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A review by beccas_books
The Kraken's Sacrifice by Katee Robert
challenging
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Short, non-spoiler review? Read the content warnings at the front of the book and take them seriously. This is not the same as The Dragon’s Bride.
When The Dragon’s Bride came out, it was almost perfect in terms of consent being king (har har) while also being hot. Since this book involved the same do-no-harm demon bargain, I thought we would be good. Nope, fuck that.
The first content warning is abuse/neglect, but the parentheses afterward made it sound like it was mostly in the past. NO. The female love interest is psychologically tortured by the Kraken in that he takes her to a tower away from everyone (because she’s “annoying” and makes them snap) where she is “accidentally” left in solitary confinement in a dusty room and fed only bread.
As if that isn’t horrible enough (and just the description of what she looked like after they find her a week later made me cry), the demons with the contract don’t count it as harm! But in The Dragon’s Bride, someone consensually ripping away birth control got everyone called into the demon’s office, even with the offended party saying it was fine?! Very inconsistent, and in this case the fact that actual torture was excused without even the main demon being involved made me mad.
And then that’s it. They angry fuck and then that psychological torture is basically forgotten? The male love interest didn’t even really think “oh no, I keep hurting her maybe I’m doing this wrong” until AFTER she has to have an abortion because he didn’t explain the realm’s birth control to her.
(Side note, yay, abortion is healthcare, normalize it. But I consider her becoming pregnant at all another form of abuse because she said at the beginning that she didn’t want children and then the love interest doesn’t bring up BC at all, making her experience the stress of an abortion.)
Not only was I was really disturbed at the multiple types of abuse, but how the the male love interest is never made to really apologize/experience consequences from even the person he did it to. The female love interest, who is broken but also tells it like it is to EVERYONE at the beginning, doesn’t even give the male love interest a talking to about what he put her through. ESPECIALLY with the solitary confinement, where he “fixes it” (tells servants to clean her room and feed her better and their sibling to bring her clothes) but then is too chicken shit to EVER apologize and she lets him get away with it?! They just pretend like he didn’t actually torture her.
I don’t know what else to say. Like, I read morally gray/villain stories all the time, and I’m usually okay with lines crossed in fiction. So my reaction to this isn’t because I’m clutching my pearls. Part of it might be the fact that the sex scenes also weren’t good/hot enough to make up for what the plot put me through. I was also mad because one bout of sex was immediately after the isolation torture and I was like… so you’re not going to yell at him for what he just did AND you’re letting him at your body? Why girl?
Bottom line, the abuse is gross, the sex isn’t hot enough to make up for it at all, and the bargain demon seriously dropped the ball. Thane should have lost his territory at at least three different points in the book for violating the contract. This is the first Katee Robert book I’ve felt so disappointed in.
The first content warning is abuse/neglect, but the parentheses afterward made it sound like it was mostly in the past. NO. The female love interest is psychologically tortured by the Kraken in that he takes her to a tower away from everyone (because she’s “annoying” and makes them snap) where she is “accidentally” left in solitary confinement in a dusty room and fed only bread.
As if that isn’t horrible enough (and just the description of what she looked like after they find her a week later made me cry), the demons with the contract don’t count it as harm! But in The Dragon’s Bride, someone consensually ripping away birth control got everyone called into the demon’s office, even with the offended party saying it was fine?! Very inconsistent, and in this case the fact that actual torture was excused without even the main demon being involved made me mad.
And then that’s it. They angry fuck and then that psychological torture is basically forgotten? The male love interest didn’t even really think “oh no, I keep hurting her maybe I’m doing this wrong” until AFTER she has to have an abortion because he didn’t explain the realm’s birth control to her.
(Side note, yay, abortion is healthcare, normalize it. But I consider her becoming pregnant at all another form of abuse because she said at the beginning that she didn’t want children and then the love interest doesn’t bring up BC at all, making her experience the stress of an abortion.)
Not only was I was really disturbed at the multiple types of abuse, but how the the male love interest is never made to really apologize/experience consequences from even the person he did it to. The female love interest, who is broken but also tells it like it is to EVERYONE at the beginning, doesn’t even give the male love interest a talking to about what he put her through. ESPECIALLY with the solitary confinement, where he “fixes it” (tells servants to clean her room and feed her better and their sibling to bring her clothes) but then is too chicken shit to EVER apologize and she lets him get away with it?! They just pretend like he didn’t actually torture her.
I don’t know what else to say. Like, I read morally gray/villain stories all the time, and I’m usually okay with lines crossed in fiction. So my reaction to this isn’t because I’m clutching my pearls. Part of it might be the fact that the sex scenes also weren’t good/hot enough to make up for what the plot put me through. I was also mad because one bout of sex was immediately after the isolation torture and I was like… so you’re not going to yell at him for what he just did AND you’re letting him at your body? Why girl?
Bottom line, the abuse is gross, the sex isn’t hot enough to make up for it at all, and the bargain demon seriously dropped the ball. Thane should have lost his territory at at least three different points in the book for violating the contract. This is the first Katee Robert book I’ve felt so disappointed in.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Abortion