Narcissus in Chains Chapter Thirty Eight

So far, the majority of main characters in this book are rapists.

Micah, Anita, Richard...anyone I am missing? And these are supposed to be the good guys. What's really unfortunate is rape is all the bad guys like to do and we're meant to take it as evidence that they're evil, yet somehow I am also supposed to believe that rape is different and okay when a protagonist does it.

"An arm spilled over my shoulder..."

I'm tempted because then I wouldn't have to do the rest of this recap.

Richard kisses her and she can't admit that it makes her giggle, because giggling would be too girly, I assume.

"What I did last night would have broken things inside an ordinary human."

Why? I know Richard is supposed to be well endowed but I never got the idea that he's tragically huge like Micah. So how come being a shifter imbues him with special sex powers? Is this going to be like those awful fanfics where the guy shoves  past the cervix and starts womb fucking the hapless protag?

"I didn't need a mirror to feel my eyes go cool."

Well yes, since mirrors generally help you see things. Also shut up about your special eyes.

Anita actually says nipple!

He sucks like, half of her boob in to his mouth. God knows why this keeps coming up because she has such huge bazongas I can't figure out how anyone is supposed to fit a good half of one of those swollen melons in their mouth. Secondly, yes I am trans but I do happen to have breasts, and nothing about this sounds sexy to me. Does anyone else with breasts want to explain this one to me, or is it as batshit crazy as it sounds?

Suddenly Anita is an expert on the ardeur even though she's spent this whole novel shouting about why no one will explain things to her, especially things she ought to already know. She tells Richard that the ardeur calls to their beasts. It annoys me how everyone has to power up like Super Saiyans before they can fuck.

Richard is afraid of Anita now, which of course just arouses Anita more because something something the ardeur. Even Raina shows up. Good lord. It's like a whole group of supernatural creatures stand around and watch Anita get railed every time it happens. Awkward.

Raina shows her a memory of Richard chained to a bed, and when Richard comes inside Raina he shifts forms. What the hell kind of beds do these people own that can stand up to two wolf monsters fucking on top of it?

This book is making me say fuck a lot.

This image "drives [Anita] to her knees" even though she's already on her hands and knees on the bed.

Anita and Richard have some kind of crazy beast orgy that makes Richard scream. Here we go guys, because this just became a rape scene:

1). Richard can't control his beast, keep up his shields, and resist Anita's ardeur powers at the same time, and she knows it.

2). She knows she is going to feed off of him in the next moment

3). She is well acquinted with the fact that Richard has a hard limit about being fed on

4). She feeds on him anyway

Oh also, Richard has been terrified since all this became evident to him and he has been trying to get away from her that whole time.

There you go. I just summed up the entire ethos of the Anita Blake series, and most of the plot, when it deigns to make an appearance. You're welcome.

Oh sorry, she doesn't feed. She "fed, and fed, and fed" because if you say it more than once, it becomes more meaningful.

Richard also reacts in a way common to rape victims, which incidentally is very similar to Gregory's response to his rapist (Raina) showing up through the munin:

"He lay there, eyes unfocused, breathing labored, his heart beating too fast, filling his throat. He swallowed hard enough that it sounded like it hurt."

To me, that indicates that he's disassociated from the rape in an attempt to save his psyche. Plus, he's in shock over the soul destroying thing that was just done to him.

He tells her she had no right to feed from him, and the best she can come up with as far as a defense goes is "you didn't say no."

"You could have stopped me, Richard. All you had to do was either leave the marks open between us or let your beast go. You could have held the ardeur out. You made your choice on what to control."

You disgusting rapist motherfucker. How dare you. I KNOW THIS IS JUST A BOOK, okay? I know. But this is completely messed up. It's so wrong I can't even come up with a good explanation as to why, because it should be so fucking evident as to require no explanation. But apparently people like LKH exist and have no idea how problematic this is.

It's not even that she has bullshit bigoted ideas like "men can't be raped." She knows men can be raped because most of the male main characters have a tragic rape-y past. She even realizes men can be raped by women, so she can't hide behind ignorance there, either. Is it that because what just happened was based in magic, and therefore it doesn't count the same way? Well it does. It does count. If you're writing a magical world, magical violation is still rape. 

I hate it when people pull the won't someone think of the children card, I really really do. But I am fucking tempted because there are gaggles of adolescents on LKH's twitter feed telling her how these books helped make them sex positive. My god, this is sex positive? What planet am I on?

The next few pages are absolute radioactive waste. Why? Because now we must go through a bunch of circular hogwash nonsense dialouge that somehow makes this Richard's fault. Suddenly the reason he doesn't want to be with Anita is that he hates himself (what happened to all that crap about how he'd accepted his beast and who he was?) and wants to be normal, and Anita is too comfortable with "the monsters" for him.

Hey Richard? You're a werewolf. GET THE FUCK OVER IT. We've been going over the same psychological damage for what, ten books? Get you some character growth. Only I know it's not your fault, it's LKH's sheer inability to comprehend humans.

DEAR ANITA YOU ARE A RAPIST AND YOU JUST RAPED RICHARD. That is why he doesn't want to be with you. You stupid shithead.

This book deserves to be buried in a lead lined bunker somewhere under the Atlantic.

Oh boo hoo, Anita the rapist is crying because her rape victim didn't enjoy being raped. Cue the leopard cuddle pile, so a bunch of hollowed out enabler cutouts can drape their two dimensional selves all over her.

Good job, Anita. Your stupid posturing crap over how Nate is like a child has just made you in to a rapist, because you wouldn't accept the person who actually consented to be fed on. Or hell fine, if you didn't want him, hand pick someone else who wants to be fed on. It seems like you have all the choices in the world. But no, consent is icky, and makes you dirty, so you need to rape someone in order to stay moral.

DO YOU SEE WHAT THIS BOOK IS DOING TO ME? It made me type hte words "so you need to rape someone in order to stay moral."

The touching isn't sexual, you guys! WE ABSOLUTELY DO NOT PUT OUR DICKS IN THE BUTTER TUBS!

Wah things are over with Richard because Anita isn't human, and Richard wants a plain human. Yes, I'm sure that's why.