Searching...
English
EnglishEnglish
EspañolSpanish
简体中文Chinese
FrançaisFrench
DeutschGerman
日本語Japanese
PortuguêsPortuguese
ItalianoItalian
한국어Korean
РусскийRussian
NederlandsDutch
العربيةArabic
PolskiPolish
हिन्दीHindi
Tiếng ViệtVietnamese
SvenskaSwedish
ΕλληνικάGreek
TürkçeTurkish
ไทยThai
ČeštinaCzech
RomânăRomanian
MagyarHungarian
УкраїнськаUkrainian
Bahasa IndonesiaIndonesian
DanskDanish
SuomiFinnish
БългарскиBulgarian
עבריתHebrew
NorskNorwegian
HrvatskiCroatian
CatalàCatalan
SlovenčinaSlovak
LietuviųLithuanian
SlovenščinaSlovenian
СрпскиSerbian
EestiEstonian
LatviešuLatvian
فارسیPersian
മലയാളംMalayalam
தமிழ்Tamil
اردوUrdu
That Sik Luv

That Sik Luv

by Jescie Hall 2023 496 pages
3.99
57k+ ratings
Listen
Listen to Summary
Try Full Access for 7 Days
Unlock listening & more!
Continue

Plot Summary

Budded Roses, Broken Faith

A girl haunted by roses and guilt

Briony Strait, raised in a strict religious community, is tormented by shame and the expectation of purity. After graduation, she's stalked by a masked man, Aero, who leaves blood-red roses and cryptic Bible messages. Her curiosity and fear grow, as does her secret longing for the forbidden. The church's oppressive rules and her family's coldness leave her isolated, her only confidantes her brother Baret and best friend Mia. The roses become a symbol: a warning, a threat, and an invitation to sin.

The Induction and the Intruder

A sacred ceremony, a shadow's presence

Briony's induction as the first female Magnus Princeps is marred by a violent, near-fatal baptism and a fire in the church. She glimpses a hooded figure—Aero—watching from the shadows. The event cements her as both a trailblazer and a target. The church's patriarchal power structure is threatened by her presence, and the community's hostility grows. Briony's sense of safety is shattered, and the line between sacred and profane blurs.

Stalked by Shadows

Obsession grows, boundaries blur

Aero's stalking intensifies: he invades Briony's home, leaves torn Bible pages, and watches her sleep. His messages are both threatening and seductive, demanding she surrender to her desires and never seek his identity. Briony is both terrified and aroused, her body betraying her with longing. The church's hypocrisy and her family's secrets weigh on her, and she begins to question everything she's been taught about sin, purity, and power.

Baptism by Fire

Violence, trauma, and awakening

The fire at the induction is only the beginning. Briony's brush with death and Aero's cryptic interventions force her to confront her own mortality and the darkness within her community. She's drawn into Aero's game, compelled to play along to survive. The church's leaders are revealed as corrupt and abusive, and Briony's faith is shaken. Aero's presence becomes both a threat and a lifeline, his violence a twisted form of protection.

The Alliance and the Game

Enemies become allies, games become real

Briony forms an uneasy alliance with Saint, her former tormentor and rival for the bishop's legacy. Their relationship shifts from antagonism to mutual respect, and even attraction. Aero's manipulations escalate, orchestrating encounters that test Briony's strength and resolve. She's forced to defend herself with violence, discovering a capacity for darkness that mirrors Aero's own. The game becomes deadly, and Briony realizes she's being shaped into a weapon.

The Taste of Sin

Desire, shame, and transformation

Briony's sexual awakening is inextricably linked to violence and power. Aero's invasions become more intimate and degrading, pushing her to embrace her own desires and reject the church's teachings. She's both repulsed and exhilarated by her own capacity for lust and cruelty. The boundaries between victim and perpetrator, purity and corruption, blur as Briony becomes complicit in Aero's games.

Dirty Hands, Dirty Hearts

Corruption at every level

Aero's backstory is revealed: a bastard son, abused and discarded by the church's elite, turned into a weapon by the powerful men who ruined him. He's both avenger and monster, his love for Briony as toxic as his hatred for the institution that made him. Briony learns that her own family and the church have lied to her about her origins, and that she, too, is a pawn in a larger game of power and revenge.

The Test and the Knife

Survival demands violence

Briony is ambushed and nearly assaulted, but Aero's "gift"—a knife—allows her to defend herself. She's forced to choose between passivity and violence, and in choosing violence, she passes Aero's test. The experience leaves her both traumatized and empowered, her innocence forever lost. Aero's approval is both a reward and a curse, binding her to him in a cycle of pain and pleasure.

Lambs to the Slaughter

The church's rot exposed

Briony witnesses the church's leaders abusing their power, preying on the vulnerable, and covering up their crimes. Aero's interventions become more violent, targeting those who threaten Briony or stand in the way of his revenge. Briony is forced to confront the reality that the institution she once revered is built on lies, abuse, and blood. Her faith is replaced by a hunger for justice—and vengeance.

Fan the Flame

Rebellion and retribution ignite

Briony and Aero's relationship becomes a crucible for transformation. She learns to harness her rage and pain, turning them into weapons against her oppressors. Together, they plot the destruction of the church's power structure, using sex, violence, and blackmail as their tools. Briony's alliance with Aero is both empowering and dangerous, as she risks becoming as ruthless as those she seeks to destroy.

The Devil's Doll Awakens

Identity, agency, and revenge

Briony uncovers the truth about her parentage: she is the daughter of a murdered woman, given to her adoptive family by the church to cover up their crimes. Aero's own origins are similarly tragic, and their shared trauma binds them together. Briony claims her identity as the "Devil's Doll," embracing the darkness within her and rejecting the roles assigned to her by others. She becomes both avenger and queen, ready to take her revenge.

Confessions and Crucifixions

Sacrifice, exposure, and reckoning

Briony and Aero orchestrate a public reckoning, exposing the church's crimes through blackmail, violence, and spectacle. Saint is revealed as both victim and perpetrator, complicit in the institution's rot. Briony's own body becomes a weapon, used to destroy the men who sought to control her. The lines between sacred and profane, victim and villain, are obliterated in a final act of vengeance.

The Fall of Saint

The dynasty crumbles

Saint, once the golden boy, is exposed and destroyed. The church's leaders are killed or disgraced, their secrets laid bare for the world to see. Briony and Aero's plan succeeds: the institution that tried to erase them is reduced to ashes. The cost is high—innocence, faith, and even love are sacrificed on the altar of revenge—but the cycle of abuse is finally broken.

The Villain and the Queen

Power reclaimed, love redefined

Briony and Aero emerge from the carnage as both villains and survivors. Their love is toxic, violent, and all-consuming, but it is also a source of strength and healing. They reject the world's definitions of good and evil, choosing instead to create their own rules and their own justice. Their bond is forged in blood and pain, but it is unbreakable.

Vengeance Unleashed

No more chains, no more gods

Briony and Aero leave behind the ruins of their old lives, free from the chains of religion, family, and shame. They embrace their darkness, finding redemption not in forgiveness, but in the power to define themselves. Their love is a new kind of faith: fierce, flawed, and entirely their own.

Den of Demise

The final reckoning

In a climactic confrontation, Briony and Aero face down their enemies in a den of violence and spectacle. The last of the old guard are destroyed, and Briony claims her place as queen of her own destiny. Aero, once a weapon of others, is finally free to love and be loved on his own terms.

Ours to Own

A new beginning, a new faith

Briony and Aero escape into the unknown, their pasts behind them and their future unwritten. They are no longer victims or pawns, but kings and queens of their own story. Their love is sick, violent, and beautiful—a new kind of faith, forged in the fires of revenge and rebirth.

Epilogue: The Cleansing

Healing, transformation, and acceptance

Briony and Aero find peace in each other, their scars and sins transformed into sources of strength. They create a new life together, free from the chains of the past. Their love is not pure, but it is real—and it is enough.

Characters

Briony Strait

A flower forced to bloom in darkness

Briony is the protagonist, a young woman raised in a repressive religious community, taught to fear her own body and desires. Her journey is one of awakening: from innocence and shame to agency and vengeance. She is both victim and avenger, shaped by trauma but refusing to be defined by it. Her relationships—with her family, the church, Saint, and especially Aero—are fraught with power struggles, betrayal, and longing. Briony's psychological arc is a descent into darkness that paradoxically leads to self-knowledge and liberation. She is the "Devil's Doll," a symbol of corrupted innocence and reclaimed power.

Aero (Aero Westwood)

A weapon forged by abuse and revenge

Aero is Briony's stalker, lover, and eventual partner in vengeance. The bastard son of a powerful man, he is shaped by childhood abuse, abandonment, and the church's hypocrisy. Trained as a killer and used as a pawn by the powerful, Aero is both monster and martyr, his love for Briony as toxic as his hatred for the institution that made him. He is obsessed with control, violence, and the destruction of those who wronged him. Yet, beneath the brutality, he craves connection and healing. His relationship with Briony is a crucible for both their traumas, and together they become something more than the sum of their wounds.

Saint Westwood

The golden boy corrupted by power

Saint is Briony's rival, tormentor, and eventual pawn in her and Aero's game. Groomed to inherit the church's legacy, he is both victim and perpetrator, complicit in the institution's rot. His relationship with Briony is a battleground of desire, shame, and betrayal. Saint's downfall is both tragic and deserved, a symbol of the cost of complicity and the impossibility of innocence in a corrupt system.

Baret Strait

The brother who sees through the lies

Baret is Briony's adoptive brother, a source of both comfort and conflict. He is more worldly and skeptical than Briony, straddling the line between faith and rebellion. Baret's role is to protect Briony, but he is also a reminder of the family and community she must ultimately leave behind. His own struggles with faith and morality mirror Briony's, and his loyalty is both a strength and a liability.

Mia

The loyal friend and confidante

Mia is Briony's best friend, a source of support and a witness to her transformation. She represents the possibility of connection and understanding outside the confines of the church. Mia's own fears and limitations highlight the risks Briony takes in pursuing her own path.

Callum Westwood

The patriarch, architect of abuse

Callum is Aero and Saint's father, a powerful and ruthless man who embodies the corruption of the church and the community. He is both abuser and victimizer, willing to sacrifice anyone—including his own children—to maintain his power. Callum's downfall is the climax of Briony and Aero's revenge, a reckoning for generations of violence and hypocrisy.

Alastor Abbott

The political puppetmaster

Alastor is a politician and criminal, using Aero as a weapon and manipulating events from behind the scenes. He is emblematic of the collusion between church, state, and crime, and his eventual exposure and destruction are key to the collapse of the old order.

Bishop Caldwell

The wolf in shepherd's clothing

Caldwell is the church's spiritual leader, a predator who abuses his power and preys on the vulnerable. His crimes are the catalyst for Briony and Aero's crusade, and his death is both justice and catharsis.

Nox

The criminal ally

Nox is Aero's friend and occasional accomplice, a figure from the criminal underworld who provides both resources and a mirror for Aero's own darkness. Nox's loyalty is pragmatic, and his role is to facilitate the final reckoning.

Brandi

The survivor and witness

Brandi is a sex worker and informant, a minor character who nonetheless plays a crucial role in exposing the church's crimes and aiding Briony and Aero's plans. She represents the collateral damage of the institution's violence, as well as the possibility of agency and resistance.

Plot Devices

Duality of Sacred and Profane

A story built on opposites and mirrors

The novel's structure and imagery constantly juxtapose the sacred (church, purity, faith) with the profane (sex, violence, revenge). This duality is embodied in the characters—Briony as both innocent and avenger, Aero as both protector and destroyer—and in the plot's use of religious ritual as both weapon and wound. The narrative structure alternates between Briony and Aero's perspectives, blurring the line between victim and perpetrator, love and hate, salvation and damnation.

Symbolism and Foreshadowing

Roses, knives, and scripture as omens

The recurring symbols of blood-red roses, torn Bible pages, and knives foreshadow both violence and transformation. Each is a message, a warning, and a promise. The use of scripture—sometimes twisted, sometimes sincere—serves as both a weapon and a shield, reflecting the characters' shifting relationships to faith and power.

A constant negotiation of control

The plot is driven by games of power: stalking, blackmail, seduction, and violence. Briony's journey is one of moving from passivity to agency, learning to wield violence and sexuality as tools of her own liberation. Consent is both given and taken, and the boundaries between victim and agent are constantly renegotiated.

Trauma and Transformation

Pain as catalyst for change

The characters' traumas—abuse, betrayal, loss—are not simply wounds to be healed, but crucibles in which new identities are forged. The narrative uses violence and suffering as both punishment and purification, culminating in acts of revenge that are both destructive and redemptive.

Narrative Games and Metafiction

A story about storytelling

Aero's manipulation of Briony, and the novel's own manipulation of the reader, mirror each other. The plot is a game, with rules that are constantly changing, and the characters are both players and pieces. The use of confessions, letters, and staged performances blurs the line between reality and fiction, truth and lie.

Analysis

That Sik Luv is a dark, transgressive exploration of the ways in which trauma and transformation, power, agency, and consent, and desire are intertwined. At its core, the novel is a brutal deconstruction of religious and patriarchal authority, exposing the violence and hypocrisy at the heart of institutions that claim to offer salvation. Through Briony and Aero's journey—from victimhood to agency, from shame to self-acceptance—the book interrogates the very nature of sin, love, and justice. It asks whether healing is possible without destruction, and whether true freedom can be found outside the boundaries of tradition and faith. The story's explicit violence and sexuality are not gratuitous, but serve to illuminate the psychological and social forces that shape—and warp—our identities. Ultimately, That Sik Luv is a story about reclaiming power: over one's body, one's story, and one's destiny. It is a celebration of survival, a warning about the costs of complicity, and a challenge to the reader to question the stories we are told—and the ones we tell ourselves.

Last updated:

Review Summary

3.99 out of 5
Average of 57k+ ratings from Goodreads and Amazon.

That Sik Luv polarized readers with its dark, twisted romance between a stalker and a religious girl. Many praised the intense chemistry, steamy scenes, and character development, comparing it favorably to other popular dark romances. Critics found it problematic, citing excessive degradation, unrealistic character transformations, and repetitive writing. Some DNF'd due to boredom or discomfort with the content. The audiobook narration received high praise. Overall, readers agreed it's an extremely dark, spicy read that won't appeal to everyone, with strong religious themes and trigger warnings.

Your rating:
4.47
1 ratings

About the Author

Jescie Hall is a romance author known for her dark and steamy novels. Her writing style is described as captivating and vivid, particularly in her depiction of intimate scenes. Hall's works often explore themes of obsession, religious trauma, and character transformation. She has garnered a dedicated fanbase who appreciate her unique approach to the dark romance genre. While some readers find her content too extreme, others praise her ability to create complex, morally gray characters and intense, passionate relationships. Hall's novels, including That Sik Luv, have sparked discussions about the boundaries of romance fiction and the portrayal of controversial themes.

Download EPUB

To read this That Sik Luv summary on your e-reader device or app, download the free EPUB. The .epub digital book format is ideal for reading ebooks on phones, tablets, and e-readers.
Download EPUB
File size: 3.13 MB     Pages: 16
0:00
-0:00
1x
Dan
Andrew
Michelle
Lauren
Select Speed
1.0×
+
200 words per minute
Home
Library
Get App
Create a free account to unlock:
Requests: Request new book summaries
Bookmarks: Save your favorite books
History: Revisit books later
Recommendations: Personalized for you
Ratings: Rate books & see your ratings
100,000+ readers
Try Full Access for 7 Days
Listen, bookmark, and more
Compare Features Free Pro
📖 Read Summaries
All summaries are free to read in 40 languages
🎧 Listen to Summaries
Listen to unlimited summaries in 40 languages
❤️ Unlimited Bookmarks
Free users are limited to 10
📜 Unlimited History
Free users are limited to 10
Risk-Free Timeline
Today: Get Instant Access
Listen to full summaries of 73,530 books. That's 12,000+ hours of audio!
Day 4: Trial Reminder
We'll send you a notification that your trial is ending soon.
Day 7: Your subscription begins
You'll be charged on May 12,
cancel anytime before.
Consume 2.8x More Books
2.8x more books Listening Reading
Our users love us
100,000+ readers
"...I can 10x the number of books I can read..."
"...exceptionally accurate, engaging, and beautifully presented..."
"...better than any amazon review when I'm making a book-buying decision..."
Save 62%
Yearly
$119.88 $44.99/year
$3.75/mo
Monthly
$9.99/mo
Try Free & Unlock
7 days free, then $44.99/year. Cancel anytime.
Scanner
Find a barcode to scan

Settings
General
Widget
Loading...
Black Friday Sale 🎉
$20 off Lifetime Access
$79.99 $59.99
Upgrade Now →