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A review by fangirljeanne
King of Flesh and Bone by Liv Zander
TW: Non-con/Rape, mind control, zombies, explicit descriptions of gore, mentions of infant death, and mutilation of bodies.
The writing is pretty good and the world building is intriguing. I even liked a few ofthe characters, but the rape/sexual abuse via mind control pulled me out of the story.
I don’t have an issue reading about abuse and rape, and I was prepared for it in this book. My issue is I prefer for the rape to be presented either as horrific or the unspoken desire of the participants (internal character consent). However, I have a visceral hate for humiliation play. I especially dislike a woman’s sexuality or sexual desire being used to humiliate her without her consent (I’ve read a couple of books with consensual humiliation play that I enjoyed, but it’s rarely d one well).
At the beginning of this couples relationship mind control is used to not only coerce a woman into sex, but it’s implied that it’s also being used to make her body react with sexual arousal. This isn’t a new plot device in erotica, and I am very familiar with it. But for me, in this book it skirted really close to a kind of sex ual abuse that leads a lot of survivors to believe they’re responsible for o r even wanted the abuse because of their bodies reactions to the abuse.
My reaction was quite visceral and it’s lingered, souring any interest I initially had in the book. Which is sad, I didn’t like it up until then, especially the necromancy like magic. But the handling of the sex and power dynamics ruined any enjoyment I might have had in it.
PS I would like to add to people who say shit “well he’s a villain what did you expect,” that’s a lazy cop out. Not all “villians” are rapists, just as not all stories have to have sexual violence. There’s a lot of ways to write a woman grappling with her desire for a powerful amoral man without him sexually abusing her.
The writing is pretty good and the world building is intriguing. I even liked a few ofthe characters, but the rape/sexual abuse via mind control pulled me out of the story.
I don’t have an issue reading about abuse and rape, and I was prepared for it in this book. My issue is I prefer for the rape to be presented either as horrific or the unspoken desire of the participants (internal character consent). However, I have a visceral hate for humiliation play. I especially dislike a woman’s sexuality or sexual desire being used to humiliate her without her consent (I’ve read a couple of books with consensual humiliation play that I enjoyed, but it’s rarely d one well).
At the beginning of this couples relationship mind control is used to not only coerce a woman into sex, but it’s implied that it’s also being used to make her body react with sexual arousal. This isn’t a new plot device in erotica, and I am very familiar with it. But for me, in this book it skirted really close to a kind of sex ual abuse that leads a lot of survivors to believe they’re responsible for o r even wanted the abuse because of their bodies reactions to the abuse.
My reaction was quite visceral and it’s lingered, souring any interest I initially had in the book. Which is sad, I didn’t like it up until then, especially the necromancy like magic. But the handling of the sex and power dynamics ruined any enjoyment I might have had in it.
PS I would like to add to people who say shit “well he’s a villain what did you expect,” that’s a lazy cop out. Not all “villians” are rapists, just as not all stories have to have sexual violence. There’s a lot of ways to write a woman grappling with her desire for a powerful amoral man without him sexually abusing her.