LKH explicitly praises a man for committing rape in Crimson Death

[lliira]

Nathaniel becomes a no-holds-barred rapist in the book, rather than "only" creepily manipulating Anita into sexual situations she doesn't want. He somehow gains the power to magically force people to have sex with him against their will, and uses this power on both Anita and Damien. Anita can't remember what happened. But she's not angry with Nathaniel for it, of course.

JC praises him for raping Anita and Damien. He says this makes Nathaniel better than Richard, because Richard's rape powers aren't as strong. Nathaniel is gleeful about the whole thing, except he regrets not making Damien wear a condom. When those early reviewers were talking about Nathaniel "coming into his own" and such -- well, this is at least part of it.

I thought it would be good to discuss this here, or at least warn people of what they're getting into before attempting to tackle this book. While LKH has always shown admiration for male rapists (and Anita herself) in the Anita books, I don't think she's ever been quite this explicit about it before.

ETA: It gets worse. I've posted in the comments rather than up here, since I can't tag posts to put in trigger warnings. LKH thinks rape is great.

Comments

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Nate pretty much becomes Kilgrave/Purple Man in this book, Anita hasn't had a Jessica style revelation yet.

Not only does he go and commit a rape but he's also 'Counciling' Peter, and scolded Edward that the therapy he's receiving isn't good since his actions of raping and hurting women (after being told to stop) isn't bad...it's just Peter realizing he likes BDSM/Rough Sex and that he shouldn't be shamed for it. Then in the same breath states that Peter had confessed some fantasies to Nate that Nate stated he really shouldn't try but since he's aware of it being wrong he'll be just fine! He can just choose to not be a sexual sadist/rapist of women! Really!

*shutter* Where's the bleach, we had to start putting trigger warnings on the FLOGS

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Yeah, I hadn't seen the Peter thing when I posted, and that actually makes me even angrier. For many reasons, but I think the main one is that magical rape isn't actually possible, but what Peter is doing is and happens all the time, and the victims have little or no recourse. Just... ugh.

LKH does not know that fantasy and reality are different and does not write like as if they are. She's one of those people who mistakenly believes that BDSM, rough sex, and non-con fantasy are the same as rape -- but unlike most of those people, she thinks this means rape is just peachy!

Anita's never been angry at any man for raping her. She's a gleeful rapist herself. There will never be a "revelation," because she totally approves of rape, especially of men raping women. Nathaniel knew what he had to do to become more important in JC and Anita's cult, and he did it, and for this LKH expects everyone will praise him.

The sad thing is, I didn't see this mentioned in any of the early reviews, even the negative ones. Her fans cannot be reading what's printed on the page.

[shadwing.livejournal.com]

Lets be honest, 90% of the ARC's were given to soft reviewers, ones that wouldn't be hard on LKH at all. And the ones who usually don't softball her on the reviews haven't gotten through the book yet.

[ardeth30.livejournal.com]

...Maybe they're still too busy banging their heads into the walls because of the WTFery? Not entirely joking here, because this... wow, just wow. I've read through the post and the comments and the best I can come up is "What the hell? This can't actually be printed, right? RIGHT?"

[putana.livejournal.com]

...wtf???

I have stopped reading even the summaries of these books (like, back when Blood Noir came out - so, a long while ago) - but oh my goodness I can't believe she's jumped from "consensual" non-consent (as in, it is non-con, but it is excused away in some way) to blatant non-con/rape.

*sigh* Guess I shouldn't be curious to see if the books have gotten any better, then?

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

I'm trying to wrap my brain around this, like... why? Why would she think this is a good thing? Just... I can't form the proper sentences because I keep trying to make sense of something I suspect makes no sense.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

So, besides the Peter stuff we discussed above: Damien does remember Nathaniel raping him. (LKH often has Anita black out while the men remember everything that happened -- she did this when Anita and Cynric were group-raped too.) At first, Damien's upset about it, but Anita and Nathaniel laugh at him for this. Eventually, they say he shouldn't be upset because Nathaniel, i.e. the man who raped him, enjoyed it (not kidding). And finally, Damien decides he's happy about it because... tw if you have the slightest bit of conscience...

Because Damien's happy someone desired him enough to rape him.

This is pure, unedited LKH, and it's worse than Shutdown. People at the amazon forums are discussing contacting someone at Penguin about it.

[northernwalker.livejournal.com]

Because Damien's happy someone desired him enough to rape him.

*boggles*

There is not enough vodka in the WORLD for this sentence.

[poolnaiad.livejournal.com]

re:penguin
somehow I can't believe a book containing that getting published... but I'm being naive, aren't I?

[phoenix-san.livejournal.com]

...This is beyond reprehensible. I haven't read the series since the book with the vampire ballet, but to have the series become even more glorifying of rape is beyond the pale.

[jya-bd-cp-ttgb.livejournal.com]

I...I got nothing. My brain has literally crawled into a bomb shelter in the middle of nowhere and checked out. Seriously?!?!? I mean, I know soft porn is big with audiences, and someone - here? - mentioned that LKH plays to a male audience, but dude, guys raping guys? Is that supposed to be for us slashers in the universe? I..I got nothing.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

God almighty.

I really wonder how far she can go with this before she starts getting called out by more major reviewers than just us lashers.

Also, the truly disturbing part to me isn't that she (a single person) wrote this and has these views, but that there are apparently fans who agree with her (reviews about Nathaniel "coming into his own) That's the REALLY scary thing to me, that people don't see what this is.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

That's what's got me scared too. Even among negative reviewers, as of yesterday EA Solinus was the ONLY one on amazon to mention rape. Everyone else is calling it stuff like "relationship issues," which, no. And this is not like the rape that's almost always in the Anita books, as horrific as that is -- it's a screed about how rape is great. LKH doesn't bother to hide her admiration for (male) rapists in the slightest this time.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I've added a "cw: rape discussion" tag to the comm's list for this and future posts.

I'm bracing myself for this book because I'm determined to read it over my Christmas/summer break and am all kinds of horrified just from the spoilers. This book is so toxic, I can't believe it made it to print.

[cygnusrex.livejournal.com]

Wow. Just... wow.

Just when I thought she couldn't get any worse, another layer gets peeled off and there's more layers of greasy shit underneath it.

I hope someone yells at Penguin about it, because do they really want to run a series like this? I know they handed it off to a few of their smaller imprints, but... I honestly don't think it's good for anyone anymore. It's passed 'sex is love' and into 'rape is totally love too you guys' and that's horrifying. That is absolutely horrifying on so many levels.

(Btw since I don't think anyone's brought it up, lkh has a tumblr now. Nothing special on it so far other than reblogs of fanart and the occasional crosspost from her insta, but it's very existence unsettles me in the strangest way.)