My I Will Break You Book Review - No Spoilers
Plot Summary
I Will Break You by Gigi Styx is the first book in the Pen Pals Duet—a dark stalker romance that throws you into a world where nothing is safe and no one is truly innocent. The story follows Amethyst, a woman haunted (literally and figuratively) by her former prison pen pal, Xero, a convicted serial killer who was supposedly executed. After she jilted him at the altar, Amethyst’s life unravels: she sees ghosts, questions her sanity daily, and endures a reign of terror as Xero appears to haunt her every step—protecting her from threats and tormenting her at the same time. Amid gaslighting, blood, and a mess of twisted family secrets, she’s forced to question reality, face violence, and confront both her trauma and forbidden desires. The book is relentless, full of unreliable narration, psychological mind games, and a saga of obsession that ends on a brutal cliffhanger.
Why I Love This Book
I love how this book doesn’t hold back—it’s brutal, chaotic, and puts me right in the mind of characters who are utterly unhinged. The sense of dread and suspense gripped me from the start. Experiencing the story through unreliable narrators made everything uncertain and more intense; I was constantly second-guessing what's real and what's delusion. The pacing is explosive, with vicious twists, betrayals, and cliffhangers that made my heart race.
The chemistry between Amethyst and Xero is wild and dangerous—there’s a raw, animalistic obsession that’s as magnetic as it is disturbing. I was fascinated by the psychological games and the descent into darkness, both for Amethyst and for myself as a reader. The way the story blurs the lines between love and manipulation, protection and punishment, left me shaken and hungry for more.
I also appreciate the layers—there’s depth in the unraveling of childhood trauma, family betrayal, and what it means to survive when everyone else wants you broken. I finished the last page in shock, not ready to let go, and desperate to see how this twisted ride continues in the next book.
Who Will Like This Book
If you crave dark romance with a psychological edge, unreliable narrators, and gritty, taboo content, this one is for you. It’s for readers who can handle violence, gore, power imbalances, and mind games—and who want their romance extreme, twisted, and unapologetically messed up. Fans of books like Haunting Adeline or Darkly Madly Duet will probably eat this up.
⚠️ Trigger warning: This book contains graphic violence, torture, mental illness, PTSD, psychological abuse, dubcon/noncon, child abuse, murder, gore, body mutilation, animal death, sexual assault, suicide ideation, and extreme manipulation. There are extensive trigger warnings (worth reading) and this book is not for anyone who’s sensitive to dark or disturbing content.
Tagged As
dark romance, psychological thriller, dark stalker romance, prison pen pal, unreliable narrator, obsession, touch her and die, enemies to lovers, extreme possessive hero, forced proximity, BDSM, primal kink, mystery, trauma recovery, mind games, blood play, revenge, sadism, anti-hero, morally grey, taboo, cliffhanger, duet, twisted romance, open-door romance, indie romance, not for the faint of heart
Steam Level
This book is off the charts for spice—there’s explicit, kinky, boundary-pushing smut, and the steam scenes are frequent, extreme, and frequently intertwined with violence or power play. Do not expect sweetness or fade-to-black.
This novel is #5 on our list of 8 Best Ghost Romance Novels. View the full list.
