Two Halves, One Brian

Book Stats

• Publication Date: 07/15/25
• Publisher: Blue Nose Publishing
• Format: audiobook
• Length of audiobook: 5 hours
• Narrator(s): Lucy Rivers & Joe Arden
• Chapters: 13
• Narrator POV: First Person from Dimitri’s POV
• Available on Kindle Unlimited 🖤

Book Rating

Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/ 5

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️/ 5

Summary & Review

What a wild ride.

The story is dark, obsessive, chaotic, and super unhinged. The author wrote an insane story and the narrators helped breathe life into it. This is one intense, wild ride of a story. Whew.

Honestly, Joe Arden and Lucy Rivers handle unhinged/ morally grey characters so well. They always do such a wonderful job with complex characters like these. Seeing them as the narrators is what initially sold me on this book. But I have to say that J.A. Roles can WRITE. The story unfolds wonderfully.

Right away, you’re thrown straight into the chaotic mind of an unhinged and extremely possessive character, Dmitry, who has exactly one thing on his mind – his little Sparrow. His obsession. The entire thing is from his POV, but it is a duet, so Lucy Rivers lends her voice for the female characters.

I went into this story blind, so I had absolutely no idea what was happening at first. We start off with Dmitry in a mental institution (not his first time), and we see him work the program and staff so he can appear changed and well adjusted, allowing him the freedom he wants to go out into the world again.

We then get to follow Dmitry’s re-entry to the world, how he handles situations, the way he watches and interacts with others, and the way he plans to reintegrate into his little Sparrow’s life. The characters and situations are very interesting, and I was immediately drawn in and curious where the story would go.

With the phenomenal way Roles writes, I constantly shifted the way I thought about the characters throughout the book. At first? Totally crazy, psycho stalker with an unhinged obsession for an unsuspecting woman. Throughout the story, after learning about their pasts and traumas? I honestly can understand how they ended up in some of their life situations and it makes Dmitry’s erratic thoughts and behaviors seem less disturbing and more…acceptable? No, not that. But understandable, I suppose. It makes sense after everything they’ve endured. They were altered themselves, leading to the shift in their behaviors and thought processes.

Okay, so I have an admission to make and it probably makes me sound completely unhinged myself, but there were times I laughed or giggled during this story. It’s so dark, but (without spoiling) the way Dmitry’s mind works and the way he can normalize the craziest of situations is sometimes just enjoyable and entertaining. One of my favorite parts is when he’s singing a song while…working. Yeah, we’ll go with working, so we don’t give too much away. But his song? Soooo catchy. I rewound the chapter a couple times just to listen to it again and again. 😂

Anyway.

Despite my reaction, this IS very dark so please check your trigger warnings before diving right in. Unless you don’t have triggers, like me, and you want a wild surprise. Then just go ahead and start listening!