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Remastering Jerna

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Remastering Jerna




Remastering Jerna is a work of speculative fiction. Kinky and polyamorous people need folktales just like other social groups. It's much more fun for all those involved if we just agree on that point.

I've had years of practice falling for imaginary people.

But then, that's the whole charm of reading fiction isn't it? To me a successful piece of fiction introduces me to a character I'd like to meet. Even rarer is to find a character I'd like to add to my boudoir. What I appreciate most about Jerna Setiq is the dignity he brings to being a male submissive. In a testosterone-driven society, as particularly evidenced in my native States, being a vulnerable man more often earns one unkind names and sneers than being elevated to a literary culturehero.

Shall we say Remastering Jerna reads like Beauty and the Beast meets When Someone You Love is Kinky? Doesn't make the picture clear enough for you? We shall try again. Within the first seventeen pages, Jerna's life as a happily married teacher is wrenched asunder by a sexually precocious student. Dramatic irony lies in the fact Jerna had actually tried to protect the boy from an abusive situation before the tables were turned upon him. Jerna prefers to sacrifice his own good name to safeguard a former lover involved with the student. His own society brands Jerna a pedophile which he is not. He must divorce his beloved wife lest she lose her children.

The prison scenes had their intended chilling effect with Jerna's matter-of-fact exploitation. They prepare the reader subtly for the difference between willing submission founded upon trust that later occurs in the story. Jerna trades his nightmarish prison-detail for whoredom. Imagine the choice between starvation, gang-rape, and being used as disposable labor and white slavery. Throughout his ordeal, Jerna never loses his penchant for kindness towards others. It earns him the affection and respect of fellow sex workers, a doctor, an older client, and a male Dom who requires training himself.

Some might feel the conciliatory ending where Jerna is eventually reunited with wife and children and yet maintains the homosexual relationship he formed with a male Dom incredible. But isn't that the really juicy thing about folktales--when they end with love involved for all?

Note: This copy of Remastering Jerna was acquired in an author-run contest. The reviewer is quite ecstatic that she won it.

This book is first and foremost about love and finding one's true self, in my opinion. Very different from many m/m books, and avoids most of their cliches. It centers on character development yet its plot moves very smoothly, action-packed, and it was very hard for me to put it down once I started reading it.

Positives:
1) Just read all other 7 reviews on the book :) Six of them are 5-star.

2) This is first and foremost a story of a man who managed to remain human/humane despite suffering in prison / brothel instituted by a cruel and soulless futuristic society (whether it reminds ours or not, and by how much - the author leaves it for every reader to decide for themselves...). This is presented brilliantly in this book, and the author doesn't distract us with any unrelated content or too many graphic scenes or too much brutality. The development of a human soul and human relationships are in the center of the book.

3) Characters are very well-developed, even side ones, everyone is multi-dimensional and most are fairly realistic. The main character, Jerna, is kind and gentle, and thus he might sound as unrealistic to some readers. I personally do not like over-sweet fragile characters. Yet, Jerna is also very strong, wise and resilient, and thus I found him very likable.

4) The book is often described as BDSM, but it's certainly NOT the focus of the book, and it's very different from most of other BDSM-themed erotica/literature out there. All the scenes that the author chose to describe are softcore, and the focus is actually not on BDSM but on other aspects of human relationships and, of course, love (i.e., non-physical, non-BDSM aspects of it). Some of the situations Jerna finds himself are really bleak, but nothing is truly hardcore or gore-ish is explicitly described. Besides, Jerna is a truly positive character, and keeps his faith. The overall impression the book left on me was fairly uplifting and certainly not depressive. And yes, the concluding chapter of the book is a bit of a fairy tale and very sweet.

Negatives (in my opinion):
1) Some of female characters are a bit unrealistic (way too kind or over-emotional/ a bit illogical) and overall a bit less developed as compared to male characters. Well, it's still a m/m book, and in most of those we do not get any female characters at all (or very weakly-developed). This is not the case here, and thus, this book does avoid this particular cliche of many m/m novels ("no women in a m/m book") pretty well.

2) Jerna gets through some really nasty stuff, but it's obvious the author self-censored most cruel scenes and hardcore BDSM and so on, to spare her non-BDSM or just squeamish readers. (Such scenes are mentioned, but not described, while the author typically chooses to give us overall a fairly continuous narrative in most other parts of the novel. Some of more softcore, "tolerable" (to most readers) scenes are described in detail.) In my opinion, the story is meant to be realistic and show building of the character, so I was surprised at the omission of the parts where our main character would grow and exhibit his strength most. Just my opinion of course, and highly subjective, as I usually enjoy reading BDSM-heavy books a lot. Thus, I think most of the other readers actually applaud the author's choice on this, especially those who do not like BDSM or those who avoid books with non-con.

Overall, recommended to all open-minded readers, those who like BDSM-themed books (with a warning that erotic BDSM aspect of the book is underdeveloped, imo) and especially those who do not. Even if m/m novels is not what you typically read, consider giving this one a try.

This is a wonderful book. I loved the character of Jerna - he's incredibly strong and I found myself thinking about him all the time, even when I wasn't reading. I particularly enjoyed the everyday life of the hotel and the different hierarchies - that was very well done, and very detailed - I felt I knew it very well. I also really liked the way Ria turned from someone very very difficult into someone I was rooting for - fantastic stuff.

This book is amazing. It made me feel so raw. The thought of an innocent man imprisoned and tortured and offended and stripped of his basic rights and all his dignity is something that makes me nauseous. The extreme shallowness of the accuser, the "righteous" attitude of the bigoted witness, the empty sympathy of a best friend who won't stand up for him made Jerna's fate almost impossible to bear.

To be able to survive his imprisonment, Jerna sets a concrete goal to achieve and he reaches to his goddess as a well of strength and support. Jerna abides to his moral principles, which are extremely high. While the people around them seem to follow the words of the law, but not his spirit, Jerna seems the only one who tries to do right by others at the cost of his freedom. I think however that Jerna in a sense feels that there's something he has to expiate. When he married his wife Tyrne, a wonderful woman, he decided to hide and to suppress his needs as a submissive. When he takes a job as a prostitute to pay his debt to the justice system, he begins a journey of self-humiliation tempered by the absolute love for his family. In his new job Jerna retains his cultivated manners, his dignity and his sense of self.

The meeting with Tolomy, a would-be Dominant, a man which has intimates needs he craves to satisfy but is void in his soul, takes Jerna to the breaking point. This was the most difficult part to read, because the author was able to express Jerna's desperation with simple but effective words, portraying the effect Jerna's crisis has in the brothel by balancing every reaction, from the pity of the doctor, Zielda, to the sympathy of the brothel's manager Evai through the cold, but guilty contempt of Kare. It's impossible not to feel for this man who is totally lost and miserable and broken.

From this point on, Jerna begins to re-build himself and, with him, Tolomy begins his own journey to give a shape to his desires. Not everything is solved, but the fear and worry we felt before moves from Jerna's physical condition to Jerna's heart. Both Jerna and Tolomy/Ria bare their souls to the other man, with all the risks of misunderstanding and rejection that might come from this.

The writing is almost formal, but very effective and with no purple prose. Sometimes it's almost clinical, harsh, it's like a very bright light that makes everything appear starker, with no shadows, as if the characters were on an operating table, with no anesthesia, screaming for the pain they're enduring. And we with them.

This is a book that will make you want to close the doors and throw heavy objects at anyone that disturbs your reading. It's not a book to read over a week - it demands to be devoured in one setting.

Above all this is a story about a man, and how he endures and survives a truly harrowing experience. The setting is wonderful without being overdone and the characters are as real as any I've read.

For people put off by BDSM, I wouldn't worry. It has BDSM but that is not a dominant theme - even though I will say it explains and presents BDSM in one of the best ways I've seen.

It's a page turner and a definite must have for your library.

Someone could wonder if Remastering Jerna is a romance, and truth be told the publisher doesn't list it as one. When I started it, even I had my doubts, the story of Jerna seemed without hope, harsh and without pity, and love had a very little role. At least the passionate love, since, on the other hand, Jerna loves very much his family, a wife and two daughters, but I saw little passion in it. So for a good share of the book, I remained with my question: if and when I would have found the "romance" part of the book. The if was a legitimate doubt, because nor the author or the publisher promised it to me. Due to all this, you can imagine how glad I was when I finally found THE love I was searching, but, as you can understand, in the end this is not a romance, but more the life journey of Jerna, who starts as a teacher and ends as the taught.

Jerna was a submissive for a Master he respected, but I'm not sure he really loved. Even if the Master, Kimis, fulfilled Jerna's need to be dominated, it didn't satisfy his desire to have a family, to have child, and all the other ordinary things of life. Life with Kimis was mundane and good, but not complete. Jerna left Kimis to marry Tyrme, a good woman who, in all the novel, will always have a positive role; but to me Tyrme seems more a good friend, a loving companion, but not a lover. To Jerna's eyes, Tyrme is a whole with their daughters and family, when Jerna is torn apart from them, never once he says he misses Tyrme as individual, but instead he always mourns for his family. With this, I'm not saying that Jerna doesn't love Tyrme, I'm only saying that, as Kimis didn't fulfil every Jerna's need, so it doesn't Tyrme. In a way, Jerna passed from a Master to another, Tyrme is a very authoritative woman, quite the one who leads the family, but he hasn't still found the right one.

When Jerna is framed with a crime he didn't commit, he is forced to divorce from Tyrme and sent to prison. Jerna is a strong man, even if a submissive, and he faces the trial of prison and all the violence inside (also rape), with a strength that seems impossible. It's not a body strength, more a strong will and maybe also something that he learnt from his training as submissive. From the prison Jerna ends to be an endured servant in a brothel, and this means also being a whore: in his mind Jerna doesn't see it as a betray towards Tyrme, since it's only his body involved, not his mind, and above all not his heart.

All above changes when Jerna meets Ria; at first Ria is an untrained Master, who in his fight to find an outlet to his desire to dominate makes more damage than nothing. Ria is not a bad man, but he is not trained. The first bad experience between Ria and Jerna, I believe, is not all Ria's fault. It's true, he is untrained, but Jerna, from his side, has a bit of an aloof attitude, something he has always had from the first. Nor with Kimis or with Tyrme, whom in a way Jerna considers Master, Jerna has ever let this attitude down; he submits with his body, but deep inside, I think he still believes to be superior to them. Same attitude with Ria, even if maybe in this case he is more right than not. Anyway this leads to Jerna to agree to be Ria's teacher, to teach him how to be a good Master. Jerna starts it thinking to teach something to Ria, but I think that, in the end, also Jerna will learn a lesson, and maybe for the first time, he will find the right Master... one who he himself trained to the role. So yes, if someone was wondering why the "remastering Jerna" of the title, when apparently it was Jerna who was remastering Ria, this is the answer: both Ria than Jerna will learn that it's not enough to know how to do a BDSM scene, to have a real D/s relationship it's needed something more.

I liked this book. When I read the book I knew it was bdsm, but I'd only read one other book that was bdsm, I only picked it up because her fantasy books are so good. I'm saying that because you really shouldn't let that part of the story scare you away, because it's really all about the character development and following Jerna as he starts out with a family and children, pretty happy and comfortable to being imprisoned and forced to work to free himself. The job he takes is somewhat reminiscent of his past and awakens feelings in him that he had suppressed.
What I liked least about this book is that it made me cry, and I really felt for the wife and children left behind, but this wasn't at all one of those cliche stories where married guy meets other guy, cheats on his wife, discovers he never liked women, and leaves his family behind without a second thought, it's really nothing at all like that.

There are so many great reviews about Jerna that it seems moot to offer another. However, I can't resist adding my feelings about it. Jerna touches your heart and soul. It is a love so deep, raw and forbidden. Ann Somerville manages to capture the feelings between two lovers that love so deeply yet cannot be together. My heart broke when I read "It was so painful watching the two of you trying to avoid each other's eyes. I felt sorry for him. He's a good man."

Yes it is a story about control and submission. Yes it is erotic. Yes it is shocking. Yes it is a very good read, and I won't let this book go because I know that I will read it again. This is a must read.

Warning: This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.

Rating: 9/10

PROS:
- Jerna yearns for a relationship in which he can submit, yet he's not painted at all as a weak or dependent character, physically or emotionally. I adore Sammy from Sean Michael's Between Friends series, but the fact is that he doesn't work very well by himself; he quite literally NEEDS his Dom, Peter, to ground him. This is not the case with Jerna: he functions perfectly well as a strong husband and an independent man, which in my opinion makes his submission even more poignant.
- The setting is borderline fantasy, but the world of the story so closely resembles reality that many of the editorial comments about relationships, religion, the treatment of prisoners, etc. can be taken as an allegorical cautionary tale. It made me stop and think on more than one occasion.
- Somerville does an excellent job of creating believable situations in which sex is used to express a character's emotions. There's a decent amount of sex in this book, but none of it's very graphic, and it always serves to illustrate Jerna's emotional state.
- The sense of community that develops between Jerna and his co-workers (and clients) is heartwarming without being saccharine. And the ending, though not unequivocally happy and problem-free, is believable and perfectly suited to the story.

CONS:
- There are large sections of this book that are horribly painful emotionally. Jerna endures an unbelievable onslaught of dehumanizing physical torture and psychological abuse before his journey ends. This makes the ending that much more uplifting, of course, but I had a very difficult time reading parts of it.
- Although most of the characterization is very well done, there are a few characters whose actions are so unpredictable--good, then evil, then kind, then cruel--that they struck me as unrealistic.

Overall comments: I gave this book 5 stars not because I wholeheartedly enjoyed it, but because it's fantastically written. The characterization of Jerna and several of the secondary characters is outstanding, but I found parts of the book--particularly the first 60 pages or so--so painful that I very nearly put it down without finishing it. I'm glad I did finish it, but I won't be reading it again anytime soon.

Excellent in half a dozen different directions, but not for the faint-hearted. Lovely, dark, and deep -- but I'm not kidding about the dark.