An Individual’s Search for Love
One of the earliest lessons learned in life is the importance of transactionality—you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. A young child learns that certain actions earn smiles and praise while others earn frowns and punishment. In Viktor Redreich’s Amber Stigmatized, the author reveals a young woman’s sexual exploration and awakening in the swirl of college where classroom instruction urges individual exploration and self-awareness. But, those same classes assume that all individuals, especially females, wish to assert their individuality; that individual independence and absolute equality at all times is what generates personal fulfillment. And, to someone like Amber, who wants to be dependent, who wants someone to take care of her, to be instructed and cared for always, absolute self-reliance is abhorrent.
Amber’s childhood was shaped by the absence of healthy physical, social and emotional interactions—she was not technically abused, she was just not nurtured—which is a type of abuse in the way a plant will live, but not flourish, if denied light or given minimal water or nutrients. Her mom moved from one male relationship to another, bringing her daughter along like another piece of luggage. Amber remembers only one truly happy time in her mother’s revolving relationships—a relationship with an older man who actually took time with Amber, showing her intentional care and attention. However, she lost connection with her mother’s companion when his move to another country for business brought an end to the relationship.
Now, a college student, she is realizing that along with academic expectations, much of college is a process of self-discovery—learning to be independent, learning to break the rules of home and to explore pathways of living and relating to others, often outside of parental limits. Ironically, for Amber, her most significant enlightenment does not occur within the college classroom or a budding relationship with another student. Her enlightenment comes with the virtual grooming and instruction she has received for the past year by her Daddy, a man whom she has never met, seen or even heard his voice—only texts with instructions and occasionally pictures gleaned from the sites he visits with his business travels. But, he guides her sexual awareness through personal stimulation by following the instructions of how to touch herself which she receives via text. She has been trained to obey in all ways.
But, while Amber embraces her self-discovery and personal affirmation of her preference for being a sub, others are not willing to accept that a modern female can possibly desire and seek the life as a sub. Ironically, her self-discovery does not gain for her the expected college community’s open acceptance of her personal choices, but rather their condemnation and result in her being “stigmatized” as a toy who is being manipulated—much like pet hamster gifted to Amber by her benevolent Daddy.
Like his other novels of an individual’s sexual search and enlightenment, Redreich draws the reader into a world of contemplation about the nature of individual sexuality and the rarely voiced, but often posed query of what is normal as an individual seeks love and acceptance, often outside of what is considered normal and condoned by the general public. This novel is graphic in its exploration of individual sexuality and judgment of society.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.