Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Sinner by Shantel Tessier

138 reviews

kitsuthebookworm's review

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

The last 40-50% saved it because I hated this book in the beginning, the plot came in way too late, and it's no match to The Ritual, it's not the CNC that phased me but the ratio of plot and spice is awful to the point where you don't enjoy the spice and end up skimming through it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Blood, and Death of parent

emmalou0411's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

There was no plot. I normally love a book with lots of smut, but this book had literally nothing else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Murder

lc9939's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Drug use, Torture, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Pregnancy

leshalea30's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ellington was a hard character to connect with. She's been through a lot, but it annoyed me how often she turned to drugs and let herself be hurt.
 Sin.... not better than Ryat. I wanted to punch him after the halfway point. It got very confusing with the secrets, but when the story unfolded... it was astounding.  

It's super spicy.

 I can't wait to read The Sacrifice and Carnage. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Vomit, and Stalking

Minor: Pregnancy

fictionalized_bliss's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

cassidy_99's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Abused girl. Childhood crush. Evil society that rules all. Ellington and Sin have dynamic chemistry but the plot and interactions between them were not my thing. He talks about how he’ll manipulate her to do anything, repeatedly messes with her head by saying he never wants her and she’s just a good fuck to then marry her?! Way too much mind games for my liking 🤷🏻‍♀️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Rape

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Minor: Drug use, Suicide, and Murder

absurdlyalex's review

dark sad tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

1.0

I think the content warnings for this book don’t really do it justice, and not in a good way. I understand that it’s difficult to portray the degree/graphicness of TWs, but I think the author dropped the ball on not being more explicit here. 
Most of this review will be one big spoiler (including a tiny one for book 1, as a compare/contrast note) but I wish I’d known before going in. I’ve read the other books in this series and liked them, but this one really missed the mark for me. In this world, the women are property and the men treat them as such, but they also love them. It’s toxic AF, but at least in the other books there is genuine care and affection. This one doesn’t until the end and bam! HEA. I finished this book about a week ago and have been sitting on my feelings for it, so there may be minor details that aren’t 100% accurate. 

Our 2 main characters are in desperate need of therapy, and they don’t get it. Particularly the FMC. She has a metric ton of unresolved childhood trauma (which is graphically described and is the TW in particular I feel could have been handled better) that the MMC blatantly and unapologetically uses to manipulate her.

Therapy is also kind of portrayed as a bad thing in this book, because Elli’s mother is a therapist and she’s a terrible human. The fact that her mom is a sex therapist also informs some of the things that happen to her.

There were a couple of scenes in this that turned my stomach, and I read a lot of dark romance. Honestly, TW for the following section:

The main issue for me is the child SA and grooming. While Elli has confused and complicated feelings about it, it’s not just implied. There is a scene where her stepdad convinces her to call him Daddy and gives her a pacifier to suck on like a good girl, which is day 1 of him grooming her. She’s 12. Being in her head during this scene and hearing her describe her first confusing -feelings- in her 12 year old body made me ill.
He teaches her to like what he does to her, and crave it - through drugs and orgasms. He gets her high and “shares” her (these scenes are explicit), makes her orgasm, and then tells her how filthy and worthless she is for it. She grows up feeling like she asked for it/wanted it and is a “dirty whore” because of it. She genuinely believes that she willingly “gave” him her virginity (if I remember right he made her beg for it) and not one person ever tells her different. Including the MMC who “loves” her. Elli’s relationship with her body, her desires, and sex in general is pretty broken, and that never really changes. 
Sin spends the large majority of the book being downright hateful to her, using her for sex while telling her what a slut she is, and she accepts it because she feels like she deserves it since she is “dirty” and “worthless”. 
Plenty of SA survivors have a boatload of kinks as a result of their trauma, and we don’t kink shame. You can like it rough and dirty, and Elli does. I’m not here to say that anything about what Elli likes during sex is wrong or shameful. But Elli thinks that. She feels that liking rough sex makes her even more “dirty” (she regularly calls herself this, both in her own mind and out loud), and Sin is all too happy to ignore that and keep calling her a whore while never providing her with aftercare unless she asks for it.
Compare this with book 1, where Ryat makes a point of consistently letting Blake know that none of her fantasies/kinks are wrong or dirty, and she is safe to explore them with him. While Sin over here is perfectly fine with manipulating her into being a perfect sex doll for him. Oh and he also punishes her by intentionally being rough during anal sex to make it painful (blood and tearing skin) because he is angry with her for a choice HE made/her reaction to a lie he told her - not that it would have been acceptable if she had done anything wrong, I’m just highlighting what a huge bastard he is.
He is never concerned at any time about how her trauma might impact her relationship with sex - he is aware of her history from like chapter 1, and uses it to his benefit from that point on. Her trauma is literally never addressed as something she might need to talk about or heal from. 

You’re also meant to believe by the end that they love each other, when there aren’t really any kind or caring scenes between them at all. It’s essentially Stockholm Syndrome and ownership that’s somehow supposed to be a smutty love story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

alis143's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

celeste77's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

This was a good, but dark read. This is about Elli's story.  This is definitely darker and with more triggers than The Ritual. Be sure to check your trigger warnings. If you're okay with the trigger warnings, then I definitely recommend this dark romance. This book definitely had more twists than I was expecting. From the very beginning, there were many intense, dark, kinky, and smutty scenes and they continued throughout the book. I did enjoy and loved the appearances of characters from The Ritual. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Drug use

ashgotwings's review

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy