i'm sorry, what, and i can't stress this enough, the actual fuck? the use of shock value to prove the legitimacy of a psychopathic character spoke of the overall bad writing that's been a constant in this author's books. not only do you start a book with sexual assault between the main characters but proceed to act as if it's justified and almost reasonable, making the inner monologue of the female victim associating pleasure with the situation afterwards. as if that takes anything away from the fact that it was assault and she didn't consent to it. in the same chapter, she goes from this "is this what’s called conditioning? shouldn’t i feel traumatized instead of…eroticizing it?" to this "i just can’t let him have his way with me. it’ll break me this time." when he, once again, assaults her. and of course, my favorite, “the word no doesn’t scare me, baby. we guys (as in psychopaths, because this author has a fixation with this archetype) don’t give a fuck about its meaning or the lack thereof. besides, doesn’t no mean yes sometimes?” just adds insult to injury. i could go on about how dangerous everything this book perpetuates is (amd don't get me started on the way she writes women), but it's dark romance and it's fiction, so people are aware, hopefully.
i will say though, humans is already crossing a line, but animals? unacceptable, and unnecessary. the description "scissoring up" when referring to the intent of animal cruelty that wasn't listed in the trigger warnings. disturbing. and again, it was only to serve the point of shocking the reader and make it more believable that the mmc is on the antisocial spectrum, like there aren't other ways to go about it.