiction story. The author even invites others to come up with their own continuations or endings.

I wish the author had left it at that.

I promised myself that when I started doing these reviews (I know this is only the second, but I still gave myself some guidelines), I wouldn't go negative.

What I mean by this is that I wouldn't trash an author or a story. If I read something that I didn't like, I wouldn't review it because that wouldn't be necessary. I want to share good stories. Not bad ones. Of course, all of this is subjective. It's my opinion. If you like something and I don't, that doesn't matter. Like what you want and dislike what you want. We can agree to disagree and share our thoughts.

That being said. The author decided to continue the story... and did so in one of the worst ways in my opinion.

Where there was emotional tension and heart-pulling conflict in the first part... the next part become mean spirited and ugly. It feels like the author was projecting some sort of anger onto the page rather than exploring what the characters would be experiencing. The characters became inconsistent, flipping and flopping with emotions. One minute, the male MC is thinking how much he loves his wife. Next he's thinking of her as a b*tch and thinking about assaulting her, doing violence and worse. (It was cringe and distasteful).

It continued for a few more chapters, and it just got worse and worse. I'm not sure what the author was thinking or why they decided to become angry and twisted about the setup, but they made their choice.

Needless to say, please don't go and read the story and give negative reviews or harass the author. Just because I'm giving a critique doesn't mean I think this author is bad or anything. It's just in this particular story that they wrote (besides the first part) they went off the rails for me.

Maybe this will appeal to the BTB crowd. But for me, it just feels like a horrible execution for a really good set up.

My suggestion would be to read the first part (the one I've linked) and then leave it at that.

However, since the original author left the story open for others to jump in and give their own interpretations, I may throw my hat into the ring and write my own ending.