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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 2, 2021
I'll start by saying there's a different between a problematic book and problematic characters or problematic things happening in a book. But sometimes it's hard to tell that difference, and I'm not gonna say what people should or shouldn't explore in fiction. All I can say about this book is that it had a lot of things that would be very problematic in real life, and I don't think they were written in any sort of meaningful way.
This book is described by the publisher as "a science fiction parable about love and sex, wealth and debt, abuse and power." In reality, it was more a combo of slave/master erotica and hitting the reader over the head with spoonfed messages about consent and power.
For a while, I hated this, wanted to DNF it. Now that I've finished, I would say it was more inaccurately marketed and not for me.
I don't know how to organize my thoughts, so here are some bullet points with issues I had.
- All the slave sex and rape. The tagline of the story is, "There is no consent under capitalism." But that can be portrayed in many ways. You don't need erotically written rape scenes, and butt plugs and, "You're not allowed to touch yourself unless I say," and, "I want to hate you, but I can't because you're attractive and I'm turned on by you," and decadent orgies to get that message across. In fact, for me, the messages about capitalism and consent got lost in the over-the-top sex slave stuff. I found the way the rape scenes were written so disturbing that I almost couldn't bring myself to continue. Again, I'm not here to police what people write, but don't make a book out to be something it's not. Call it what it is.
- Side note: People are either going to think I'm really weird or really dedicated for this, but I looked up lockable butt plugs to see if that's a really a thing. And it is! They open up like flower petals, in case you wanted to know. Even if you didn't want to know, now you know anyway. You're welcome. But I think my three minutes of research must have been more than the author did, because the reviews I read about how they work were very different from what happened in the book. Alex was just like, "Don't remove it, I just locked it with my fingerprint," in half a second, and nothing happened, and it made no sense.
- I didn't like any of the characters.
---Elisha was simply uninteresting. I know he was brainwashed, so it's understandable to not have much personality of his own after that, but he didn't have much personality before that either.
---Alex I disliked because he was awful. He did change by the end. And I'm always glad when a character changes for the better, admits their wrongs, and tries to make up for their mistakes. He was actually a great example of the right way to make up for your wrongs because he took full responsibility, spoke up against others who were still doing wrong, and took as much of the consequences for himself as he could, rather than being selfish. But just because a character changes, that doesn't mean I have to forgive them. I just cannot sympathize with characters who keep themselves willfully ignorant and convince themselves that what they're doing is good just because they're uncomfortable with the hard truth and don't want to have to change.
---What Dutch and Onyx (and probably Opal) did was messed up too. [Hidden spoiler can be found in my review on Goodreads.] This doesn't necessarily have to be addressed. It's not unrealistic that characters only barely addressed it. But when the book really hits you over the head with all its other messages about what's right and wrong in regards to consent, brushing off this incident seems like an oversight.
- The romance element was not ok. That was kind of the point. I know. But... [Hidden spoiler can be found in my review on Goodreads.] Again, including something in a book doesn't mean it's being condoned. And it's another thing wasn't necessarily unrealistic. It's just, as I said before, in a book that was all about spelling out messages, letting this slide too seems like another odd choice.
- After Elisha was brainwashed, instead of getting him a therapist, they used BDSM to try and cure him. Not only that, but BDSM with someone who once raped / sexually assaulted him (or at the very least, did things with dubious consent) while he was a docile and drugged. I was all for Elisha wanting to have sex that was genuinely consensual of his own free will, and I think that person was a good partner (if we put aside the rape) when it came to teaching him about communicating and discussing limits and giving Elisha the experience he needed. But I still think Elisha really needed a therapist, and it's strange that no one but Alex even so much as suggested that.
- Why was this all about trillionaires? I understand the point being made that the rich just keep getting richer while the rest of the world falls into debt, hence trillion rather than million or billion. But it was like there was just this whole group of trillionaires? And they apparently all hung out and had wild parties and went to the horse races together? Trillionaires, trillionaires, trillionaires. I don't know how to explain, but it just sounded strange.
Anyway, most of the things I disliked were things I personally wasn't comfortable with and didn't enjoy, not poor storytelling. Nothing was necessarily unrealistic. It's fair for characters to act awful or make irrational decisions or overlook things. It's fair for the author to want to write a book that combines both serious messages and erotic slave sex, and to write about things they wouldn't condone in real life. It's fair for readers to want to explore these topics and types of characters. But, for me, the messages about capitalism and power were overshadowed, and I just felt very uncomfortable with how sexily and sweetly the rape and messed up dynamics were portrayed. With how Alex was portrayed in a sympathetic light. With the relationship between Alex and Elisha when Alex was the one who owned and abused and broke Elisha, even if Alex did change.
Maybe feeling uncomfortable was the point. I don't know. But this wasn't for me, and if you feel the way I do about the things I've mentioned, or you start this book and dislike it after the first 15% or so, this probably won't be a book for you either.
I just realized I listened to the audiobook but failed to mention my thoughts on the audio. Apparently I was so distracted by everything that I forgot to even put that in my notes/review. I think I enjoyed the narration by Mark Sanderlin and Vikas Adam.
*Rating: 2 Stars // Read Date: 2020 // Format: Audiobook*
More Reviews @ Metaphors and Moonlight (link in profile)
This book is described by the publisher as "a science fiction parable about love and sex, wealth and debt, abuse and power." In reality, it was more a combo of slave/master erotica and hitting the reader over the head with spoonfed messages about consent and power.
For a while, I hated this, wanted to DNF it. Now that I've finished, I would say it was more inaccurately marketed and not for me.
I don't know how to organize my thoughts, so here are some bullet points with issues I had.
- All the slave sex and rape. The tagline of the story is, "There is no consent under capitalism." But that can be portrayed in many ways. You don't need erotically written rape scenes, and butt plugs and, "You're not allowed to touch yourself unless I say," and, "I want to hate you, but I can't because you're attractive and I'm turned on by you," and decadent orgies to get that message across. In fact, for me, the messages about capitalism and consent got lost in the over-the-top sex slave stuff. I found the way the rape scenes were written so disturbing that I almost couldn't bring myself to continue. Again, I'm not here to police what people write, but don't make a book out to be something it's not. Call it what it is.
- Side note: People are either going to think I'm really weird or really dedicated for this, but I looked up lockable butt plugs to see if that's a really a thing. And it is! They open up like flower petals, in case you wanted to know. Even if you didn't want to know, now you know anyway. You're welcome. But I think my three minutes of research must have been more than the author did, because the reviews I read about how they work were very different from what happened in the book. Alex was just like, "Don't remove it, I just locked it with my fingerprint," in half a second, and nothing happened, and it made no sense.
- I didn't like any of the characters.
---Elisha was simply uninteresting. I know he was brainwashed, so it's understandable to not have much personality of his own after that, but he didn't have much personality before that either.
---Alex I disliked because he was awful. He did change by the end. And I'm always glad when a character changes for the better, admits their wrongs, and tries to make up for their mistakes. He was actually a great example of the right way to make up for your wrongs because he took full responsibility, spoke up against others who were still doing wrong, and took as much of the consequences for himself as he could, rather than being selfish. But just because a character changes, that doesn't mean I have to forgive them. I just cannot sympathize with characters who keep themselves willfully ignorant and convince themselves that what they're doing is good just because they're uncomfortable with the hard truth and don't want to have to change.
---What Dutch and Onyx (and probably Opal) did was messed up too. [Hidden spoiler can be found in my review on Goodreads.] This doesn't necessarily have to be addressed. It's not unrealistic that characters only barely addressed it. But when the book really hits you over the head with all its other messages about what's right and wrong in regards to consent, brushing off this incident seems like an oversight.
- The romance element was not ok. That was kind of the point. I know. But... [Hidden spoiler can be found in my review on Goodreads.] Again, including something in a book doesn't mean it's being condoned. And it's another thing wasn't necessarily unrealistic. It's just, as I said before, in a book that was all about spelling out messages, letting this slide too seems like another odd choice.
- After Elisha was brainwashed, instead of getting him a therapist, they used BDSM to try and cure him. Not only that, but BDSM with someone who once raped / sexually assaulted him (or at the very least, did things with dubious consent) while he was a docile and drugged. I was all for Elisha wanting to have sex that was genuinely consensual of his own free will, and I think that person was a good partner (if we put aside the rape) when it came to teaching him about communicating and discussing limits and giving Elisha the experience he needed. But I still think Elisha really needed a therapist, and it's strange that no one but Alex even so much as suggested that.
- Why was this all about trillionaires? I understand the point being made that the rich just keep getting richer while the rest of the world falls into debt, hence trillion rather than million or billion. But it was like there was just this whole group of trillionaires? And they apparently all hung out and had wild parties and went to the horse races together? Trillionaires, trillionaires, trillionaires. I don't know how to explain, but it just sounded strange.
Anyway, most of the things I disliked were things I personally wasn't comfortable with and didn't enjoy, not poor storytelling. Nothing was necessarily unrealistic. It's fair for characters to act awful or make irrational decisions or overlook things. It's fair for the author to want to write a book that combines both serious messages and erotic slave sex, and to write about things they wouldn't condone in real life. It's fair for readers to want to explore these topics and types of characters. But, for me, the messages about capitalism and power were overshadowed, and I just felt very uncomfortable with how sexily and sweetly the rape and messed up dynamics were portrayed. With how Alex was portrayed in a sympathetic light. With the relationship between Alex and Elisha when Alex was the one who owned and abused and broke Elisha, even if Alex did change.
Maybe feeling uncomfortable was the point. I don't know. But this wasn't for me, and if you feel the way I do about the things I've mentioned, or you start this book and dislike it after the first 15% or so, this probably won't be a book for you either.
I just realized I listened to the audiobook but failed to mention my thoughts on the audio. Apparently I was so distracted by everything that I forgot to even put that in my notes/review. I think I enjoyed the narration by Mark Sanderlin and Vikas Adam.
*Rating: 2 Stars // Read Date: 2020 // Format: Audiobook*
More Reviews @ Metaphors and Moonlight (link in profile)
