Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Violence, by Delilah S. Dawson {ends 11/25}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

She scrolls back through all the texts she’s sent her mom, but they’re all unread. Now she thinks she knows why. Her mom’s phone was probably in her minivan with Jeanie when her mom ran away. 

So there’s no point in texting her at all.

And yet...there’s something comforting about it, too.

I’m scared, she types.

There’s no response to that, either.

Please help me.

As if by magic, the doorbell rings.

For the tiniest, briefest, stupidest moment, her heart lifts. Have her prayers been answered?

But then reality descends. No one should be here. No one should ring this doorbell.

This is not a good sign.

What if COVID is just the first pandemic? In The Violence, the next pandemic causes people to go crazy and kill one person they’ve decided is the enemy.

Official synopsis:

When Chelsea Martin kisses her husband hello at the door of their perfect home, a chilled bottle of beer in hand and dinner on the table, she may look like the ideal wife, mother, and homemaker—but in fact she’s following an unwritten rulebook, carefully navigating David’s stormy moods in a desperate nightly bid to avoid catastrophe. If family time doesn’t go exactly the way David wants, bad things happen—to Chelsea, and to the couple’s seventeen-year-old daughter, Ella. Cut off from all support, controlled and manipulated for years, Chelsea has no resources and no one to turn to. Her wealthy, narcissistic mother, Patricia, would rather focus on the dust on her chandelier than acknowledge Chelsea’s bruises. After all, Patricia’s life looks perfect on the surface, too.

But the façade crumbles when a mysterious condition overtakes the nation. Known as the Violence, it causes the infected to experience sudden, explosive bursts of animalistic rage and attack anyone in their path. The ensuing chaos brings opportunity for Chelsea—and inspires a plan to liberate herself and her family once and for all.

This was definitely a page-turner, and believable in a horrible way. It uniquely combines a pandemic after COVID, an intricate domestic violence situation and its influence on three generations of women, and society’s responses to violence in general. While these all summon strong emotions and reactions, they also send thoughts of possible options of what’s next in every direction. The big picture of the book had a few somewhat expected endings, but getting there was a suspenseful adventure.

Chelsea, her daughter Ella, and her mother Patricia all have their own conditioned responses to violence and power in their personal lives, but the violence pandemic gives everything a new perspective. Whether they were used to being in control, or thought they never could be, their interactions with the pandemic changed their ideas of what was possible repeatedly.

While it’s fair to warn of some, well, violent scenarios described in the book, personally the satisfaction of vigilante justice was worth it. I’d give this book 5 out of 5 stars. The characters and situations they dealt with felt realistic (if a bit choreographed for convenience near the end). I’d recommend this for those who enjoy contemporary fiction and family stories, but don’t mind some graphic depictions of violence. 

{click HERE to purchase}

Becki Bayley is a cat person and music lover. You’ll find her reading, puttering around her home office, and listening to a variety of 80s, holiday, the Chicks, Ke$ha, and Stevie Nicks. She posts about what she reads and other events in her life on her blog, SweetlyBSquared.com.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of The Violence!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Thursday, November 25th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified the next day via email and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

The Violence, by Delilah S. Dawson