So I don't want to be unfair to this book or it's author - I knew what I was getting into when I began Punk 57. This book isn't looking to be the next literary classic or motivate it's audience to create their next masterworks. It's a dark and mysterious romance that isn't afraid the pull some more aggressive punches, and it comes from a romance category often known as 'p*rn without a plot'. However, the reason that I cannot find myself give this book a higher rating is because it was just so uncomfortable and toxic. I know toxic tropes can be really common in novels like this, and I probably am the fool for picking up a book that includes the tension in the description and expecting something different from the novel that I find. But I was hoping that it would at least be clever about it's toxicity. 

I tend to steer clear of the books for many reasons, mainly because I just don't personally love the tropes that are common throughout them, but I often find that the plot is lacking as well and I'm not very forgiving of 'romance without a plot' if the romance isn't very soft or romantic, or really even all that common. This book was more, bullying without a plot and then finally some fluff at the very end when the timeline for that fluff makes no sense. The epilogue describes a time skip that reasonably could occur within a span of 10-15 years but expects the readers to believe that everything happened in the span of five years while both characters were also pursuing college degrees. Of the mysteries and secrets throughout the story I found myself just not caring when it came time for the final reveal because there was no effort put into developing the motivation behind the characters actions, so each "big reveal" falls utterly flat on the page. The main characters themselves are hard to root for and in the end I was ultimately left feeling like I was probably better off having stopped somewhere halfway through.