The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu

 The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu

This is a fantastic lockdown STEM thriller. It has so much to it. Going in I had no idea what to expect, and it took me a minute to really get pulled in, but I have to say, once I started it I couldn’t put it down. I read this book in one sitting.

There are moments when William Shakespeare seeps right into the words, and you feel him there inside your ear very much, like Horacio did into Hayden’s throughout much of the book. It was beautiful the way this was done props to the author for their wonderful prose.

There are a couple of scenes between Horatio and Hayden that are spicy AF and I’m totally here for it. It was crazy cool, how well that was done.

Even the building itself, Elsinore Labs is a character of its own and you feel it there. You can see it the entire time. You feel like you’re in it this pristine lab waiting for the cleanliness and the sterileness of the environment to choke you; and I sort of wonder if that’s what happened to Hayden.

All of the other characters, Felicia, Paul, Charlie, Graham, Hayden, and Horatio were all phenomenally written.

There were a few grammatical errors, sometimes in the chapter headings we’re instead of saying Excerpted it says Excepted. But I’m sure all of these errors will be fixed before the book is actually published in September.

The other things that happened grammatically that bothered me we’re all of the times that it said “started” or “began.” For a particular example something “started ringing” when it should just say it rang. I like a stronger verb tense in my reading so that’s just a personal preference but it’s something that pulled me out of the story each time it happened. I did not highlight each of those because that would’ve taken too much away from the reading itself. But I did highlight it once so that I wouldn’t forget it in my review.

I will copy my annotations below. Anything in red is something I really enjoyed anything and Blue is a grammatical error that I found. Some of my annotations may or may not contain spoilers so if you do not want any spoilers for the book, please skip the annotations.

So my overall review was four stars. It lost one star because of the grammar issues; but because the overall story came together, so well, I am totally giving this book a five-star review phenomenal work by the author. They are a great author. I’m not sure if this is their first novel or not, but it is a great novel, and I will be picking up other stories from them. I look forward to when this book releases in September and I can get a physical copy. Maybe I’ll get really lucky and be able to get a signed copy by the author one day; that would be super cool.


The Death I Gave Him - Em X. Liu


# Chapter Eleven

> Hayden clenches my teeth so hard it hurts. “I know.”

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Red
- Progression: 40%

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> The truth slips away, muddied like silt running into a riverbank.

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Red
- Progression: 41%

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# Chapter Twelve

> Everything is too loud and quiet at the same time, like the shimmer before a thunderstorm, like the white-hot flash of a blow—pressure and weight before the pain hits. The kind of silence Hayden knows he can’t be the one to break.

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Red
- Progression: 46%

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# Chapter Fourteen

> Did that mean that Charles’s moral compass was permanently broken? Once you kill one man, nothing matters anymore?

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Red
- Progression: 51%

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# Chapter Sixteen

> Excepted from Tell Me A Tragedy

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Blue
- Progression: 55%

---

> started ringing.

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Blue
- Progression: 56%

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> He learned up against the doorway,

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Blue
- Progression: 57%

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# Chapter Nineteen

> The upward crook of her lips drops

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Blue
- Progression: 67%

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# Chapter Twenty Two

> braces again him, rolls

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Blue
- Progression: 79%

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# Chapter Twenty Four

> Excepted from Tell Me A Tragedy

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Blue
- Progression: 81%

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# Chapter Twenty Six

> Excepted from Tell Me A Tragedy

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Blue
- Progression: 86%

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# Chapter Twenty Eight

> The snarling monster of a girl hiding in my chest, the one who wanted to shoot Hayden and blame Charles for it, she still exists inside me. Some days, she comes out, angry for no reason, hating the people she’s supposed to love.
> I want to smother her, but that only gives her more fuel, makes the tangled mess thicker and more snarled, until I can’t figure out where I end and where she begins. Or maybe there was never a division in the first place. Maybe I’m only deluding myself further.

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Red
- Progression: 94%

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# Security footage; Armstrong Labs

> mostly likely

- Date: Apr 17, 2023
- Colour: Blue
- Progression: 95%

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Thank you to NetGalley and Rebellion for providing me with this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.