Gross gross gross
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Triggers: rape, physical, mental and emotional abuse, heroine being ok with rape, everyone making excuses for rape and all the other abuse
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I read a lot of bodice rippers and other stuff with questionable content, but I do have hard limits.
Hannah, a respectable upper class widow, wants to sail to the colonies to see her uncle and help him with stuff. Instead, she is tricked by a serial killer rapist surgeon (who may or may not possess medical skills) clandestinely onboard a pirate ship, where he intends to rape, torture and dismember her and toss her remains in the sea.
Problem: the captain of the ship, Edmund Blackwater knew nothing of it. So of course, when he spots Hannah, he drags her to see his quatermaster Mr. Till, who he likes to share his women with (#nohomo though). They don't rape her yet, but they come close and when Hannah bites Edmund he has her tied to a mast, naked, for 5 hours with no water, while the crew leers at her (I guess Hannah should be grateful they don't a get a pass at her for her failed attempts at protecting herself).
Till takes pity on her, sort of, and negotiates a few hours of rest for Hannah before they both rape her after the mast episode. Hannah is betrayed by her body and absolutely LOVES it, but I really want to stress that in terms of rapey heroes, these two are particularily bad. Edmund is violent, and though Till isn't, he is still a selfish animal. In the entire book, neither make any attempt to make amends, or try to make more than small talk conversation with their prey.
It takes Hannah maybe a month to slutten up and just enjoy these two wonderful men and then whoo boy does she never insist on an apology. In fact, her monologues focus on shame and how much she loves being raped, so ... we never see the blame land where it belongs.
Edmund, the vile scum, regularly feels some sort of regret, but it quickly diffuses once he grabs a breast. He can barely keep himself from raping Hannah in public, EVEN AFTER she already decided to consent to fucking him all times of the day. She has to PLEAD for the curtesy of not being raped on deck. That is insane!
And Till, the nasty lil weasel, never takes a stand for her. Sure, he never rapes her in front of others like Edmund or beats her or chains her to his desk (she's chained for more than a week after she found out Edmund's plan to deliver her uncle to a certain death and vocally objects to it. The fun part is, she also thinks he might throw her overboard once he has her uncle). But Till doesn't really object to any of it, either. At some point he sees Hannah beaten and crying and when Edmund tells him to take the belt and have a go at her too for her disrespect, Till does say no. But he leaves then and lets her get raped again and avoids her for weeks, instead of ... idk. Consoling her, apologizing, or preventing Edmund from abusing her might have been options. But no.
It's the pitilessness that struck me. Till, unlike Edmund, appears to have some moral compass that, once he started liking Hannah, which was soonish, he was no longer interested in raping her and he also made no other moves to hurt her or imprison and humiliate her publicly. But he just gives Edmund the free pass to do what he must and then gives Hannah advice that Edmund doesn't have to be so bad (except he is).
It's like Edmund is one of these boys who torture cats and roasts them alive over a fire, and although Till likes cats and especially this one, he chooses to avoid Edmund and the cat rather than to defend the cat and take his chances against the nasty boy.
Hannah, by contrast, is betrayed so thoroughly by her body that no matter how much rape and violence is heaped upon her, she still pleads with Edmund to halt his evil scheme to get her uncle killed so he can get his estranged father's love and respect. She even offers herself in the bargain and tells him that she will stick it out with him and Till forever if he'll just pick her and stops raping her.
He doesn't pick her.
In fact, he drags her to see her uncle, who is of course unwilling to get on a pirate ship to sail to his death in Jamaica (but does it anyway bdcause he doesn't want Hannah to be gangraped for the rest of her life). Hannah tells her uncle she's sorry about him dying (she isn't, though. Just sorry Edmund didn't love her). It boggles the mind.
While Edmund takes Uncle to the ship, of course Hannah gets trapped and assaulted by the serial killer surgeon (who attempted to rape and kill Hannah on the ship several times, but Edmund decided not to kill him every time). Hannah offs him, thank god, as Edmund rushes to save her. At that point he had had 3 chances and reasons to kill that surgeon. So thanks for the attempt of saving her, I guess????????
Hannah isn't that upset, all she wants is a new dress, so she buys one and then saves Edmund and his ship from the navy by being a RICH LADY.
Till is injured, so she becomes SUPER DOCTOR HANNAH and saves his life too. Their gratitude for her help (and for her staying with their sorry asses) does not mean they apologize for their atrocious behavior.
I was livid
I am still livid
I hate this book so much
Edmund is probably in my top ten of all time vilest scum heroes of romance.
If I was given the choice between him and a t-rex, I would take my chances with the t-rex.
The only thing that sets Edmund off from the evil surgeon is the fact that at the end of the ordeal he leaves Hannah alive so he can rape and abuse her again. Other than that, he's just as bad.