Slave Wife
The Slave Wife by Frances Gaines Bennett. Reviewed by Tobias Tanner. Two girls are driven down different paths by a madness that neither understands. One is submissive, and allows herself to become the living pallet for an artist's ideal. The other transforms herself, forging a powerful and vengeful warrior spirit. Between them stands a man who is either part ghost and part demon, or who is completely insane. The pathology is clear, but the reality is not, leaving the reader to follow some torturous pathways for answers. Frances Gaines Bennett has traveled this road before, alliteratively speaking. Her last novel (The Milk Bitch Trilogy) also involved the sculpting of humans from one thing into another. This time, however, she has chosen to balance the tale by following two distinct types of renovations, in two distinct directions. The lines are circular, taking the main characters through individual story arcs to meet again as different people, or finished people, if you prefer. And even so, there are questions enough to keep you thinking about it long after closing the book. There is a little bit of something for most everybody here, from rape to extreme body mods, with liberal (and occasionally horrifying) sprinklings of bondage, discipline and all kinds of sex in all kinds of places. Nothing is too extreme, even the disturbing shadows of psychopathic lunacy. Or is it? As I said, the pathologies are clear, but the reality is not. Enter this world at your own risk, as it is the place on the old sea charts marked, Here there be monsters. Your job will be to figure out which ones are, and which ones aren't. Good luck. --Tobias Tanner