Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No, it isn't pretty..., February 4, 2002
... but it is brutally real.
If you are looking for fantasy fodder, look elsewhere. This is reality, raw and unpolished.
Vi is one of the Mothers of the modern BDSM scene. She put her life out there so that others could learn from her mistakes. Anyone who ever thought it would be a good idea to sign their life completely over to someone should be made to read this book before they continue along that path. As the saying goes - Be careful what you wish for.
This book is an emotional roller coaster. When Mother Vi writes about her mother I was moved to tears. I felt angry for her when she was "forgotten" by her owners. The thing that drove me to turn the page was the realization that this is as real as it gets. This happened.
If you've been in the scene long enough, some of the players will sound familiar. This just adds to the weight of its truthfulness. And although there are always several versions of the truth, rarely will you ever find someone with the guts to tell their version of it with such frank honesty.
Mother Vi lays it all on the line so that we may learn and grow. To that I say "Thank You."
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14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A real portrait of an "Old Guard" Slave, January 8, 2002
I got this book as a gift, and started reading it voraciously. I got it to learn what the Old Guard way of life was. I, too, am a Dominant Woman, and I play 100% SSC, but some of the things that Vi was put through was just plain bordering on abusive. there is a very fine line between what we do and abuse, I know.. I remain appalled with the way she was treated by some of her "owners". Yet, she never complained, except in the pages of her journal. So, to say that it was abusive may be too harsh. Yet, abused women rarely, if ever, speak up in vanilla worlds or safeword in a BDSM world... or even begin to know how to save themselves from more pain. If I was reading reviews, and trying to decide whether to buy this book or not, I would advise to read it more for the informative nature of this type of servitude, a book to learn more about "Old Guard" type of BDSM.. or even to learn how not to do things, if you are budding Dominant. It was very obvious that Vi loved her tormentors, but I wonder if the first 2 loved her in the least. I started to read this book, because I wanted to learn about the "old" way of BDSM.. Boy, did I ever. No thank you.. and that is, as they say, our choice.. no?
Lynne
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Be glad it isn't your past, August 8, 2002
I have many people who go on and on about the "good old days" of SM -- frankly I think their romantic notions need a bit of checking and this diary does it. It is a bit difficult to follow because it is in diary form. You will be shocked, you will be frightened, and you may be turned-off especially if you came into BDSM in the 1990s when SSC because was pretty standard. Because it is a diary, because it attempts to look at Johnson's life, there is little reflection or questioning of the events and people protrayed though there are entries where such analysis does appear it is still from within the mindset of an "old guard slave". For people who "pine for the good old days" this can be a reality check but it may not have been the average reality for every person in the SM lifestyle in the 1970s and 1980s.
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by Christina Abernathy
