THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS: A Novel by Victoria Namkung

Victoria Namkung’s journalism and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NBC News, and VICE, among other publications. She is the author of the romantic thriller, The Things We Tell Ourselves, and a contributor to the anthology, Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity. Victoria has taught courses at UCLA, UCSB, and 826LA, and resides in Los Angeles.

These Violent Delights is a literary examination of illicit student and teacher relationships and their lasting effects on even the most compliant victims.

At Windemere School for Girls, one of America’s elite private schools, Dr. Gregory Copeland is the beloved chair of the English Department. A married father with a penchant for romantic poetry—and impressionable teenage girls—he operates in plain sight for years, until one of his former students goes public with allegations of inappropriate conduct. With the help of an investigative journalist, and two additional Windemere alumnae who had relationships with Copeland as students, the unlikely quartet unites to take him down.

Set in modern-day Los Angeles, These Violent Delights is a literary exploration of the unyielding pressures and vulnerabilities that so many women and girls experience, and analyzes the ways in which our institutions and families fail to protect or defend us. A suspenseful and nuanced story told from multiple points of view, the novel examines themes of sexuality, trauma, revenge, and the American myth of liberty and justice for all.

“These Violent Delights is smart, suspenseful, unsettling, and only too relevant. I promise you won’t be able to put it down. Just don’t forget to breathe.” —Kim Askew, co-author of the Twisted Lit novels from Simon & Schuster