One of the details that comes to mind, in the first volume when Raymond mentions having a dream the day before about riding a merry-go-round.... That was what his mind interpreted with what was happening in his body. It's not really a dream, in that situation Raymond was being rap.3d by several people while he was sleeping on drugs. But as I said he was not conscious. I really got chills when I realized it. It wasn't a joke, I couldn't even sleep at the thought that something like that could go unnoticed as a dream in someone's unconscious mind because Raymond internalizes it as a dream and doesn't give it importance, only when you put the pieces of the puzzle together can you know that it wasn't JUST a dream, that it was real and it's very scary. The author knows very well how to play on the reader's mind, you feel at times as if you have the same clues as Raymond, or even less and can only observe in a fogged window.. It gives you an idea of what kind of psychopaths him r.4. pists were. And this kind of information is totally overlooked on a first reading, only when you read the chapter in detail can you see it.

There is a part in the first volume where the ab*sers plan a yearbook of Raymond's supposed victims and predecessors. According to the guys on the top floor they all ended up dead, in a mental institution and only one became a prosti. tu. te. The point here is that when Raymond believes all those things as certain.... A schoolmate tells him that the room had not been occupied by other people before Raymond. It was all a trap to make him anxious and they never existed. At that point, Raymond's mental stability almost broke down because 'the guys on the top floor' had played with his mind so much that he couldn't tell the difference between what was real and what was fake. It gets to the point where he suffers a breakdown and mistakes the partner who told him the truth for Jerome and strangles him....

the trap starts at that mf-ing synopsis 😀

Raymond is raised as a dog, Jerome, on the other hand, is raised as a golden stallion. Simon? Simon is raised to be less than that of an extra. This hits harder when you realized that he is an actor, and what price he has to pay to leave his job for Raymond to "settle down."

Raymond has no supposed victims; he was not framed as an ab*ser by the boys. I think this is just an honest mistake in the reviewer's part.

The yearbook that mentioned Raymond's predecessors (previous victims of ab/se by his ab*sers) is fake, yes, and it is only a trap to make him more anxious and mess with his mind, but he indeed has predecessors. The ab*sers most likely do not include Jerome and Simon—only Hugh and George ab*sed his predecessors among the four boys (there is a possibility that they are included, but the novel did not mention anything about it, so the default assumption is they are not). This claim is supported by some information surrounding Jerome and Simon, but this will be too much spoiler already, so I will not explain. The reason why his predecessors didn't have any real record in the school is because the ab*se happened outside of it, and the time, based on context is before hugh enters the school to lie low. They are not students there to begin with, so of course when Raymond asked a schoolmate about the students who lived in his dorm that transferred out for some reason, the schoolmate answered there's none.

The yearbook scheme is not planned by the four boys; only George, possibly along with Hugh, planned that

only Simon r/ped Raymond the first night. Jerome only r/ped him (alone or together with Simon) after he became interested with him. They told Raymond they were his first and second man sometime later. I'm not sure the details of the nights after that becoz the author didn't really put too much detail on it, but based on Hugh and George's character, they r/ped Raymond, yes, but possibly not every night and not until Jerome already r/ped Raymond. Simon, on the other hand, possibly did it every night.

All four boys indeed dragged Raymond to be r/ped by the juniors, but initially, only Hugh and George planned to do that. Also, it's only one time not several times.

a time skip after, the three boys, George, Jerome, and Simon (Hugh is dead killed by Raymond) indeed captured Raymond again and detained him to be gang r/ped, but it's not becoz they all want to punish him for attempting to kill them before. Each one of the three boys had their own agenda for doing that.

Raymond didn't develop stockholm syndrome right after his experiences in the club. It started even before that, the exact time is just unknown. There were already traces of it right after the first time skip, his realization, however, happened some time later.

Raymond had an amnesia, but only for one month. After that, he already remembered everything. He chose to stay with Simon for approximately 2 years. Whether Raymond was drugged or not in that two years remains vague, because every time he was drugged, it was always foreshadowed. The readers can identify that foreshadowing. The foreshadowing, indeed appeared (if I'm not mistaken), so he might have been drugged, but there is also a possibility that he was not (or maybe he was, but he was not drugged like for the whole two years), because there was a time he awoken while Simon was doing him. The drug functions as sleeping pills (and also most likely to numb the butt, but definitely not to mess with the mind as one reviewer has claimed), so Raymond being awoken during the deed contradicts the function of the drug. We may attribute his waking up to the drug losing some of its efficacy, because it has already been used against Raymond a lot of times, but it is also possible that Simon was not drugging Raymond anymore, because Raymond already decided to stay with him.

Some time later, Raymond also brought Jerome to live with them. Jerome will leave after not because he wanted to take revenge toward his family, because his revenge was already underway and was coming into fruition in that two whole years. Rather than that reason, I believe Jerome left because Raymond was living in a defeatist way, and it was a betrayal in the pact/bond they had wordlessly formed, the unwritten rules of their much younger self. Jerome himself said that if Raymond wants to live like a dog, then he will make him live like that. It was also possible Jerome left because he was jealous (I'm not joking and being delusional), there are a few evidence for that, but I will not spoil it.

Matt, the man with the mutilated fingers, kidnapped detained, and r/ped Raymond some time after, for a month if I'm not mistaken, not becoz he wanted revenge for Jerome or himself, but becoz he wanted someone to accompany him, to want him. Some time in that one month of detainment, Matt made Raymond guessed which between revenge and money (Raymond was going to inherit a huge amount wealth) was the reason why he was abusing him. Raymond believed it's none of the two for good reasons. If it's revenge, what Matt was doing to Raymond at that time was too light if you would take into consideration his mutilated hand. If it's money, Matt was clearly not doing anything to steal his money. The only reason why Matt detained Raymond was to have someone that accompanies him, because he was too lonely. When Raymond didn't show any signs of leaving himself, Matt even left the door open and allowed Raymond to occasionaly step out their home.

where Raymond finally finds his peace with his partner