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A review by starryaqua
Den of Vipers by K.A. Knight
Did not finish book. Stopped at 8%.
HARD DNF at page 49
CW: domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment, rape, coercion, violence and uhh…. gross misogyny, etc, etc
I took a risk with this one. I thought this was gonna be a chill, turn-your-brain-off kind of romance. I can do dark romance without an issue. But this? Is truly something else.
The writing is extremely immature and barely edited. Way too shallow to handle content of this nature, even if it’s supposed to be mindless. I was catching blatant errors (like forgetting the character’s pov mid-chapter and having them accidentally say their own name in dialogue). Physical descriptions were giving teenage Wattpad fanfiction. Like filling a paragraph with the main character talking about her getting dressed. Ebony D’arkness Dementia Raven Way type of prose.
Speaking of, the fmc was THE most “not like other girls”, edgy and damaged and “tough” fmc I’ve ever read. The ~silver~ hair and piercings and tattoos and clunky boots. Not her calling herself a “rocker chick” as she put on a concert shirt for The Killers. I wish I was making this up. Just her and her bat and her overpowered skill to knock out four huge men against the world. She was bland, tired, and miserable to follow. I simply did not care about her and definitely didn’t care for the fact that we were told EVERYTHING about her. Like she was directly blabbing to the reader.
The other main characters (love interests? I guess) are equally insufferable and horrendously trope-y. All comically huge and tough and spewing the most constant stream of misogynistic vitriol it was actually gross to read. Their inner monologue was either annoying and boring or downright disturbing. All of them were insanely sexually charged at all times, some getting off on gratuitous displays of gore and violence. If any of them were supposed to be redeemable in the eyes of the reader or if their actions were justified, I didn’t care to keep reading. Nor could there ever be an excuse to their calling dibs on their new “property”, discussing raping her, and immediately sexually assaulting her, or threatening her with needless violence.
The plot was as thin as a tissue. Mafia made a deal with fmc’s dad, he falls through, they collect the debt by kidnapping his daughter to “own” her. Why? No reason. 2013 fanfiction was calling I guess. I didn’t read more to find out what happens, but I don’t need to to know that whatever sex occurs won’t be consensual. Dubious at best. Coercion isn’t consent. Threats aren’t consent. There’s nothing safe and sane about holding someone captive and immediately pushing your <i>actually</i> psychopathic murderous sadism on someone. That’s not how this works. It’s a shaky line of fantasies and actual harm in its portrayal, leaning hard on the incredibly unethical practices.
For the level of strength, sheer walls of muscle mass, and penitent for violence, it truly made no sense that the men were even human? Everything about them (especially Diesel) read like they were some sort of inhuman force. His lust for blood and biting at people’s skin (he ripped an earlobe off with his teeth?) was so unnatural for just a regular human dude. An extremely fucked up human, but still. Human. If this was fanfiction of some kind I wouldn’t be surprised.
TDLR: yikes. If you want to write unethically violent rape-y fantasies, at least get an editor with better eyes.
CW: domestic violence, sexual assault and harassment, rape, coercion, violence and uhh…. gross misogyny, etc, etc
I took a risk with this one. I thought this was gonna be a chill, turn-your-brain-off kind of romance. I can do dark romance without an issue. But this? Is truly something else.
The writing is extremely immature and barely edited. Way too shallow to handle content of this nature, even if it’s supposed to be mindless. I was catching blatant errors (like forgetting the character’s pov mid-chapter and having them accidentally say their own name in dialogue). Physical descriptions were giving teenage Wattpad fanfiction. Like filling a paragraph with the main character talking about her getting dressed. Ebony D’arkness Dementia Raven Way type of prose.
Speaking of, the fmc was THE most “not like other girls”, edgy and damaged and “tough” fmc I’ve ever read. The ~silver~ hair and piercings and tattoos and clunky boots. Not her calling herself a “rocker chick” as she put on a concert shirt for The Killers. I wish I was making this up. Just her and her bat and her overpowered skill to knock out four huge men against the world. She was bland, tired, and miserable to follow. I simply did not care about her and definitely didn’t care for the fact that we were told EVERYTHING about her. Like she was directly blabbing to the reader.
The other main characters (love interests? I guess) are equally insufferable and horrendously trope-y. All comically huge and tough and spewing the most constant stream of misogynistic vitriol it was actually gross to read. Their inner monologue was either annoying and boring or downright disturbing. All of them were insanely sexually charged at all times, some getting off on gratuitous displays of gore and violence. If any of them were supposed to be redeemable in the eyes of the reader or if their actions were justified, I didn’t care to keep reading. Nor could there ever be an excuse to their calling dibs on their new “property”, discussing raping her, and immediately sexually assaulting her, or threatening her with needless violence.
The plot was as thin as a tissue. Mafia made a deal with fmc’s dad, he falls through, they collect the debt by kidnapping his daughter to “own” her. Why? No reason. 2013 fanfiction was calling I guess. I didn’t read more to find out what happens, but I don’t need to to know that whatever sex occurs won’t be consensual. Dubious at best. Coercion isn’t consent. Threats aren’t consent. There’s nothing safe and sane about holding someone captive and immediately pushing your <i>actually</i> psychopathic murderous sadism on someone. That’s not how this works. It’s a shaky line of fantasies and actual harm in its portrayal, leaning hard on the incredibly unethical practices.
For the level of strength, sheer walls of muscle mass, and penitent for violence, it truly made no sense that the men were even human? Everything about them (especially Diesel) read like they were some sort of inhuman force. His lust for blood and biting at people’s skin (he ripped an earlobe off with his teeth?) was so unnatural for just a regular human dude. An extremely fucked up human, but still. Human. If this was fanfiction of some kind I wouldn’t be surprised.
TDLR: yikes. If you want to write unethically violent rape-y fantasies, at least get an editor with better eyes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Child abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Misogyny, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Death of parent, Blood, Addiction, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder