A review by sarahjscott
Sea of Ruin by Pam Godwin

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

1.0

CW/TW for this book: Infidelity, Sexual Assault from both villains and love interests, Noncon, Dubcon, repeated graphic descriptions of Rape, Physical Assault and Torture against women. 

This was not a book. It was torture porn. The insanely gratuitous violence committed against this female character was disgusting. I read books almost exclusively by female authors because for the most part they write good stories about women. This was not that. This was scene after scene of a what should have been a strong female lead facing trials and tribulations to come out the other side stronger however those trials and tribulations started with repeated sexual assault not only by the villains but by one of the love interests. Continued with truly graphic descriptions of rape and torture bringing her to the point of death countless times only to have the men ‘save’ her and do it all over again. All of this pain then leading to the main character choosing to forgive her adulterating husband and rapist disguised as a Dom lover because what they did didn’t seem as bad as everything else she went through….I don’t even know how to explain how upsetting that was. 

I was under the impression that this would be a mfm romance but in a Pirates of the Caribbean setting, I added to my tbr because it was recommended on Booktok but no one mentioned just how many triggering themes were in this book. I’m just at a loss for what I was supposed to enjoy. I wanted to read a book about an awesome badass female pirate and her two lovers who would love and protect her above all else. This was not that. 

I wish that more authors would put content warnings on their books because if I knew them I wouldn’t have bothered reading it. We have rating systems for tv and movies and trigger warnings before the episode or movie. Why have we not adopted this practice with books? I know what I don’t like to read because it effects my mental health and if this had any kind of content warnings then I would have been able to steer clear of it. Unfortunately any new reader has to read all the comments to find out if there are triggering themes. This also leads to spoilers so either way the reader is at a disadvantage. I’m very disappointed. 
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