Den of Vipers

Though the Vipers “own” their city and are a symbol of massive wealth and power, Knight weaves trauma within all of their pasts: Ryder and Kenzo experience domestic abuse, exploitation, and their mother’s suicide because of their father and were forced to commit patricide; Diesel’s childhood was heavily affected by his mother’s struggle with addiction and her eventual murder; and Garrett was betrayed and nearly murdered by Daphne, the woman he loved and intended to marry. But while these backstories serve as a lens by which to understand these characters’ origins, Knight makes a point of demonstrating how, in many ways, the Vipers penchant for extreme violence is a cognitive response to treat and resolve these past traumatic experiences. Their actions, while extreme, serve as coping mechanisms—ways to reassert dominance in a world that once rendered them powerless.

In Diesel’s and Garrett’s cases more specifically, the author suggests that one of the most traumatic aspects within their respective experiences is their complete loss of control and powerlessness. For Diesel, this loss of agency is encapsulated when he witnessed and could not stop his mother’s murder: “[The drug seller] beat her to within an inch of her life, and while she was still alive, burned down the house with her in it. I got there right after. I tried to get it, to get her, the smoke choking me. […] I couldn’t, I could hear her screaming though” (141). The impacts of this event are long-lasting, as Diesel will find himself reliving some of the memories of his mother’s death. Knight, however, makes of underlining how Diesel’s best defense against this trauma is weaponizing it for his own use and reclaiming control over that which made him powerless. By inflicting pain on others, Diesel feels as though he is preventing himself from ever being in that helpless position again. Hence, when Daphne almost succeeded in killing Garrett prior to the events of the narrative, he recreated the same scene with her and had planned to burn her alive in the exact same way as his mother did. Since burning people is for Diesel the worst kind of physical and emotional pain, using it as a weapon of choice for those he hates the most—like Daphne—allows him to deal with the traumatic pain of his grief in a way that grants him full control and reasserts his power.

In Garrett’s case, Knight suggests that Garrett’s trauma resides within his loss of agency, the loss of trust, and the violation of intimacy he experienced when Daphne attempted to murder him by strapping him down and carving out his chest. Unlike Diesel, Garrett does not seek to make an exact replica of his trauma in order to feel empowered. Rather, Knight highlights how he seeks out instances where he can purposefully give himself the freedom and volition to deal out pain as a way to counteract the feeling of restriction, helplessness, and defenselessness he experienced at Daphne’s hands, namely at the underground ring. For Garrett, violence is not just a means of retribution but a way to rewrite the past—each fight a new opportunity to regain control over his own body and choices. Knight makes this connection as Garrett invokes the memory of Daphne in between fights: “The woman coughs slightly when I [Garrett] don’t look at her, her body almost pressing my side…another woman did that once. Her. I should have known then she wasn’t right, but I was […] blind” (83).

Though Garrett’s trauma haunts him and makes his relationship to the pits problematically self-destructive at first, his developing relationship with Roxy nevertheless rehabilitates his connection to this violent outlet as one of pure catharsis and freedom when he learns to enjoy the venue and shows restraint. Unlike before, where violence was an unrestrained force that controlled him, he now wields it with intent, channeling it into a form of self-mastery rather than self-destruction. Knight, therefore, demonstrates how that which can plague an individual can, within the right context and circumstances, allow them to regain a sense of control and freedom. One of the most striking examples of violence as a means of catharsis occurs when Roxy tattoos Garrett’s scars into the image of a viper shedding its skin. By transforming the very marks that once symbolized his deepest betrayal into an emblem of strength, Roxy reclaims Garrett’s body from the trauma inflicted upon it. The act of tattooing—a process that involves controlled pain—becomes a symbolic rewriting of his past, wherein the suffering Daphne inflicted is no longer a mark of victimhood but one of survival and transformation. Knight uses this moment to demonstrate how violence, when reframed through personal agency, can become a tool for healing rather than just destruction.