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Lights Out by Navessa Allen and Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver occupy an oddly similar corner of dark romance: both pair genuinely disturbing subject matter with humor, highly explicit romance, morally questionable men, and heroines who are far from passive participants in the darkness.
But they deliver very different reading experiences.
Choose Lights Out if you want: obsessive stalking, masked-man fantasy, kink-heavy chemistry, a hero who falls hard and fast, and a romance that stays at the center of the book.
Choose Butcher & Blackbird if you want: two serial killers, graphic gore, an extended friends-to-lovers relationship, competitive murder, macabre humor, and more external plot alongside the romance.
If your biggest question is “Which MMC am I going to become obsessed with?”, I give Lights Out the advantage.
If your question is “Which premise is darker, stranger, and more memorable outside the bedroom?”, Butcher & Blackbird wins.
And if you simply want the darker book? That requires a more complicated answer.
Lights Out vs Butcher & Blackbird: Quick Comparison
| Category | Lights Out | Butcher & Blackbird |
|---|---|---|
| Author | Navessa Allen | Brynne Weaver |
| Overall vibe | Kinky stalker romance + dark rom-com | Serial-killer romance + macabre rom-com |
| MMC | Josh Hammond | Rowan Kane |
| FMC | Aly Cappellucci | Sloane Sutherland |
| Relationship dynamic | Stalker-to-lover / he falls first | Friends-to-lovers / he falls first |
| Obsession style | Surveillance, stalking, fixation, protectiveness | Long-term fixation, possessiveness, devotion |
| Darkness | More intimate and boundary-crossing | More graphic and violent |
| Spice | Extremely explicit and kink-forward | Highly explicit with significant buildup |
| Violence | Moderate-to-high | Extreme |
| Gore | Present, but not the main attraction | Central to the premise |
| Humor | Banter, awkwardness, situational comedy | Macabre humor, absurdity, murder jokes |
| Romance focus | Higher | High, but shares space with the murder plot |
| Pacing | Faster | More gradual romantically |
| Best for | Obsession and stalker-romance readers | Dark-comedy and killer-romance readers |
| Beginner accessibility | Better entry point, with major trigger caveats | Harder entry point if gore bothers you |
Navessa Allen’s publisher explicitly describes Lights Out as a fast-paced stalker romance featuring a morally gray masked MMC, “he falls first,” kink, and a black-cat/golden-retriever dynamic. Butcher & Blackbird is officially described as a friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy about rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, whose relationship develops during an annual competition targeting other killers.
Why Are Lights Out and Butcher & Blackbird Compared So Often?
On paper, the overlap makes sense.
Both books take a character archetype that should be terrifying and deliberately make him romantic.
Josh is a stalker who invades Aly’s privacy, enters her home, watches her, and turns her masked-man fantasies into reality.
Rowan is a literal serial killer.
Neither book attempts to turn those facts into conventional contemporary romance behavior.
Yet both pair that darkness with comedy, strong sexual chemistry, a hero who falls first, a black-cat/golden-retriever flavor to the relationship, and women who are significantly more comfortable with darkness than the premise initially suggests. Those overlaps are reflected in the publishers’ own descriptions and trope lists.
The biggest difference is where the darkness lives.
In Lights Out, much of the transgression happens inside the relationship.
Stalking. Surveillance. Breaking into Aly’s home. Hidden cameras. Privacy violations. Fear play. Mask play. Josh’s fixation on her.
In Butcher & Blackbird, Rowan and Sloane’s relationship can sometimes feel almost surprisingly affectionate compared with what they do outside the relationship.
They’re killers.
They hunt killers.
Bodies are mutilated.
There is torture, gore, cannibalism, corpses, sharp objects, amateur surgery, and some spectacularly questionable decisions involving human anatomy.
So Lights Out is darker as an obsessive-romance fantasy.
Butcher & Blackbird is darker as a violent fictional world.
That single distinction should tell many readers which book they actually want.
How These Books Are Rated
How these books are rated: Spice is scored from 1–5. Darkness, obsession, psychological intensity, violence, emotional damage, trigger intensity, romance focus, and overall recommendation are scored from 1–10. Ratings reflect content intensity, not literary quality. Read our complete Dark Romance Rating Methodology for detailed definitions.
These are Eerie Efficiency content-intensity ratings, not claims that one novel is objectively better written than the other.
Lights Out by Navessa Allen
Spice: 5/5
Darkness: 7/10
Obsession: 9/10
Psychological Intensity: 6/10
Violence: 6/10
Emotional Damage: 5/10
Trigger Intensity: 8/10
Romance Focus: 9/10
Overall Recommendation: 9/10
The high obsession rating comes from how central Josh’s fixation, stalking, surveillance, privacy invasion, and escalating protectiveness are to both the fantasy and plot. Allen’s own content-warning page identifies stalking, invasion of privacy, home invasion, hidden cameras, hacking, breath play, knife play, gun play, fear play, primal play, and mask play among the book’s content considerations.
Butcher & Blackbird by Brynne Weaver
Spice: 4/5
Darkness: 8/10
Obsession: 7/10
Psychological Intensity: 7/10
Violence: 10/10
Emotional Damage: 6/10
Trigger Intensity: 10/10
Romance Focus: 8/10
Overall Recommendation: 9/10
That 10/10 violence rating is not hyperbole about the book being “edgy.” Weaver’s own warning list includes eyeball trauma, amateur surgery, skin-related body horror, chainsaws, axes, knives, scalpels, cannibalism, a mummified corpse, and “generally messed-up murder and chaos,” along with explicit sexual content.
The interesting result is that Butcher & Blackbird earns the higher overall darkness rating without earning the higher obsession rating.
That is exactly why separating dark-romance intensity into categories is useful.
Which Has the Better MMC?
Winner for obsession: Lights Out.
Winner for dangerous capability: Butcher & Blackbird.
Winner for “how is this man simultaneously alarming and adorable?”: honestly, both.
Josh Hammond and Rowan Kane are both morally gray men with a surprisingly soft romantic side, but their appeal comes from different places.
Josh’s character is built around contradiction.
His behavior toward Aly is objectively invasive. He fixates on her online, enters her private space, and acts out fantasies that would be horrifying without the very specific dynamic the book establishes between them. He is also frequently funny, awkward, emotionally invested, and increasingly protective.
That mismatch is a huge part of the appeal.
Josh doesn’t feel like a conventional dominant alpha hero who happens to stalk someone.
He feels like a man who is extremely competent at being creepy and occasionally much less competent at being a normal human boyfriend.
Rowan is different.
He’s already comfortable with violence. He is not pretending to be harmless. His relationship with Sloane develops from the recognition that they are fundamentally alike in one extremely important respect: both kill other killers.
His romantic intensity develops over a much longer period, and his devotion is intertwined with friendship, admiration, competition, protectiveness, and desire.
So:
Pick Josh if your favorite MMC trait is obsession.
Pick Rowan if your favorite MMC trait is dangerous devotion.
Josh’s darkness points inward toward Aly.
Rowan’s darkness points outward at practically anyone unfortunate enough to qualify for his attention.
For readers specifically interested in where characters like these fall on the spectrum between protective, possessive, obsessive, and morally gray, my Dark Romance Hero and Character Archetypes guide breaks those differences down in much more detail.
Which Romance Is Stronger?
This one depends entirely on what you mean by stronger romance.
For immediate sexual chemistry and fixation, Lights Out wins.
For relationship development over time, Butcher & Blackbird has the advantage.
Aly and Josh are intensely sexually aware of each other almost from the foundation of the premise. Desire isn’t something the book gradually discovers—it is part of the engine that starts the story.
That makes their romance feel highly immediate.
Josh wants Aly.
Aly has fantasies Josh is uniquely equipped to fulfill.
Their attraction moves quickly into obsession, experimentation, vulnerability, and eventually protection when the threat around Aly becomes more serious.
Butcher & Blackbird gives Rowan and Sloane more time.
Their relationship begins with recognition and shared darkness, develops through an annual killing competition, and moves through friendship before finally becoming openly romantic. The publisher itself categorizes the novel as friends-to-lovers and “he falls first.”
That means the pleasures are different.
For chemistry:
Slight edge: Lights Out.
For anticipation:
Edge: Butcher & Blackbird.
For romantic obsession:
Winner: Lights Out.
For companionship and friendship underneath the romance:
Winner: Butcher & Blackbird.
If the relationship itself matters more to you than exactly how dark the surrounding plot becomes, you might also enjoy Eerie Efficiency’s original fiction. He Was My Brother’s Best Friend First leans into forbidden relationship tension, while What Breaks You moves further into the site’s darker After Dark fiction.
Which Book Is Darker?
Overall darkness winner: Butcher & Blackbird.
But that answer needs an asterisk the size of a body bag.
Because if your personal definition of dark romance centers on what the hero does to or around the heroine, Lights Out may actually feel more transgressive.
Lights Out is darker in:
- stalking
- invasion of privacy
- surveillance
- home invasion
- hidden cameras
- sexualized fear
- boundary-crossing obsession
- possessive fixation
Those aren’t assumptions based on the “stalker romance” label. They appear directly in Navessa Allen’s content warnings.
Butcher & Blackbird is darker in:
- graphic murder
- torture
- mutilation
- gore
- corpses
- body horror
- cannibalism
- weapons
- grotesque imagery
Again, those elements are confirmed in Brynne Weaver’s official content warnings.
This is the best example of why saying a book is “8/10 dark” without explaining the rating isn’t terribly useful.
A reader who handles stalking fantasy easily but cannot tolerate detailed gore could fly through Lights Out and struggle badly with Butcher & Blackbird.
Another reader may happily consume fictional dismemberment but find home invasion and covert surveillance far more uncomfortable.
Physically darker: Butcher & Blackbird.
Romantically transgressive: Lights Out.
For more on this distinction, see Dark Romance vs. Psychological Thriller: What Is the Difference—and Which Should You Read?.
Which Is Spicier?
Winner: Lights Out.
Lights Out: 5/5 spice
The sexuality of Lights Out is embedded in the central premise.
Aly’s attraction to masked men isn’t a minor character detail. Josh’s masked online persona is how their dynamic begins, and the book deliberately explores their shared fantasies.
Allen’s content warnings include sexually explicit scenes plus breath play, knife play, gun play, fear play, primal play, and mask play.
The result is a book that doesn’t merely contain explicit sex.
Sexual fantasy is part of the plot architecture.
Butcher & Blackbird: 4/5 spice
Butcher & Blackbird is also very explicit.
Weaver’s author-provided warnings specifically mention detailed sexual scenes involving rough sex, praise kink, anal sex, adult toys, choking, spitting, domination/submission dynamics, and genital piercings.
So why isn’t it also a 5?
Because Eerie Efficiency’s spice rating measures the overall sexual intensity and prominence within the reading experience, not merely how explicit the most graphic scene becomes.
Butcher & Blackbird dedicates significant space to the evolving friendship, murder competition, external danger, and serial-killer plot.
Lights Out keeps erotic fantasy more continuously intertwined with its central relationship.
If you’re interested in exactly how those distinctions work, the Dark Romance Spice Scale explains the full 1–5 system.
Which Is Funnier?
Winner: tie, but for completely different styles of humor.
Humor matters enormously here because it changes how both books feel.
Without humor, Lights Out would read much closer to a conventional stalker thriller.
Without humor, Butcher & Blackbird could become outright horror.
Lights Out humor
The comedy often comes from:
- Josh’s personality
- sexual awkwardness
- banter
- the gap between Josh’s intimidating masked persona and his actual behavior
- Aly’s willingness to meet his energy instead of reacting like a conventional horror heroine
The result is surprisingly playful considering what Josh is technically doing.
Butcher & Blackbird humor
The comedy is more macabre.
It thrives on:
- murder
- grotesque situations
- absurd escalation
- serial-killer competition
- Rowan and Sloane treating horrifying circumstances with unusual casualness
- the juxtaposition between ordinary romantic behavior and deeply abnormal hobbies
Brynne Weaver herself categorizes the novel as a dark romantic comedy, while the publisher emphasizes its combination of murder, chaos, and chemistry.
Want flirty, chaotic humor? Choose Lights Out.
Want “I cannot believe this horrifying thing is also the punchline” humor? Choose Butcher & Blackbird.
Which Has the Better Plot?
Winner for external plot: Butcher & Blackbird.
Winner for romance-driven momentum: Lights Out.
Butcher & Blackbird has the more distinctive external mechanism.
Rowan and Sloane meet as rival killers and establish an annual competition in which they hunt dangerous people across the country. Their relationship develops alongside that recurring game while consequences from their activities begin closing in.
That gives the novel several engines:
murder competition → friendship → romantic tension → individual targets → consequences → romance
Lights Out is tighter around Aly and Josh.
Its initial engine is their unusual stalker/fantasy dynamic. The threat escalates when someone with genuinely sinister intentions focuses on Aly, forcing Josh’s role to shift from predator toward protector.
That external danger matters, but the book’s real gravitational center remains Aly and Josh.
So “better plot” depends on what frustrates you more.
If you get impatient when a romance keeps leaving the couple to deal with external plot, read Lights Out.
If you want the romance embedded inside a larger dark-comedy premise, read Butcher & Blackbird.
Neither structure is automatically better.
They’re simply prioritizing different pleasures.
Which Is More Obsessive?
Winner: Lights Out.
This isn’t particularly close.
Josh’s obsession drives the premise before the romance is fully established.
His fixation involves:
- online attention
- stalking
- surveillance
- privacy invasion
- entering Aly’s home
- watching
- escalating protectiveness
- an increasingly intense emotional attachment
Obsession is not just evidence that Josh loves intensely.
It’s one of the primary things the novel is about.
Rowan absolutely becomes devoted to Sloane, and the “he falls first” dynamic gives his feelings plenty of weight. But Butcher & Blackbird isn’t fundamentally an obsession narrative in the same way.
His fixation grows through their recurring interactions, friendship, attraction, and shared understanding.
So on the Eerie Efficiency obsession framework:
Josh = active, surveillance-based, boundary-crossing romantic obsession.
Rowan = long-term fixation, possessiveness, protectiveness, and emotional devotion.
If Josh’s side of this comparison is exactly what appeals to you, continue with Dark Romance Books Where He Becomes Obsessed With Her or Dark Romance Books With Stalking.
Which Is More Emotionally Damaging?
Slight edge: Butcher & Blackbird.
Neither book is primarily built to be an emotional devastation novel.
That’s important.
Both contain trauma and painful histories, but humor acts as a pressure valve. Neither maintains the oppressive emotional tone you would expect from the darkest trauma-heavy romances.
Lights Out includes references to previous abuse, child abuse memories, death of a parent, mental-health content, violence, and other potentially distressing material.
Butcher & Blackbird includes parental neglect, child abuse, parental loss, references to child sexual assault, along with the psychological implications of two protagonists whose lives revolve around killing.
The difference is that Butcher & Blackbird allows more room for accumulated history and vulnerability underneath the absurdity.
Still, readers looking specifically for an emotionally punishing dark romance should know that neither book’s dominant mood is despair.
Their dominant tonal trick is making horrifying material unexpectedly fun.
Triggers and Content Differences
Do not treat these books as interchangeable simply because both are marketed as dark romantic comedies.
Their tolerance requirements are very different.
Lights Out requires greater tolerance for:
- stalking within the central romantic dynamic
- home invasion
- surveillance
- hidden cameras
- hacking and privacy violations
- sexually charged fear
- mask play
- breath play
- knife play
- gun play
- primal play
Allen also lists references to rape, prior domestic abuse and child abuse, medical material, blood and gore, death, and other potentially upsetting content.
Butcher & Blackbird requires significantly greater tolerance for:
- graphic murder
- torture
- mutilation
- eyeball trauma
- corpses and body parts
- cannibalism
- grotesque imagery
- sharp-object violence
- body horror
- explicit sexual content
Weaver’s official warnings also include references to parental neglect, child abuse, child sexual assault, and parental loss.
One especially important distinction:
Do not assume Butcher & Blackbird will be easier because the romance itself may feel less threatening.
Its external content is far more graphically grotesque.
Likewise:
Do not assume Lights Out is mild because it contains less gore.
Its central fantasy depends heavily on behavior that would be frightening and violating outside the fictional consensual framework.
Always check the author’s current warnings before reading. For a broader explanation of why dark-romance warnings can be difficult to interpret from a simple list, see Every Dark Romance Trigger Warning Explained.
Which Should a Dark Romance Beginner Read First?
Winner: Lights Out.
With a very large caveat.
Neither book should be chosen blindly by someone who has never read dark romance.
But Lights Out is the easier entry point for many readers because its structure is familiar:
romantic attraction + stalking fantasy + humor + sexual tension + external threat + protective hero.
The publisher even describes it as a “gateway to dark romance,” although that should not be interpreted as meaning the content is mild.
Butcher & Blackbird asks for a more specific tolerance.
You need to be able to handle—or preferably enjoy—horror-adjacent gore and body-based shock.
Someone who enjoys morally gray romance but dislikes graphic horror could have a terrible time with it.
Start with Lights Out if:
You are comfortable with consensual dark fantasy, stalking themes and explicit kink but aren’t sure about graphic gore.
Start with Butcher & Blackbird if:
You already enjoy serial-killer fiction, horror comedy, gore, or protagonists with spectacularly unconventional moral compasses.
Newer readers can also use the Dark Romance FAQ and Complete Guide to Dark Romance Subgenres to figure out which kinds of darkness are actually appealing before choosing solely by a book’s overall darkness score.
Lights Out vs Butcher & Blackbird: Head-to-Head Winners
| Category | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Best MMC for obsession lovers | Lights Out | Josh’s fixation drives the relationship |
| Best MMC for dangerous-devotion readers | Butcher & Blackbird | Rowan combines lethal capability with long-term romantic attachment |
| Strongest immediate chemistry | Lights Out | Desire powers the premise almost immediately |
| Best relationship buildup | Butcher & Blackbird | Friendship and attraction evolve over a longer timeline |
| Darkest overall | Butcher & Blackbird | Significantly more graphic violence and gore |
| Most psychologically invasive romance | Lights Out | Stalking and surveillance are central |
| Most obsessive | Lights Out | Clear win |
| Spiciest | Lights Out | Erotic fantasy remains more central throughout |
| Most violent | Butcher & Blackbird | Clear win |
| Most graphic | Butcher & Blackbird | Body horror, mutilation, torture and cannibalism |
| Funniest | Tie | Different comedic styles |
| Best external plot | Butcher & Blackbird | Murder competition adds a larger story engine |
| Most romance-focused | Lights Out | Aly and Josh remain the book’s center of gravity |
| Most emotionally intense | Butcher & Blackbird | Slight advantage |
| Best for dark-romance beginners | Lights Out | More accessible if stalking themes are acceptable |
| Best for stalker-romance readers | Lights Out | Exactly where the book excels |
| Best for horror readers | Butcher & Blackbird | Far stronger horror/gore component |
| Best overall for romance-first readers | Lights Out | Relationship gets more narrative priority |
| Best overall for plot-and-darkness readers | Butcher & Blackbird | Bigger external premise and greater physical darkness |
There isn’t a meaningful way to reduce that table to 10 wins versus 8 wins, therefore one book is better.
The category you care about matters more than the number of categories won.
Which One Should You Read?
Here’s the easiest way to decide.
Read Lights Out if you want:
- an obsessive masked stalker MMC
- surveillance and possessiveness as part of the fantasy
- very high spice
- kink integrated directly into the relationship
- fast romantic momentum
- dark humor without constant graphic gore
- a hero who shifts from predator to fierce protector
- the romance to remain the main event
You may also want Haunting Adeline vs Lights Out: Which Dark Romance Should You Read First? if you’re specifically trying to decide how far into stalker romance you want to go.
Read Butcher & Blackbird if you want:
- two morally black-ish protagonists instead of one dangerous MMC
- serial killers killing serial killers
- friends-to-lovers development
- an annual murder competition
- graphic violence and gore
- macabre comedy
- a larger external plot
- romance between two people who recognize and accept each other’s darkness
And when you’re finished, 15 Dark Romance Books Like Butcher & Blackbird gives you the next-step options without assuming every dark rom-com offers the same mix of humor, murder, and romance.
For an even broader starting point, Best Dark Romance Books of All Time organizes standout dark-romance experiences beyond these two specific styles.
Should You Read Both?
Yes—if the reason you’re considering both is that you want dark romance capable of being genuinely funny without removing the darkness entirely.
They are different enough that reading one does not make the other redundant.
Read Lights Out for the fantasy of being wanted by someone who becomes far too interested in you.
Read Butcher & Blackbird for the fantasy of meeting someone who looks at the darkest part of you and realizes he has finally found an equal.
That’s a substantial difference.
Where I would not automatically recommend both is when your limits are highly specific.
If detailed gore ruins a book for you, loving Lights Out does not mean you’ll enjoy Butcher & Blackbird.
If stalking, privacy invasion and home invasion are hard limits, enjoying Rowan and Sloane’s murderous partnership does not mean Josh and Aly’s dynamic will work for you.
Similarity of tone does not equal similarity of triggers.
FAQ
Is Lights Out darker than Butcher & Blackbird?
Overall, no. Butcher & Blackbird earns the higher darkness rating because it contains substantially more graphic murder, torture, gore, mutilation, body horror, and cannibalism. Lights Out, however, is more invasive within the romantic relationship because stalking and surveillance are central to Josh and Aly’s dynamic.
Is Lights Out spicier than Butcher & Blackbird?
On the Eerie Efficiency scale, yes. Lights Out rates 5/5, while Butcher & Blackbird rates 4/5. Both contain highly explicit sexual material, but sexual fantasy and kink are more continuously integrated into Lights Out‘s central premise.
Who is more obsessive, Josh or Rowan?
Josh. Rowan is highly devoted to Sloane, but Josh’s fixation involves stalking, surveillance, privacy invasion and escalating possessiveness before the conventional relationship is fully established. Obsession is more structurally central to Lights Out.
Which book has more romance?
Lights Out has the higher romance focus. Butcher & Blackbird still contains a substantial romance, but more of its narrative space is shared with the serial-killer competition and external conflict.
Are Lights Out and Butcher & Blackbird standalones?
Both launch larger series.
Lights Out is Book 1 of Navessa Allen’s Into Darkness series. The publisher currently lists Caught Up and Game On among the other books in that series.
Butcher & Blackbird is the first book in Brynne Weaver’s Ruinous Love Trilogy, which is structured as interconnected standalones following different couples.
Which should I read first?
For most dark-romance beginners who are comfortable with stalking themes, start with Lights Out.
For someone already comfortable with graphic horror, gore, serial killers and body horror, there’s no particular reason Butcher & Blackbird can’t come first.
What should I read after these?
After Lights Out, readers specifically chasing obsessive behavior can move into Dark Romance Books With Unhinged Heroes or Dark Romance Books Where He Becomes Obsessed With Her.
After Butcher & Blackbird, start with 15 Dark Romance Books Like Butcher & Blackbird.
And if neither quite scratches the “dangerous man” itch you were looking for, 20 Dark Romance Books With Morally Grey Heroes gives you a much wider range of MMC darkness.
Final Verdict: Lights Out or Butcher & Blackbird?
Neither wins for every dark-romance reader.
Lights Out is the stronger choice for readers who prioritize obsession, sexual chemistry, stalking fantasy, kink, possessiveness, and a romance-centered story.
Butcher & Blackbird is the stronger choice for readers who prioritize plot, macabre humor, serial killers, graphic violence, friends-to-lovers development, and two protagonists who are equally comfortable living in the dark.
If I had to choose the better overall dark-romance recommendation for the widest range of romance-first readers, I would give the edge to Lights Out.
Its greatest strengths—Josh’s obsession, Aly and Josh’s chemistry, humor, kink, and the predator-to-protector progression—are tied directly to the romantic relationship.
But if you specifically want the more inventive external premise and the book that pushes substantially further into graphic horror territory, Butcher & Blackbird is the better choice.
The simplest decision is this:
Want him obsessed with her? Read Lights Out.
Want two killers obsessed with each other while leaving a trail of bodies behind them? Read Butcher & Blackbird.
