obnox's Full Review: A.N. Roquelaure - The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
For many years, my friends and I would rent a cabin in a state forest during Christmas break for a short mid-winter vacation. Somehow, it was decided one year that I would share the fold out bed in the living room /kitchen with the new girl, who was a friend of a friend.
I didn't know her very well at the time, perhaps only meeting her once before, and I knew that she had no idea of my little quirk that made everyone opt to give me the couch. The quirk in particular was insomnia, and I was looking forward to a sleepless night in the dark in a fold out bed with someone I barely knew.
As everyone settled into the rooms, I sat contemplating my doom. To my surprise, after noticing my anxiety, she got a grin on her face, and started digging through her bag. She laughed a witchey laugh and handed me a well worn paperback.
A long time Anne Rice fan, I recognized the title immediately. "Anne Rice's smut, right?"
"It's not smut. It's erotica."
"Any vampires?"
"No. Open it to any page. Trust me, any page."
I flipped to a random page. I was shocked! I was bewildered! I was in love! My young sensibilities were taken by storm. I blushed and laughed uncomfortably. "I didn't expect that out of you," she laughed.
"I'm a sheltered child. I've never seen anything like this." We spent until dawn reading each other random passages from the book. Every page we opened to had spanking, tying, torture, and, of course, the sticking of items in places that they really should not be stuck. I decided I must get it. She explained to me that very few bookstores carry it, and that it took her years to find.
I guess the morals of this country really are going down hill, because I eventually picked up a copy at Media Play.
I was shocked! I was bewildered! I disappointed.
The sex was still there. To prove it, I will open to a random page and give you a random quote. "Then the shock of...." Oh, I can't possibly put that on epinions. There was sex, yes, and it had a good enough plot (or more of a premise, as there is not much room for plot) that I kept reading it. But, it really wasn't that good.
The main problem that I had with this book was the characterizations. Or should I say, lack of characterizations. There were many minor characters who peaked my interest, but all of the main characters were really flat and uninteresting. This is in total contrast to most other Rice books you may pick up, where even if the plot is awful the characters are usually inventive and humanistic. This is also the difference between this book and Anne Rice's fine example of erotica, Exit to Eden. (I hear Belinda was even better, but I have not read it yet.)
The other problem that I had with this book was that the end of it hinged on something that Beauty did that seemed totally out of character for her. For almost the entire book, she just goes along with the flow-- a spanking here, a sex game there-- being timid about the whole thing. She suddenly takes action, and I had to reread the passage several times to believe that she'd do that, or much else.
I hate to be one of those weirdo literary intellectuals who picks on some weird obscure literary device, but I think the worst part of this book is the perspective. It was written in 3rd person limited. What that means is that we only see what Beauty sees, but we only have hints of what's going on in her head. I think that problems that I found with this book would have been solved if it was more personal, like Beauty retelling the story. This would have solved both problems amazingly, and would have made this book quite worth the read. I also believe that the book would have been more erotic that way.
Really, it wasn't a bad book. It's not worth going out of your way for years to find, either. Without the years of believing that this was the end all be all of bondage literature, I would have liked it better.
From bestselling author Anne Rice, writing as A.N. Roquleaure. In the traditional folktale of 'Sleeping Beauty, ' the spell cast upon the lovely young...More at HotBookSale
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