A Hunger Like No Other, by Kresley Cole
The Chronicler remembers all the heated debate back on "Dear Author" over a romance trilogy that ended with vampire hero's death at the hands of the heroine. A romance novel is defined by its happy ending and anything else would result in the readers feeling cheated. Jane wrote: "I kept thinking as Candace Steele engaged in various relationships with men other than Ash that - huh, this doesn’t sound like a romance but I will hang on. After all, the spine of the book says romance. Ballantine says this is a romance. It must be a romance right? I can live through the multiple partners and the separation so long as the hero and heroine end up together."
Well, let's put it this way:
When reading through A Hunger Like No Other, the Chronicler wondered about whether or not it was a romance novel. After all, it was sold as a romance. The quote on the front cover called it one. It even won a RITA, and those are really prestigious, the veritable Oscars of the romance novel world. The spine and the blurb certainly weren't calling the book anything else... Azrael came out and said it and I think he's right: "This book isn't a romance novel. It's just about rape. Seriously. It's crossed the line."
The Chronicler has no problem with people wanting to write about their rape fantasies (or any other, for that matter) as long as they is plenty of warning on the tin and preferably heavily flanked with caveats about how rape really isn't okay in the real world. More importantly, don't try to sell me that fantasy as a romance novel. I don't just feel cheated, I feel concerned about how no one else seems to have noticed this gaping flaw and allowed the book to win a RITA. I wonder if we were even reading the same book.
The Restitution was quite repulsive enough with its heroine waltzing off into her happily ever after with her rapist who never really apologises. It was all part of God's plan that she suffer through her rape to save that man's black, black soul and wasn't it worth it in the end? He could have raped her hundreds of times when he was holding her captive and he only raped her one, wasn't that nice of him?
But really, this pales in comparison. If only because The Restitution actually acknowledges that rape is quite a traumatic thing for a woman.
Now, admittedly, the Loinfire Club throws around the word "rape", quite a bit, and for that we know we're bad people. Often the situation described is more in the realms of dubious consent and sexual harassment, but Kresley Cole's A Hunger Like No Other really defies all expectations and previous experiences. This isn't a forced seduction or a punishing kiss...
At the point where we put down the novel, several chapters into the book, the werewolf hero has broken free of his fiery prison under Paris, forced himself onto the heroine. He rips her blouse off in the middle of Paris. He then forces her to show him the way to her place and asks her to clean herself. When she refuses, he strips her naked, gropes her in the shower, fingers her and, deciding against ripping her open with his massive cock, relents and asks her to use her hands instead. He toys with her throughout the night, allowing her to think she's managing to escape but catching her the last minute with superhuman strength. He wakes her up by going down on her and then forces her to call her aunts and tell them she'll be away for a while. He listens in, worried that she might tell them to descend with their supernatural powers, but the good little heroine doesn't and they set off to Scotland.
Now, all this happens without werewolf hero asking for consent of any form or at least informing Emma that she's his soulmate and that fate has willed it they be together forever and ever. Emma alternates between being confused, aroused and scared. I am well aware that Mr-Rapist-hero has been imprisoned for a hundred and fifty years in a fiery hell and, presumably, chaste for every minute of it. I am also aware that he hates vampires and would be killing Emma if she didn't smell of true love... but none of this really seems to justify his actions even a little bit. The only way you could possibly believe frustration justifies rape is if you believe male lust is this overpowering, uncontrollable drive that strips they of rational thought, morality and human empathy. And I don't believe that. Seriously.
I don't care that he's enraged about her being a vampire and that he's been tortured by vampires for centuries. That doesn't justify rape. That especially doesn't justify him thinking to himself that Fate is chaining Emma to him forevermore with the whole soulmate business so that he can take out his rage over being tortured on her. I don't care that he's attractive or that she's a bit aroused -attractiveness isn't a free pass and arousal is certainly not consent. I don't care that they're predestined mates, since funnily enough, rape can happen within marriages. I don't care that he doesn't quite bring himself to penetrate her vaginally; it's hardly any mercy on his part. I don't care that Socrates thinks there's a beast in the best of us. It's really, really no excuse. I don't care that he's surprisingly gentle, it's still no substitute for consent.
That we aren't give any cultural touchstone of any sort ("Werewolf chicks dig rape", "where I come from, this is how you say hi") makes it even more difficult to see any reason to justify the rapist-hero's behaviour. It's not that cultural upbringing justifies this behaviour, but that the author seems to not feel it necessary, that the reader would simply sympathise with the lying, manipulative sex offender.
At no point in the first few chapters is the heroine in control of her situation. At no point was she consenting to all the sexual contact the hero inflicted on her. Really, this point is becoming laboured, so I'll move onto the whole abduction business. He takes over her life, steals her money and her credit card. He decides where they're going and what they're doing. He decides how she'll dress, what underwear she'll wear and watches as she changes. He listens in on her conversations, threatens her with rape, torture and death....
It is also baffling how baffled the heroine is. He told her repeatedly and without ambiguity that he intends to rape her. Maybe she's so sheltered she's never read the odd case of woman-kept-in-basement-and-repeatedly-raped-etc in the newspapers. Maybe its his Scottish accent obscuring his meaning.
Oh, and a real half-valkyrie would have castrated him by now.
(Rant out of system now. It may be a little while before the Chronicler manages to face Cole's again and post the full write-up...)
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