"We were only here because Sully had shattered my carefully constructed walls. In reality, he owned me." - Malik

"I tried to love him. Maybe I did, but I didn’t know what it felt like to love someone." - Sully

In this second book in The serie, Malik and Sid started "District." This book has time jumps and in the first book of the serie 'His Death Bringer' this company already exists.

There is a lot of manipulation from both sides, pushing each other and a lot of self-hate from Malik. They just used each other over and over again. There is an age gap that's nearly 20 years. Malik takes Sully in when Sully is 16 years old. Sully has always wanted Malik (from very early in the book) and he got what he wanted a few years later on a night that Malik was very vulnerable. It was on a day that (a few decades age) was very traumatizing for Malik and every year on that day, it all comes back to him. Malik feels guilty and he feels like he doesn't deserve love or to enjoy himself because of what happened, and of course because of the betrayal part of this book. They are together (together = spicy time) every year on that exact day, that is the only day Malik allowed himself to be with Sully. For a VERY long time.

I really tried to love this book but the lack of talking and understanding (how can you understand each other if you don't try to talk?) annoyed me a lot. They just wasted all those years because they thought that they knew what the other wanted and needed. I understand that talking is difficult but they didn't even try to just expected the other to know, especially Malik. In my opinion Malik didn't give Sully a way to form connections with other people because he wanted to protect him but in reality maybe it was just so that Sully only had Malik to turn to (Malik did this from the start! Since that Sully was 16 years).

Malik: “I’m not denying you. I’m denying myself. You know this.”

Sully: “No, you deny me by denying yourself. We both want this.”

It isn't weird that Sully wanted Malik since basically the start of living with him, he never formed a healthy relationship with an adult and was never treated with respect. Sully is a psychopath and he manipulates people, yes but how can he be better or try to be better, if he had never seen a healthy relationship between people?? People have always failed him. He was trying but I feel like Malik couldn't look further then the fact that Sully is a psychopath. Malik was hurting for so long and he made it everyone's problem.

3 stars, because the lack of communication was getting annoying and it took so long for Malik to say that he wanted (for example) cuddles while he has been the one that always said that it was just spicy time. How could Sully possibly know that things were different IF THEY DON'T TALK. It felt a bit boring and was dragging at times but this is Sully and Malik’s story and there were also parts that I did enjoy. Sully deserves better and I definitely liked him more, it's not his fault that the situations he was in, made him this way. Malik constantly reminded Sully of a person that Sully couldn't keep safe in conversations to make sure that Sully still had "empathy" and doesn't see that it is cruel and hurtful? But it is okay that Malik doesn't want to talk about his traumas?? That is just very weird to me. Sully is constantly reminded of that person even without Malik to bring it up. Malik his way of treating Sully was the biggest reason why I couldn't give it more than 3 stars.

The District is a dark romance serie where queer people are hired to take out bad people, they make the world a little bit safer in their own way. Along the way they found their family in each other.