A pandemic forces three women to rise up against abusive relationships in the empowering thriller The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson (Wicked as They Come). The Covid pandemic may be over in April 2025, but a more frightening disease has replaced it: without warning, afflicted people attack others and have no recollection of doing so. This new plague is aptly named the Violence.
On the day of the first recorded case, Chelsea Martin discovers that the bank account she shares with her abusive husband, David, is overdrawn. He handles all their finances but will blame Chelsea anyway. Sometimes David's violence spills over onto their teenage daughter, Ella, and Chelsea knows it won't be long before the couple's five-year-old daughter is subjected to it, too. As if that's not enough, Chelsea's mother, Patricia--secretive about her own marital problems--stops by to criticize Chelsea's housekeeping skills.
At school, Ella has her own struggles with a boyfriend who shoves her against walls to get his way and a lecherous vice-principal. The Violence compels Chelsea to break her long-suffering yoke of cruelty and save her daughters. This dramatic clash between multiple victims and their abusers is simultaneously horrific and uplifting.
As part of the author's note, Dawson quotes the Narcissist's Prayer: "That didn't happen. And if it did, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, that's not a big deal. And if it is, that's not my fault." These sobering words set the tone for the protagonists' harrowing journey out of personal darkness. The Violence is fiction, but the story is healing enough to belong in the self-help section. --Paul Dinh-McCrillis, freelance reviewer