God of Malice

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.

Throughout God of Malice, Rina Kent raises many questions about how love works and who deserves love. Though many of these questions are answered for the characters, the discussion of love in the novel raises further questions about the nature of love itself. In the early chapters, no love exists between Glyndon and Killian despite the way both are drawn to one another.

Before either admits they love the other, Killian and Glyndon form an obsession with one another, and Glyndon admits, “I’m addicted to him” (322). Killian stalks her like prey even when she tries to drive him away, emphasizing his obsession with Glyndon and making her his. This obsession eventually turns to love, at least on Glyndon’s side, highlighting the question of where the line lies between love and obsession, and between either and abuse. Though Glyndon tries to hold back her feelings, she eventually must agree that “[l]ove can’t be forced or explained, it just happens” (374), as her mother tells her.