Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Corrupt by Penelope Douglas

118 reviews

gabi_w21's review against another edition

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2.0

I liked this book, sort of? The romance didn’t feel like a romance. All Michael did was treat Rika like absolute shit, threaten her, stand back while his friends torture/torment her and joke about raping her, and he did one nice thing (the fencing tournament) at the end and THAT'S what made Rika love him? Rika was an idiot who thought with her vagina and not her head, and I hated the Alex/Rika scene because it felt way too much like fetishization. I hated how Rika never really stood up for herself despite all this lip service about how strong and fierce she was. 

And don’t get me started on the abundance of rape threats & jokes. Those aren’t funny nor do they make the story interesting. 

Why didn’t Rika just ask why Michael was ignoring her? Why are they so stupid? 

These idiots really
planned to torment this girl because they thought she leaked all the information to the cops without ever confirming it?
These dudes are predators, dangerous, and entitled. They've never been told no and are the epitome of the privileged white boys. They do whatever they want. Rules for thee, not for me.



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vendul's review against another edition

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dark funny sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

moje dojmy:
- všechno je špatně
- jedna hvězdička za to, že se u toho dá zasmát 

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assesgrass's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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becflourish's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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mejisilliterate's review against another edition

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0 stars obviously but that’s not why i’m here. 

I just want to point out a recurring theme that i’ve noticed throughout not just penelope douglas’ books, but the new steamy-tik tok genre as a whole. 

The idea of what consent is is majorly fucked up within all of these books. They all have scenes that are inherently non-consensual, but even bigger than that is the authors trying to convince us that those scenes are actually practicing consent. 

In this book, I couldnt help but laugh at the stupidity of it all when the horsemen (stupid fucking name by the way) went through with their plan, but michael, suddenly, pulls out and isn’t ok with it because “she’s not on board” and they “only said they’d do it if she was on board”. that’s practicing consent, right? wrong! because the plan was literally to rob this woman of all her possessions, kidnap her mother and then her, hold her against her will and “make her theirs” (heavily  implying they are going to use her as a sex slave, although thats never said explicitly, probably to try and convince the readers that somehow they will just be nice and kind to this girl! even though they’ve talked the whole book about “what they want to do to her”!). what kind of idiot would ever truly believe she would consent to this! the only reason michael backed out is because this freak damon almost rapes our protagonist, which michael suddenly objects to, even though the entire book damon was saying that that was exactly what he was gonna do once they kidnapped her. multiple times in this book we see damon assault girls but it’s treated as unimportant and merely a character flaw rather than a huge fucking problem that makes him a deranged lunatic. for gods sake, he knows how to roofy someone! why are you friends with this man! 

as tik tok makes these types of books more known to younger people, it’s important to recognize that the depiction of a messed up form of consent has extreme ramifications. rape is never justified, ms douglas. 

(look at the content warnings and tell me how the fuck this is marketed as a romance) 

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kaneiceamelia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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avialia's review

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I just fucking love tjis book. It was dark, apicy and also had some …. Text

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chaosdemonmonster's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This was an enjoyable read but not so good that I jumped straight into the second in the series. The premise of Devil's Night is based in SO much privilege but they know it so its not as bad as it could have been. Honestly, I was very afraid I was about to blindly walk into a r*pe scene a few times but it was subverted so, while tense, it never crossed a line. I appreciate that the author didn't pull punches. One thing that really sticks with me is the quote "Life is one-way, and there is no return trip. What are you waiting for?"

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mayoush_abh's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

1.75

Major trigger warnings and definitely 18+

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_terah_hansen_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0


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