There Is No Devil

There Is No Devil is a characteristic example of dark romance, a subgenre that explores relationships involving taboo elements such as coercion, violence, and extreme power imbalances. Typical of dark romance, There Is No Devil has a significant amount of explicit sexual content, including depicting consensual kinks and BDSM practices in which the main characters explore sexual boundaries and relinquished control. The novel uses several key conventions of the genre, especially in its presentation of sex, violence, and the deliberate blurring of the lines between consensual and non-consensual sex. This is established in Chapter 1 in the shower scene and escalated later in that chapter through the public use of a remote-controlled vibrator, which Cole uses on Mara’s without her prior consent or understanding. This ambivalent presentation of sexual violence and consensual boundaries continues throughout, heightening to the scene in Chapter 7 when Cole chokes Mara to near-unconsciousness during sex. This episode is told from Mara’s perspective, making clear that she consents to and is aroused by the other forms of rough sex with Cole but is intensely frightened by the choking and asks him to stop repeatedly, which he does not do. When he finally does stop, both points of view frame his behavior as a means to encourage Mara to “be a fighter” and acknowledge her true feelings about previous abuse by others (98). In this, the novel follows dark-romance patterns by exploring the nature of continuing abuse patterns, ideas of victimhood and survival, and the presentation of the antihero as an older man who “knows best” for his female partner.

Cole is a morally ambiguous antihero in the established manner of the dark-romance male protagonist. A self-confessed serial killer who admits to having killed 14 men, he is cast in the role of Mara’s protector. The narrative employs the “touch her and you die” trope, in which the antihero is intensely possessive, and which expands on traditional gender presentations of women as supplicant-victims and men as violent rivals who must protect “their” women from each other. In both novels in the series, the relationship between Cole, Shaw, and Mara is depicted as a triangulation in which Mara is often a pawn in the power-play between the two men. Typical of dark romance, this reflects patriarchal patterns in both society and literature in which two men vie—openly or symbolically—for possession and control of a woman and where the woman’s autonomy is presented as untenable.

Cole’s character and his controlling dynamic with Mara, a staple of the genre, explore the ambivalent role of possessiveness as an aspect of obsessional love and sexual desire. Cole’s need for ownership is clear when he thinks, “I want her dependent on me so she can never leave” (78). In practice, this manifests in the novel as intensely controlling behavior, including surveillance and financial control. As is typical with dark romance, Cole’s thoughts and behaviors display high levels of conflict and ambivalence around Mara’s autonomy and choices, while also revealing an undercurrent of personal vulnerability, expressed as fear that Mara might leave the relationship.

While the novel often presents these dark elements as expressions of the intensity of Cole and Mara’s romance, within a fantastical and heightened narrative construct, these tropes are sometimes considered problematic, especially in relation to potentially misogynistic tropes and depictions of sexual violence, coercion, and abuse. The rise of dark romance, particularly within online communities like TikTok’s “BookTok,” has sparked conversations about its appeal. Some scholars of popular romance, such as Pamela Regis, argue that the genre provides a safe, fictional space for readers to explore complex fantasies of power and desire. By engaging with these dark themes, supporters contend, the novel allows for an examination of female agency and empowerment in unconventional and often controversial contexts.