The LH novels aren't particularly brutish nor violent.
They're a bit more mature than the anime, but really people overtell it. It does mention certain issues but then it moves past it without focusing on it. Hell, that's the very reason I'd call them mature - they don't focus on rape, murder and torture in a juvenile 1990s grim anti-hero way, but acknowledge it happens and /moves on/.
It's why I love the anime. You can neatly excise the brief mentions without hurting the story at all.
