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taylersimon22's review
3.0
Giving the Devil His Due was a lot. This charity anthology is a collection of short stories compiled by the global, virtual organization that works to end violence against women called The Pixel Project. They are doing some cutting edge things and reimagining what nonprofits can look like and their efforts to mobilize communities.
I do want to give a trigger warning for this collection. Some of these stories go into graphic detail about violence against women, including sexual and physical violence, but it also can get pretty graphic in other violent ways as well.
I think the whole project was an interesting concept. Each of the authors wrote about what they imagined justice for women who have been victims of violence. There were men and women who contributed to the collection.
There were no limits to these authors’ imaginations. Justice was not limited to a court of law. The perpetrators in these stories suffered awful fates. An eye for an eye.
This was the thing that intrigued me the most. From the abolitionist’s standpoint, putting more perpetrators in prison isn’t the answer. And for most people, there should be a punishment equal to the crime.
Regardless of my feelings about what I realistically think should happen to perpetrators of violence, I think this was a really important cathartic experience for survivors. Because these violent acts aren’t real, they have an important outlet to imagine revenge for themselves.
This is the power of books in general. They allow us a space to imagine what life could be, from the things we can work toward, and the things that can stay a fantasy.
For the most part, the collection comes from a diverse group of authors, although many of the experiences are written from the point-of-view of white women. And while I love that men who identify as allies contributed to the work, I just don’t care for men, writing from the point-of-view of women. These were the biggest limitations for me.
Overall, I would recommend this book to any victim/survivor of violence who is at a place in their journey for this outlet. Even though they might not be able to kill their perpetrator in an act of revenge, this book may give them the courage to be bold and fight for what justice looks like to them.
I do want to give a trigger warning for this collection. Some of these stories go into graphic detail about violence against women, including sexual and physical violence, but it also can get pretty graphic in other violent ways as well.
I think the whole project was an interesting concept. Each of the authors wrote about what they imagined justice for women who have been victims of violence. There were men and women who contributed to the collection.
There were no limits to these authors’ imaginations. Justice was not limited to a court of law. The perpetrators in these stories suffered awful fates. An eye for an eye.
This was the thing that intrigued me the most. From the abolitionist’s standpoint, putting more perpetrators in prison isn’t the answer. And for most people, there should be a punishment equal to the crime.
Regardless of my feelings about what I realistically think should happen to perpetrators of violence, I think this was a really important cathartic experience for survivors. Because these violent acts aren’t real, they have an important outlet to imagine revenge for themselves.
This is the power of books in general. They allow us a space to imagine what life could be, from the things we can work toward, and the things that can stay a fantasy.
For the most part, the collection comes from a diverse group of authors, although many of the experiences are written from the point-of-view of white women. And while I love that men who identify as allies contributed to the work, I just don’t care for men, writing from the point-of-view of women. These were the biggest limitations for me.
Overall, I would recommend this book to any victim/survivor of violence who is at a place in their journey for this outlet. Even though they might not be able to kill their perpetrator in an act of revenge, this book may give them the courage to be bold and fight for what justice looks like to them.
charlotekerstenauthor's review
I’ve enjoyed The Pixel Project’s author AMA series on r/fantasy in support of raising awareness around gendered violence, so I was excited to check out this collection of stories where speculative elements are used to give perpetrators of gendered violence the sweet, sweet justice they are due. Overall, it ended up being a bit more of a mixed bag than the average short story collection for me, and a lot of that has to do with how that fundamental premise was executed.
There are a few stories that stand out as being particularly weak to me, either because of what I perceive as a mishandling of the central themes or for other reasons, and I wanted to mention those here.
Sweet Justice - this story starts off with the protagonist throwing a lamp at her boyfriend’s head because he asks for a key to her house - she later smiles and makes a joke about it and all is forgiven with him inexplicably apologizing for what he did to her (?).
As We Stand and Pray - the protagonist forces an entire congregation of people to experience graphic images of their leader’s abuse with no cessation until they kill him.
Devil’s Pocket Change - I read this one as a story about a man who was in a codependent relationship with his severely depressed girlfriend and, in the aftermath of that codependency, he has become completely emotionally disengaged from the relationship. This is certainly a dysfunctional relationship, but I would not identify anything about it as abusive except for the final fight they have. I just do not think it is accurate to categorize a dysfunctional relationship where one partner has totally disengaged and the other has no capacity to reciprocate emotions or function normally in the relationship as an abusive one where we’re supposed to feel vindicated when the boyfriend is killed at the end.
The Tawny Bitch - this one seems to be based on a lot of inaccurate myths about Victorian society and lesbophobia. The main character experiences medical abuse and is imprisoned by her cousin because she is a lesbian and her lesbianism must be “cured” with various invasive degredations such as enemas. As far as all of my Victorian era research has demonstrated, lesbophobia was not really a major issue in the way that stigma against gay men was - a really good book about this is [b:Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England|119846|Between Women Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England|Sharon Marcus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348829246l/119846._SY75_.jpg|115388]. And one of the most common fun facts about the Victorian era that gets tossed around a lot is that women with hysteria would be “treated” with orgasms, specifically by doctors using vibrators. This a really great article about how that myth is actually based on one researcher’s entirely hypothetical suppositions that have been challenged by many other scholars of Victoriana. Hysteria was sometimes treated with hysterectomies, and mental health issues in general were associated with the theory of auto-intoxication, which would sometimes be treated with enemas. But the only direct linkages between lesbianism and enema treatments in the Victorian era that I could find while researching were erotica soooooooo.
Devil’s Hollow - this isn’t necessarily a critique, but the premise of this one is that DV and SA hotlines have workers who assist survivors in murdering their abusers. Speaking as someone who works on such a hotline as part of her job, I can confirm that this is not, in fact, true…but some days, I fucking wish lol.
Overall, I think this collection serves as a great case study for a lot of the things I’ve been mulling over since starting my project of reading as many SFF books featuring trauma as possible. A few books that I really love - [b:Damsel|36260155|Damsel|Elana K. Arnold|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518818837l/36260155._SY75_.jpg|57912874], [b:Deerskin|8087|Deerskin|Robin McKinley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405919760l/8087._SY75_.jpg|2321293], [b:Tehanu|13661|Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle, #4)|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924581l/13661._SY75_.jpg|2902890]- have all used sudden influxes of magic to defeat the books’ villains, and I’ve always felt that that’s kind of…cheap and disappointing, I guess? The same thing could be said about this collection, where we see the complexities of gendered violence swept away every time thanks to magical interventions.
I also went on a mini-rant about rape revenge stories in my review of [b:The Hollow Girl|28936314|The Hollow Girl|Hillary Monahan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1484759365l/28936314._SY75_.jpg|49155393]- on one hand, these stories don’t address the realistic complexities of survivorhood and living/healing with injustice in the aftermath of violence, and I love books that address those things. But…also, it can sometimes be super cathartic to just watch someone who’s been hurt fuck shit up for the people who hurt them. Maybe that’s what this kind of fantasy is good for - it’s pure wish-fulfillment that gets the feelings of anger out in a safe way. Yes, the real world process of survivorhood is complex and trauma doesn’t go away in a waterfall of blood, but isn’t it nice to pretend sometimes? There’s a reason that “Goodbye Earl” is a goddamn jam that always puts a smile on my face.
Wherever you land on this issue, I do think that a collection of stories where abusers get horrifically murdered by magic over and over is both somewhat boring in its repetition and also disappointingly limiting in its use of the speculative elements. All at once it limits the possibilities for what survivors can do without magic and what magic can do to address gendered violence. Before I started this collection, I didn’t know that it would exclusively stick to the murder theme - I was anticipating magically enhanced restorative justice! Psychic powers and mind-melding in crazy therapeutic interventions! Who knows what else!!!! No such luck.
To do the most agonizingly fucking obnoxious thing I could possibly do at this juncture, I wanted to mention how I came to the decision I did about magic’s role in my own series’ ending. If you care about my weird little elf books that like 10 people have read to their conclusion (as if!!), be wary of spoilers from hereon out. I had a number of early readers tell me that the abusive husband in my story, Harlan, needed to either die or be punished horribly for his abuse. I understood where that impulse came from - throughout the series, he hurts the main character terribly and we see the full extent of the damage he has done in agonizing detail.
But I knew from the start that no grand bloody revenge would be happening, because it didn’t match who my protagonist was as a person and it didn’t match where she was going to be at the end of the story in her healing journey. At the end of the day, Harlan’s ending is exactly what I wish was possible for the person who hurt me and for every abuser - he is simply stopped from being able to hurt any woman ever again, and he magically understands the gravity of what he did to Iraluri. I have my own Super Secret thoughts (and an incomprehensible Google Doc) about how he may live the rest of his life, but at the end of the day, those are the most important things, and I wouldn’t change anything about that ending.
This has gone on way too long now, so I’ll shut up. In sum, the basic premise of SFF-y abuse revenge stories is a great one, but the execution didn’t totally work for me because of how the magic was used exclusively to murder people, and a few of the stories really missed my personal mark for understanding and writing respectfully about abuse.
There are a few stories that stand out as being particularly weak to me, either because of what I perceive as a mishandling of the central themes or for other reasons, and I wanted to mention those here.
Sweet Justice - this story starts off with the protagonist throwing a lamp at her boyfriend’s head because he asks for a key to her house - she later smiles and makes a joke about it and all is forgiven with him inexplicably apologizing for what he did to her (?).
As We Stand and Pray - the protagonist forces an entire congregation of people to experience graphic images of their leader’s abuse with no cessation until they kill him.
Devil’s Pocket Change - I read this one as a story about a man who was in a codependent relationship with his severely depressed girlfriend and, in the aftermath of that codependency, he has become completely emotionally disengaged from the relationship. This is certainly a dysfunctional relationship, but I would not identify anything about it as abusive except for the final fight they have. I just do not think it is accurate to categorize a dysfunctional relationship where one partner has totally disengaged and the other has no capacity to reciprocate emotions or function normally in the relationship as an abusive one where we’re supposed to feel vindicated when the boyfriend is killed at the end.
The Tawny Bitch - this one seems to be based on a lot of inaccurate myths about Victorian society and lesbophobia. The main character experiences medical abuse and is imprisoned by her cousin because she is a lesbian and her lesbianism must be “cured” with various invasive degredations such as enemas. As far as all of my Victorian era research has demonstrated, lesbophobia was not really a major issue in the way that stigma against gay men was - a really good book about this is [b:Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England|119846|Between Women Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England|Sharon Marcus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348829246l/119846._SY75_.jpg|115388]. And one of the most common fun facts about the Victorian era that gets tossed around a lot is that women with hysteria would be “treated” with orgasms, specifically by doctors using vibrators. This a really great article about how that myth is actually based on one researcher’s entirely hypothetical suppositions that have been challenged by many other scholars of Victoriana. Hysteria was sometimes treated with hysterectomies, and mental health issues in general were associated with the theory of auto-intoxication, which would sometimes be treated with enemas. But the only direct linkages between lesbianism and enema treatments in the Victorian era that I could find while researching were erotica soooooooo.
Devil’s Hollow - this isn’t necessarily a critique, but the premise of this one is that DV and SA hotlines have workers who assist survivors in murdering their abusers. Speaking as someone who works on such a hotline as part of her job, I can confirm that this is not, in fact, true…but some days, I fucking wish lol.
Overall, I think this collection serves as a great case study for a lot of the things I’ve been mulling over since starting my project of reading as many SFF books featuring trauma as possible. A few books that I really love - [b:Damsel|36260155|Damsel|Elana K. Arnold|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518818837l/36260155._SY75_.jpg|57912874], [b:Deerskin|8087|Deerskin|Robin McKinley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405919760l/8087._SY75_.jpg|2321293], [b:Tehanu|13661|Tehanu (Earthsea Cycle, #4)|Ursula K. Le Guin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924581l/13661._SY75_.jpg|2902890]- have all used sudden influxes of magic to defeat the books’ villains, and I’ve always felt that that’s kind of…cheap and disappointing, I guess? The same thing could be said about this collection, where we see the complexities of gendered violence swept away every time thanks to magical interventions.
I also went on a mini-rant about rape revenge stories in my review of [b:The Hollow Girl|28936314|The Hollow Girl|Hillary Monahan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1484759365l/28936314._SY75_.jpg|49155393]- on one hand, these stories don’t address the realistic complexities of survivorhood and living/healing with injustice in the aftermath of violence, and I love books that address those things. But…also, it can sometimes be super cathartic to just watch someone who’s been hurt fuck shit up for the people who hurt them. Maybe that’s what this kind of fantasy is good for - it’s pure wish-fulfillment that gets the feelings of anger out in a safe way. Yes, the real world process of survivorhood is complex and trauma doesn’t go away in a waterfall of blood, but isn’t it nice to pretend sometimes? There’s a reason that “Goodbye Earl” is a goddamn jam that always puts a smile on my face.
Wherever you land on this issue, I do think that a collection of stories where abusers get horrifically murdered by magic over and over is both somewhat boring in its repetition and also disappointingly limiting in its use of the speculative elements. All at once it limits the possibilities for what survivors can do without magic and what magic can do to address gendered violence. Before I started this collection, I didn’t know that it would exclusively stick to the murder theme - I was anticipating magically enhanced restorative justice! Psychic powers and mind-melding in crazy therapeutic interventions! Who knows what else!!!! No such luck.
To do the most agonizingly fucking obnoxious thing I could possibly do at this juncture, I wanted to mention how I came to the decision I did about magic’s role in my own series’ ending. If you care about my weird little elf books that like 10 people have read to their conclusion (as if!!), be wary of spoilers from hereon out. I had a number of early readers tell me that the abusive husband in my story, Harlan, needed to either die or be punished horribly for his abuse. I understood where that impulse came from - throughout the series, he hurts the main character terribly and we see the full extent of the damage he has done in agonizing detail.
But I knew from the start that no grand bloody revenge would be happening, because it didn’t match who my protagonist was as a person and it didn’t match where she was going to be at the end of the story in her healing journey. At the end of the day, Harlan’s ending is exactly what I wish was possible for the person who hurt me and for every abuser - he is simply stopped from being able to hurt any woman ever again, and he magically understands the gravity of what he did to Iraluri. I have my own Super Secret thoughts (and an incomprehensible Google Doc) about how he may live the rest of his life, but at the end of the day, those are the most important things, and I wouldn’t change anything about that ending.
This has gone on way too long now, so I’ll shut up. In sum, the basic premise of SFF-y abuse revenge stories is a great one, but the execution didn’t totally work for me because of how the magic was used exclusively to murder people, and a few of the stories really missed my personal mark for understanding and writing respectfully about abuse.
kikiwi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
quigonchuy's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.75
A collection of short stories with the focus on a revenge of sorts, or accountability. Focused on violence against women, so it's not a particularly easy read, even if you know their reckoning is coming at some point in the story.
ladykatka's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
3.5
Not even sure what to say about this anthology. I like that it gives the chance for those whose lives have been effected by violence against women a chance to speak out.
j_boundy's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
4.5