What did you think of the Rape threats in the novel?

[sanykip]

i find it unnecessary for the author to have add the rape issue to the book, because i think there are other several better ways to bring in the character of violence.

[Mouricia Allen]

I think it sort of mirrored real life where women are constantly fearful of being raped. Even though it was repeated multiple times in the book and some would say it was overdone, I thought it was okay to mention it as often as it was. Many women live their lives in constant fear. As well as you have bosses that prey on their workers because of the amount of power they have.

[carlyroseh]

Scordato's rape threats helped to solidify my hatred of his character. He was very one-dimensional, and it was very easy to despise him. I did find his obsession with raping Angela to be very disturbing.

[ross_offscript]

Maybe the author thought including the threats in the novel would add to the character development? That type of thing can easily be overdone tho and have the opposite effect to what the author intends.

To answer FictionLover's question, I think that rape is not a common motif in every romance novel. As a fan of the romance genre, I read quite a few books that did not as much sensual heat or rape; and due to better character development, I actually enjoy these type of romantic books more than the works that are similar to Belle Ami's.

Now, to add to taffylee81's thoughts, I also believe that the author wanted to develop Alberto Scordato's character as a man, who is rotten to his core. By establishing Scordato's malicious intents so early in the story, Ami was able to keep the book fairly short.

[Robby Chandra]

ape is a real act, because rape does not only occur in fictional stories but often occurs in real life, so if there is an act of rape in a book I think it is normal.

[DakotaA]

Rape threats are always going to make a reader uncomfortable. Do you think that was the intention?

[Prisallen]

I agree that, once we know what kind of person he is and that he has those plans in mind for Angela, we don't need to be reminded again.

[Simmons32]

I thought the same thing throughout the book. It was already clear that Scordato intended to rape Angela. We didn’t really need to be reminded every second we got a glimpse into his mind. The German soldiers bothered me too. Usually when rape is involved in the story, the person doesn’t usually announce it. They just attack. Obviously we always hope they are not successful, but in some cases they are. Like you said, it just felt a bit overdone to just announce it.