Rant - The Poisoner by IV Ophelia

*Spoilers ahead *

TW rape/sexual assault talk

Granted this is more of a dark romance fantasy/paranormal book rather than the typical non-dark lol.

Anyway... first of all, this was my FIRST dark romance book. I honestly thought that genre meant more obscure/risque, not rape/assault.

So multiple scenes MMC is starting off as assaulting FMC , then she gets into it and submits to it.... just to give an idea to that basic aspect of the book.

There is a chapter in the book, where the bad guy character takes FMC, tortures her by kneeling on grains of rice, and gets very aggressive with her. ON TOP OF THAT, MMC joins in on the assault. And eventually they both assault/rape her at the same time and FMC is NOT consenting to this act. The chapter genuinely disgusted me.

This book came out September 2024 (about) and the author JUST updated via Instagram that's she's releasing a different version of the book where that chapter is different bc it's the most controversial/talked about chapter... so assuming she's already written book 2, does this mean that chapter doesn't really have much effect/importance on the overall story? And if that's the case. WHY write this in....

Overall I'm not here to kink shame, but that chapter was not a consensual romantic chapter... am I just being too sensitive?