People doing Bad Things with Good Intentions || A Rant to Top all Rants

Some things are inexcusable. Even if they happen to be shroud in good intentions—or at least halfway decent ones. Unfortunately, some of my major push buttons happened to show up in books that I happen to love. And I disappointed myself when I didn’t consider them more until one of my favorite bloggers mentioned it. I’m a human, and I’m learning from my mistakes. So, I’m considering it now.

So, my lovely little readers, let’s talk about bad things done with good intentions.

First we’ll start with Rhys. My darling high lord of the night court. For those of y’all that haven’t read A COURT OF MIST AND FURY (henceforth being referred to as ACOMAF) yet, please run in the other direction if you don’t feel like reading spoilers.

Let’s talk about the scene towards the end of A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES. Feyre is underground, and in so, so much pain. Rhys helps her to forget, giving her something to drink to take all of the horrible memories away so that she does not have to bear the weight of them on her shoulders.

Putting something in her drink to make her forget. Does this not sound like something that is frequently linked to rape? Sexual assault? Date rape drug, anyone? Rohypnol, GHB, Ketamine are all drugs that are commonly slipped into drinks by the rapist/ sexual assailant to assist them with the sexual assault. They don’t really have any color or taste. There’s not a specific smell. Some are liquid and some can be ground into powders.

I’m sure Rhys had every good intention, while sexual assailants rarely (actually I’m going to just go ahead and say never ever) have good intentions. The fact of the matter is that Feyre, to my remembrance, did not consent to the memory wipe. No matter his intention, his hope to help, or his need to protect her by whatever means necessary, he still did something that I can’t quite forgive, even if she does not recognize it as an assault. 

For what he did, I can't defend him. 

This is seen too often in our own world—things slipped into alcohol, soda, open drinks—and then the person waking up in pain, without a memory, or simply fuzzy stills of the night before. It should not be taken lightly. 

He did not have consent, so what he did was wrong. I love him, but I am so disappointed in him. And I think that most of us can recognize that there's a line. He crossed it. And he doesn't seem to be having any consequences for it. Which is SUPER annoying/frustrating/anger-inducing. 

I’m going to talk now about another book which I do really like, but had to put down because I was just so, so, so freaking angry by what the main guy did. For those of you who do not know, I just recently reviewed the book THE BEAR WHO LOVED ME. In it there’s a bear-shifter who’s tasked with revealing the whole being a bear thing to a human whose shifter nephew has gone missing and doesn’t know that there are shifters. Kind of a big reveal.

And it’s safe to say that he totally, irrevocably screwed it up. Big time.

Hint: drugging her is involved.

In order for her Not To Scream (because, that would just be complicated, yeah?) when he tells her about being a bear, and her nephew being one too (probably) he injects her with something to put her to sleep. After that he takes her back to his house and waits for her to wake up.

No that’s not super shady, extremely invasive, or infuriating at all. That would not make me question my safety. Nope.

That was all typed in the upmost sarcastic on tones.

Like, holy hell. WTF, man?

I can’t express my anger. Not in words. Maybe with some artfully placed knees to the groin. And running over with a car. I’m not a violent person (promise) but something fierce flashed in me when she faded to black.

I really hope that I don’t have to go into the reasons why this is so freaking not okay. Why this should not freaking be romanticized at the end of the novel. In fact, while I’m here thinking about it, I want to lower the rating. But I won’t. Because once there’s a rating on a book, that rating stays there.

But, good freaking lord have mercy, that is not okay.

Now that I’ve had a good rant, I want to hear your opinions. I love seeing social issues in books, but I like seeing them addresses appropriately. I don’t think these books did that. What are some books that you felt the same way? Some that you think did an awesome job? Have you read these?