49 pages • 1 hour read
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content and sexual violence.
Beautiful Venom is a contemporary romance novel that also falls under the parameters of dark romance and sports romance. The dark romance subgenre “gets its name from the content of the books within it, which often explore darker themes, like abuse, captivity, and dubious consent” (Keys, Emily. “Defining Dark Romance.” The Romance Genre Specialist, 19 Jul. 2024). In conventional contemporary romance stories, the characters’ backstories are often informed by trauma or loss, but in dark romance stories, the characters’ encounters with trauma and suffering are at the forefront of the narrative.
Novels in this subgenre also feature explicit erotic and sexual content. Sex-related tropes of the genre include dubious consent, BDSM, consensual non-consent, and exploration of dominant and submissive roles. Dark romance novels also feature morally gray characters who will go to extreme lengths to be with the person they love. Such characters may also have violent and possessive tendencies. Other tropes and themes of the dark romance novel subgenre include revenge, injustice, betrayal, secrets, deception, lies, abuse, corruption, and forbidden attraction.
Many of these staple themes and tropes feature in Beautiful Venom. Dahlia Thorne and Kane Davenport’s relationship is an enemies-to-lovers romance: They hate and are passionate about each other.