The book is also something like a sequel to The Good Soldier Svejk, as if Svejk had returned to the bar 40 years after the war and affirmed that yes, he was in on the joke, or at least he thought he was, which leads to an even bigger, sadder joke. Dancing Lessons for the Advanced Age is an incomplete sentence, pages long. I was also relieved when, at last, the narrator took a breath. Selby, who passed away in , ultimately achieved his happy ending as a successful writer despite facing a myriad of issues including lifelong health problems due to TB.
His writing, however, is not filled with silver linings. Instead, his beautiful and haunting prose captures the lives and despair of a specific population, in a specific era, without trying to provide an upside to the reader. The despair in Last Exit to Brooklyn , I have to admit, was hard to take at times until I realized what a treasure the book was. As I made my way through the connected stories, I realized that this work was truly akin to a fantastic piece of art.
And art is not necessarily meant to make us happy; it is meant to open our eyes and inspire us to think. Through vivid images and a unique writing style, Selby sets up interlocking scenes that captivate and leave lasting impressions rivaling the most lauded paintings at MOMA and Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is clear that Selby viewed the open page as a blank canvas, and letters as his paint. Ultimately, there are many reasons to read -- and praise -- Last Exit to Brooklyn.
Still, the most important thing that Last Exit to Brooklyn and Selby achieved was creating a new brand of storytelling. Sometimes it makes more sense to break the commonly accepted rules of grammar to communicate your point to the reader. Sometimes it makes sense to create unbearably dark moments that make the reader turn from the page. After all, Last Exit to Brooklyn is a rare work that can take us into the extremes of darkness while enabling us to see a kind of beauty we can rarely see in the light of a silver lining.
Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe. Here the local gods are as real as the ground, the yams, the trees, and the firmly-established if mystifying presence of the white man. Ezeulu is the arrow of the title, the Chief Priest of Umuaro. He is canny enough about the British administrators to have made connections among them, to the point of sending one of his sons to the Christian church to acquire their knowledge. Ezeulu is a powerful man, and power recognises power.
While the British characters have moments of poignant buffoonery, they end up as supporting actors to the central drama. Instead it is in the hearts of his peers that Ezeulu and his god lose purchase, as the sacred serpent who gets crammed into a tin footlocker never regains its full divinity. Set half a lifetime after the events of Things Fall Apart , Arrow of God shows how a small fracture in a complex and seemingly robust system of belief is enough to unsettle lives and loosen hearts. Gods fall, just as men can, whether they have a gift of prophecy or not.
La Garconne by Jeanne Mammen. Idra Novey New Directions. The Passion According to G. Sitting at her breakfast table she contemplates her identity:. A transformative shift in the way that G. So much so that at one point she is convinced of the necessity to become one with the body of the roach as a type of communion:. And, it is nothing short of a groundbreaking literary work.
I meant to post this yesterday, but then I died of tuberculosis in a very 19th century in a corset kind of way read as: I have a minor sore throat and so didn't get around to it. We just wanted to let you know that after 13 years of monthly issues, of going into the weird and wonderful far reaches of literature, that we are switching to a bimonthly publication.
Which means, no issue this week, but we'll return the first Monday in July. Nothing will really change except the frequency. And this is only because, you know, we're old now. We have to take vitamins just to stave off full organ failure every day, we are experiencing bone density loss. I am speaking for myself and for Charles here. His bone density is for shit. But we are still committed to writing about the books that kind of sort of no one else is.
We're still going to bring you Mairead Case's reading diary. We're still going to do the Daphne Award thing. We're just going to do it at a slower pace more suitable for our elderly bodies. Honestly, I can barely believe we've kept it up this long. It was our anniversary last month.
Had I known this was going to be something that followed me around through the entirety of my adult life, I would have named it something more dignified, I think. If you are interested in writing for the more mature, where-did-I-put-my-glasses-oh-right-I-don't-even-wear-glasses version of Bookslut, do please get in touch. We are always looking for new reviewers, columnists, and feature writers. And I can promise when we return in July a rowdy interview with Helen Garner, Mairead Case contemplating Djuna Barnes, and other entirely good things as well. White Azaleas by Romaine Brooks. We'll be posting some informal takes on the books from the Daphne Awards longlist over the coming weeks.
It is told with astringent honesty and humility:. They were dispersing, but they still were joined together by the well-earned rest they would all be sharing next day. For its honesty, its place in French social and cultural milieu, and its simply beautiful writing The Bastard merits serious consideration to win the Daphne nonfiction prize. While we're working on the Daphnes, I should mention that I got some postcards made for the wonderful cover art for my upcoming book , The Dead Ladies Project.
If you'd like one, just email jessa at bookslut dot com your address, and I'll send it. Otherwise I hope you all are safe and happy wherever you are. Cornucopia by Lee Krasner. So here we are, readying for a new round of the Daphne Awards. The deciding factor was the number of emails from people who had only heard of last year's winner, Tarjei Vesaas's The Ice Palace , falling madly and deeply in love with it, because of the award. So yes, let's find another Ice Palace. But, like last year, we need help fleshing out the list of potential nominees. The year under consideration is , because we are playing by Pulitzer rules.
If you know of a good! Please note that we could only find ONE poetry book published by a woman in , surely there were some fucking others out there somewhere. We have not yet decided if we are going to do the Children's category again this year. If we don't, we will give some sort of award to "All children's books released in the year that were not The Giving Tree because fuck The Giving Tree.
She taught me that sometimes, a character speaks and so defies time and space. A character -- a person -- disrupts. The social-political energy is what changes, not the physical space or the characters. I know what you mean about slipping roles: But it was a constructed vulnerability. Her texts and her persona were ingeniously controlled and conceived. As her career and reputation advanced, she became increasingly guarded, reshaping her past in numerous profiles and interviews in ways she believed would enhance her credibility.
Until then, I guess I have a crush on Kathy Acker. I'm Very into You disrupted all my dismissive notions of her as a necessarily inflammatory radical who just wasn't my thing and made me feel like I was understanding something beyond her public persona. Of course Wark didn't hate her after all those questions.
I don't see how anyone could. In long, digressive emails they discuss the book and what the publication of such emails means for us today, when most of our written communication is online. And yesterday at the bar, as I was explaining all that junk about how I think ghosts are probably just nice, normal people to my v. You leave behind an archive; people read your banal everyday stuff, people put your emails in a book and then other people you've never met re-read that book again and again, mapping your insecurities and neuroses onto their own, testing out the places where they overlap.
Your day-to-day still exists out there in the world, suspended. It keeps living even though you don't. Your presence gets to be diffuse; nobody quite stays in their lane. Death is not the end. And I promised publishers I would write two more books and they are both due this year. And I was kind of looking forward to the possibility of taking a fucking nap in , at least one. Then I was reading all of the outrage about the Tournament of Books this year, and remembered how we do get emotionally invested in these awards, we want greatness to be recognized, we want things that we emotionally invest in to be celebrated.
In , the books rewarded were mixed. So what do you guys think? Who wants to go back 50 years in time with me and see what the hell was going on back then? Minor national bodies of literary works can only become relevant if they're largely translated into English. It's pointless to resist this reality. Japanese literature, on the other hand, has a privileged position on the international book market.
It would be interesting to see some numbers: For more on the influence of English on the Japanese language, but also on the difficulties of translating Japanese, here are a few suggestions:. Language and Culture Contact , James Stanlaw explores the use of English in Japan both from a historical and from a modern perspective. Twenty years later, John Dougill revisited his text "English as a decorative language: The content of decorative language, as the original article identified, is full of dreamy thoughts and the yearning for individualism.
This goes together with the national cult of the cute. Harmony is the guiding principle. The concern is with associations. The emphasis on mood rather than meaning, I now realise, is characteristic of the culture as a whole. You see it in television dramas, and it is a keynote of Japanese literature where writers like Kawabata spend whole novels in the creation of atmosphere. It is evident too in film, where a director like Mizoguchi is concerned to evoke a sense of pathos.
It is this emotional element which distinguishes Japanese advertising from its Western equivalent, where the emphasis is on informing. It makes me think decorative English should be treasured as a form of national expression. Considering that Haruki Murakami's books have been so widely translated, his work might be the perfect case study for the particularities of translating from Japanese.
You've mentioned that the nuances of Japanese food are sometimes obscured in translation. What else gets lost or warped? I hope nothing important gets obscured in translation, of course, though in 1Q84 even the title itself presents a challenge since in Japanese the number 9 is pronounced "kyuu. Not to mention plays on words.
Jay Rubin, in Making Sense of Japanese , broaches the stereotype that Japanese is more imprecise and mysterious than English. There's a generalization out there that Japanese is somehow imprecise or vague compared to English. I don't buy it. Roland Kelts, Lost In Translation? Image by Ferdinand Hodler.
And definitely not when masculine anxieties are reaching new heights or new lows - depending on how the anxiety is expressed. It's especially this anxiety around masculinity that makes Laura Kipnis's Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation relevant and necessary even as we're trying to do away with the gender binary. John Wilmes has interviewed Kipnis for February's issue of Bookslut. Before Men , Laura Kipnis had already given us The Female Thing , in which she argues the social progress of women is blocked by women themselves.
These Are The Dirtiest Bondage Stories You Are Ever Going To Read
By our incapability to decolonize our minds. Obviously, social progress is always a stop-start sort of affair. So too with female progress, it appears. In other words, feminism came up against an unanticipated opponent: And then we have the culprits closer to home. Laura Kipnis, The Female Thing: Dirt, Envy, Sex, Vulnerability. But ultimately the differences have to do with radically different notions of what it means to be a man in the first place. To Professor Kimmel, we live in a world that is increasingly gender-neutral and gender integrated and that this is a good thing for men and women both.
In the most extreme formulations of essentialism, men are basically still Neanderthals: Women are often stereotyped as the emotional ones, and men as rational. Researchers have started looking into the relationship between testosterone and excessive risk, and wondering if groups of men, in some basic hormonal way, spur each other to make reckless decisions. For years, men enjoyed the trappings of hegemony unencumbered by guilt, reproach, or self-loathing. The world was theirs, and they paved American roads as pathways to their enjoyment. Men worked hard and dallied even harder. A plate of meatloaf, Lassie, and a chipper nuclear family waited dutifully at home until they returned.
Now, however, it takes a lot of work to keep things in order. But a growing group of men apparently feel persistent anxiety that things are not as they were , that a golden age is lost. These men are being encroached upon by politics, public health, and a society that wants what they have.
The Mansplainer could be part of the gender typology mapped by Laura Kipnis. Introducing Spolia's Newest Issue: Your enemy is a brutalizing force, a bulldozer that flattens you before you have enough time even to think about what is happening. Your enemy is indiscriminate, it cares nothing for you, only what you represent, or what you have, or what stands behind you. To an enemy, you are merely a nameless, faceless obstacle. The thing standing in the way of his victory. Your nemesis, though, knows you. Holds you close with one arm while it undoes you with the other.
Her poison is intimate. It was designed specially for you. Her hatred burns bright in her breast, and only your downfall, your complete annihilation, will please her. Lost and Found There is no sex in this story. A Night to Remember Pt. Chris' Inferno Lover Chris gets punished for a crime he didn't do. Personal Anatomy Punishment Ori uses Evelyn as his personal female anatomy model. Works Spanking Three choices of her punishment, which did Poppy choose? Lessons Learned It's only Friday. Follow The Rules The rules are there for a reason. Flowers in Her Hair Ch.
The Girls College Ch. Paul is fed by the Headmistress. Defying Dad Alyssa's wild days will haunt her when daddy stops her ways. Submitting to the Sultan Ch. Why I Married Kaylie She's perfect. But don't ever let her father catch you. At the Resort Finding something unexpected. Charlotte's Sexy Web Ch. A bad professor and her shameless student. The Big Boobs Tales Ch. A Headmaster's Lesson Pt. Three Weeks on the Road Ch. Better than in the Books He goes through her tablet and finds it full of erotica. Olivia in Vulmonia Ch. Miles sounds like a mild manner man especially since he owns his t-shirt printing business.
What is surprise is his addiction to intense pain. He bottoms hard and requires absolutely no warm up. In fact, the first scene in this book hooked me in and I'm completely blown away. This story is more than just being a masochist.
There are multiple layers here as Miles tries to balance his kink life with his desire to have a family. What does it mean to have a family? Is it his dream to have a son to raise or can it expand to have a lover and raise a child together? There are several different threads going on in this thread and they are all well developed and blended together into a rich and vibrant story. Miles is at a crossroad in his life. He wants to start a family. He is close to adopting a child. In order to be a good father, he believes he needs to stop all this kinky shenanigans. He feels he needs to be responsible and deny that part of himself.
Just reading this line of thought kills me. Drix is a thirty year old man who enjoys giving pain and he happens to be in a vampyre coven. Yes, the story just became a whole lot stranger. Rock makes it all work. Both Miles and Drix are complex characters with depth. I may not enjoy what either does and not really understand some of their kinks, but I can totally relate to the two of them.
I like Miles and Drix; I admire them, even when Miles is being hurtful and a jerk. From a romance perspective this story is fabulous. I love how the Miles and Drix's relationship grows. Drix learning how to be a sexual sadist is a great look into how a new top can interact and learn with a very experienced bottom. The scenes Miles and Drix have are phenomenal. The accuracy with emotions, safety and skill are impressive. Rock has been moonlighting as a switch or she has been spending a lot of time researching.
This is not a simple watch one scene and get it. The kind of understanding Ms. Rock exhibits and then relays to the reader requires quite the immersive environment. The graduation scene Drix creates for Miles is a masochist's fantasy come true. I am left speechless, aroused and wanting to experience it.
These Are The Dirtiest Bondage Stories You Are Ever Going To Read | Thought Catalog
The BDSM in this story is out of the world. This is the kind of kink I like. This is the kind I am familiar with because of the lifestylers around me. Whilst I am not into the saline solution, it is popular. The knife play, predicament bondage and staples really pushed me over the edge into kinky bliss.
Every scene depicted in this book is plausible. In addition, I have seen more bloodplay than in this book. There are a couple of items I do want to warn those who want to use this book as a manual. First of all, DON'T. None of these should be done without someone with experience to help. Well, unless the person is in the medical field, then that would probably be okay. Second, sounding with non-sterile items is not recommended. In the scene where plastic beads on a flogger are pushed into Mile's penis, do not do this.
Can it be done? Is it recommended, no. If you really want to do this, slip a lubricated condom over the item. Because urinary tract infections are possible for men and it isn't pleasant for them either. Third, if you are going to share whips, vinegar and antiseptic mouthwash is not exactly enough. There should also be a length of time for the whip to be aired out to dry.
- Revival of Religion!
- Follow the Leader: A Devotional Exploration Of Deeper And More Meaningful Worship!
- More From Thought Catalog!
- April 20, 2016!
Leaving a whip in the sun will help disinfect it better. There are other cleaning agents too, but I digress. I did learn a new tool which I had to look up. Healthvana is a real app and it really does what it says in the book. I need to share this with my local community and ask my doctor about it. Kink, romance and character development aside, I really enjoyed the tone of this book. This story is more serious because Miles is more serious than David. The anal retentiveness of Miles is nicely balanced out by Drix's soothing calmness and spontaneity.
The secondary characters, all part of "The Sub's club" are still there for their comic relief. There is one little teasing scene which just amuses me to no end. Switchy Monty Python lovers will get the joke. Gould seemed genuinely pleased on my behalf. I really do like being submissive. This new series she is writing is a breath of fresh air. Her exploration of different types of kink is a journey I am happily joining in for the ride.
This kinky book is highly recommended to BDSM readers who want to see what it is like to be on the cutting edge. View all 4 comments. Pain Slut took me outside of my comfort zone in many ways, and in others showed just how all relationships, even the kinky ones, are all the same at the core. We all just want someone to love us for who we are, to please each other, and to have our needs met, whatever they may be. This is well written and I was not surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I was surprised that I didn't spend my time peeking at the pages through my fingers Told entirely from twenty-eight year old Miles Loucks' perspective, Miles is a button cardigan wearing pain pig, or masochist, who really enjoys being hurt.
But Miles has decided in the last year that it's time for him to step away from the BDSM scene and become a father.
See a Problem?
He's completed all of the necessary applications and is readying for the final home inspections. It's only then that he tells his three best friends, Dave, Kamen, and Gould, about his plans. The guys are surprised to say the least and, at first, not totally supportive. Besides not knowing how a masochist would do as a single parent, Miles is the know-it-all of their Subs Club, and they were counting on him to be one of their outreach speakers.
But Miles is sure that putting this part of his life behind him is what he needs to do in order to be a good father. Then he meets twenty-nine year old Drix Seger at work and agrees to a date. After an explosively passionate first time together, Miles confesses his kink; that he's a masochist. Drix confesses he's a sadist and a Vampyre. The first sets Miles' heart aflutter, because a real, honest-to-goodness sadist is like manna from heaven, but the whole "vampyre" thing freaks him out and he runs, because come on Miles tells part of the story to the guys, about his fantastic night and the disappointing end though not why he ran and the guys actually end up convincing Miles to give Drix another chance, and while he's at it and before his pending fatherhood forces him to put up his kinky boots to write up a Pain Slut Bucket List and see if he can't get Drix to help him tick some of those items off.
I love that Drix is more than willing to learn all the ways to give Miles pain and Miles learns that going at it alone isn't really necessary. I also loved that, once again, the friendship of the four Subs Club members is the cornerstone of the story upon which all else is built. I feel like Rock does a good job balancing the kink and erotica with the story in this installment of the series.
Even though it was outside of my comfort zone I enjoyed the story. The humor throughout helped a lot to ease some of my discomfort. I really liked Drix, and would have loved to have gotten more time with him. Hopefully he'll play a bigger role in the coming books.
If I have one complaint it's that the ending felt a bit rushed; I would have preferred a little more build-up and resolution. On the whole, I enjoyed this, even more than the first book, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the series! This review has been cross-posted at Gay Book Reviews. Mar 19, Chelsea rated it it was amazing Shelves: This book is full of juxtapositions I think that's the right word , Miles' character, Drix's character and the general storyline.
This is how hard-core, in one of the scenes he does in the middle of the book not an opening to the book or the intense closing scene he gets his cock stapled A sharp, startling bite as the first staple went in, half under the ridge and half buried in the head. Bowser made a circle around the ridge. I jerked and sucked in air. He wiped up the blood droplets with an alcohol pad, and the alcohol stung my slit so badly my legs spasmed. Then he put the stapler right over my slit. Drix was so sweet and such a relaxing presence that he really was perfect for Miles.
I did not understand the whole vampyre thing at all, but I loved it! I love getting to play a role that feels so real to me. But I understand that it is a role. I really really enjoyed it though! The ending had me so incredibly happy. He raised his head. View all 9 comments. Aug 27, Alisa rated it really liked it Shelves: O When I read the first book in this series The Subs Club I went into it with some trepidation thinking it might be too much for me. It wasn't though and I was shocked at how funny it was.
So I let my guard down and went into this with visions of more of the same. This was way outside my comfort zone. I had to stop multiple times and google what I was reading because there were so many things I had never heard of before. Despite this kink not being my kink I still really enjoyed this book. The author did such a great job developing these two MC's that you can't help but love them and their relationship.
Miles is not the funny, outgoing narrator that David was. He's pretty serious and he lives inside his head a lot. I wasn't sure about him in the last book but I understood him in this one and I really identified with him in a lot of ways. I felt like his struggle to adopt a child and the feelings surrounding that were really well done. Drix was a fascinating character to me. Much like Pornstache in book one, Drix was a very atypical love interest.
He's a grown man in a trench coat who is a vamprye.
Yeah I know it sounds crazy. You'll not only accept it. The two of them together were really good and I loved the way their relationship develops in steps. Not only with the emotion but as they develop their sexual relationship as well. This was a really good read for me and I'm loving this series. I love that the author is giving us very non-traditional MC's in non-traditional relationships. They all seem so human and so real. I can't wait for the next books in this series. Dec 17, Jaime rated it really liked it Shelves: Rogers" of the club of submissives.
With his cardigans and higher than average knowledge of all things BDSM he didn't appear like he would be much fun. Well the author really shocks you when she lets you inside the world and head of Miles. Drix Seger, he is something of an enigma himself. Tall and blonde with these pointy teeth.
Oh did I forget to mention he is a Vampyre? No not your traditional blood sucking Vampire but a Vampyre, one who feeds off the energy of others. Oh and he is a Sadist. A True Sadist - like he has this innate desire to inflict pain on others and see how they handle it and react to what he does to them. He is in the process of adoption. So with the help of his "sub Club" friends he decides to make a kinky bucket list of all the things he wants to experience before he gets his child.
And so it begins.. While Drix is a Sadist he is not a Dominant. This works out because as we find out Miles isn't a traditional submissive he can take or leave the yes, sir as long as his play partner brings the pain. Let me tell you this book - wow, just I don't even know what to say! It pushed my boundaries and I wasn't even the submissive! I had to google so many things and there are pictures I have seen now that I will never unsee!
If you cannot handle aggressive sexual situations or impact play, medieval torture, hooking of certain orifices, intense pain, medical play, body modifications, and more.. If you are curious then, by all means.. Come and see the kinkiest book in a while! There is also a great story of learning to love and trust that Miles and Drix travel on throughout this book. I totally appreciate how everything in this book was well researched trust me I checked and how the author was able to weave a kinky tale with a romantic undertone.
It was great watching Drix come into his "Dom-hood" yes I made that word up and there was some definite humor in this story. I have to say again I am a little let down by the ending. It was rushed and I hate not having a concrete happily ever after or even an unhappy ending - just give me a complete resolution to the conflict and I will be happy.
Was it enough to turn me off the next book in the series? Cannot wait to see the guys again! Nov 02, Steelwhisper rated it did not like it Shelves: Review to come when I am less ragey. I got really sucked into this book. This one felt deeper, more developed. Not just because Miles is more mature than David in many ways, but because I felt like I was really let into his mind and understood him… as uncomfortable as that was! The author did a really good job of portraying a character who had it pretty much together, but also struggled with anxiety and insecurities, with a heaping 3.
The author did a really good job of portraying a character who had it pretty much together, but also struggled with anxiety and insecurities, with a heaping dose of shame on the side. And the conflict between these two. A couple of all-too-convenient wrap ups, other characters stepping in to fix the MC's problems. Nothing that eliminated my enjoyment of the story overall. I read kink books a lot, and I almost always find the kink element interesting, regardless of whether I also find it hot. And I definitely felt Miles and Drix's chemistry together, both in and out of bed.
I do plan to read the others at some point, but I'll admit that I'm less interested in the other characters. Too many books, too little time. Jan 13, Wart Hill rated it it was amazing Shelves: He has plans and he thinks he has his life all figured out. He's planning to adopt and to do so he's going to step away from the kink scene and become a Responsible Adult so that the adoption agency doesn't think he's a creepy skeeve bucket due to his sexual proclivities.
Except then Miles meets Drix. Drix who isn't scared off by Miles's masochism. Drix who, in fact, is a bit of a sadist himself. Miles at first thinks - mostly thanks to his friends - that he can use Drix as his one last hurrah for kink. A Pain Slut bucket list, if you will. Except then Miles starts falling for Drix. Miles isn't good at letting himself be vulnerable or scared. He likes to be hurt but he prides himself on the fact that he doesn't fall apart after scenes, the he doesn't need comfort or to be put back together.
He stands aloof from his emotions, I think. And Drix's place in his life threatens that and Miles can either embrace what he has with Drix or throw it all away. This book is kind of beautiful. Watching Miles's journey, the growth of his relationship with Drix. Seeing Miles finally deal with his own fear and insecurities. I loved every moment of this book. Another excellent read from J. Nov 29, K. Merikan rated it it was amazing Shelves: So hardcore and yet so tender. Can't wait to start the next one.
Drix was just the sweetest vampyre ever, while Miles a fabulously neurotic mess. Both so so human even though one has fangs ;. Dec 07, Reflection rated it it was amazing Shelves: Whatever you are reading now, I suggest you put it down and pick up the The Subs Club. Be prepared for a truly extraordinary reading experience.
I came to this series with an open mind, The Subs Club is funny, and poignant and hot, and Pain Slut repeats the experience all over again, with even more intensity and verve. This book is amazing on so many levels, it is clever, and thought-provoking and pulls the curtain back on hidden prejudice and social stigma with humour, compassion, insight and bu Whatever you are reading now, I suggest you put it down and pick up the The Subs Club.
‘punishment’ stories
This book is amazing on so many levels, it is clever, and thought-provoking and pulls the curtain back on hidden prejudice and social stigma with humour, compassion, insight and bucket loads of fun too. In honesty, pain is not a kink that I am drawn to. I started this book with some trepidation, but I need not have worried. The depiction of Miles' masochism, had me agape and my eyes watering, but here's the thing, it is so effectively captured that you can understand what drives Miles without sharing his proclivities or thankfully his social awkwardness.
Miles is a perfectionist and sets himself high ideals. He is keen to become an adoptive parent and believes that as a perspective father and role model he cannot indulge his masochism and must therefore give up kink for impending parenthood. Miles' best laid plans are thrown off course by the arrival of Drix, hot and sexy, Vampyre sadist. Again, this book unwraps prejudice, unravels and re-examines stereotyping and conformity with wit and charm. Drix's revelation is a surprise to Miles, who like me has a tendency to over think things however, Drix's easy going nature and preference to live in the moment is exactly what Miles needs.
The interaction between these guys is touching, humorous and passionate. The writing moves beyond their kinks and foibles to shine on their humanity. Obviously the BDSM dynamic is scorching too as Drix discovers his latent kinky dom abilities under the mentorship of Miles' long-term play partner Bowser. I may have been out of my comfort zone but I was captivated by the sensuality of Drix and Miles and their attraction and care for one and other. This brings me to the diversity in the book, it is crammed full of difference, different thought patterns, different dress styles, different backgrounds and experience, different hopes and expectations for the future, but the diversity brings lightness, and variety and acceptance.
Rock depicts vibrancy and captures the humanity of the experience in the mundane. The story explores friendship and love and acceptance that makes this a really uplifting cocktail of a read. Everyday life is depicted, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and the extraordinary, ordinary it is a clever lens and illustrates the vagaries of life with humour and compassion. The pacing of Pain Slut is perfect and the dialogue superb.
The interaction between Miles and his friends is hilarious. I cannot recommend this book or the series highly enough for insight and charm and a celebration of friendship. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Where do I start? How about I freaking love this. Miles and Drix are adorable. Everything about this is completely out of my comfort zone and realm. That didn't turn me off from the relationship between Miles and Drix. Sadomasochism and Vampyres with a Y is not in my realm, but I Love these two. Miles from book one The Subs Club was uptight and a know it all.
He's not really that different, but we get an understanding of why he is the way he is. That opening scene left me cringing. Yikes, my lady parts were trying to go back into my body.
Get A Copy
LOL, the introduction between Miles and Drix were hilarious. I liked Drix's energy the entire book. I mean, if he would have told me what he told Miles I would have skipped away from him. He was so calm, peaceful, and serene. I just think he is a stand up guy. He is definitely needed for Miles character. I think they counterbalanced each other out so well. Miles is super complex to me. I can picture him in my mind, and I just want to hug him.
He dealt with a ton of personal issues, and the whole adopting a kid pulled at my heartstrings. You have to be a confident person to adopt a baby by yourself, that's how I see it. I applaud him for not waiting on society's norm on what a family should be. I thought him being in panic mode was hilarious, but realistic as well.