The Violence opens in post-Covid times and the not too distant future appropriately set in Florida. The author, Delilah S. Dawson, has lots of references and some snarky to the political fall-out that has taken place during the Pandemic of 2020-2021 and places them judiciously within the storyline to show how history and stupidity repeats itself.
When unexplained mortal violence occurs without warning irrespective of gender, age, race, etc, the citizens of Florida are put back into quarantine situations. Everyone is a suspect, and no one is safe from the grip of The Violence. Enter a trio of related women impacted by either past or present domestic abuse. Under the guise of the violence, they each make or have a life-changing decision made for them to get out from under their personal hell. Chelsea, the mother, is being abused by her husband and thinks it is mostly hidden from her two daughters. It is not. Ella, her teenage daughter, is close to repeating the same mistake with a popular young man at her high school. Patricia, the grandmother, is cold and judgmental, if not outright mean. But she, too, comes from a childhood abusive situation. The cycle continues until confronted with the Violence. One uses it to get out, one is stronger than she thinks, and one comes to the realization that that being rich doesn't protect you,
Wealth and parity is examined as the rich become basically the only ones able to have the vaccine when it is determined what causes the virus.. Yep, it went there. The Vaccine.
There are many issues covered within the pages that include those already mentioned and immigrant labor, self-worth, eating disorders, to name a few more. I was all in until major plot points veered into a traveling WWE as a place for safety. But as this is a horror story, maybe that is acceptable. Thank you to NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review

So the premise of this story is spellbinding - so unique, interesting and I had to find out where this went!

Unfortunately, I felt that it got bogged down in parts and dragged in others. Overall, this was a solid thriller with an interesting take on the pandemic we are all still living through, but it just left me wanting a tad bit more.

This book has perfect timing in regards to a virus that happens after the Corona pandemic, with the Coronavirus fresh in our minds, it makes the story even more intriguing. . This was an enthralling thriller with very likable characters. Truly enjoyed the storyline, the characters, and the unexpected twists and turns. Would highly recommend this book.
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for providing a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. #TheViolence #NetGalley

The Violence will not let you put the book down until you are through with it! This book will grab you emotionally and mentally and put you on a rollercoaster ride of emotions, intrigue, and vengeance. And I loved nearly every part!
There is a warning to this book, however. It does describe domestic violence in detail, so I caution any reader who is about to embark on this particular adventure. Some of it is hard to read. But it is worth going through the pain of the characters. If you have never been a victim of domestic violence, you will find yourself confused and questioning the characters decisions. Which, incidentally, is what domestic violence survivors do. But that is not all there is to this story.
This is a story of three generation of women, each who has survived violence in one form or another. The author does a great job of making the women more than one dimensional characters, though I wish we could have learned even more about the oldest of the women. Her backstory could have been fleshed out more because she is such an interesting character.
This book is scary, intriguing, frustrating, and exciting. It will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions and leave you breathless by the end.
Book Cover
While I love the red cover, I think it could have been even more impactful with a different graphic. It's still a great cover for the story though.
I was given a free copy to read for my unbiased opinion through NetGalley.

This is not at all what I expected anc honestly, I don’t think I even meant to wish or request it, but I’m glad I somehow did. It was a hard read, but an important one, as it deals with DV and really brings to light some of the things that people endure. There were some sci-fi parts, which surprisingly I enjoyed as well. I think in part because it was such a well written, engrossing read! Would definitely recommend, but would warn it may be triggering to some!

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review - what a unique and timely book!
Chelsa is married to David, who she gave up everything for only to find herself in an abusive relationship. What a life as she struggles for a perfection that is impossible to achieve.
And then an illness begins to overtake the world.... called Violence - can this work in Chelsa's favor to win freedom from marriage?
Does she dare? Will it work?

When I requested this ARC I was familiar with Delilah Dawson's humorous series that she co-wrote with Kevin Hearne. This book was extremely different.

The Violence is the story of several generations of women who have been raised in abusive homes. When a new plague strikes, causing its victims to react with mindless violence, the women have the chance to reclaim their lives.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for providing a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson was a surprisingly excellent read. I was expecting campy and/or over-the-top gore, and while the gore was there (the camp, however, was not) what I ended up getting was much more than a typical horror story.

<b>The Plot</b>
Chelsea Martin's husband abuses her daily, always in ways that won't leave physical proof. Chelsea takes the brunt of his rage, doing her best to shield their two daughters, Ella, 17 and Brooklyn, 5. Chelsea is used to the people around her hurting her, having grown up with her emotionally abusive and neglectful mother Patricia.

We follow Chelsea; Ella who's dealing with a consent-violating, pushy boyfriend at school and her dad at home; and Patricia, who's much too rich and important to take the time to get to know her granddaughters, thank you very much.

They navigate a new pandemic in a post-Covid world, a virus called The Violence that causes sufferers to mindlessly attack a singular target— be it a person, a dog, or their own reflection in the mirror— and not stop until either the target is dead or they are neutralized. Seeing an opportunity, Chelsea uses fear of the virus to make a run from her husband with the girls, but thanks to her mother's lack of empathy she's son separated from Ella and Brooklyn and will go to any lengths to get them back while protecting them from their dad.

<b>The Good</b>
Oh, this book has so much good. I loved, loved, LOVED the characters. Chelsea was maybe actually my least favorite of the four women/girls but I still cared very much for her. Ella, the 17 y/o, was far and away my favorite. I was super invested in her story and got frustrated whenever her chapter would end. I started out hating Patricia but then I fell in love Patricia. And I usually find little kids in novels too annoying and precocious but Brooklyn was believable and so perfect. They were all great and relatable and sympathetic.

The story and the virus were fascinating. I loved the little clues dropped about a character who'd been infected before we actually found out they were infected. Normally when there's multiple POV storylines one stands out as clearly inferior but Chelsea, Ella, and Patricia's storylines were all equally interesting.

It was also genuinely terrifying in some parts, which is always a plus.

<b>The Not-So-Good</b>
If you look back through my updates you'll see me call this book cringey. Having finished the book, I can say that word still applies. The book happens 4-5 years "after Covid", but also 4-5 years after the end of Trump's first term, so the math doesn't quite add up there, given that we're heading into 2022 with no end to Covid in sight. All the references to Trump without actually naming him were awkward too. It doesn't take away from the story in a huge way but I do wish it had been written as an alternate history type of pandemic instead of a second pandemic.

There were parts of this book that were very difficult to get through but I'm glad I did because this is one that will stick with me for a long time. These people and the situations they were put in and forced to live through had me dying to keep reading, desperate to know what would happen next to Chelsea and Ella and Brooklyn and Patricia. More than anything, The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson is a story about surviving and escaping abuse, and it's a story of family, whatever that may mean.

<b>CW:</b> EXTREME and graphic violence, extreme and graphic violence towards animals and children, violent death of a dog, extreme and graphic domestic abuse, physical abuse witnessed by a child, physical abuse of a child by a parent, graphic descriptions of mutilated corpses, emotional abuse by a parent, neglect by a parent, accidental starvation death of pets, homelessness, bullying, sexual assault

On the outside, Chelsea Martin appears to be the perfect housewife and mother but appearances can be deceiving. She makes herself small, compliant, and follows her husband David's "rulebook" to perfection knowing what will happen if she makes a mistake. Chelsea is willing to do whatever it takes to protect her children from their abusive father. A mysterious condition, known as the Violence, begins to rapidly infect the nation causing the infected to suddenly and aggressively attack anyone in their path with deadly force...and it's exactly what Chelsea needs to escape.

The Violence is an interesting thriller which takes place after the COVID pandemic has swept the nation leaving society in a state of instability. This new virus causes violent burst of deadly rage in the victims with no memory of their actions after the rage subsides. Chelsea sees this as an opportunity to get free of her abusive husband. The book has some interesting concepts and twists that really captivated me for the first half of the book. The book does piggyback heavily on real events surrounding COVID and honestly I wish it would have focused more on the fake virus instead. The book also took some unexpected turns that I wasn't really sure about. It also felt very one sided in that almost every male character comes across as abusive, a predator, misogynistic, and/or, just an all-around bad person. Overall I really did enjoy most of this novel; I liked the concept of the virus, the writing style, and many of the characters. This was an interesting and entertaining read that just fell a bit short for me at the end.

Brilliant. Talks about COVID while not being about COVID. About rebuilding yourself when you thought you had whittled yourself down to nothing. About building up communities of people that society rejects. About relearning your own defense mechanisms. About living in the moment. Being smart about survival. About cutting out the poison from your life in whatever ways you need to.

Set a few years in the future, a new illness known as The Violence has struck, this one much more deadly. Once a person is infected, they don't know it until until they violently kill someone near to them and then wake up with no memory of what happened. The book centers on three women, Chelsea, her teenage daughter Brooklyn and her mother Patricia. All three women are dealing with trauma. Chelsea sees The Violence as a way to escape her abusive husband. I liked reading about the correlation between Covid and The Violence, how both began as small instances and then soon took over everything. Like Covid, The Violence has unknown origins at first and lots of misinformation is spread about it. Chelsea, Brooklyn and Patricia all have to find new strength to get through this plague.

Thank You Random House|Ballantine/Del Rey, NetGalley and Author for this outstanding new thriller!

When a mysterious plague causes people to grow very violent it starts to spread across the nation!

Chelsea seems to be the most perfect housewife
She is married to her high school sweetheart, has two beautiful daughter's and takes very great care of her beautiful home!

Her husband has turned their home into a prison. Little does anyone else know he has been very abusive to her for years now. He has total control over everything and her!
Her very own mother is more concerned about appearances than her daughter!
But her biggest fear is that her daughters will be stuck in this hell house with her!

But then the mysterious plague takes over the world.
They call it The Violence.
Making people act like complete animals. That will attack anyone standing in their way.
But this sparks something inside Chelsea and it's during this most chaotic time that's she starts forming a plan to escape this hold her husband has over her!

The writing here is phenomenal! This author is amazing.
And she couldn't have done a better job with this story.
It was the most intriguing book I've read I awhile.
What I enjoyed most was this is a very believable story.
Which made it that much more fun.
Captivating, believable characters, interesting plot!
This book is outstanding.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I can't thank the publisher enough for this eARC copy!

Thank you NetGalley!!!!! This is an awesome book which will likely be made into a movie. Chelsea is in an abusive marriage-physically and emotionally. Chelsea’s daughter Ella, who is 17, is also in an abusive relationship. Chelsea’s mother, Patricia, is in an abusive marriage. Until Chelsea gets The Violence illness, goes crazy and kills their dog. Leaving her children with her mother, she and her neighbor Jeanie, who also has the Violence, go to join the Violence Fight Ring. This book kept me thoroughly engaged. The author starts out by saying that she was the victim of an abusive father and that is woven expertly throughout the story. READ THIS BOOK

I had high expectations for this book, but it seemed long and drawn-out. While the premise of an unseen pandemic is timely and relevant, the story-telling was low-energy and just not for me. I recommend, however, for those interested in psychology and sociology, as the book draws on social themes in American society.

<i>The Violence</i> is set in a post-COVID world, when people get infected with extreme and emotionally detached urges to tear each other (or anything in their path) to death. It can come out of nowhere and no one is safe. Chelsea, an abused housewife with two daughters, decides to use The Violence in order to escape her husband. What follows is the story of her struggle to survive, along with her daughter Ella’s and her mother Patricia’s.

<i>The Violence</i> is filled with <b>many</b> triggers - spousal abuse, animal cruelty, physical abuse, gaslighting, and sexual assault among many others.

The premise was intriguing but I think the novel dragged in a lot of parts and I found Chelsea’s storyline to be just not the right fit for the plot as a whole.

It was really hard to put this book down! I was instantly hooked from the first page, especially with the action packed opening scene. I’m a huge dystopian fan, and this is the first I’ve read of a book containing this unique presence. The author does a superb job of creating a tender world fraught with fear and paranoia, and in showing how a cure could be corrupted by the almighty dollar. The character development is also just as equally well done: the story is told through the POV of Chelsea, her oldest daughter, and her mother. Each chapter reveals each woman’s strength in the face of adversity, and how trauma has shaped their behavior.
With a book titled “The Violence”, the depictions of violence are not for the faint of heart, so sensitive readers should take warning. As an abuse survivor, the depictions of domestic abuse by Chelsea’s husband chilled me; yet I could completely relate to some of her thoughts and recognized many of her abuser’s traits.
As the story reached its climax, I did have a sense of how the story was going to end, but that didn’t hinder my opinion of it. I’m looking forward to Delilah Dawson’s next work

This one was hard for me to get through. I can normally handle reading about the things in this book, but this one was difficult. Thank you to the author & Random House for the opportunity to read it.

Wow. This book was totally different than I thought it would be when I read about “The Violence Virus” in the synopsis. I thought this would be a campy horror about a funny/gory disease and women getting back at the abusers in their life in creative ways. That would have been a good book, but I was completely wrong about what this novel was really about. This wasn’t good - it was great.

Set in the near future (2022? 2023? Hopefully not…) this is the world right after Covid. Everyone is weary, the economy is still doing horribly, but people are starting to try to get back to life as normal. Then comes a new pandemic: The Violence. Spread by mosquitoes, it is asymptomatic until the infected person blacks out and kills. Beloved pets, children, and spouses are not immune to being killed by their owners, parents or partners. Once they kill, the person snaps out of their trance, and are horrified by what they’ve done. The police aren’t even arresting people, because it’s completely involuntary (and it’s easy to tell the difference between people killed “normally” or people killed by someone with The Violence).

There is a vaccine, but the same president who bungled the Covid pandemic is still in power, so Americans are helpless. Some of the very wealthy can get the vaccine at $30,000 a dose, but the government is once again failing the common man. It’s like living the past two years over again, as lockdowns and curfews are back, mosquito spray and toilet paper are impossible to find, and some states (*coughFloridacough*) are refusing to take measures to stop the virus and the killing.

I know. I KNOW! It sounds like a campy ‘80s horror novel, right? Wrong. In a letter to the readers, the author touches on her personal experience with domestic violence, and I think this book was written to help heal herself. We meet three generations of women also dealing with different forms of abuse, and they are characters who change this book into something much more thoughtful than another pandemic creating brutal killers.

Patricia is mother to Chelsea, who is mother to Ella (and 5-year-old Brooklyn, my favorite character in the book). Patricia was once in a physically abusive relationship, but she got out and married a very wealthy man … who immediately starts emotionally and financially abusing her. While raising Chelsea, Patricia continued/projected the emotional abuse onto her child, but Chelsea was able to break the pattern with her daughters. Unfortunately though, Chelsea’s husband turned out to be a wife beater as well, so her teenage daughter, Ella, is now in an abusive relationship, and thus the cycle continues…

When the horror element with the new virus and the dramatic element about broken people combine, they make an incredibly thoughtful book. The horror has zero cheese, and somehow the author was able to write this in a very realistic way. Somehow, it didn’t feel implausible. How she combined two very different genres into something entertaining, heart-wrenching and beautiful is quite impressive. I think most authors wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without one of the aspects getting shortchanged.

There were a couple tiny, tiny things that I didn’t like, so maybe I’d rate this a 4.5 if that was possible. It’s definitely worthy of more than four stars though, so this gets a rare five stars from me. I was totally caught off guard by this book, in the best way possible.

(Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Delilah S. Dawson, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my review.)

Violence is an understatement! What a ride! While there was a bit more violence than I normally enjoy, I really did end up enjoying this book quite a bit! Great writing and it left me on the edge of my seat

This novel begins with a trigger warning, and it is necessary. But the hook! It's quick and the author sets it deep. This book made me uncomfortable and reminded me that a good story should make one feel things that are different from your everyday experiences, whether pleasant or less so.
Revenge, redemption, hope for the future, The Violence contains this and more, read it and consider your own opinions/thoughts/actions and your own future.