I have seen Gabriel’s Inferno talked about a lot on Goodreads so when it was offered up for review I thought it would be a good time to final read it. From the blurb it seemed to be similar to 50 Shades, handsome, screwed up rich guy meets young, innocent female and they cannot stay away from each other. Unfortunately those descriptions only scratch the surface of how screwed up and innocent our H/h really are.
Julia and Gabriel. Julia is a student of Professor Emerson. He is a Dante specialist and she has long been fascinated by Dante. She attends his college only because she does not have the money to pay for Harvard. Julia is also his sister’s best friend but he does not know that. They have only met one time, something I will discuss later, so he doesn’t see her as anyone he would know. He is still drawn to her and we soon find out why.
Now for my rant….
Julia was disgustingly innocent and not in an appealing way. I wanted to reach through the pages and choke her. Or maybe smack her. Do something to her that would just make her go away. I got so sick of reading about her crying when someone raised their voice to her. I mean, really? Who cries when someone uses strong language around you? Who? There are several references to the song “Closer” by Nine Inch Nails. Julia was mortally offended when an ex of hers sang this song to her. She said she didn’t want to be like that, she wanted to be loved. Ugh. And if I had a nickel for every time she bit her lip and looked down at her shoes I would be a gazillionare now. I would be retired to my private island. As you can tell, I had strong feelings of dislike for her character.
But not everyone had strong feelings of dislike. Every 30 pages or so Julia had a man falling over her. She was so beautiful, so perfect, so ethereal, so innocent. Blech. I never saw her appeal. From page 1 she was a timid, little mouse with no personality except that of a crybaby. Why were all these men falling at her feet? Why? How was I supposed to believe she was so incredible when she never did an original or interesting thing? And Paul. One of the men who is after her. He is creepy in a stalker-I-like-young-kids way. He calls her Rabbit and wants to take things slow and sweet. Double Blech.
Then we have Gabriel. Talk about an anti-hero. He is a former addict and current alcoholic. There is nothing redeeming about him. Julia is so in love with him because of a scene from their past. She came over for a family dinner to find everything in shambles. Coffee tables broken, his brother in the hospital because of a fight with Gabriel, father was punched, and mother was hit all because Gabriel needed money for drugs. He hit his mother! In a weird twist Gabriel and Julia leave the house for a walk where he gives her the first kiss but because he is drunk he never remembers the incident. If this story had been 15 years in the past I might have been more understanding but it had only been 6 years. 6 years isn’t that long of a time.
Gabriel is referred to as The Professor. There are times when the book is confusing because Gabriel will be thinking to himself and he will revert to the third person. It made him come off even more as a self-important jackass.
The whole book I felt like I was on the cusp of something. There was tension. It could have been good tension but it never materialized. Gabriel and Julia do not have sex until the last pages of the book. So all this tension, all this buildup just went pzzzzz for me. I don’t get it. I wanted, so badly, for whatever it was I was waiting for to happen, but it never did. I never liked either of the characters but because I was waiting for something to happen I read through all 500+ pages of the book. The blurb says “but by night he devotes himself to an uninhibited life of pleasure”. I never saw that! I never got any good stuff. I waited and waited but nothing!
As you can tell, I did not like this book. I can’t remember being so frustrated with a book in a long time. Final grade- D
Rating: D
Gabriel’s Inferno by Sylvain Reynard
August 4th 2012 by Penguin
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I read another review that said there was a scene where Gabriel pukes all over the heroine. So, with the puking on the heroine and hitting his mother, I think I’ll pass on this one.
I can’t remember the last time I was so angry at a book. They were both terrible characters. I thought about giving it an F but I reserve those for books I can’t even sludge through. Even if I hated most things about this book, the writing was readable.
Ok, I am still trying to justify my D.
I don’t understand this new trend where the hero has to be a broken, damaged asshole and the heroine has to be this naive, ridiculously innocent idiot who is in awe of the asshole because he is so damaged. And that’s in contemporary romance.
Who gets their first kiss from a man after he has destroyed his house, put his brother in the hospital and punched his mother? WHO?
I can handle damaged but this…this was beyond reparation. I would have put him down like a lame dog if I were Juliana. Of course, that would require her to have a spine which she clearly didn’t.
Punching his mother for drug money. Yes. I still shake my head over that.
EXACTLY! I reviewed this one last month and I thought I was in hell myself by the last page. I waited so long for something and it was such a let down.
Ah…the puking scene. I would have puked back at him. Eww. Seriously? We get to read about him puking but have to wait until the last few pages for the sex?! And it wasn’t memorable sex either! It was tame and vanilla. Gimmie some kinky fuckery please! LOL
Plus all the Dante’s Inferno left me dizzy. I never had any desire to read that classic before and I definitely have no desire to read it now.
Good! I am glad you were in hell too. Ok, that sounded bad but at least I am not the only one who felt that way. There are so many 5 star reviews that I am boggled. I feel like I missed something.
Your review makes me think I would have had some serious rage issues if I was the one reading the book. These characters sound horrible.
Rage issues explain my feelings very well when it comes to this book.
I read one review and that was enough for me, no, this is not the book for me
It was a rough one! There are way too many books out there to read ones you don’t think you will like.
Your review made me LOL b/c I LOATHED this book. Agreed with you on all parts 100%.
lol. Loathe, that is an excellent word.
It seems like people have strong feelings about this book both good and bad but I don’t see a lot of DNF’s. So, not so horrible people are throwing their e-readers into the garbage, which is good right? lol.
Well, it is like I said. There was such anticipation that I felt like I had to read the whole thing to see what happened. But then nothing happened. All those appetites talked about in the blurb where nothing.
My thoughts exactly, Jen! After I read this book, my only thought was WTF? LOL
It was kind of sad, huh?
Wasn’t this book originally A.U. Twilight fanfic? I read somewhere it was. Anyway, I’ve got nothing against fanfic and loved Fifty Shades but I kept looking at this one and reading the reviews on Amazon and it just didn’t sound like anything I would like. Your review cemented that opinion for me. Thanks for “taking one for the team”!
Your welcome. I think! lol
This was originally a Twilight fanfiction, so that’s where all the lip biting comes from, lol. You know, Bella did it all the time. It was one of those fanfics that you either loved or hated and those that loved it were rabid about it. Hence, all the fantastic reviews for it. I flounced about half way thru as fanfiction. It was exhausting, incredibly frustrating and at times downright boring. From your review, it appears that nothing but the names have changed.
Ok, that makes sense. I don’t think I made the connection with all that lip biting and looking down.
I feel like you just saved me from a waste of time and money! This book was on my to read list, but I am marking it off. Thank goodness I don’t usually purchase until I am ready to read!
Glad I helped! At least now you can spend it on something a little safer.
D! I gave it DNF!
Well I did finish it and I since I did I felt like I couldn’t give it a DNF or F. But it was a close thing, let me tell you.