59 pages • 1 hour read
Her Soul to Take
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Background
Authorial Context: Harley Laroux
Harley Laroux is a queer author who lives in Washington with their husband. They are known for their dark romances that blend horror and eroticism, exploring the boundaries of fantasy, romance, and the taboo. Laroux’s interest in folklore and mythology heavily influences their work, providing a tapestry of supernatural elements. For instance, Her Soul to Take follows the intertwined lives of Leon, a centuries-old demon, and Rae, a paranormal investigator. The narrative is steeped in the eerie atmosphere of the fictional town of Abelaum, a place haunted by its dark history and populated by sinister figures like the Libiri cult, monsters, and an old god waking up.
Her Soul to Take is the first book in the Souls Trilogy, which combines supernatural elements with dark romance. Laroux’s work is characterized by its raw exploration of taboo subjects and its blending of horror and passion, and Her Soul to Take is no exception, with explicit sexual scenes, kink, horror elements, and graphic depictions of magic and sacrifice. Nevertheless, the novel prioritizes Consensual Power Dynamics throughout its depiction of the relationship between Rae and Leon.
Literary Context: Dark Romance
Dark romance is a subgenre of romance that explores romantic relationships within a bleak and amoral world, and they often contain thriller or horror elements. Dark romances often touch on topics like revenge, forbidden love, stalking, sexual assault, kidnapping, and violence. Many dark romances feature morally gray protagonists who are murderers, assassins, or criminals. Male romantic leads with a “dark” side date at least as far back as the 18th- and 19th-century novels that shaped the modern romance genre—e.g., Jane Eyre’s Mr. Rochester. In traditional romances, however, the female protagonist is innocent and “pure” (particularly in the sexual sense, resulting in the genre’s frequent conflation of goodness and chastity). More recently, dark romances are complicating this gendered expectation with female protagonists—such as Rae from Her Soul to Take—who are not only sexually experienced but also morally ambiguous in their own right.
Like many dark romances, Her Soul to Take features explicit sex scenes that involve roleplaying, dominance and submission, and other previously taboo sexual activities. Her Soul to Take also joins the growing trend of “monster romance,” a subgenre that intertwines eroticism with otherworldly characters and settings: Leon, a demon bound to serve a sinister cult leader, is the male love interest. His path and Rea’s cross in a series of eerie but seductive encounters that blur the lines between fear and desire, control and submission.
Dark romances generally conform to the romance genre convention that sees the two main protagonists together by the end of the novel, although the nature of their “happily ever after” sometimes differs. While characters may grow and heal from trauma, they often find a new sense of authenticity, embracing the darker elements of their personalities rather than leaving them behind. In Her Soul to Take, for instance, Rae gives her soul to Leon, and—instead of losing herself as she feared—it saves her life and soul from eternal suffering. There is no indication that Leon’s and Rae’s darker tendencies—e.g., Leon’s possessiveness—are dulled by their romantic relationship. What is clear is that their partnership can withstand any darkness that the world offers.
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