I could tell that this was objectively a good book, but the characters' actions were too much for me to handle for personal reasons.

This took a turn that I wasn’t expecting, though I also can’t say I’m entirely upset about it. This book definitely makes you hate people. There were a few I would’ve happily seen ‘get got.’ The ending felt good and yeah. Pretty solid read. One of my favorites this month. Some could say it went off on a tangent or the ending was too easily wrapped up. I liked it though and it gave me what I wanted. I feel like it gives a decently realistic and uncomfortable look into what abuse and violence within a family does to everyone involved.

Just when you thought it was safe to leave home after COVID, a new pandemic strikes. It won’t kill you, but someone is going to die. Because instead of a headache and loss of taste, you get a blind rage storm that leaves anyone in your vicinity a victim of your hands, or a salad dressing bottle, or whatever else you have close by.

Chelsea doesn’t have the new illness, what they’re calling the Violence, and neither does her abusive asshole of a husband, but nobody needs to know that. In fact, it will suit Chelsea just fine to let everyone believe he stormed on them and she barely escaped with her life. But he’s not the only thing she has to worry about. In fact, three generations of women in her family are going to have to survive this new world and the trauma they’ve all brought into it.

Searing social commentary and important portrayal of how women give up and take back their power, this book does not pull punches. If you’re uncomfortable with violence and abuse, this is not for you (hence the title guys). But if you’re down to see a dog get his due, you will not be disappointed here.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

This is the dystopian/family drama/horror novel I never knew I needed! The setting in this was perfect. Having the book set in 2025 allowed the author to incorporate COVID into the story without it being the focus. It also gave a really interesting social commentary on the complete and utter mishandling of both the COVID and Violence pandemics. By the halfway point, I got a little bored with where Chelsea’s story had gone, but Ella’s, Patricia’s, and Brooklyn’s had me too enraptured to put the book down. The character development was done so well, particularly in the way Patricia changed over the course of the story. How the author managed to make a graphic, disturbing horror novel into something that left me with feelings of hope and compassion is a testament to her brilliant writing. Horror readers, make sure this one is on your radar!

Violence, rage, anger: these emotions course through us all at one point or another in our lives. But what would you do if this viral lust for blood drove you to black out, waking up only to find out just how close humanity really is to that animalistic, instinctual drive to kill?

“The Violence” is a disease that may set the stage for Chelsea Martin and her family, but it’s both a boon and her saving grace. The world around her may be experiencing another pandemic, but for Chelsea, the fight begins at home. And when one choice seems so obviously clear, the results are nothing like what she anticipated.

Delilah S. Dawson elevates the human experience beyond the page, the statistics, and all the rumors to contextualize a woman’s struggle to survive. Readers are drawn into the microcosm of the Martin family and forced to confront the choices, actions, and thoughts that are perhaps not as far from our own as we might think. Dawson contrasts the characters’ internal fights with the violence occurring in broad daylight among spouses, friends, neighbors, and mere acquaintances. It’s a relatively simple task to heal the flesh, but soothing the psyche takes a different approach.

Reading through this wonderfully-written novel, I found myself lost in Chelsea’s struggle, living through her daily life with no more confidence in the future than she herself possessed. As the story split between Chelsea, her mother, and her daughter, Ella, it was all I could do to gobble up the sections until their particular stories resumed. The plot included its fair share of twists and turns, each pushing the story further.

In the end, though, I was left wanting more. I wanted to enjoy life with the Martins, to ride along with them in their individual journeys to see what happened next. Given the conclusion of the piece, however, I think there’s plenty of room for a sequel. Because where the ruins of a past life lay burning, the beginnings of a new life are just beginning to sprout.

This book is an incredible stand-alone novel that puts human nature–the good, the bad, and everything ugly in-between–on display for consideration. I highly recommend reading "The Violence" by Delilah S. Dawson.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC copy!

I am relieved that the author’s note about trigger warnings was the first thing in the book, including physical, mental, and emotional abuse. This made me feel prepared as to what I would be reading. She also says this is a recollection of what she and her mother went through. DV is a highly sensitive topic, but doesn’t deter me from reading about it.

Ok now onto the actual book! In a world after Covid, a new virus emerges called “the Violence.” It is spread by mosquitoes and causes people to essentially black out and attack other people with no recollection of doing so. It could really be called The Purge-Pandemic.

We follow the Martin family- Chelsea, David (bastard), Ella, and Brooklyn. David is an abusive, gaslighting, no good POS. Chelsea is basically cut off from her friends, working, and even having her own credit card. So when this virus emerges, this could be her and her daughters chance out of hell.

This book was amazing! It's about a plague that starts after Covid stopped, called The Violence. It's spread by mosquitoes and causes those bitten to black out and kill whatever or whoever is next to them at the time. It also focuses on four females from the same family - Chelsea, a middle aged woman who is the mom of Ella and Brooklyn and the daughter of Patricia. Chelsea is stuck in a loveless, abusive marriage, and it's easy to see why - her mom was loveless when Chelsea was growing up and she married the first man she could to get away. Unfortunately this leads to Ella, who is 17, witnessing the abuse and getting into her own abusive relationship. But this book focuses on leaving those relationships, and coming into your own as a woman, and fighting back to break the cycle.

I loved this book much, much more than I thought I was going to. Be forewarned, it is very violent - lots of bloodshed from both people and animals. But by the end I was riveted to my seat and couldn't put it down, because I needed to know what happened. If blood and gore doesn't bother you, CHECK OUT THIS BOOK. 5 stars.

Loved the concept of the book, and despite not being the main focus, I found it interesting to follow the patterns of domestic abuse. It can happen to anyone and is a difficult cycle to break. But break she did, in an unexpected (and rather awesome) way. The downside of the book? Really just too long. Drop about 150 pages and it would be a great book.

I struggled to get into this one. Did not keep my attention. I think it was the plot. The writing was really good. I will give this author another chance, for sure.

This is not an easy book to read. This is not because it is not well written. It is a wonderful and fantastically well written story of a woman, Chelsea, fighting for the survival of herself and her children. The characters are bold and vibrant. The setting is realistic and easy to visualize as it plays on what is happening in our life today. While reading you will go through a range of emotions from cheering on the characters, to anger, tears, and sadness. Throughout it all one thing you have to remember is that there is a happy ending. Who gets it is what you will need to get to the end to find it out. This is an overall powerful story of hope, resilience and love. It is well written and a great job done by the author.

I didn't know what to expect from this book. The premise seemed weird: a new pandemic called "The Violence" causes people to suddenly burst into a rage and beat someone to death and then not remember it. Once I started reading and met the characters I couldn't put it down. Great characters, fast-paced plot and a few unexpected adventures. Graphically violent, but highly recommended.

I loved THE VIOLENCE. There are so many things that I loved about this book, and I will try to list them out coherently even though I just want to squeal with glee and make that my review because it's the most representative of my feelings. For one, I loved the characters. We predominantly follow three women from one family: we have Claudia, a meek housewife who has been in an abusive marriage with her husband David; Ella, Claudia and David's older daughter who has been seeing her mother's abuse and internalizing it; and Patricia, Claudia's cruel mother who has married for money and settled into a privileged lifestyle. When the Violence starts to crop up and a pandemic begins, Claudia sees a potential way to get out of her abusive marriage, and it sets off a chain reaction that changes all of their lives. I loved all of these characters in their complex, sometimes maddening, messy, and authentic selves. Dawson mines out all of the complications of their personalities and they leap off the page, their journeys transformative and incredibly compelling. I think my favorite narrative was Claudia's, as not only is she deeply interesting, her journey ends up with her joining a group of pro-wrestlers who are trying to get through. No spoilers, but know that it works SO well. But it was also the plot, mythology, and social commentary that Dawson does through the Violence and how it changes society. From the privileges that the wealthy have in terms of coping to society's inability to fully cope to vaccine hoarding, after everything we've been through with COVID the past few years, everything feels like it is exactly how it would go. The Violence itself is scary, but Dawson explores it and figures out how to make it plausible without over explaining. It just works. It's incredibly engaging as a plot and as a thriller, with high tension and suspense.

Damn did I love this book. It hit the exact right way at the exact right time, even as I'm stressing about Omicron. It was cathartic, for sure.

TW: Sexual Abuse, Domestic Abuse, Animal Death, Gore

At one point while reading this, I muttered, “fuck, this is really violent,” at which my dear spouse looked at me like I was the dumbest idiot alive.

Whether you love it or not, pandemic lit is really having a moment right now . A few years post-Covid, a new pandemic has emerged called "The Violence." The people who contract it are prone to random outbursts of extreme violence, usually killing whoever is unfortunate enough to be within a few feet of them at the time.
This book was 500 pages long. It did not need to be. But, I finished it in a day and a half so clearly there was enough there to keep me reading instead of powering my way through the first season of Succession.

Spilt into the perspectives of a grandmother, mother, and daughter, all of whom are dealing with physically and financially abusive men, the grandmother’s storyline captured my attention way more than the others.
This isn’t the most nuanced exploration of intimate partner violence, or of the impact that pandemics including Covid have on society, but it’s incredibly cathartic, if you can stomach it.

Read if:
-- You liked "Vox"
-- You're the one in your friend group who got realllly into those "Florida Man" memes for a while
-- You're okay with not encountering a single redeeming male character for 400+ pages.

The book follows three women in the same family in the new future in the US when a new pandemic hits; and this one makes people kill a person around them. This new illness gives Chelsea the perfect opportunity to escape her abusive husband.

So, this is a tricky one. I really did like the idea behind the book and how the author explored the illness. I also really liked Chelsea and Ella (Patricia's point of view was interesting too although her character is not exactly sympathetic, it's definitely layered). I think all of them go through well developed arcs, allowing us to follow their growth and progression. I could feel the bond between the characters, also the fear and the confusion they go through.

But, I could really feel this book was used as the author's way to vent all of her frustrations regarding the current pandemic. Because of that, there is a lot of repetition throughout the book regarding this specific frustration that keeps bleending on the narrative and interrupting it. Sometimes, the book is so focused on this aspect that some plot points are brushed over and rushed just to give space for the author's frustation. The book could be much smaller and tell the same story more cohesively without the repetition of the same ideas over and over.

By the end, I enjoyed the book and although I thought the ending was a bit rushed, I did like it.

In a post Covid world a new virus is sweeping through the nation, mainly confined to warmer climates, and known as The Violence. There is a vaccine, but only for the very wealthy. Those who contract the virus have bouts of murderous rage causing them to kill whoever happens to be handy at the time, and have no memory of doing so once the rage passes. Those who have or are suspected to have The Violence are herded into quarantine centers that are basically prisons, sometimes never to be seen or heard from again.
In this backdrop we meet Chelsea, neglected as a child and now abused as a spouse, along with her two daughters. Chelsea plans to use the virus as a means to save her children and escape from her abusive husband, but things don't go according to plan.
This is a book that I found in the horror section, but it was more a dysfunctional family drama. There was much that I enjoyed about the story, but more than a few spots were a bit draggy and drawn out. All of the male characters had extreme personalities. They were either abusive mysogynistic borderline perverts, or over the top sensitive sympathetic and empathetic to a woman's every need. It kind of gave me whiplash going from one extreme to the other and I wished that someone could have been just plain normal. There were a few plot points that seemed to contradict each other, but I can't really go into it much without giving away spoilers.
I'm going to give this a 3 out of 5 stars, as something I liked but did not love.

This blew my mind. I’m usually good at guessing things but this was good!
I loved it. I think people are definitely gonna love and enjoy this one!

First of all, be warned, this is not an easy book to read. The subject matter is rough, and trigger warnings abound. There are scenes of domestic abuse, distressing violence, and animal death. However, if you think you can handle the experience, this book is absolute gift to readers.

The Basics: There’s a new virus in town, and boy, is it a monster! It’s called the Violence, and that’s not a misnomer. Once contracted, this disease transforms its host into a raging brute. In short, the infected person blacks out and then wakes up next to a dead person—with no memory of having become a homicidal maniac. In the beginning, there seems to be little rhyme or reason for these vicious attacks, and how the virus spreads—as well as when it will manifest—is a mystery. For the most part, we follow one family as they deal with the ramifications of this new illness, while attempting to escape strained or unhealthy relationships and scrambling to afford the $30,000 vaccine.

From the moment I began reading the prologue, I was hooked. Delilah S. Dawson cast a spell and turned me to stone for the duration of this novel. It might sound cliché to say that I couldn’t stop reading, but never has a truer statement been written. I barely moved a muscle from start to finish. It is insane.

After the last couple of years, even something fantastical like this felt all too familiar. The author has a way of putting the uncertainty that a lot of us have recently felt into terms that we understand and empathize with. She builds a sense of claustrophobia that strangles her readers. The tension builds with each shocking page until the ending leaves us gasping for air and emotionally spent.

As I’ve said, at times, it’s a tough book to read, but for me, it’s a big winner. I have the first entry on my “Best of 2022” list.

Write on, Delilah!

The Violence is an intense, utterly captivating, and all too real story of a terrifying plague that has begun to spread across the nation. This is a brutal, intense story following three women as they navigate this new world and do their best to not only survive and stay healthy, but to also look out for their family members. I did not expect this book to hit me as deeply as it did, but I am so glad I had the opportunity to read this book and take away so many incredible lessons and explorations from it.

The Violence is a very terrifying illness that essentially makes an infected person a sort of ticking time bomb that could go off at any second and violently and mindlessly attack with intent to kill someone around them. There's no real warning signs and there's no way to know when an attack will occur (for the most part!). This sheer unpredictability absolutely terrifies a control-based person like me. I can only imagine how paranoid I would feel anytime I was around anyone because there's no real way to know if someone is infected until the worst happens and they attack someone. There's a weird layer of almost claustrophobia in this idea when considering you could be trapped with someone with The Violence and have no idea until you're stuck and it's too late. Not to mention the fact that you yourself could have it and could end up killing a loved one at any moment.

The story and setting and atmosphere were so well done in this book, but it's truly the characters that took this book to the next level and made me care so much about it. The Violence follows the POV of three generations of women: the grandmother, Patricia; the mother, Chelsea; and the daughter, Ella. The youngest daughter, Brooklyn, is also a part of this journey, but we do not follow her perspective at any point.

Chelsea is an incredible character that has so much intense growth throughout the story that it almost felt hard to keep up, but in a great way. Her journey was beautiful and tragic to watch. I loved getting to know her and slowly follow along as more and more of her true personality emerged and we got to see her strength and even justified anger really come through. Her entire storyline was the wildest of rides for me and I never had any idea what to expect, and I loved that there was a bit of found family involved as well.

Ella is a teenager dealing with a lot of regular teenage things, as well as the fact that she has an abusive father and what appears to be a growing abusive boyfriend who she doesn't really like, but feels stuck with. Ella's growth in this story is incredible. We see Chelsea overcome a lot and go through the most extreme changes in her entire life, but with Ella it felt like a very different victory in seeing her go from being rather indecisive and somewhat passive in her life to realizing that she does have her own strength–and this is very similar to Chelsea's growth, but something about her being a teenager and coming into her own was very powerful to me.

Lastly is Patricia, who starts out as a horribly prickly woman that's hard to be around and gradually–and out of necessity–learns more about herself and her actions, as well as how to be someone else and cope with the realities of the world around her and her family. I think Patricia's growth was somehow some of the most shocking and sudden in some ways, and I really enjoyed getting to slowly uncover her many deeply complex and buried layers that explained how and why she became the person that she is at the start of the story.

I think one of the things that struck me the most with these characters and their journeys is how well Dawson conveyed the 'mind in crisis' mindset, where you end up doing things you never would have expected to make sure you can survive and/or protect loved ones. This is truly a horrific time, and I think Dawson conveyed that terror in an incredibly raw and chilling way–I felt very emotionally moved by this book, whether anger, sadness, fear, etc. at many different points. Every page sometimes felt tough to read, but I also genuinely couldn't look away and lost track of time while reading. I sometimes made myself stop reading because I knew my mind needed a break, and that to me is a sure sign of some crazy good writing when it makes me feel like that in a good way that makes me really think. I really appreciated how Dawson incorporated a post-Covid world dealing with this new virus and how everything from the COVID era also effected this new era, as well as how the traumas only compounded upon one another.

Sometimes you see a plague premise like we have in The Violence and think it might just a be a gory bloodbath of chaos with little real story behind, and although there is definitely an abundance of gore, there is so much meaning in this story that it really felt like a huge gut punch in every sense of the word. This was honestly just so, so good. It was emotional, heartbreaking, unflinchingly honest, and unbelievably relevant. I fell so hard for each of the three main characters we follow and found myself on the edge of my seat rooting for them throughout this entire story.

This was one of those books where I genuinely struggled to put it down and would lose track of time while reading, and that doesn't happen very often these days! Incredible plot and storytelling also fill this book, and I really loved how Dawson incorporated a post-Covid world with a new virus and how everything affected everything, and how the traumas only compound. Easily one of my favorite books I've read this year. Overall, it's an unsurprising five stars from me!

What a crazy wild twisted book this was. There honestly was never a dull moment and I found myself having to put the book down on more than one occasion because my heart was racing and my neck and shoulders were so tense. I guess that’s when you know there is some good writing going on, being able to produce that kind of reaction in your reader.

I won’t say more, I don’t want to spoil it in any way. I will just say read this one if you love thrillers, and ones that stay with you long after you’ve read the last page. This is one I’m finding it hard to let go and I love that

In the year 2025, Chelsea Martin lives in Florida with her daughters Ella and Brooklyn, and her husband David. Though they were high school sweethearts, David is a narcistic abuser, controlling every aspect of Chelsea’s life from her bank account to her leisure time. Chelsea has all but given up hope, until an unexplainable illness begins to emerge in Florida. While COVID is in the past, the new pandemic is The Violence, a mosquito-borne illness causing people to commit random acts of violence without warning. And its spreading. While The Violence is terrifying to some, it may be Chelsea’s last attempt to escape her abuser once and for all. The novel imagines three generations of women and trauma, with wry wit and compassion (the author is a domestic abuse survivor herself). While the comedy in the book borders on Southern satire like Grady Hendrix’s Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, readers be warned: there are very realistic depictions of domestic and animal abuse. If you’re able to give it a try, The Violence will not disappoint, kicking off a new wave of pandemic literature at its best.