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

[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.