Review: Erotic and Disturbing--in a Good Way
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 12, 2013
Erotic, disturbing, and disturbingly erotic, Episode 1 of My Master's Nightmare packs quite a punch for a short read. I'm not going to summarize the plot--the summary does a good job of that--but I will say that the author did an excellent job of dropping us right into the action, never letting the pace flag for a moment, yet at the same time working in a ton of intriguing background information on our characters.My Master's Nightmare is the kind of fascinating read I can't put down because it looks at that dark place where issues of power, violence, and sexuality intersect. Rita is a really intriguing main character who is showing a lot of depth already--she's very strong and focused on avenging her husband's murder, but at the same time, she has some deep-seated guilt (survivor's guilt from her husband's death? or maybe something more...) that causes part of her to welcome physical pain. Our male lead, Jagger, is an equally complex character: for the first half of the episode he seems dark, sadistic, and powerful, but in the second half we see that he has an incredibly vulnerable side. I am also veeery intrigued and scared--in a good way--by what we've seen of Frano so far. I'm also scared--in more of a creeped-out way--of Alberto and Padre Michael.So lots and lots of intriguing characters here, and a twist at the end that will leave you desperate for the next episode. The only reason I'm not giving this 5 stars is that the author's style includes many sentences ending with dependent clause(s), especially -ing verbs. There's nothing wrong with this, but it can feel a little repetitive and hard to read for me at times. However, once I got into the story the style barely bothered me all, which is a testament to how strong and gripping the story and characters are!Thank you to the author for the review copy.