***0 stars***
Every time I pick up a new book to read I keep reminding myself not to go in with any expectations, but sometimes it's hard not to, especially after reading some really great reviews.
I don't think I'm the only one who feels that way about some books. There are some truly amazing reviews out there, that gets me all giddy and exited. Sometimes book does turn out to be all that, but other times it pisses me off for falling for them, because the book felt like a complete waste of time. This is one of those times.
- - - WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD - - -
Here are the reasons why I disliked this book:
1. Male MC is a complete lunatic, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Before you go all "But the book disclaimer clearly stated…" on me, I will say that I read it and I knew that going in. That and some of the reviews I've read was the reason I wanted to read this book. The reason I didn't like this particular MC was because his character was very one dimensional. There was no character development. And to be completely honest, I thought that his character was created for the shock and the shock value alone. There weren't any twists or turns and he didn't go through any big revelations or life changing experience.
- There was very little background information on him.
- He was the best slave trainer there was. He, himself, and every character I was introduced to told me so, over and over and over again.
- Not an original character. I'll give you some info on him and you tell me what he reminds you of: he was trained by an older rich dude that thought him everything he knew about this so called ''business'', he enjoyed the taste of tears, he called the buyer to tell him that he needed more time with this particular slave (because she was different from all the others *eyeroll*(I'll get back to that later)). He didn't like when she called him by his name. He decided to keep her and find another woman to replace her.
Any guesses?
- He was too cocky (too nice of a word for him) for my liking. He knew that she will have an orgasm even before he raped her (and her friend) the first time. Because he was that good.
- He should have kept his mouth shut. He kept saying that he didn't own her any explanations, yet he went on explaining to her that "We are a society of men blah blah…" in great detail, that lasted for a page or so.
- His character contradicted himself constantly. In one scene he says that it's not about the money, that it was the power he craved, in another, he goes on yapping about how much money she will make him, then later, it's not about the money at all, and later, AGAIN, he is happy about how much money some creep paid him for her.
- It's unclear why he kept her. It was said numerous times that it was because she was different, but there was no examples on how different she was from his other captives. All I got was that she was, and that was that.
- The last, but the most important point (and the biggest turn off for me) was his views of women. According to him, we all wish to be whores. To be used and abused. We just need the right man to bring the wholeness out of us. We all crave to be whipped, tied down, looked down on, humiliated and used for only one thing, simply because we have a vagina. Our sole purpose in life is to please men. We just don't know it yet. Thankfully, we have him to guide us into the right direction.
2. The female MC was not only weak and boring, but also a completely brainless whack-job, who let her hoo-haa make all the decisions. I realize that we are talking about a rape victim here, but hear me out (if you decided to read my review despite spoiler warning). There was no self-analysis and barely-there inner struggles. She is a horrible judge of character and the worse decision maker ever! Male MC kept babbling about how fascinated he was by her, how feisty she was, how different from all the rest. All I read was her throwing couple of "f*ck yous" his way and then crawling and eating from a dog bowl. Then later "I decided to let go and love him" I mean… I can't even…
- She broke (both her mind and her body) on the second day! That was the part where my hopes of my mind being f*cked went up in smokes. Because we, women, are that weak. We see a c*ck, rape or not, and you can manipulate us like marionettes. We'll crawl for you, eat from a dog bowl, love you and do anything you want. All you have to do is pull your zipper down and we will be at your service. Orgasm is all that matters.
- Lack of background info on her. All I got was that she liked art (she met her perpetrator at the art exhibit). I knew nothing about who she was, where she came from, about her interests or who she was as a person.
- Not only did she gave in two days in, she loved him that much she agreed to help him to kidnap her friend and held her down while he raped her and even whipped her herself, beat her when he asked her to. That really made me angry. She did cry while doing so (at first), but I didn't fucking care, because our so called ''heroine'' did it anyway, in the name of fucking love. This was the most disturbing part about this whole book. She did it all because she ''assumed'' her friend were being judgmental about certain things. Even though later, it turned out that she wasn't. But it didn't matter, she was that much in love with this ''hard to resist'' dude.
- ''Heroine'', too had no likable qualities. (read the point above).
- Where is her f*cking survival instinct??? Are we, women (and humans in general), are that weak that one rub against our certain parts is all it takes to lose a common sense and our goddamn minds??? Forget family, friends, life and plans for the future. Just touch me ''there'' and I'll be your whore.
3. This story being a mindf*ck.
- NOT! I'm aware of the fact that we, book lovers, tend to interpret books differently. I've read quite a few reviews before picking up this book, and realized that my definition of ''mind*ck'' is different from other's. I read a lot of psychology and when I think of the word "mindf*ck" I expect the story to mess/play with my mind, to leave me conflicted/confused. This book did not.There were no mind games. He was simply treating her "Do as I say, or there will be consequences." She did what he told her to and that was that. And she was all "he broke me". She did gave him "F@ck you" or two, but it didn't matter what she said or did, she broke on a day two!
4. The category this book was placed in - Erotica. WTF? Although the story, in itself, does not romanticizes rape (and the warning is accurate - it's not a love story (although I have a thought on it)), the fact that this book is placed in erotica category, and not in horror or thriller, does concern me. I know that we, readers/people, have different kinks/preferences when it comes to this genre, I still feel that the author of this book needs to (at least) google what erotica means. This book is one endless brutal rape scene after another (there is nothing else happening). How many people will get hot and bothered by that? The story ends with him "Ha, I came out of it with a brainwashed sextoy, to use and abuse as I see fit, and became a millionaire by f*cking over and killing a ''client''."
5. Repetitive. He keeps raping her and saying the same things over and over again. He's the best at what he does, do as he says or else, and that she's a whore just doesn't know it yet.
6. The beginning. One minute he is all "Let's go over there and you can tell more about the picture." and the next, she's screaming her lungs out tied up somewhere in a basement (?). How did she got there? Did she put up a fight? Did he drugged her? Or simply whacked her over the head with something? Did someone helped him, or did he do it alone? Apparently it didn't matter, she didn't remember anything about it anyway. Even though the most of the book was told from his pov.
7. Not a love story (-ish). Now this part, about this book not being a love story, can be analyzed from different angles. It's not a romantic story, that is true, but it is about love. She did fall in love with him. What she saw in him, I don't know, but she did. Truly, madly, deeply, all consuming and I'm-out-of-my-f*cking-mind type of love. So much so that she participated in kidnapping and rape. She saw people being killed, had an opportunity to escape or/and call authorities, or her family, but didn't take it, all because she was f*cking in love with him!
What I got from this story was that it wasn't a love story (or about love (it was even said so in the book)), because women's feelings doesn't count. They simply aren't important. This story is not about love because the male MC didn't love her back. Only his feelings matter/counts.
8. A lot of telling and no showing.
It's a mind*ck because the male MC said so (repeatedly). It's not a love story because male MC (and the author in the warning) said so. She fell in love with him one day suddenly, went apeshit and the rest was history. I doubt I would have bought her explanation on why, but I would have like author at least attempting to try and explain ''heroines'' feelings.
9. Disturbing, not in an interesting way.
10. I did DNF this book about 60% in, but I was curious about the ending and decided to skim through to see how it ends. Which now, I regret greatly, because it was f*cking disturbing. I was mostly curious to see if the book warning was true. It turned out that it wasn't a 100% accurate; she did fall in love with him, even though he didn't, they did stay together.
* * *
Sorry for the rant, but this book really got me worked up, not in a good way.
I'll insert some quotes to highlight my points some other time.