Lights Out by Navessa Allen was my 50th read of this year, this book was everywhere on booktok etc last year so I’m a little late to the hype. Booktok has let me down many times before, as has the dark romance genre, but let’s see if this one was different.
Plot summary attempt
This is a dual POV book, following Aly – a nurse with a brand-new interest in masked thirst traps online, and Josh – the masked thirst trap maker, who can’t let it go once he finds out about their shared interest. Josh’s father is a renowned serial killer, which has turned him into a bit of a recluse and thanks to his genius hacking skills, he can make a living working from home, showing corporations the weaknesses in their systems and fixing them. But once he discovers that Aly not only has an interest in his hobby but is specifically interested in his videos, he turns his hacking skills to spying on her.
Then he decides to see how deep the fantasy goes for her, by breaking into her house and filming a thirst trap in her bedroom… plus installing cameras but he draws the line at watching her undress or anything more private, he’s not a creep…
Aly figures out what he did a dm’s him in a rage, only to find the masked man is, oddly charming? And funny? She know’s it’s fucked up but even when she realises he has been watching her on the hospital security cameras and even when she finds the cameras in her house… it feels kind of, nice? To be looked after? Albeit in a overbearing, slightly unnerving way. When they finally meet after a particularly difficult shift at the hospital, it’s to find him waiting for her in her car… to drive her safely home?
When an actual creep looking to harm her tries to break into her house, Aly and Josh become entangled in dealing with consequences of defending themselves, which leads to gangs, organised crime and scary shit that’s not the fun fantasy kind.
My review
Honestly? I actually genuinely enjoyed reading this book, it’s funny and unpretentious. It doesn’t try to be anything other that what it is. And unlike Den of Vipers, where the *tragic backstory* is used to justify abusive behaviours, controlling behaviours and blurry consent – the ones shown in this are just to explain why they might be into the kinks that they are.
I think this book has excellent consent chat, even with the mild stalking at the start? Which might seem a bit odd to say? But at every point where Josh is doing admittedly dodgy stuff trying to see if Aly is into the same stuff as him, he is ready to stop if she showed anything other than enthusiasm. And the difference between this and other dark romances is that in Josh’s POV she is treated as more than an object, his narration isn’t all ‘I’m a dark broody man who will corrupt her’, which is frankly boring. His narration is all about ‘if I’ve found a girl that likes this stuff, I’m gunna worship her’.
There’s goofy moments such as where he forgets his voice modulater and speaks in a batman voice instead but then periodically forgets to do the voice. This is not a book that takes itself too seriously and is just having fun with the genre. Plus, it is not a book that is trying to sugarcoat or turn abusive behaviour into ‘kinks’.
I think this would feel like a bit much if you’ve only ever read fluffy romances, or if the only book that you’ve read involving kinks is Deep End by Ali Hazelwood but it is definitely not up there with the extremes of Haunting Adeline. I had stopped reading dark romances because of my issues surrounding ones that glorify abuse/ have frankly shit storytelling and people only like them for the smut. But this book is not that, I was really pleasantly surprised and it got me through a four hour flight, entertaining me enough that I didn’t feel that bored!
Antonia Bernardin 