Content Warning: This section features discussions of sexual violence and harassment, rape, ableism, mental illness, death by suicide, suicidal ideation and self-harm, animal cruelty and death, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, sexual content, cursing, illness and death, physical abuse, and emotional abuse.

Sex and acts of sexual violence occur frequently in God of Malice, symbolizing larger struggles for power and control. Kilian sexually assaults Glyndon in the first scene, and this event catalyzes the plot. Glyndon quickly realizes that this is a power play, and Killian enjoys having control over her more than anything else at that moment. He continues to prey upon her, but throughout the book, the idea of consent becomes murkier. Killian insists that Glyndon wanted him to assault her that night, telling her, “I felt something from you or I wouldn’t have continued” (247), despite telling her elsewhere he likely wouldn’t have stopped the assault regardless. In later chapters, his obsession with her virginity is another telling sign of his outlook on sex. In trying to “take” Glyndon’s virginity, Killian is attempting to have more power over her and her body.

Even once their sex becomes somewhat more consensual, he still uses it to overpower her and try to wrest all control from her.