I just finished a book in a day!!! These Violent Delights by Victoria N was a good, suspenseful, crime thriller.
NetGalley gave me permission to read this so it’s thanks to them that I was able to. It is already available to buy.
I read it in one day, for the Contemporary-a-thon, as the read a dark/taboo contemporary challenge because it’s a story about sexual assault. It certainly had me on the edge of my seat. Also, this is going towards my Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge as my mental health book choice.
I thought the author did a good job at capturing what it’s like to go through abuse. Everybody suffers differently. We got 4 completely different perspectives all working to bring down one man, here.
These Violent Delights does have student teacher relationships as well as elements of sexual assault so I don’t recommend this for anyone Below age 18.
Spoilers Below...
It’s about mental health in that we follow 4 girls who experience sexual assault at the hands of one perpetrator. We see their mental health go up and down, with the victories and losses of the novel.
The four women we follow are: Jane, Caryn, Eva and Sasha. Three of them went to Windemere, Girls School. Caryn, Eva and Saha are the three characters that were abused by Dr Copeland both mentally and physically.
Caryn works as a journalist at a paper, along with Jane. She believes it’s time that the truth about Dr Copeland’s crimes came out. He abused her most recently. Jane supports this.
“Will the police get involved? Will Dr Copeland finally be fired? Will Windemere down play what they already know? Will I get slut shamed by random internet commenters who hate women and themselves so much that they have to take it out on me? Probably and then some”
describes just how Caryn feels about the article being published. She’s worried and scared, as I think anyone in real life would be. She’s going to do it, though because she feels it’s right that what Dr Copeland has done comes out.
From here, the characters go on a journey to get Dr Copeland taken out of his role as a teacher and put him in jail. Each woman experiences things differently. For example, Caryn is the least affected of the women I’d say, because Dr Copeland didn’t go as far with her, perhaps. Eva is mentally affected in that she has twin daughters and a husband. She wants to protect her twins so what happened to her doesn’t happen to them.
“They’ll always have each other to talk to, even if they don’t want to talk to us about something. I don’t think they would hide such a huge thing from one another”
is what Jesse, Eva’s husband says about their daughters.
Lastly, Sasha is the most affected in my opinion because of the last event of the book. She writes a letter to Dr Copeland, where she explains how traumatised she was by the events that happened to her at his hand.
What did I like about These Violent Delights?
I liked how the book didn’t shy away from being realistic. There were some serious/traumatic moments but it wouldn’t have been right to edit them out, I don’t think.
I liked how each woman stood up for herself and others. They all worked together to get Dr Copeland sent down.
I liked how the novel focused on the women. It didn’t stray to other characters. It was centred on those 4 women, throughout.
I liked how there was a secondary romance plot. It seemed to lift the story, a little. I appreciated not just having the doom and gloom of the assault case, although that was the book’s main focus, obviously.
What didn’t I like about These Violent Delights?
I didn’t like the ending. It might have been realistic but it seemed rather morbid.
I didn’t like how we never saw from Dr Copeland’s perspective. I think it would have been interesting to see what he was thinking as he mentally “abused” the girls.
I’m giving The Violent Delights 3 Stars because it doesn’t feel right giving a book about abuse 4/5 Stars and the ending wasn’t what I wanted.
Have you read These Violent Delights? What did you think? Do you want to read it if you haven’t?
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