Review: Not Too Sure I Like This One
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 9, 2014
I love Ms Roseau's writing.  But this book is pretty dark.  As the author says in the Book Description, "it does not quite reach the level of horror, but it is not that far off."  I can truly say that I don't know whether I like this one or not.  But it is certainly gripping.  I couldn't put it down.  It's not as off-putting as the bride ransom night from Fox Mate, but it comes close.The theme is bondage and discipline, domination and subjugation, but unlike The Interrogation, this one is wholly unwilling and non-consensual.  This makes it a very disturbing book, but one that is so well written that it compels even as it disturbs.  Thematically, this story is closer to Familiar with the protagonist being compelled very much against her own will.  And yet there is a beauty, or perhaps more accurately, a fascination which builds and brings the reader to the same kind of acquiescence as the protagonist eventually comes to.There is an element of brain-washing or Stockholm syndrome in the dominating slave-breaker who occasionally does something which brings the slave pleasure, even if the pleasure itself is addicting and known to be.  The ownership element is always present, but the protagonist (and the reader is carried along with her) eventually comes to love the dominatrix.  Feelings of gratitude engendered by the earning of minor indulgences in exchange for obedience, combined with addicting physical pleasure, given judiciously, are the tools used by brain washers and deprogrammers to wear down the will and enlist the subject's emotional state in the task of subjugation.Ms Roseau portrays the process in detail.  It's very well written and as I said, it fascinates even as it repels.  So I am not sure I like the story, but I have to admit that it is exquisitely constructed.  It's a masterpiece and has earned five stars even if I am not sure that I like it.