Dark Chapter
by Winnie M Li
A powerful, harrowing novel based on real events about assault, survival, and the systems that fail women.
⚠️ Trigger Warning
This review discusses themes of sexual violence and rape, which are central to the novel. Please take care as you read.
ARC Review
Publisher: Datura Books
Release Date: June 15 2025
Format: ARC Review
I read Dark Chapter in one sitting. Not because it was easy, because it demanded that kind of attention.
From the very beginning, we know what happened. A woman is raped. A young man is the rapist. The novel doesn’t use this as a twist or a reveal. It’s not a thriller or a mystery. It’s a reckoning.
Vivian is a Taiwanese-American academic traveling alone in Belfast. Johnny is a 15-year-old boy raised in a home where violence is normalized and women are disposable. Their paths cross. What follows is brutal, unflinching, and painfully not uncommon.
What this book does so well is show the aftermath. The court process. The isolation. The small, everyday traumas caused by strangers, friends, professionals who mean well but miss the point. Vivian’s emotional landscape is drawn with care and precision. It never feels exploitative. It feels honest.
Reading Johnny’s chapters is disturbing. And necessary. The author doesn’t excuse him, but she does show how entitlement, misogyny, and violence are absorbed early and deeply. And more importantly, she shows how he is not an outlier. One of the most chilling parts of the novel is how many men appear across the pages, some passive, some violent, some "helpful" but complicit in quiet ways.
This book is fiction, but barely. It’s based on true events, and that truth seeps through the narrative. You can feel it. Not just in the scenes of the assault, but in the way the world reacts to it.
Would I Recommend It?
Yes, with care.
This is not a warm or comforting read. But it’s an important one. It opens up conversations that too often stay buried. It reminds us how many women carry stories like this and how much silence surrounds them.
Thank you to Datura Books and @NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read this early.
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