Delilah S. Dawson makes clear her goals of “Guillotine” with the book’s dedication. “If you’ve ever cleared someone else’s dirty toilet, if you’ve ever been cussed out while working a cash register, if you’ve ever gotten covered in restaurant trash juice, this one’s for you. You deserve a lot more than a book.”
The latest novella from Dawson centers on a down-on-her-luck outsider visiting the family compound of an elite family just as their servants plan an insurrection. “Guillotine” directly addresses classism, patriarchy, sexual exploitation, and vengeance.
No detail is spared of the uniquely crafted acts of revenge visited on each adult Ruskin. Dawson demonstrates how decades of forced servitude have built into a volatile resentment that boils over into grotesque acts of murder.
Read “Guillotine” knowing it’s designed to be a cathartic release for low-wage workers who cannot overtake their oppressors.
Character Analysis
Desiree “Dez” Lane
Marie Caulfield-Ruskin
Patrick Ruskin
Valerie
Dez Lane, 21, is a graduating senior at the Savannah College of Art and Design. She’s a scholarship student from Las Vegas who desperately needs a job after graduation. Her desperation for fashion industry connections leads her to date a man she finds repulsive in exchange for an introduction to his mother, the editor of a high fashion magazine.
Patrick Ruskin, the youngest of his family, is accustomed to using his family’s wealth to get what he wants. It’s no different with his relationship with the destitute Dez. He agrees to invite her to his family’s exclusive private island for Easter weekend with the understanding she will finally sleep with him.
What he neglects to tell her is that she will need to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) after they arrive and that she can expect to have no privacy from the staff and no respect from his family.
Renowned fashion editor Marie Caulfield-Ruskin is Patrick’s elusive mother. As the leader of Nouveau magazine, the last successful fashion publication, the Ruskin matriarch can make or break careers of young designers.
When the Ruskin family Easter celebrations are interrupted, unacknowledged Ruskin daughter Valerie spearheads a blood revolt against her privileged relatives. She and all of the Island’s servants coordinate thematically appropriate revenge on all of Patrick’s grandparents, parents, and his siblings and him.
Plot Summary
Author’s Note: Below I’ve included a detailed recap of “Guillotine” up until Valerie and the other servants begin taking their revenge. Because the novella is 204 pages, I am refraining from giving spoilers on the revenge itself. It does involve vivid descriptions of violence and gore.
Getting to the Island
College senior Dez Lane will do anything to avoid being unemployed and forced to work housekeeping at casinos in Sin City with her mother.
With an Excel spreadsheet filled with rejection letters from prospective employers, she decides to use her feminine wiles to get access to Nouveau magazine fashion editor Marie Caulfield-Ruskin. Dez reluctantly agrees to date Marie’s youngest son, Patrick Ruskin, and flirts her way into an invitation to join him and his immediate family for Easter.
Patrick openly disrespects Dez by groping her, commenting on her clothing, and failing to tell her more about the Island. When the pair board a ferry, Dez sees only a young man clad in a uniform of a crisp pink polo, matching khakis and grayish shoes with rose gold aviator sunglasses. He doesn’t speak and makes himself scarce.
Once at the Ruskin family compound, Dez is immediately confronted by William “Bill” Ruskin III, Patrick’s father, who orders his son to have his guest sign paperwork before enjoying the Island’s amenities.
Patrick brusquely shows his guest into an office and tells her if she doesn’t immediately sign the presented paperwork, she will be escorted from the Island.
A quick scan of the document reveals pages of dense legalese and a final page that lays out all the restrictions she faces with no technology, no cell phone or internet service, and a gag order that extends into perpetuity. Engaging with the staff in any way is verboten, and Dez could be removed from the Island for any reason during her visit and still be under the agreement.
She pauses to consider the danger the blanket non-disclosure agreement puts her in before deciding to sign it for the opportunity to meet Marie and have elusive doors opened to her.
Day one on the Island
No sooner has Dez signed the NDA than Mr. Rose finds her and escorts her to a tastefully decorated room, Tickled Pink, on the second floor. Identifying himself as the butler and wearing a suit in the same pink color as the man from the boat, he barely contains his annoyance with Dez throughout their short interaction.
Dez takes a few minutes in Tickled Pink to absorb the shock of lacking a lock to her room and the invasion of privacy with the unpacking of her belongings, including her birth control pills and intimate items. She also sees that her phone and wallet were removed from her purse while she signed the paperwork.
During her first day on the Island, Dez meets “the wives” of Patrick’s brothers, endures the screams of the four young Ruskin boys, and attends an uncomfortable family dinner wearing a vintage black-and-white Chanel dress selected by Marie.
The dinner is served by six attractive young women wearing understated make-up in modest calf-length dresses in the same shade of pink as Mr. Rose and the unnamed male staff.
Patrick’s grandfather, the family patriarch, leads a toast with flutes of rosé that ends with “to the Ruskin supremacy.” The family then adjourns to a recreation room with a full bar where Dez unsuccessfully attempts to introduce herself to Marie.
She’s directed upstairs by another man in pink who grips her arm so hard it leaves a bruise. On the large bed she finds a lacey negligee laid out for her. Dez and Patrick have sex, which leaves her unsatisfied, and she departs for her own room while he sleeps soundly.
A luxurious shower later and wearing her own pajamas, she realizes she’s bored and lonely. This causes her to sneak downstairs to the servants’ kitchen where she finds a small group of pink-clad young women washing and drying dishes.
They insist she return to her room quickly with a banana, apple, and large cookie. Leading her upstairs, one woman accepts Dez’s many apologies and makes a startling comment: “No one on the Island ever says they’re sorry for anything. Are you sure you’re supposed to be here?”
“Black Saturday” Dinner
The next morning Dez finds a Post-It note on her pillow with “Go. Home. Now” written on it. She ignores the request and prepares to join the Ruskins at the stables to admire the new foal. The family prides itself on breeding horses of exceptional bloodlines.
She decides to take a simple lunch in her room and prepare to endure another laborious dinner.
She relaxes in a large bathtub with pink water that smells of the Ruskin family’s signature rose scent. As with the first day, she emerges from the bathroom to find a Versace gown laid out for her. The cut and style are matronly, but Dez decides to wear it to accommodate her hosts.
Patrick offers his arm and walks her to another large dining room for the “Black Saturday” dinner commemorating the Ruskins’ claim of the Island in 1834 and the start of their conquest.
Grandfather Ruskin finished his introductory speech when the doors and windows slammed shut.
A young woman named Valerie comes forward to confront the elderly man as Dez notices the room is lined with dozens of servants. The grandfather commands Mr. Rose to stop Valerie, but she shoots him in the knee as he rushes forward and attempts to grab his hidden weapon.
Having the attention of Grandfather and the Ruskins, she threatens Mr. Rose with another gunshot wound if he doesn’t crawl to the old man and lick his boots. While the Ruskin head demands she stop, Valerie tells him that she and the other servants have nothing to lose and currently have more power.
Mr. Rose licks his employer’s boots as instructed and begins to have a fatal allergic reaction to the poison flowers and shrimp that Valerie added to the shoe polish. His breath becomes shallow before he dies.
Valerie then moves to stand behind Grandfather to slit his throat with a straight razor in retaliation for his tyrannical rule of the family and his giving her a black eye for missing a spot in his shave.
After Grandfather stops flailing, Valerie tells the remaining Ruskins that if they can get off the Island alive, they can keep their inheritance. The other staff open all the doors and windows and watch their prey quickly disperse.
Valerie and the other staff members stalk Patrick and his family across the Island and dispatch them in painfully appropriate ways one by one.
Final Thoughts
“Guillotine” serves as a short, fast-paced cathartic tale of retaliation against the elite and their abuses. With a straightforward narrative structure, it may lack sufficient suspense for some readers.
Dawson pulls no punches with her intricate depictions of the mistreatment forced upon the vulnerable Ruskin children and their revenge on their oppressors. She deftly weaves in examples of sexual exploitation, immolation, and confinement that reflect known offenses committed by deep-pocketed predators to ensure readers identify with the servants rather than the Ruskin clan.
While many readers will pick up “Guillotine” because they adored “Bloom,” the novella offers a much different tone than the slow, literary lesbian love story. It’s much closer to “The Violence” in usage of physical aggression to address power imbalances.
Rating
My rating is 4/5 stars.
Book Details
Title: “Guillotine”
Author: Delilah S. Dawson
Year of Publications: 2024
Number of Pages: 204
For more Delilah S. Dawson reviews, check out my write-up on “Bloom.”
