On Wednesday, Luxembourg’s Public Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement to warn that purchasing, possessing, or even consulting material promoting child sexual abuse is strictly punishable under national law. The warning comes against the backdrop of the dark romance novel Corps à cœur (Body to Heart), self published by Jessie Auryann, which has been accused of glorifying child sex abuse and therefore removed from Amazon on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the company said the decision followed an internal investigation after previously stating that it was urgently reviewing the work.
Earlier the same day, France’s High Commissioner for Children, Sarah El Haïry, announced that she had initiated legal action to demand the book’s withdrawal. Writing on X, she said that the ‘dark romance’ label could not justify certain content and argued that some passages amounted to a glorification of child sexual abuse.
She added that she had referred the matter to the authorities via the Pharos reporting platform and the courts.
A petition launched on Change.org following discussions within social media platform TikTok’s #BookTok community argues that Corps à cœur crosses an ethical and legal red line requiring immediate intervention. For Solène Podevin-Favre, president of the association Face à l’inceste (Facing Incest), the book falls into the same category as the controversial dolls sold by Shein and presents “incest as an object of fantasy, subjecting the bodies of fictional children to scenes of rape and torture that are difficult to read”.
Corps à coeur is a self-published book, the first volume of which was released in 2023 and the second a year later. The book belongs to the dark romance literary subgenre that emerged in the 2010s and has enjoyed increasing success.
These novels tend to depict intense relationships that may be based on sexual or psychological violence.
In a recent social media post, author Jessie Auryann denounced what she described as a smear campaign targeting both her work and her person. She maintained that the novel contains clear warnings from the outset.
In Luxembourg, the Public Prosecutor’s Office stressed that, under the Criminal Code, anyone who knowingly acquires, possesses, or consults sex abuse material involving or depicting minors may face imprisonment of up to three years, as well as a fine ranging from €251 to €50,000. The authorities emphasised that removal of a work from a commercial platform does not prevent the application of criminal law, adding that anyone who has ordered or possessed such a work could be liable to prosecution.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office underlined that the protection of minors remains an absolute priority and called on anyone with information about potential offences against young people to inform the competent authorities.
