Equal parts ‘what did I just read?’ and ‘fine, one more chapter'.
Dire Bound by Sable Sorensen is one of those books that makes you pause mid-chapter and think, I can’t believe this exists… and then immediately keep reading. Hands down, this is the strangest book I've ever read. It’s like Disney collided with Greek and Roman mythology, took a sharp turn into adult-only territory, and never looked back. We’ve got a rigid social hierarchy (Alphas, Betas, Gammas), a desperate, down-on-her-luck heroine, a prince who rides in looking heroic and turns out to be… complicated, and forest animals with magical powers just wandering around. All of this like it's totally normal.
I rolled my eyes more than once and freely skipped the steamy scenes, but I’ll admit the story worked. It had that irresistible train-wreck quality. I didn’t want to keep watching, but I absolutely couldn’t look away. Every time I thought, okay, this is too much, something else happened that dragged me further in.
By the end, it felt less like Disney and more like Alice in Wonderland. I fell down the rabbit hole and had to keep going just to see how strange it would get. Not a favorite, not something I’d usually pick up, not something I'd recommend, but undeniably compelling in a what on earth did I just read kind of way. And with that, January's Rusty Book Club pick is now in the books. No pun intended.
