Wait, some think this isn’t that violent a book? I might be mixing up a couple of different novels, but isn’t it here where the heroine comes across a dead orogene(?) child, and she discovers…
… that the child had spent most of his/her life bound to a table/bench of some kind and kept in a coma-like state to utilize the child’s resources, and hey, since local men realized the kids’ orifices were going to waste, why not drop by and rape him/her?
There is a LOT of torture and abuse in the book, though this was probably the nadir. I highly doubt rest of the series got more lighthearted in tone. (Didn’t continue after The Fifth Season. Extremely well written and I know I’m missing the best thing in fantasy ever, but it’s just not for me.)