Book Review: Lights Out by Navessa Allen

 

Written by Safa Alhassan

Safa, the Grand High Priestess of Literature, fierce Queen of Fiction, undisputed, unchallenged, undefeated, Empress of every page ever printed, Keeper of the Infinite Bookshelf, Conqueror of Plot Twists, Destroyer of Boring Stories, the reason authors stay up at night trembling, Ruler of Reading Realms. Peer pressure was no match for your legendary willpower. The unmatched scholar whose insights shape the reading world, your gaze alone reduces dull plots to ashes. Your name echoes through the halls of literature like thunder,  and your bookish wisdom is the stuff of legend.

Hehehehe (I laugh in embarassed literature mornach), guess what? I read it. All my literary nzobu nzobu eyimba eyim (cocky bravado) just disappeared as this book totally messed with my head. I didn’t know whether to laugh, cringe, or just keep turning the pages in shock.

Lights Out by Navessa Allen is a dark romance novel I picked up purely because of peer pressure. At the time, it was one of the most talked-about books on TikTok and was still generating buzz, so I decided to read it even though I didn’t even know the genre existed before then. What followed was a fiery entanglement. My relationship with the book was as toxic as that of its main characters. To this day, I’m still unsure if I loved it or hated it.

The story follows Aly, a nurse with deeply disturbing and morally questionable fantasies involving masked men. These fantasies are inspired by a particular social media account. This profile belongs to a man who fulfills such desires with his well-built body, tattooed arms, chiseled abs, and over-six-foot height; all while wearing a mask, standing in a dimly lit room bathed in red light, holding a knife and recording "thirst traps" as the writer calls it. This was my first time hearing about such phrase. I found out that it's actually a slang term that refers to a photo, video, or even a piece of writing intended to attract attention in a seductive or provocative way in order to elicit compliments, desire, or admiration. Thousands of women found the masked man's thirst traps which he recorrded and posted on social media arousing. Aly is one of them.

Her fantasies begin to blur with reality when the masked man started stalking her, then becomes her boyfriend. Eventually, he kills Brad, a violent predator who had previously harmed women and seemed untouchable due to his wealthy background. The twist is that Josh (the masked man) and now Aly’s boyfriend is also the best friend and roommate of Aly’s ex, Tyler. This prior connection is where Josh’s obsession with her began. Though I felt like the writer should have developed Tyler's character further. He had the potential to be a compelling, vengeful, and jealous character if more effort had been put into his development.

Eventually, Aly and Josh are complicit in Brad’s murder. Brad, a dangerous and remorseless sex offender, may have deserved justice, but taking matters into their own hands meant they now had to cover up a crime or face legal consequences. To make matters worse, his parents are very influential. 

My relationship with this book was deeply conflicted. There were moments I was completely thrown off and disgusted, and others when I was genuinely intrigued or even smiling in awe. I still don’t understand the fantasies and intense thirst traps between Aly and Josh. There were scenes that left me wide eyed, questioning what I had just read. At times, I was genuinely disturbed. I think that mix of discomfort and curiosity made the reading experience unusually long for me. I dropped the book several times, only to return to it saying to myself, “I need to know what happens next.”

The most engaging part of the book for me came toward the end, when Aly and Josh enlist the help of her mobster uncle and his sons after Brad’s murder. That was when the plot took a thrilling, cinematic turn. The earlier portions of the novel are heavy on smut, drenched in horror, toxicity, and a type of raw lust that many now label romance.

That said, I appreciated the simplicity of the character names, which made the story easier to follow. The frequent sarcasm and jokes didn’t always land for me, I didn't particularly find them funny to be honest. It was annoying. But i guess they did add some levity to an otherwise dark and intense narrative.

On a deeper level, I found solace in Aly and Josh’s ability to be there for each other. Despite their toxic beginnings, they seem to complement each other. These are two people with traumatic childhoods, finding some form of solace in one another. I found their backstories quite sympathetic. Josh’s protectiveness, though extreme, had moments of tenderness. The way he saved her from a killer added a fragile sense of redemption to his character. Even so, his obsession with her was clearly unhealthy.

Lights Out is a deeply toxic novel. It was explicit to a level that felt overwhelming, and it genuinely unsettled me at times. I had to step away from it on multiple occasions. Yet I have to commend how deliberately it was written to create that kind of intense, disorienting experience.

If you’re considering reading it, I strongly recommend preparing yourself. The book contains vivid descriptions of murder, blood, stalking, and graphic sexual content. If dark romance is your genre, this might very well be your kind of story. But if not, brace yourself. I felt like I needed therapy when I was done. The trigger warnings were entirely valid. I initially brushed them off, thinking, “Well, how bad can it be?” But I was genuinely shocked beyond my expectations.

I didn’t know people could have the kind of disturbing thoughts that the author, Navessa Allen, managed to translate so vividly to the page. I truly thought I had seen it all.

Would I recommend this book? Yes, but only if you’re fully prepared. Buckle up. You might need therapy… or at the very least, a very happy person to talk to when you're done.