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Female, Recreational
The first book of the five-book Female, Recreational series, published between January 2017 and January 2021. It deals explicitly with sex and other topics, and is meant for readers over 18. The truck door opened, the warm afternoon air instantly permeating their space like breath, but Hannah shivered. Moving awkwardly in her restraints, Hannah crawled to the end of her cage and peered through the wire. They had pulled up to a loading dock, three men standing on it, and she wanted only to disappear again. She was glad for her modesty pad even as she cursed its inadequacy. The men weren’t there to ogle, however. They barely acknowledged her as they rolled the cart up and set her cage on it. “Bye,” she said to Stephanie, surprised by her sorrow at having to say farewell to a girl she’d just met. “Good luck,” Stephanie said back, smiling, as if this were all entirely normal. Maybe it was. Maybe Hannah would get used to this too. She looked back at the man pushing her cage, but he didn’t seem to know she was there. Nor did anyone else on the loading dock. Perhaps she was, in a sense, invisible now, her prayer granted. She was being rolled toward a pair of large doors that opened on their own as she drew near, revealing a cavernous space full of voices. As her eyes adjusted to the interior darkness, she saw what looked like a large gray wall before her, two or three stories tall. It wasn’t like any wall she’d ever seen before, however. Something was off about it. “Oh!” she cried when her eyes adjusted to the interior light and she realized what she was looking at. It was cages like hers, each cage secured in its own space, rows and columns of tiny cages where people sat or lay or moved. She knew, with a visceral horror bordering on nausea, that this was where she was destined, that this would be her next home. They’d called this the “stacks,” she recalled. This is what they stacks of human beings. No privacy. No peace. A female employee stood on a machine that rolled on thick tires, designed like an elevator to lift her. As Hannah watched, she bent to speak to the girl in a cage set on the floor, then she rose to the next cage up, her mouth open to say a few quick words before she ascended again. A second machine, a forklift, sat idle in the corner, and she knew this must be how the cages were lifted and moved. Like cargo. As her cart rumbled closer to the stacks, she understood that the sound of voices was coming from the people in the cages. They were talking to each other. She heard a playful argument. She heard laughter. She even heard someone sing, briefly, the chorus of a song her mother would have never allowed her to listen to. She was being pushed on a path parallel to the wall of cages and she stared at the people there. Most of them were nude, except for the silver collars, all identical to hers. Most were also wearing at least one cuff, like Hannah’s broker’s cuff. A few were chained by the wrists and ankles. One girl had something around her middle, a sort of belt. She assumed that everyone here was female, so the sight of a male, his sinewy back turned toward her, startled her. He was sitting in a cage three rows up, and she stared at him, all her attention focused on him, on the back of his head, the cut of his short, black hair, on his nakedness, on his shoulders and his spine and his bare bottom. She guessed he was in his early 20s, just a little older than she. If he felt her eyes on him, if he turned to look, if he turned his whole body, she would see him, all of him. She would see his penis.
- GenresBDSM
551 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 25, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
August 20, 2018
I’m rather at a loss for what to say in regards to this read. This means I will probably spend a great deal of time babbling and that this will likely become very long.
I absolutely do not think this book would suit everyone. I actually almost DNF’d it a few times, but then I found myself invested enough to find out how everything works out for the protagonist, Hannah. She was a character I really grew to care for and I wanted her to find happiness somehow. Is it even possible, though? She’s a slave. It’s probably a fruitless endeavor, but I will be reading ‘Female, Recreational: Book II’ because I just need to know how things turn out for this highly sympathetic and likable character.
In modern day Texas (it could be any year, I suppose; it’s not actually specified, but the technology available is similar to technology right now in 2018), ownership of humans is legal. Often times a debt needs to be repaid or a minor crime leads to a loss of personal freedom. I initially picked this up because Hollow Well’s review intrigued me with the mention of social commentary that goes along with a modern society where slavery is legal. It piqued my interest. While this is supposed to be erotica, I found nothing sexy about it; the social commentary and my care in reading about Hannah’s journey is what kept me going. There is absolutely a great deal of descriptive sex between Hannah and men and women and so much talk about fluids that I oftentimes just skimmed over all of that. Towards the middle-to-end, the sex becomes less explicit, oftentimes FTB, which was much more to my tastes given the circumstances.
At the start of this, Hannah lives with her mother after they are banished from, what sounds like, a religious cult. When Hannah refused to marry a man much older than her 15 years, she is disowned by her father, and her mother is separated from her entire family. For 3 years, Hannah and her mother have been living in rundown apartments, barely scraping by. Her life is rather isolated, as she is not allowed to work, nor does she go to school. When debt collectors show up at their door, they discover Hannah and, considering her an ‘asset’, immediately cuff her and take her to a storage facility, where she is kept in a cage, naked, until she is brought to a place known as the ‘stacks’. It is here that Hannah’s education in regards to her new life and status begins.
This is a difficult read, no doubt about that, but books that challenge our perceptions tend to gain my attention and stick with me. I do not recommend this book to everyone. I think it is absolutely something that should be determined by really asking yourself if you can handle the subject matter. Hannah, a sweet, naive girl of 18, is taken against her will and sold off as a status symbol to the family that purchases her. While they are kind enough to her, she is still a slave and is treated as valuable property; something to take care of to maintain her value. She certainly has more luxuries now than she did in the previous 3 years living with her mother, but she also has to face a lot of unknowns, discomfort, punishment, and submission to do things she may otherwise not want to do. There are no rape scenes in this book, thank god, and Hannah is always a willing participant, but you also have to ask yourself why. Although this is told from her perspective, it’s hard to determine what motivates her beyond the desire to avoid punishment. She also wants to be loved, but she’s smart enough to know that the level and type of ‘love’ she will receive is restricted within the confines of her being owned. Her owners have all the power and she has very little of it, regardless of the fact that they do not force her to have sex if she doesn’t want to. What I really had to think about was if she actually wanted to or if she was merely saying ‘yes’ all the time because she knew it was expected of her. Once she gets passed her old set of beliefs, she does enjoy sex a great deal, but that doesn’t mean she would necessarily go out and have as much of it as she does as a ‘Female, Recreational.’
Anyway, this is a good book that gave me a lot to think about. The writing is simplistic, but fits the feel of the book perfectly because of Hannah’s naivety and innocence. She is highly intelligent and excels at maths, but real world matters are more of a mystery to her. There were some grammatical errors, but considering that this is a 450+ page, self-published book, there were surprisingly few.
I absolutely do not think this book would suit everyone. I actually almost DNF’d it a few times, but then I found myself invested enough to find out how everything works out for the protagonist, Hannah. She was a character I really grew to care for and I wanted her to find happiness somehow. Is it even possible, though? She’s a slave. It’s probably a fruitless endeavor, but I will be reading ‘Female, Recreational: Book II’ because I just need to know how things turn out for this highly sympathetic and likable character.
In modern day Texas (it could be any year, I suppose; it’s not actually specified, but the technology available is similar to technology right now in 2018), ownership of humans is legal. Often times a debt needs to be repaid or a minor crime leads to a loss of personal freedom. I initially picked this up because Hollow Well’s review intrigued me with the mention of social commentary that goes along with a modern society where slavery is legal. It piqued my interest. While this is supposed to be erotica, I found nothing sexy about it; the social commentary and my care in reading about Hannah’s journey is what kept me going. There is absolutely a great deal of descriptive sex between Hannah and men and women and so much talk about fluids that I oftentimes just skimmed over all of that. Towards the middle-to-end, the sex becomes less explicit, oftentimes FTB, which was much more to my tastes given the circumstances.
At the start of this, Hannah lives with her mother after they are banished from, what sounds like, a religious cult. When Hannah refused to marry a man much older than her 15 years, she is disowned by her father, and her mother is separated from her entire family. For 3 years, Hannah and her mother have been living in rundown apartments, barely scraping by. Her life is rather isolated, as she is not allowed to work, nor does she go to school. When debt collectors show up at their door, they discover Hannah and, considering her an ‘asset’, immediately cuff her and take her to a storage facility, where she is kept in a cage, naked, until she is brought to a place known as the ‘stacks’. It is here that Hannah’s education in regards to her new life and status begins.
This is a difficult read, no doubt about that, but books that challenge our perceptions tend to gain my attention and stick with me. I do not recommend this book to everyone. I think it is absolutely something that should be determined by really asking yourself if you can handle the subject matter. Hannah, a sweet, naive girl of 18, is taken against her will and sold off as a status symbol to the family that purchases her. While they are kind enough to her, she is still a slave and is treated as valuable property; something to take care of to maintain her value. She certainly has more luxuries now than she did in the previous 3 years living with her mother, but she also has to face a lot of unknowns, discomfort, punishment, and submission to do things she may otherwise not want to do. There are no rape scenes in this book, thank god, and Hannah is always a willing participant, but you also have to ask yourself why. Although this is told from her perspective, it’s hard to determine what motivates her beyond the desire to avoid punishment. She also wants to be loved, but she’s smart enough to know that the level and type of ‘love’ she will receive is restricted within the confines of her being owned. Her owners have all the power and she has very little of it, regardless of the fact that they do not force her to have sex if she doesn’t want to. What I really had to think about was if she actually wanted to or if she was merely saying ‘yes’ all the time because she knew it was expected of her. Once she gets passed her old set of beliefs, she does enjoy sex a great deal, but that doesn’t mean she would necessarily go out and have as much of it as she does as a ‘Female, Recreational.’
Anyway, this is a good book that gave me a lot to think about. The writing is simplistic, but fits the feel of the book perfectly because of Hannah’s naivety and innocence. She is highly intelligent and excels at maths, but real world matters are more of a mystery to her. There were some grammatical errors, but considering that this is a 450+ page, self-published book, there were surprisingly few.
October 18, 2017
Hannah, a young woman with a very sheltered background gets seized as an asset when her mother's debt becomes too great to ignore anymore. Due to her great beauty and open heart (which translates to extremely effective sexual intuition), Hannah is irrevocably sold into sexual slavery.
The novel does an incredible job of building a world not so much different from our own, but one where slavery is legal. Those who are unlucky or unfortunate find they must forfeit their rights in order to survive. Generally, that means submitting to the culture of slavery where humans are bought and sold, coldly punished for infractions, chained and kept in cages, used for sex, labor, and research. The world is so well developed that an infinite number of engaging horror stories could be written within its confines. But, this is the story of a young woman who is brilliant and has a heart that is greater than all of us. She is simply navigating this new life, trying her best to come to terms with her situation, and still finding a thread of empathy for all those, whether free or slave, she encounters. Her path through this horrific world is so incredibly uplifting that by the end of the novel, I wanted to be a better human.
The word "horror" must be defined in the context of this novel. I am NOT speaking of blood and guts and severe physical and sexual abuse that you may find in "dark" novels. Instead I am talking about really small petty things that we do (likely unintentionally) every day which, for Hannah - the slave, could lead to punishments. She knows that she is now just a product - a very expensive product - and her future depends on her owners being satisfied. In this world, the culture of slavery has become so ingrained that the inhabitants see the slaves as something less than human. What may appear to be love between individuals of the two classes only extends as far as the owner's satisfaction. This is the story of Hannah, who navigates the pettiness and jealousies of fellow slaves and her owners with astounding brilliance and humanity.
Yes. This is a fetishy novel with extensive care in the description of how the heroine is chained and caged. There are explicit descriptions of her sexual encounters which are certainly not consensual (she's a slave!), but still, never violent. I would rarely, rarely ever give a fetish novel a five star rating. I read them for the fantasy and entertainment, not for their great literary value. But here, alas, I have been tricked. This has been the best fetishy novel I have ever read. Even after ~450 pages, I was devastated that I had reached the end.
So very much recommended!
The novel does an incredible job of building a world not so much different from our own, but one where slavery is legal. Those who are unlucky or unfortunate find they must forfeit their rights in order to survive. Generally, that means submitting to the culture of slavery where humans are bought and sold, coldly punished for infractions, chained and kept in cages, used for sex, labor, and research. The world is so well developed that an infinite number of engaging horror stories could be written within its confines. But, this is the story of a young woman who is brilliant and has a heart that is greater than all of us. She is simply navigating this new life, trying her best to come to terms with her situation, and still finding a thread of empathy for all those, whether free or slave, she encounters. Her path through this horrific world is so incredibly uplifting that by the end of the novel, I wanted to be a better human.
The word "horror" must be defined in the context of this novel. I am NOT speaking of blood and guts and severe physical and sexual abuse that you may find in "dark" novels. Instead I am talking about really small petty things that we do (likely unintentionally) every day which, for Hannah - the slave, could lead to punishments. She knows that she is now just a product - a very expensive product - and her future depends on her owners being satisfied. In this world, the culture of slavery has become so ingrained that the inhabitants see the slaves as something less than human. What may appear to be love between individuals of the two classes only extends as far as the owner's satisfaction. This is the story of Hannah, who navigates the pettiness and jealousies of fellow slaves and her owners with astounding brilliance and humanity.
Yes. This is a fetishy novel with extensive care in the description of how the heroine is chained and caged. There are explicit descriptions of her sexual encounters which are certainly not consensual (she's a slave!), but still, never violent. I would rarely, rarely ever give a fetish novel a five star rating. I read them for the fantasy and entertainment, not for their great literary value. But here, alas, I have been tricked. This has been the best fetishy novel I have ever read. Even after ~450 pages, I was devastated that I had reached the end.
So very much recommended!
October 23, 2018
A real story about a heroine we care about
A psychologically subtle story that is worth reading. A fantasy of course, but one that carries us along when we accept the premise of restored slavery. I look forward to the author's new books
A psychologically subtle story that is worth reading. A fantasy of course, but one that carries us along when we accept the premise of restored slavery. I look forward to the author's new books
June 11, 2023
Nothing Compares
Tl;dr: Outstanding, intelligent, thought-provocing, dystopian Bildungsroman with a lovable and believable main character and a good amount of sex. More than just a good read. Not for everybody. My first but definitively not my last books from Badger Therese
Review of the whole series of 5 volumes, not just volume 1
Following an Amazon recommendation, I started Volume 1 of Badger Therese's "Female, Recreational" series on Kindle Unlimited a few weeks ago, expecting no more than just another BDSM novel. I was close to returning it after a few pages because I didn't like the "teen girl gets non-consensually drawn into institutional slavery" setting. I expected either a Stockholm Syndrome ending, the girl eventually believing it was in her own best interest to be sold to a handsome, sinister billionaire and be raped happily ever after, or a happy ending with a deus-ex-machina, saving the girl from her cruel destiny, marrying, and making soft, boring and cheesy love for the rest of their life.
How wrong could I be?
Was it Ms Alvarez' and later Sam's unexpected caring, Hannah's lovely naivete and surprisingly sharp mind, or the author's dry humor that drew me into the book? Soon I couldn't stop reading any more. I devoured the almost 3,000 pages of the 5 volumes like I hadn't done any more since Harry Potter 15 years ago. For some weeks, I may have slept less than Hannah during the nights of her worst fears, angst, or guilt.
It doesn't make sense for me to review the 5 volumes individually, now that all are out. Admittedly, there are clear formal differences between volumes 1-3, which are told in a linear story flow from Hannah's subjective point of view, and volumes 4-5, which consist of intertwined threads and changing narrative perspectives. Nevertheless, I don't consider them to be independent books but rather five parts of one single novel; of a fine Bildungsroman and a solid dystopian political thriller, seasoned with many spicy erotic scenes, which never drift off to vulgarity, and with a fair amount of humor.
The characters and their developments are believable; I could connect to them, love some, hate others. The "good" ones may sometimes get annoying, and many "bad" ones may unexpectedly become relatable. Very few are purely black, and nobody is spotlessly white.
The series is thought-provoking in many ways beyond its key topic of modern slavery and the universal threats to freedom. Prior reviewers have already discussed many additional societal, religious, philosophical, and political themes here, so I don't have to restate them in detail.
The books are outstanding, and I rated all of them with 5 stars. However, this must be regarded in context. My archetypal 5-star Bildungsroman is A Prayer for Owen Meany, my Dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale and my Erotica The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 or her other volumes (sorry for being so conventional, though). Though "Female, Recreational" is a rare diamond in Kindle Unlimited's self-publishing universe, compared to the above-mentioned classics it could only earn 3-4 stars due to lack of professional editing and to its excessive length. Being a native German speaker, I don't feel comfortable rating the language, but it appears to be far more elaborate and more thoroughly proof-read than most other self-published books, though not reaching the levels of the Irvings, Atwoods and Nins of this world.
But such a comparison would be as unfair as anchoring the ratings of my favorite local restaurant on Redzepi's Noma in Kopenhagen. Therefore, adapting my expectations to the Kindle Unlimited environment justifies and mandates the topmost rating. Mind however, as other reviewers stated earlier, these books are not for the faint at heart. The more you get immersed, the more you feel for Hannah, and the more you are worried about the state of the real world, of freedom and democracy, and the less you are into BDSM, the more you should expect occasional anger, sorrows, or even guilt, tears, and sickness.
My recommendation: if you dare, take a week of your annual vacations, find a cozy place, bring your lover, enough decent food, wine, gin and tonic and two Kindle tablets or apps with all 5 volumes on each of them. Read in parallel, enjoy, laugh and cry together, discuss, make love. Buy all the books even if you can borrow them for free in your Kindle Unlimited subscription. You don't want to return them. Ever. Also, beside a well-earned gratification, more money for the author may pay them for the additional time needed to create shorter books and allows for more professional editing.
Tl;dr: Outstanding, intelligent, thought-provocing, dystopian Bildungsroman with a lovable and believable main character and a good amount of sex. More than just a good read. Not for everybody. My first but definitively not my last books from Badger Therese
Review of the whole series of 5 volumes, not just volume 1
Following an Amazon recommendation, I started Volume 1 of Badger Therese's "Female, Recreational" series on Kindle Unlimited a few weeks ago, expecting no more than just another BDSM novel. I was close to returning it after a few pages because I didn't like the "teen girl gets non-consensually drawn into institutional slavery" setting. I expected either a Stockholm Syndrome ending, the girl eventually believing it was in her own best interest to be sold to a handsome, sinister billionaire and be raped happily ever after, or a happy ending with a deus-ex-machina, saving the girl from her cruel destiny, marrying, and making soft, boring and cheesy love for the rest of their life.
How wrong could I be?
Was it Ms Alvarez' and later Sam's unexpected caring, Hannah's lovely naivete and surprisingly sharp mind, or the author's dry humor that drew me into the book? Soon I couldn't stop reading any more. I devoured the almost 3,000 pages of the 5 volumes like I hadn't done any more since Harry Potter 15 years ago. For some weeks, I may have slept less than Hannah during the nights of her worst fears, angst, or guilt.
It doesn't make sense for me to review the 5 volumes individually, now that all are out. Admittedly, there are clear formal differences between volumes 1-3, which are told in a linear story flow from Hannah's subjective point of view, and volumes 4-5, which consist of intertwined threads and changing narrative perspectives. Nevertheless, I don't consider them to be independent books but rather five parts of one single novel; of a fine Bildungsroman and a solid dystopian political thriller, seasoned with many spicy erotic scenes, which never drift off to vulgarity, and with a fair amount of humor.
The characters and their developments are believable; I could connect to them, love some, hate others. The "good" ones may sometimes get annoying, and many "bad" ones may unexpectedly become relatable. Very few are purely black, and nobody is spotlessly white.
The series is thought-provoking in many ways beyond its key topic of modern slavery and the universal threats to freedom. Prior reviewers have already discussed many additional societal, religious, philosophical, and political themes here, so I don't have to restate them in detail.
The books are outstanding, and I rated all of them with 5 stars. However, this must be regarded in context. My archetypal 5-star Bildungsroman is A Prayer for Owen Meany, my Dystopia The Handmaid’s Tale and my Erotica The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934 or her other volumes (sorry for being so conventional, though). Though "Female, Recreational" is a rare diamond in Kindle Unlimited's self-publishing universe, compared to the above-mentioned classics it could only earn 3-4 stars due to lack of professional editing and to its excessive length. Being a native German speaker, I don't feel comfortable rating the language, but it appears to be far more elaborate and more thoroughly proof-read than most other self-published books, though not reaching the levels of the Irvings, Atwoods and Nins of this world.
But such a comparison would be as unfair as anchoring the ratings of my favorite local restaurant on Redzepi's Noma in Kopenhagen. Therefore, adapting my expectations to the Kindle Unlimited environment justifies and mandates the topmost rating. Mind however, as other reviewers stated earlier, these books are not for the faint at heart. The more you get immersed, the more you feel for Hannah, and the more you are worried about the state of the real world, of freedom and democracy, and the less you are into BDSM, the more you should expect occasional anger, sorrows, or even guilt, tears, and sickness.
My recommendation: if you dare, take a week of your annual vacations, find a cozy place, bring your lover, enough decent food, wine, gin and tonic and two Kindle tablets or apps with all 5 volumes on each of them. Read in parallel, enjoy, laugh and cry together, discuss, make love. Buy all the books even if you can borrow them for free in your Kindle Unlimited subscription. You don't want to return them. Ever. Also, beside a well-earned gratification, more money for the author may pay them for the additional time needed to create shorter books and allows for more professional editing.
August 24, 2021
Es geht hier um ein frommes, naives 18jähriges Mädchen in einer dystopischen Welt in der man wegen Schulden oder auch Schulden von Angehörigen schnell in die Versklavung rutschen kann. So passiert es, dass Hannah eines Tages bei ihrer verschuldeten Mutter abgeholt, nackt in einen Käfig gesteckt und zu ihren neuen Besitzern gekarrt wird. Diese wollen sie möglichst viel bringend verkaufen und dafür muss Hannah in eine Art Trainings- und Verkaufscenter.
Ich habe mich lange Zeit durch gequält, da das Ebook recht gut für dieses Genre bewertet wurde. Leider konnte es mich so gar nicht begeistern. Hannah war mir von Anfang an zwar nicht unsympathisch aber sie nervte mich mit ihrer extrem naiven Art. Sie hat wirklich von so gut wie gar nichts eine Ahnung und versucht sich alles mit Gottes Willen zu erklären. Sie lässt einfach alles mit sich machen und ist dabei dann auch noch nett zu ihren Peinigern. Erotisch war hier auch nichts für mich, da ich Hannahs Verhalten null nachvollziehen konnte. Sie hat sehr merkwürdige Gedanken in einer Situation in der man eigentlich ausflippen sollte vor Angst. Und dann macht sie viel zu schnell mit und hat Spass an den sexuellen Sachen. Es war einfach nur sehr merkwürdig und daher habe ich es dann bei 40% abgebrochen.
Der Schreibstil ist an sich nicht schlecht, aber mir war alles viel zu lang hingezogen und die Prota sprach mich null emotional an.
Story 1,6/5
Charaktere 1,6/5
Schreibstil 3,0/5
Gesamt 2,0/5
Ich habe mich lange Zeit durch gequält, da das Ebook recht gut für dieses Genre bewertet wurde. Leider konnte es mich so gar nicht begeistern. Hannah war mir von Anfang an zwar nicht unsympathisch aber sie nervte mich mit ihrer extrem naiven Art. Sie hat wirklich von so gut wie gar nichts eine Ahnung und versucht sich alles mit Gottes Willen zu erklären. Sie lässt einfach alles mit sich machen und ist dabei dann auch noch nett zu ihren Peinigern. Erotisch war hier auch nichts für mich, da ich Hannahs Verhalten null nachvollziehen konnte. Sie hat sehr merkwürdige Gedanken in einer Situation in der man eigentlich ausflippen sollte vor Angst. Und dann macht sie viel zu schnell mit und hat Spass an den sexuellen Sachen. Es war einfach nur sehr merkwürdig und daher habe ich es dann bei 40% abgebrochen.
Der Schreibstil ist an sich nicht schlecht, aber mir war alles viel zu lang hingezogen und die Prota sprach mich null emotional an.
Story 1,6/5
Charaktere 1,6/5
Schreibstil 3,0/5
Gesamt 2,0/5
March 16, 2025
The future of human rights in Texas if America doesn’t get its act together. The story is told from the perspective of an 18 year old girl who is turned into property to satisfy her mother’s debts. Modern day slavery is the norm though in this authors vision, how slaves are treated and whatever rights they have is formalized in the law. Some slaves (“subjects”), specialize in specific labor activities like cook, cleaner, etc but our FMC being young and beautiful is deemed a recreational slave (ie sex). Descriptions of “Inspections” and sex acts are graphic and technical, though not drawn out and not romantic. There is no gratuitous pleasure when restraints are used to insure the safety and asset value of the slaves. Punishment is doled out when infractions merit in a controlled manner, usually in a dedicated space or facility and usually not by the actual owner. Permanent damage would diminish this slaves value so what is written about is either additional restraint, loss of privilege or non marking brief pain.
I don’t remember how I stumbled into reading this book but given the timing of our new administration and the subject matter I felt compelled to keep reading to find out how this girls story would unfold. This book was written pre-covid so I don’t think it was written as a political statement and was probably intended to just be erotica.
I don’t remember how I stumbled into reading this book but given the timing of our new administration and the subject matter I felt compelled to keep reading to find out how this girls story would unfold. This book was written pre-covid so I don’t think it was written as a political statement and was probably intended to just be erotica.
June 12, 2019
Every once in a while I take a chance hoping for something dark. Honestly, I just thought this was boring.
Hannah grew up in a pseudo-Mormon religious community outside Fort Worth, Texas. Only when one of the Elders wanted to make her his fourth wife when she turned 15, her Mother took her and left. Only to scrape by and pile up debts.
And then one day the debtors have had enough. And they come out (accompanied by a Deputy Sheriff) to collect one way or the other. And then find out about Blond-Haired and Beautiful Hannah. And decide to take her instead.
So at this point I am thinking the Deputy is corrupt. Only he's not. Because this might be Fort Worth but this world doesn't work like ours in any way that matters.
At some point, presumably after the 15th Amendment, they brought a form of Involuntary Servitude. Can't pay a debt? They make you a "servant." Break a law? They make you a servant. Etc etc. All legal under Federal Law and carefully regulated by the State Government. And most of the people doing the regulation are petty bureaucrats who hate their jobs.
I got to 51% and decided life was too short. So I skipped to the end and read the final chapter. I didn't feel like I missed anything. It isn't an unhappy ending - it just wasn't very interesting.
Hannah grew up in a pseudo-Mormon religious community outside Fort Worth, Texas. Only when one of the Elders wanted to make her his fourth wife when she turned 15, her Mother took her and left. Only to scrape by and pile up debts.
And then one day the debtors have had enough. And they come out (accompanied by a Deputy Sheriff) to collect one way or the other. And then find out about Blond-Haired and Beautiful Hannah. And decide to take her instead.
So at this point I am thinking the Deputy is corrupt. Only he's not. Because this might be Fort Worth but this world doesn't work like ours in any way that matters.
At some point, presumably after the 15th Amendment, they brought a form of Involuntary Servitude. Can't pay a debt? They make you a "servant." Break a law? They make you a servant. Etc etc. All legal under Federal Law and carefully regulated by the State Government. And most of the people doing the regulation are petty bureaucrats who hate their jobs.
I got to 51% and decided life was too short. So I skipped to the end and read the final chapter. I didn't feel like I missed anything. It isn't an unhappy ending - it just wasn't very interesting.
June 2, 2024
Very simply, the best written fictional book/series I've ever read.
Therese fleshes out the characters so well, and so tightly connects the inner lives of the characters to the reader that we, the readers, care about them...particularly Hannah, the main character - a naive 18 y/o who is sold into sexual slaver to an upscale family.
In Hannah's universe, slavery exists in the United States, and one can fall into slavery for, among other reasons, debt. Even the debt owed by a parent.
And upper middle class people buy and own slaves without any apparent social disapproval.
Therese delineates this world in such a way that it is believable.
In this world, sex slaves are kept nude and can travel and go out on the streets wearing only chains.
Therese is unparalleled at writing sex scenes. My only criticism of the series is that the sex scenes are maybe too numerous - but OTOH, it is a series of novels about a sex slave after all.
This story - about a beautiful and intelligent young woman negotiating her way through the heartbreaks and humiliations of slavery, while managing to protect her own identity and achieve her own goals is a literary triumph.
Badger Therese deserves to be better known than she (?) is, as she is a great writer.
Therese fleshes out the characters so well, and so tightly connects the inner lives of the characters to the reader that we, the readers, care about them...particularly Hannah, the main character - a naive 18 y/o who is sold into sexual slaver to an upscale family.
In Hannah's universe, slavery exists in the United States, and one can fall into slavery for, among other reasons, debt. Even the debt owed by a parent.
And upper middle class people buy and own slaves without any apparent social disapproval.
Therese delineates this world in such a way that it is believable.
In this world, sex slaves are kept nude and can travel and go out on the streets wearing only chains.
Therese is unparalleled at writing sex scenes. My only criticism of the series is that the sex scenes are maybe too numerous - but OTOH, it is a series of novels about a sex slave after all.
This story - about a beautiful and intelligent young woman negotiating her way through the heartbreaks and humiliations of slavery, while managing to protect her own identity and achieve her own goals is a literary triumph.
Badger Therese deserves to be better known than she (?) is, as she is a great writer.
July 8, 2022
totally unexpected
I enjoyed this book. It isn’t like anything I’ve ever read. There’s not exactly a happily Ever after here, but there’s a happy enough for now.
I can’t help but wonder sometimes if we’re not on a path to a dystopian society like the one in this book or others as grim.
I enjoyed this book. It isn’t like anything I’ve ever read. There’s not exactly a happily Ever after here, but there’s a happy enough for now.
I can’t help but wonder sometimes if we’re not on a path to a dystopian society like the one in this book or others as grim.
December 24, 2024
An amazing portrayal of an indescribable injustice
For all the injustices and portrayal of human slavery in a modern society, the humanity of the FMC Hannah and her understanding of how to survive and adaptive resilience is a beautiful story with a good ending. I was impressed even though it left me saddened at the prospect of such a world.
For all the injustices and portrayal of human slavery in a modern society, the humanity of the FMC Hannah and her understanding of how to survive and adaptive resilience is a beautiful story with a good ending. I was impressed even though it left me saddened at the prospect of such a world.
November 28, 2018
Creates Deep Thoughts!
More than thing I have read in a long time, this book made me think about what our world could become. Slavery has been around since the beginning, and who knows if it couldn't come back to us in some fashion such as this?
More than thing I have read in a long time, this book made me think about what our world could become. Slavery has been around since the beginning, and who knows if it couldn't come back to us in some fashion such as this?
December 11, 2019
Great read
If this genre is something your into then I would def recommend this book for you as it was a great read from start to finish but def be home and over the age of 18 bc it gets hot and heavy in many places
If this genre is something your into then I would def recommend this book for you as it was a great read from start to finish but def be home and over the age of 18 bc it gets hot and heavy in many places
February 15, 2024
I read the whole series but couldn't find the boxed set listed on Goodreads. I enjoyed it all a lot and it held my attention which is a rarity for fiction - erotica or otherwise. It was in turn erotic but also deeply sad. A moving combination. Hard to categorize beyond 'BDSM'.
February 17, 2023
DNF because the story was moving slowly, but I enjoyed what I read.
March 10, 2022
Underappreciated accomplishment. Half slave bdsm erotica and half dystopian science fiction. Combines the conventions of both sub-genres in a way that forces the reader to constantly interrogate their responses to the material. Are we supposed to be fascinated or revolted by what we see here? The systemization of sexual slavery—as taken quite seriously by this author—is fantasy gone wild and gone to smash. The quality of the writing only exacerbates this tension. Institutions are a central theme of the book: in the power they have to control and remake the individual through repetition, manufactured language, and sheer magnitude of organizational force. The author explores these institutional realities through a canny interplay of surfaces and depths: in which outward appearances of economic prudence and human care obscure more fundamental realities of domination and control. As these layers are progressively peeled away, trivial routine gives way to creeping menace which gives at last away to catastrophic revelation. It is under these circumstances that 'subjects' must—impossibly, miraculously—find hope and comfort and ultimately a future for themselves.
The seriousness of the book makes it something more than an ordinary work of erotic fiction. The question it asks, which is question we should continually ask ourselves, is fundamentally: Would a single naïf—a modern Candide—be capable of resisting the habituated common sense of an evil society? Would they resist? Or would they rationalize, accommodate themselves to, their own subjugation?
Hannah, the protagonist of the book, has to grapple with these dilemmas. She wants to be free. But she also needs to belong, to be fulfilled, to be loved. Slavery is the obstruction and the path to these goods. There is no easy answer.
The seriousness of the book makes it something more than an ordinary work of erotic fiction. The question it asks, which is question we should continually ask ourselves, is fundamentally: Would a single naïf—a modern Candide—be capable of resisting the habituated common sense of an evil society? Would they resist? Or would they rationalize, accommodate themselves to, their own subjugation?
Hannah, the protagonist of the book, has to grapple with these dilemmas. She wants to be free. But she also needs to belong, to be fulfilled, to be loved. Slavery is the obstruction and the path to these goods. There is no easy answer.
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