In the Hands of Men: A novel

by Gin Sexsmith

Haunted by the loss of her cousin, Delilah has curated a world of revenge—playing judge, jury, and executioner while, you know, searching for love.

Maybe murdering gives her the control she craves. Maybe it fills the gaping hole that Cedar left when she disappeared. Maybe this rage is ancestral, dating back to all of the Indigenous women before her whose cases were closed without much of a search.

She’s never been close to getting caught, but as a virus ripples through the world, devolving men into animals, she gets a little sloppy. Now she must ask herself, is she a monster too or is she simply taking her power back from the hands of men?

382 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 28, 2023

About the author

Gin Sexsmith is a mixed-Mohawk, Indigiqueer writer and musician from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory and a member of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation. Introspective, unapologetic, and forever for the girls, Gin’s work explores love, identity, sexuality, trauma, and mental illness through a speculative lens. Her debut novel, In the Hands of Men, was published in May 2023, with its audiobook released on Audible in June 2024 and narrated by Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs.
She is currently studying Kanyen'kéha in her community and working as an editor for Canadian Geographic.

Reviews

[Eao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank You

I want to thank the author. This is the best and worst book I’ve read in my 47 years. It was extremely painful but liberating. Putting my life and my need to teach my own white sons to know but not abuse the privilege they have not earned and to make them face every day that this society demeans females for no reason other than that they are females. The voice against racism is loud today, as it should be, but too little is said about the agony of the powerlessness of being a girl and then a woman in this society. There is a disgusting, gut wrenching acceptance, desolate silence, of sexual violence against women. And this author named all of those types of violence- not only physical violence but so so much more. As I read I wondered if maybe an educator would be courageous enough to add this book to a curriculum. The truth spoken in this book needs to be heard, accepted and changed. Thank you again to the author and thank you to all people who believe the underlying truth of this story.

[Dana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book so much!