Definitely should come with multiple trigger warnings. Some very graphic scenes. I was disappointed that The Judge did not get his just desserts ( )

Interesting read about another pandemic after Covid that is mosquito born and causes people to be violent. Great portrayal of abusive relationships ( )

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Del Rey, and Delilah Dawson for a gifted copy of this book.

This book intrigued me based on its cover. I have an addiction to anything remotely crime/horror so I thought this would be right up my alley. Sadly, I had a very hard time getting through it even though it was well written. In a post-COVID world, there is a new deadly threat: The Violence. What is it? A disease, spread by mosquito, that takes the infected from 0-60 and leaves them in a blackout-type state where they demolish whatever or whoever stands in their way. Chelsea Martin, mother to teenage daughter Ella and 5-year-old Brooklyn. In the first few chapters, I found myself yelling at the abusive husband and Ella’s boyfriend in equal measure. I was thrilled that a plan was constructed to get rid of the husband for a bit to give the girls a break from the abuse. This book took me about three weeks give or take a day to read even though it was well written. For me this had moments of greatness but because we are still going through the motions of covid that it was much to process. Overall, it did have a storyline that was well written which makes me hopeful for another read by this author. Three stars from me which is really good considering how much of a hard time I had with it. Very interesting concept looking forward to seeing what comes next from this author.


( )

I thought I'd make quick work of this book, but it didn't happen. The last quarter of the book messed me up and I had a hard time picking up the book without some eye-rolling and sighs. 3.5 is my real rating for The Violence.

The Violence is dystopian with conditions. It's more like Florida without any laws, although the plague is not specific to Florida.

It's written in a quick, snappy style with no hidden or veiled meaning. It's a straightforward tale about three women who experience domestic abuse in three very different ways. All witness it growing up and react to it in different ways. An outbreak of a plague that makes people flip out Florida-style and then revert back to their normal selves, is the carrier for the story. Clever! You can set aside disbelief and go with the flow. The author tries to explain it, but She really didn't need to. The plague is a make-believe violence that will be cured, as she shows many times to move the story along.

Domestic abuse isn't so easily solved.

The growth of the characters in the book is fantastic. (A bit unreal at times, but go with the flow.) I found myself wanting to go back to all their stories when the book was on another. I liked and cared about all of them. Well, not David. The author should have left his thoughts to himself. He was better as an abusive characterization representing a stereotype. All of the men in the book were. The women were the point of the book. At the beginning this was great. I was invested in their stories.

Annnd then the book got heavy handed as the characters' worlds expanded. Men bad. Men horrible awful bad. Until we find a couple of good men. Then men are overwhelmingly good. As overwhelmingly good as bad men are bad. Around 3/4s of the way in I started to have a problem. Humans aren't perfectly good or perfectly bad. Dawson is great at showing this in her characters as long as they are women. Men? Not so much. She turns her good men into burly women and her bad men into sneering, otherworldly evil.

Dawson is great at telling the audience how domestic abuse works, not so good at showing it by the end of the book. Women still falling for something that isn't, and can't be real.

By the end of the book my biggest question is Who the fuck is making all that pizza?

Did I mention that it's set in Florida? ( )

Yes, all the characters are stereotypes come to life. The abused daughter raises an abused daughter who raises a daughter that just escapes from abuse because external forces brought the abuse to "light". I don't know how women stay abused, nor how women who are abused find their way out of it... but both do occur.

What does it say about our society that we all recognize abused women is a common enough occurrence that it is a stereotype?

I think the story is well told, well paced, engaging, and we can tell the characters apart from one another.

What was the instigation of the change? Was it believable? That might be on the subjective side: The rationale behind Patty's change(s) is pretty slim, the daughter... a bit thicker, but still... bit deus ex machina overall.

I kinda like when justice is served, so I am okay with the way the story resolved. Would it happen IRL? Well... it IS fiction, so whatevs. The narration is very good. ( )