Member Reviews

The nitty-gritty: A trio of abused women take back their power in this feminist, highly entertaining thriller.

The Violence surprised me in the best possible way, and although I think this will end up being a divisive book, I absolutely loved it. Delilah S. Dawson’s writing and storytelling style remind me a lot of both Stephen King and Chuck Wendig, and maybe that’s one reason I got on so well with this book. This is an unabashedly feminist tale with lots of triggers, so do be aware going in that the story deals heavily with verbal and physical domestic abuse and includes a couple of (brief) scenes involving animal deaths. It also features Covid-19, and even though it takes place after the pandemic is over, the author mentions Covid often. But don’t worry, the story isn’t all a downer! It’s funny, heartwarming, thrilling and fast-paced, with excellent characters and yes, some important messages.

The Violence is set in 2025, several years after the Covid-19 pandemic has ended, and revolves around three generations of women. Chelsea Martin is married to David, a man who has been controlling and abusing her for years. On some level Chelsea understands what’s happening to her and her two children, Ella and Brooklyn, but she continues to walk on eggshells whenever David is around, hoping for a “good” day when he’ll simply leave them alone.

Ella is seventeen and has mostly escaped her father’s attentions. She spends her time at home trying to protect five year old Brooklyn, and at school she has a boyfriend named Hayden. But Hayden is trying to control her, just like her father, and Ella has had enough.

Finally, Patricia Lane is Chelsea’s mother and grandmother to Ella and Brooklyn. She lives with her rich husband, an important judge, and keeps her daughter and grandchildren at arm’s length. Patricia became pregnant with Chelsea as a teenager and was tossed out by her mother, and after years of scraping by with nothing, she’s been able to find a husband who will give her anything she wants. But this has made her cold and unloving, and she wants nothing to do with Chelsea and the girls.

When the story opens, a new pandemic is emerging, hot on the heals of the old one. The Violence, as it’s being called, causes people to become suddenly violent and attack whoever is next to them. The affected person blacks out and doesn’t remember anything afterwards, but by then it’s too late. Most attacks end in murder, and those identified with the Violence are taken away to holding facilities where they can be locked up until a vaccine becomes available.

As the Violence becomes more and more of a threat, Chelsea, Ella, Brooklyn and Patricia find themselves forced to flee their old lives and navigate the unknown, trying to stay one step ahead of the men who still want to control them. 

The story is much more complex and detailed than my quick recap, but I don’t want to give too much of it away. Dawson structures her story in chapters that alternate among the points of view of Chelsea, Ella and Patricia, and I loved this format, which gives the pacing a nice urgency. Early in the story, Chelsea, Ella and Brooklyn are separated, and Brooklyn ends up living with Patricia. As Chelsea begins a new adventure on her own, Ella wants nothing more than to find her mother and reunite with Brooklyn, but there are so many obstacles in her way. Dawson’s story skirts the wildly impossible and unbelievable at times, but I was completely entertained from start to finish. With the unpredictability of the Violence added into the mix—and yes, some of the main characters end up getting the virus—it becomes a gruesome horror story punctuated with random brutality.

But as entertaining as it is, The Violence is also a multilayered story that delves into several serious issues, the most important being the effect of domestic abuse on women. Dawson writes a heartfelt introduction to her story describing her own personal battle growing up with an abusive father, and how she and her mother finally escaped and were able to begin the healing process after they met a wonderful therapist. Some of the scenes in this book are tough to read, especially for readers who might be triggered by graphic descriptions of abuse. But stick with the story if you can, because the payoff is a good one.

And because the women are leaving their old lives of abuse behind and striking out on new ones, the character growth in the story is pretty amazing. Chelsea’s path to freedom is very strange—and some readers might say over the top—and involves her joining a WWE-like group of fighters who all have the Violence called the VFR or “Violence Fighting Ring.” Chelsea discovers this detour is a necessary part of her healing process before she can rejoin her family, and I loved seeing her change from a woman with barely any self confidence to one who isn’t afraid of her horrible husband anymore.

But my favorite character, surprisingly, turned out to be Patricia. In the opening chapters, Patricia is awful. She says horrible things to Chelsea and practically ignores her granddaughters. But as things start to change, and Patricia’s pampered life begins to slip away from her, she is forced to care for Brooklyn and slowly grows to love her. Even when the Violence intrudes in a terrible way, Patricia’s new bond with Brooklyn remains steady. I loved the way she became “Patty”—her old persona when she was much younger—when she needed to find the strength and tenacity to survive. If you’ve ever seen The Gilmore Girls, Patricia reminded me a little of Emily Gilmore, Rory’s grandmother, another character I hated at first but who eventually grew on me.

A couple of things didn’t quite work. First, the way Covid is still affecting everyone was, frankly, depressing. I would hate to think that by 2025 we’re still going to be wearing masks, and even the thought of another pandemic will be enough to drive most people over the edge. I also thought the sections that dealt with the vaccine were rather far fetched, although I have to admit they made the story that much more interesting. I’m trying to avoid books with any mention of Covid these days, but I’m very glad I made this an exception, because I would have hated to miss this book.

At times Dawson’s feminist message came across a little too heavy-handed. Some of the dialog felt like it belonged in a therapy session rather than a thriller, but I’m willing to forgive these instances because I loved the story and characters so much. There are also a lot of horrible male characters in The Violence, in fact there wasn’t a single one I actually liked (and just wait until you meet the vice principal at Ella’s high school!) But I have to admit it was fun seeing the tables turned on them, once the women start fighting back. 

The final act was thrilling and tense, as all the characters finally come together in some very unexpected ways. Dawson includes an Epilogue which was a perfect ending to her fierce, crazy, and thought provoking tale, and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

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thank you to NetGalley, Del Ray and Delilah Dawson for the the absolute pleasure of reading this book. I was very much looking forward to this book and it exceeded all expectations. I can’t say enough good things. The violence is set in 2025 and is in the point of view of Chelsea Martin, her teen daughter Ella and her mother Patricia. I loved the different points of view from these women. This felt like an 80’s kind of pulpy paperback horror in the best possible way, it gave me early Dean Koontz Watchers era vibes. There is a lot of violence in the book and a lot of themes that could be triggering. I felt like the characters were very well done and I enjoyed every bit of their journey. I really hoot this gets made into a movie or series, I feel like the character of Harlan was written for Jason Momoa. This book ticked all my boxes and I’m looking forward to more like this from Ms Dawson

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Wow. It takes a lot for a book’s trajectory to surprise me these days. There are so many familiar tropes, particularly within the thriller genre, that even if I’m a little shocked by a twist, I’m not that surprised by the arch of the novel. The Violence kept surprising me in ways that were unique yet still consistent with the theme for the characters and the novel as a whole and I absolutely loved it.

It’s 2025 and the nation is still recovering from Covid fatigue when a new pandemic sweeps the world. They call it the Violence and infected individuals lose consciousness and become extremely violent toward the closest living thing.

As you can imagine for a book with this premise, it can at times be disturbing and trigger-laden, but I don’t ever think it crossed a line. The violent scenes served very specific purposes for the plot line and character development. The author warns readers of triggers in her vulnerable and powerful introduction and the first chapter gives readers a taste of what’s to come so they have time to bolt, although I truly hope readers will hold on and experience this powerhouse.

The characters were so well written, so humanly imperfect, so vulnerable yet resilient that I couldn’t help but fall for them. Their paths of growth were raw and touching and relatable. Dawson weaves social commentary into the novel expertly; never once feeling forced or preachy. While this novel might be classified as bordering on horror, it’s so human and personal that the only horror I think it depicts is the horror of being human; of making wrong choices, experiencing emotions too big to harness, and balancing self preservation with social expectations. At the end of the day, it’s a cathartic novel about battling monsters; the ones around us and the ones inside us.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I could tell that this was objectively a good book, but the characters' actions were too much for me to handle for personal reasons.

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This took a turn that I wasn’t expecting, though I also can’t say I’m entirely upset about it. This book definitely makes you hate people. There were a few I would’ve happily seen ‘get got.’ The ending felt good and yeah. Pretty solid read. One of my favorites this month. Some could say it went off on a tangent or the ending was too easily wrapped up. I liked it though and it gave me what I wanted. I feel like it gives a decently realistic and uncomfortable look into what abuse and violence within a family does to everyone involved.

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Just when you thought it was safe to leave home after COVID, a new pandemic strikes. It won’t kill you, but someone is going to die. Because instead of a headache and loss of taste, you get a blind rage storm that leaves anyone in your vicinity a victim of your hands, or a salad dressing bottle, or whatever else you have close by.

Chelsea doesn’t have the new illness, what they’re calling the Violence, and neither does her abusive asshole of a husband, but nobody needs to know that. In fact, it will suit Chelsea just fine to let everyone believe he stormed on them and she barely escaped with her life. But he’s not the only thing she has to worry about. In fact, three generations of women in her family are going to have to survive this new world and the trauma they’ve all brought into it.

Searing social commentary and important portrayal of how women give up and take back their power, this book does not pull punches. If you’re uncomfortable with violence and abuse, this is not for you (hence the title guys). But if you’re down to see a dog get his due, you will not be disappointed here.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

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This is the dystopian/family drama/horror novel I never knew I needed! The setting in this was perfect. Having the book set in 2025 allowed the author to incorporate COVID into the story without it being the focus. It also gave a really interesting social commentary on the complete and utter mishandling of both the COVID and Violence pandemics. By the halfway point, I got a little bored with where Chelsea’s story had gone, but Ella’s, Patricia’s, and Brooklyn’s had me too enraptured to put the book down. The character development was done so well, particularly in the way Patricia changed over the course of the story. How the author managed to make a graphic, disturbing horror novel into something that left me with feelings of hope and compassion is a testament to her brilliant writing. Horror readers, make sure this one is on your radar!

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Violence, rage, anger: these emotions course through us all at one point or another in our lives. But what would you do if this viral lust for blood drove you to black out, waking up only to find out just how close humanity really is to that animalistic, instinctual drive to kill?

“The Violence” is a disease that may set the stage for Chelsea Martin and her family, but it’s both a boon and her saving grace. The world around her may be experiencing another pandemic, but for Chelsea, the fight begins at home. And when one choice seems so obviously clear, the results are nothing like what she anticipated.

Delilah S. Dawson elevates the human experience beyond the page, the statistics, and all the rumors to contextualize a woman’s struggle to survive. Readers are drawn into the microcosm of the Martin family and forced to confront the choices, actions, and thoughts that are perhaps not as far from our own as we might think. Dawson contrasts the characters’ internal fights with the violence occurring in broad daylight among spouses, friends, neighbors, and mere acquaintances. It’s a relatively simple task to heal the flesh, but soothing the psyche takes a different approach.

Reading through this wonderfully-written novel, I found myself lost in Chelsea’s struggle, living through her daily life with no more confidence in the future than she herself possessed. As the story split between Chelsea, her mother, and her daughter, Ella, it was all I could do to gobble up the sections until their particular stories resumed. The plot included its fair share of twists and turns, each pushing the story further.

In the end, though, I was left wanting more. I wanted to enjoy life with the Martins, to ride along with them in their individual journeys to see what happened next. Given the conclusion of the piece, however, I think there’s plenty of room for a sequel. Because where the ruins of a past life lay burning, the beginnings of a new life are just beginning to sprout.

This book is an incredible stand-alone novel that puts human nature–the good, the bad, and everything ugly in-between–on display for consideration. I highly recommend reading "The Violence" by Delilah S. Dawson.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC copy!

I am relieved that the author’s note about trigger warnings was the first thing in the book, including physical, mental, and emotional abuse. This made me feel prepared as to what I would be reading. She also says this is a recollection of what she and her mother went through. DV is a highly sensitive topic, but doesn’t deter me from reading about it.

Ok now onto the actual book! In a world after Covid, a new virus emerges called “the Violence.” It is spread by mosquitoes and causes people to essentially black out and attack other people with no recollection of doing so. It could really be called The Purge-Pandemic.

We follow the Martin family- Chelsea, David (bastard), Ella, and Brooklyn. David is an abusive, gaslighting, no good POS. Chelsea is basically cut off from her friends, working, and even having her own credit card. So when this virus emerges, this could be her and her daughters chance out of hell.

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This book was amazing! It's about a plague that starts after Covid stopped, called The Violence. It's spread by mosquitoes and causes those bitten to black out and kill whatever or whoever is next to them at the time. It also focuses on four females from the same family - Chelsea, a middle aged woman who is the mom of Ella and Brooklyn and the daughter of Patricia. Chelsea is stuck in a loveless, abusive marriage, and it's easy to see why - her mom was loveless when Chelsea was growing up and she married the first man she could to get away. Unfortunately this leads to Ella, who is 17, witnessing the abuse and getting into her own abusive relationship. But this book focuses on leaving those relationships, and coming into your own as a woman, and fighting back to break the cycle.

I loved this book much, much more than I thought I was going to. Be forewarned, it is very violent - lots of bloodshed from both people and animals. But by the end I was riveted to my seat and couldn't put it down, because I needed to know what happened. If blood and gore doesn't bother you, CHECK OUT THIS BOOK. 5 stars.

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Loved the concept of the book, and despite not being the main focus, I found it interesting to follow the patterns of domestic abuse. It can happen to anyone and is a difficult cycle to break. But break she did, in an unexpected (and rather awesome) way. The downside of the book? Really just too long. Drop about 150 pages and it would be a great book.

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I struggled to get into this one. Did not keep my attention. I think it was the plot. The writing was really good. I will give this author another chance, for sure.

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This is not an easy book to read. This is not because it is not well written. It is a wonderful and fantastically well written story of a woman, Chelsea, fighting for the survival of herself and her children. The characters are bold and vibrant. The setting is realistic and easy to visualize as it plays on what is happening in our life today. While reading you will go through a range of emotions from cheering on the characters, to anger, tears, and sadness. Throughout it all one thing you have to remember is that there is a happy ending. Who gets it is what you will need to get to the end to find it out. This is an overall powerful story of hope, resilience and love. It is well written and a great job done by the author.

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I didn't know what to expect from this book. The premise seemed weird: a new pandemic called "The Violence" causes people to suddenly burst into a rage and beat someone to death and then not remember it. Once I started reading and met the characters I couldn't put it down. Great characters, fast-paced plot and a few unexpected adventures. Graphically violent, but highly recommended.

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I loved THE VIOLENCE. There are so many things that I loved about this book, and I will try to list them out coherently even though I just want to squeal with glee and make that my review because it's the most representative of my feelings. For one, I loved the characters. We predominantly follow three women from one family: we have Claudia, a meek housewife who has been in an abusive marriage with her husband David; Ella, Claudia and David's older daughter who has been seeing her mother's abuse and internalizing it; and Patricia, Claudia's cruel mother who has married for money and settled into a privileged lifestyle. When the Violence starts to crop up and a pandemic begins, Claudia sees a potential way to get out of her abusive marriage, and it sets off a chain reaction that changes all of their lives. I loved all of these characters in their complex, sometimes maddening, messy, and authentic selves. Dawson mines out all of the complications of their personalities and they leap off the page, their journeys transformative and incredibly compelling. I think my favorite narrative was Claudia's, as not only is she deeply interesting, her journey ends up with her joining a group of pro-wrestlers who are trying to get through. No spoilers, but know that it works SO well. But it was also the plot, mythology, and social commentary that Dawson does through the Violence and how it changes society. From the privileges that the wealthy have in terms of coping to society's inability to fully cope to vaccine hoarding, after everything we've been through with COVID the past few years, everything feels like it is exactly how it would go. The Violence itself is scary, but Dawson explores it and figures out how to make it plausible without over explaining. It just works. It's incredibly engaging as a plot and as a thriller, with high tension and suspense.

Damn did I love this book. It hit the exact right way at the exact right time, even as I'm stressing about Omicron. It was cathartic, for sure.

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TW: Sexual Abuse, Domestic Abuse, Animal Death, Gore

At one point while reading this, I muttered, “fuck, this is really violent,” at which my dear spouse looked at me like I was the dumbest idiot alive.

Whether you love it or not, pandemic lit is really having a moment right now . A few years post-Covid, a new pandemic has emerged called "The Violence." The people who contract it are prone to random outbursts of extreme violence, usually killing whoever is unfortunate enough to be within a few feet of them at the time.
This book was 500 pages long. It did not need to be. But, I finished it in a day and a half so clearly there was enough there to keep me reading instead of powering my way through the first season of Succession.

Spilt into the perspectives of a grandmother, mother, and daughter, all of whom are dealing with physically and financially abusive men, the grandmother’s storyline captured my attention way more than the others.
This isn’t the most nuanced exploration of intimate partner violence, or of the impact that pandemics including Covid have on society, but it’s incredibly cathartic, if you can stomach it.

Read if:
-- You liked "Vox"
-- You're the one in your friend group who got realllly into those "Florida Man" memes for a while
-- You're okay with not encountering a single redeeming male character for 400+ pages.

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The book follows three women in the same family in the new future in the US when a new pandemic hits; and this one makes people kill a person around them. This new illness gives Chelsea the perfect opportunity to escape her abusive husband.

So, this is a tricky one. I really did like the idea behind the book and how the author explored the illness. I also really liked Chelsea and Ella (Patricia's point of view was interesting too although her character is not exactly sympathetic, it's definitely layered). I think all of them go through well developed arcs, allowing us to follow their growth and progression. I could feel the bond between the characters, also the fear and the confusion they go through.

But, I could really feel this book was used as the author's way to vent all of her frustrations regarding the current pandemic. Because of that, there is a lot of repetition throughout the book regarding this specific frustration that keeps bleending on the narrative and interrupting it. Sometimes, the book is so focused on this aspect that some plot points are brushed over and rushed just to give space for the author's frustation. The book could be much smaller and tell the same story more cohesively without the repetition of the same ideas over and over.

By the end, I enjoyed the book and although I thought the ending was a bit rushed, I did like it.

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In a post Covid world a new virus is sweeping through the nation, mainly confined to warmer climates, and known as The Violence. There is a vaccine, but only for the very wealthy. Those who contract the virus have bouts of murderous rage causing them to kill whoever happens to be handy at the time, and have no memory of doing so once the rage passes. Those who have or are suspected to have The Violence are herded into quarantine centers that are basically prisons, sometimes never to be seen or heard from again.
In this backdrop we meet Chelsea, neglected as a child and now abused as a spouse, along with her two daughters. Chelsea plans to use the virus as a means to save her children and escape from her abusive husband, but things don't go according to plan.
This is a book that I found in the horror section, but it was more a dysfunctional family drama. There was much that I enjoyed about the story, but more than a few spots were a bit draggy and drawn out. All of the male characters had extreme personalities. They were either abusive mysogynistic borderline perverts, or over the top sensitive sympathetic and empathetic to a woman's every need. It kind of gave me whiplash going from one extreme to the other and I wished that someone could have been just plain normal. There were a few plot points that seemed to contradict each other, but I can't really go into it much without giving away spoilers.
I'm going to give this a 3 out of 5 stars, as something I liked but did not love.

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This blew my mind. I’m usually good at guessing things but this was good!
I loved it. I think people are definitely gonna love and enjoy this one!

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First of all, be warned, this is not an easy book to read. The subject matter is rough, and trigger warnings abound. There are scenes of domestic abuse, distressing violence, and animal death. However, if you think you can handle the experience, this book is absolute gift to readers.

The Basics: There’s a new virus in town, and boy, is it a monster! It’s called the Violence, and that’s not a misnomer. Once contracted, this disease transforms its host into a raging brute. In short, the infected person blacks out and then wakes up next to a dead person—with no memory of having become a homicidal maniac. In the beginning, there seems to be little rhyme or reason for these vicious attacks, and how the virus spreads—as well as when it will manifest—is a mystery. For the most part, we follow one family as they deal with the ramifications of this new illness, while attempting to escape strained or unhealthy relationships and scrambling to afford the $30,000 vaccine.

From the moment I began reading the prologue, I was hooked. Delilah S. Dawson cast a spell and turned me to stone for the duration of this novel. It might sound cliché to say that I couldn’t stop reading, but never has a truer statement been written. I barely moved a muscle from start to finish. It is insane.

After the last couple of years, even something fantastical like this felt all too familiar. The author has a way of putting the uncertainty that a lot of us have recently felt into terms that we understand and empathize with. She builds a sense of claustrophobia that strangles her readers. The tension builds with each shocking page until the ending leaves us gasping for air and emotionally spent.

As I’ve said, at times, it’s a tough book to read, but for me, it’s a big winner. I have the first entry on my “Best of 2022” list.

Write on, Delilah!

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