Review: A Masturbation Dissertation?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 6, 2013
I really wanted to give this book 3.5 stars; however, I decided to round up, rather than down because this is an above average read. Some are probably wondering about my choice of title for this review, which I will explain further on in my review.First of all, this author's writing style is definitely unique but solid. The author knows how to tell a good story. Taking into account that this is somewhere between a short story and a novella, the author did a pretty good job at creating characters that are complex while writing within the confines of a small space.This story starts out strange, but I urge people to stick with it. There are several characters that play a role, revolving around a shared event in their past. What's unique about this story is that the author weaves the tale through the eyes of all characters involved and does so well. No loose ends, and as the storyline progresses, the readers learn more through each character's experiences; all building up to a suspenseful conclusion that I did not expect.Now as to my title choice. While I understand the need to go into some detail about each individuals 'sexual' escapades and habits insofaras moving the story along, I did find it to be a tad excessive. As the reader, it doesn't take much for me to understand a character's sexuality and how it relates to the story. The repeated references to masturbation and other equally explicit sexual content actually jolted me out of the story on more than one occassion. I found myself saying "Gah! I get it already. The guy likes to play with his own fiddle! A LOT!! Back to the plot please!"With that said, I'm not naive. Graphic sex often go hand in hand with the horror genre (not always obviously); nor am I a prude when it comes to this, or the book would not be getting a high review from me. The purpose in mentioning this is to let the author know that as a reader, I found it to be a bit overdone, to the point of taking my attention away from the story when the author had the opportunity to pull my attention further into the story. I feel it needs to be scaled back just a bit, but that's just my opinion. Other readers may not feel the same way. The other purpose in mentioning this is to make other potential readers aware of the sexual content so they aren't surprised by it and leave scathing reviews as a result. I've seen that happen many times, which is unfortunate both for the reader that had no idea AND for the author that worked very hard. So I'm hoping this helps avoid that situation. With that said, potential readers, it is not so graphic that an average reader of horror would be offended. To reiterate a previous point, most of the sexual descriptions are necessary to further develop the characters and the plot. I cannot say how, or that would spoil what happens to be a very good read.Overall, I recommend this book. It's a good book to read if you have 30 minutes to an hour to spare, as its hard to put down once you start. I enjoyed reading it, it's edited quite well (huge plus), and the author is one hell of a story teller, excessive masturbation aside (wink). I will be looking for other books by this author. Well done.