Both my wife and I have not been so lucky. The better half was in an unfortunate date rape situation that affected her so bad she was unable to let people touch her even 3 years later when I met her. It took a lot of love, compassion and patience to bring her out. Once she was she has grown (on her own accord, me only enjoying the ride) into a new woman.

Myself I was the opposite. It granted me power, brought me out of my shell and gave me the strength to never be a victim. To eat life with a fork in one hand and chopsticks in the other. Of course it was my experiences as a little boy that allowed me to understand my wife’s experience because no amount of compassion can replace a survivor’s knowledge and power. My wife is now a very powerful woman.

She bore a child because of what happened to her. She is my daughter, and has been since she was very, very little. Even in her shell she showed extraordinary strength of character to survive and keep such a child. The world would not be a better place had she not had that unrealized power. As my daughter is a gift to the world.

The thing is that as unfortunate (that is really a word lacking in every way the true evil of the act) as it is, things happen in the world. Those things are life, and art imitates life. I was flooded with enjoyment seeing Leesha’s strength to get up, as well as Mercy’s (another favorite author who Mr. Brett has just joined) character has grabbed her life and moved forward.

I find it hard to exactly express my words here, but I guess this is as close as it gets. Sometimes it troubles me when people rant or rage against character development at the hands of a good story teller. The Loss of Arlen’s mother was unfortunate but lent strength and depth to the character. So to Leesha’s with her gathering her will and standing up for herself. As distasteful as these things can be to read (and they can make me cringe and knot my insides while reading), when handled right can lend the third dimension to a character. The fact is that everything about writing is a plot device, and that shouldn’t necessarily be a derogatory statement. There isn’t anything really new, but there are people who can tell it in a new light… those people should be commended for doing something good, and entertaining us for awhile. Not all literature is bubble gum and soda pop. The Time Traveler’s Wife has some of the best dialog between characters I have read. very realistic and I really enjoyed the book… several times. Still bad things happen in that book. Some very very bad things that as a father crushed me and had me needing to take a break, still when taken in its whole the book wonderfully touched me and I enjoyed it. Plot devices.

I have really enjoyed reading your responses and have felt that each of you has acted in very mature way (which is unfortunately not something you see much online)… in such a way that it brought the author here to comment. I liked that about you all and think you all deserve to be congratulated for your literature love, adventurous conversation and civility. Thanks for letting me be a small part of that.

If the author shows me no motivation, then it just comes across as stupid or ignorant or, tbh, offensive. I saw almost no ‘desperate need for human contact’ from the female MC in the narrative, or in the dialogue ( I did get that from the male MC’s POV). All I saw was ‘she wanted him’ basically – no reasoning behind it.

In the end – an author should make his work clear enough that he doesn’t need to explain.

thank you so much for your input. It is hard to argue when one does not have either the personal experience or hard facts – only in my case , intuition.

Full disclosure: I’m a prosecutor in a major city, and I’ve dealt with a fair number of sexual assault/rape/child molestation cases across the spectrum from borderline-consensual date rape to violent home-invasion stranger rape where the victim gets her head bashed in with a pipe.

Leesha’s rape, while not explicitly described, seemed a lot closer to #2 than #1. For that reason I’m inclined to agree with Ana that I don’t believe she would have been able or willing to have consensual sex within a few days of the attack. Violent rapes, and particularly violent gang rapes where the victim actively struggles, can cause major physical trauma — fistulas, permanent incontinence requiring surgical repair, and so on. A woman’s not going to rush back into sex after that any more than she would after giving birth, no matter what her psychological state might be. We’re talking about weeks to months of recovery time.

I liked the book, but yes, that was one scene I really didn’t buy. I’m used to writers getting that sort of thing wrong, though, so it tends not to be a dealbreaker for me unless it happens repeatedly.

As far as being scorned for my views, I have been. It was like a second rape, a violation of my strength in dealing with things. I have been told, by both women and men, that my refusal to be a victim is like implied consent. I am essentially saying that being raped is no big deal. Umm, no, I had to make a concentrated effort to MAKE it no big deal for ME. Not the same thing at all, but it is enough to make me hesitate to bring it up.

On a separate note, I admire Peter Brett for speaking up. I do not consider an author expressing his thoughts on a review to be crass when it is done so well. He made a well spoken, well reasoned argument in favor of his handling of Leesa’s rape and one I have to agree with based on my own experience. Actually, the need for validation of her own self worth would be another factor since the experience totally devalued her in the eyes of her society. A sexual encounter of a gentler kind would help her to feel wanted, maybe needed and possibly loved, even though her own people will claim that she no longer has any worth, that she is damaged goods, and nobody will ever want her as a wife and the mother of their children. Granted, it would not change any of those views, but for her it would go a long way towards helping her not to feel worthless and alone.

This, by the way, is not something that is unique to Peter Brett’s world but is historically accurate in our own and goes on in some societies even today. Wishing a thing is not so is not a reason to not write about it, ever, not even in fiction. I admire an author who dares to take us out of our comfort zone because only then can we understand and face our own fears and maybe find new ways to deal with them.

But, of course, that is just my opinion :>)