I am currently developing a section of the school library that will present a diverse and eclectic range of contemporary crime and thriller novels. This genre has been so popular in terms of what is being borrowed, but I feel like the young people are sticking to 'what they know' in terms of titles or writers that they've already heard of or have seen their parents reading. My mission is to include more novels like this one and improve the range and diversity of fiction that they can choose from in order to expand their reading horizons. I absolutely loved this book. It kept me gripped from the very first page and without giving away any spoilers, was a dark, intense and satisfying journey. I think that the young people will love its distinctive voice as well as be gripped by the story and intrigued to follow it to its tense conclusion. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for intelligent, credible writing with a strong hook that won't let you go. Treat yourself to These Violent Delights!

This is such an important story to be told. Most fiction that deals with these themes, ends in an unrealistic happy ending where everyone gets what they deserve. This is not one of those. It shows the reality of everyone involved and the aftermath of trying to make things right.

This was an incredibly moving read, made only more prevalent due to today's "Me too" movement. The topics brought to light in the novel (sexual abuse, depression, victim-blaming, mental illness) are so important to discuss; they are taboo because we have been taught in our society to keep our emotional struggles internalized. The author thoroughly did her research, and I hope that novels like this can help push these topics into the spotlight so we can work to prevent them in the future.

On a completely different note, I've been reading too many thrillers lately because I kept expecting Ben to turn into some sadistic killer. Luckily, he didn't - that would have taken away from the message of the novel - but his dialogue made me cringe.

I lost interest in this novel as I`ve read many negative reviews. I`m sorry.

The Windemere School for Girls finds itself at the center of controversy following the publication of an explosive piece accusing a popular teacher, Dr. Gregory Copeland, of inappropriate behavior with a student. The former student, Caryn Rodgers, claims Windemere neglected to take appropriate action, effectively enabling Copeland to abuse other students; something Windemere denies. With the help of reporter Jane March, the investigation into Copeland and the school's actions turns up more accusers, each one determined to have the truth come out, at last, about their former teacher.

We hear stories about such things on the news all the time, but—as Namkung points out in her statement at the end of the book—it's estimated that at least 80% of child sexual abuse cases are never reported to the authorities, and 90% of these crimes are committed by someone the child knows and trusts. That's a horrifying statistic, and These Violent Delights drives home that point in this fictional tale of three former students who were abused by a trusted, respected teacher.

This book isn't always easy to read, and not just because of the focus on what the former students went through. It was almost worse, sometimes, seeing how Jane's male colleagues immediately doubted Caryn's story—'Why did she wait so long to report it?' 'Maybe she's just looking for attention.' 'An accusation like this can ruin someone's life.'—it was infuriating to read. It's exactly the sort of thing that happens to accusers in real life, though, unfortunately.

The ending came with a revelation that left me shocked and more than a little disturbed. I'm still not quite sure how I feel about it, to be honest., but I'm betting it's something I'll never forget.

These Violent Delights is a very good book; its subject matter is distressing, but it's meant to be. While this won't be a book everyone feels comfortable reading, I feel it makes an important statement about the very real problem we have of teachers who prey on their students, and the lack of a federal registry listing teachers who have been fired and/or disciplined for sexual misconduct with a student, which I was completely unaware of before reading this book. I don't anyone can read this book without feeling outraged that we, as a nation, haven't taken steps to better protect our children from sexual predators in schools. (Yes, this is a novel, but a great deal of truth is often found in fiction. Such is the case here.)

I definitely recommend this book, and I'll be eagerly waiting for Namkung's next book!

I could not get into this book. It just didnt do anything for me. It was very slow.Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book in return for my honest review

Super timely story and written in an engaging and suspenseful way.

At first, I was drawn to this book by the cover. It is beautiful! The story was powerful and almost seemed real at times. Namkung writes so well and the message she created will stay with me for a long time!

I finished a book in a day!!! These Violent Delights by Victoria N was a good, suspenseful, crime thriller.

NetGalley gave me permission to read this so it’s thanks to them that I was able to. It is already available to buy.

I read it in one day, for the Contemporary-a-thon, as the read a dark/taboo contemporary challenge because it’s a story about sexual assault. It certainly had me on the edge of my seat. Also, this is going towards my Popsugar 2018 Reading Challenge as my mental health book choice.

I thought the author did a good job at capturing what it’s like to go through abuse. Everybody suffers differently. We got 4 completely different perspectives all working to bring down one man, here.

These Violent Delights does have student teacher relationships as well as elements of sexual assault so I don’t recommend this for anyone Below age 18.

Spoilers Below...

It’s about mental health in that we follow 4 girls who experience sexual assault at the hands of one perpetrator. We see their mental health go up and down, with the victories and losses of the novel.

The four women we follow are: Jane, Caryn, Eva and Sasha. Three of them went to Windemere, Girls School. Caryn, Eva and Saha are the three characters that were abused by Dr Copeland both mentally and physically.

Caryn works as a journalist at a paper, along with Jane. She believes it’s time that the truth about Dr Copeland’s crimes came out. He abused her most recently. Jane supports this.

“Will the police get involved? Will Dr Copeland finally be fired? Will Windemere down play what they already know? Will I get slut shamed by random internet commenters who hate women and themselves so much that they have to take it out on me? Probably and then some”

describes just how Caryn feels about the article being published. She’s worried and scared, as I think anyone in real life would be. She’s going to do it, though because she feels it’s right that what Dr Copeland has done comes out.

From here, the characters go on a journey to get Dr Copeland taken out of his role as a teacher and put him in jail. Each woman experiences things differently. For example, Caryn is the least affected of the women I’d say, because Dr Copeland didn’t go as far with her, perhaps. Eva is mentally affected in that she has twin daughters and a husband. She wants to protect her twins so what happened to her doesn’t happen to them.

“They’ll always have each other to talk to, even if they don’t want to talk to us about something. I don’t think they would hide such a huge thing from one another”

is what Jesse, Eva’s husband says about their daughters.

Lastly, Sasha is the most affected in my opinion because of the last event of the book. She writes a letter to Dr Copeland, where she explains how traumatised she was by the events that happened to her at his hand.

What did I like about These Violent Delights?

I liked how the book didn’t shy away from being realistic. There were some serious/traumatic moments but it wouldn’t have been right to edit them out, I don’t think.

I liked how each woman stood up for herself and others. They all worked together to get Dr Copeland sent down.

I liked how the novel focused on the women. It didn’t stray to other characters. It was centred on those 4 women, throughout.

I liked how there was a secondary romance plot. It seemed to lift the story, a little. I appreciated not just having the doom and gloom of the assault case, although that was the book’s main focus, obviously.

What didn’t I like about These Violent Delights?

I didn’t like the ending. It might have been realistic but it seemed rather morbid.

I didn’t like how we never saw from Dr Copeland’s perspective. I think it would have been interesting to see what he was thinking as he mentally “abused” the girls.

I’m giving The Violent Delights 3 Stars because it doesn’t feel right giving a book about abuse 4/5 Stars and the ending wasn’t what I wanted.

“The fact that we worry more about the damage to a potential abuser’s or rapist’s reputation than we do about a child or teenage victim has dire consequences for all of us and our society.“

As someone who has suffered at the hands of a serial sexual abuser, this novel spoke to me on so many levels. It made me feel things I have not felt in years. Fears became real again and thoughts of what could I have done differently? So needless to say, there are triggers here for anyone who has encountered such things.

I believe the author perfectly described the viewpoints of victims and the effects of the world around them with their unwarranted opinions of your sexual abuse. I do not think you will find a novel out there that you will be able to relate to as much as this one.

It is a real, modern day story set it LA with fully relatable characters. It is fiction but for so many women it is real life. If you yourself have never been a victim of sexual abuse I believe it is an eye opener and would be a beneficial read to all.

This slightly uneven read is still a page turning adventure. It's hard to say if I liked it but it was very interesting all the same.

I really wanted to like this book– and for the most part, I did. With the potential to be a barnstorming novel discussing everything from the obstruction of justice to outright abuse, These Violent Delights definitely packs a punch from the first page.

Fabulous book. Thoroughly loved. Highly recommend!

I couldn't get into this or find it interesting at all. I was really hoping to like it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Griffith Moon for the ARC of this book in exchange for a honest review.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this book when I first started reading it. Obviously, it was a familiar topic considering the #metoo stories out there but I felt that this book didn’t quite live up to its potential. The book seemed more like a mash up of scripts for a dramatize police show than literature. It almost felt like the author was scrambling to put together a book that was relevant to the current societal climate.

I also found it a little disturbing how little emotional development the characters went through. This is suppose to be a pivotal and potentially healing point in their lives but it felt more like this was just an average day-in-the-life for these characters. When the book ends (and it ends with some drama) it felt very premature.

The writing in the book is fairly average. I will say that the author did her legal research because she had all the Penal codes down pat and she’s not afraid to use them. In the chapters that were especially legal-heavy I tended to skim the pages more because it didn’t really add to the story. I would’ve been fine with 2 pages on the sentencing and the rest of the chapter on the characters.

Overall, this book had the potential to be great but it fell a little short for me.

This book was not an easy read. Very topical in the current climate, it really makes a lot of the issues women are facing right now hit home and become more personal. It follows the perspective of multiple women involved in a situation where a teacher is accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with students over a number of years. It follows a journalist who supervises the woman who makes the first accusation, as well as multiple accusers of the teacher who come forward once the initial accusation is published. Through these perspectives, the reader gets to see what it feels like to be an accuser in the public eye, and, friends, it’s not pretty. This book was honest and real, and made me think a lot about my own perceptions of things I see in the news. It tackled everything from how vigilant accusers have to be with their social media accounts to discussions about the nature of victim blaming and potential false accusations.

The book’s characters are all well-developed, and It’s good to have Jane’s perspective on the outside, as well as the accusers’ perspectives. It shows how different people deal with trauma, and how trauma affects us over the rest of our lives, especially when it’s compounded trauma. It also shows the ability of women to support each other in the worst of times, and shows how common experiences link us together. With the way things are today, the relationships the women form were truly bright spots in this read.

If you can handle it, this book is a read that’s well worth it. It’s not easy to get through, and at times, it makes you just want to yell at the world. What I liked about it is that it’s fiction that makes you re-examine your own ideas, and helps you work through some of the ugliness in our world. I read it all in one sitting, which was hard, but it was also hard to put down.

Note: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley & the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This dealt with the subject matters discourses both sensitively and authentically but that wasn't enough to immerse me in this story. Whilst I appreciated what it was attempting to do I found the writing a little dry for my taste and this distanced me from the emotions of the piece, on times.

First, I'd like to thank NetGalley and Griffith Moon Publishing for this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow. The material in this is all too familiar with everything going on right now. Sexual abuse allegations are popping up left and right, and one quote in this hits the nail on the head.

"Don't you find it interesting that these types of crimes against women- whether it's violence, sexual assault, rape- are the only kinds where we force the victim to make a case about their own innocence before even investigating?"

If that isn't a good freaking question, I don't know what is. It goes on to say:

"If someone told you their car or iPhone was stolen would you believe them and try to help, or make them prove it to you? I'm serious. If someone walked in the office right now and said they were hurt and needed help, would you need an investigation and a prosecutor to bring charges and a judge or jury to convict them before you attempted to assist them? Why do you think this is?" More silence. "I mean, really, why do you think this is? Do I have to spell it out?"

Victims of sexual assault are more likely to keep the secret than come forward. And it's because they become the ones on "trial". What were they wearing? Were they drinking? Why were they at that place alone? She probably just regrets doing it so now she's trying to make herself look like a victim. She will sleep with anyone and has slept with everyone, she's just lying. And yes, sometimes even....he's a guy, guys always want it. He wasn't raped.
It's disgusting. And it disgusts me.

It's not just men who say these things either. Women constantly tear each other down and apart. How can we expect men to respect us when we barely even respect each other?

I'm getting off topic of the book, but this is such an important topic that I can't help but ramble a bit. This happens to be a story about a teacher exerting his power over teenage girls. It's told from the viewpoint of 3 of his victims and a reporter who is breaking the story. It's wonderfully told. I highly recommend this to everyone.

*3.5 stars*

This timely novel is about Windemere, an elite all girl's high school, whose beloved English teacher has been accused of sexual harassment, inappropriate behavior, and much more. Caryn, a journalist intern, begins this fictional tale of #metoo with a first-person piece of how Windemere brushed aside her allegations against Dr. Copeland. It soon becomes clear that Caryn is just one of many girls Dr. Copeland behaved illegally toward. These Violent Delights follow the POVs of Caryn, two other women assaulted by Dr. Copeland, and Jane March, an acclaimed journalist at the newspaper Caryn interns at. We see what happens as the accusations are brought forward to the school, and then to the LAPD. There are supporters, and there are those anonymous voices who claim the women are doing this "for attention" or "were asking for it."

There are a lot of very good, poignant aspects about this book. It is a frank discussion of how this happens every day, both in public and private schools, and how often the schools do nothing to protect their female students. It is easier to pretend that the students are lying, instead of actually delving deeper into the accusations. Victoria Namkung has a background in journalism, and there is a very journalistic tone to this novel, which makes her points very crisp and clear. I appreciated that; this is a conversation that our culture, so insistent on victim-blaming, desperately needs to have. I also really liked how diverse the characters are -- Caryn is part Korean-American, and Eva is Hispanic. Sexual harassment/assault happens to women regardless of race, which this novel highlights.

What keeps me from giving it a higher rating is this same journalistic tone. Instead of really feeling close to our characters, they seem less like full-bodied people, and more like distilled subject matter. Even their way of speaking are often nearly identical, although these women come from different socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds. I also wanted to feel the age differences between these women. Jane March is approaching her 40th birthday, while Caryn, the youngest protagonist, is still in college. Yet all the voices felt very much the same.

That said, I do believe that These Violent Delights is worth reading. Cases of teachers overstepping boundaries and harassing/intimidating/assaulting students pop up in the news every day. This novel is a good way to begin having conversations about why this keeps happening, why victims are vilified, and what we can do to stop it.

*Thank you to Griffith Moon Publishing and Netgalley for an ARC*