The joy of going to the library

I love checking books out from the library because that means I can test ride books that I otherwise would feel ambivalent about buying.

I picked up Thorn Queen by Richelle Mead, Book Two in the Dark Swan series.

I hadn't read any of her other books and picked up this one by chance. It's a good urban fantasy, complete with a love triangle, a morally compromised heroine torn between two legacies, betrayal, and some truly disturbing rape scenes.

I have mixed feelings about this book. It is very well written - fast-paced, complicated, great world building . She did a great job of telling me what happened in Book One so that I didn't feel left behind. The sex was hot, the men fascinating, the plot was twisty and dangerous.

I was highly disappointed by the climax, though.  Spoilers ahead, so stop reading here if you don't like that.

In Act Three, the heroine has been drugged, kidnapped, is held captive, and is repeatedly raped. (This is a very triggery section if you've dealt with rape or other kinds of sexual abuse). She rescues herself and the other captives (Yay!). The cavalry comes in the form of the two men vying for her affection and her step-father.

The rules in this world guarantee that the rapist cannot be brought to justice.  The men prevent her from killing her tormentor and argue between themselves about killing the criminal. Finally, one of her suitors shakes off the other men and kills the rapist.

This really annoyed me. Twenty five hundred years ago, Euripides wrote the play Medea.

Medea took her own revenge on her ex-husband Jason by murdering the woman he left her for, the girl's father, and the two children that she and Jason had together.This story is an unflinching look at women's capacity for finding her own justice.

The heroine in Thorn Queen had killed before. She was no innocent to be ruined by the shedding of blood. It would have been perfectly in character for her to engage in this final deed. I would have been fascinated to see the consequences of this act on her already compromised soul.

Why did the author shy away from letting the heroine decide the consequences  for the crimes committed to her own body? Why did a man have to act as her surrogate? Why did the men not understand her anger and hurt? What would be the price of becoming a Dark Queen?

These questions left me disappointed. I feel this was an amazing book that got frightened at the end. I look forward to seeing where Richelle Mead takes her books in the future.