tc_mill's review
3.0
I received a free copy of this new ebook from Peaches Press in exchange for an honest review.
This primer is an anthology of sixteen brief essays covering everything from personal stories of sexy roleplay to instructions for making a gag out of rope. Many of the essays are quite short, even less than a thousand words, and the overall book is only 60 or so pages. Despite that, it provides plenty of diverse viewpoints, experiences, and starting points for further exploration.
The opening glossary is extremely useful, and shows a nuanced understanding of BDSM dynamics (for example, distinguishing tops & bottoms giving & receiving sensation from the dominants and submissives who exchange power) without becoming confusing to a novice. Or so I assume, although I’m not new to the concepts myself.
In fact, as someone who already knows a bit about BDSM, I found a lot of the essays too short to give more than a taste of the experience: to say “I like to do this thing, and it took me some time to accept that fact, but now I have and it’s awesome.” This is a very helpful message for newbies to the scene to hear, but I’d prefer a guidebook to dig a bit deeper. I also became annoyed by how many references to 50 Shades of Grey there were. It’s really time we put that book behind us, if we ever had it in front of us in the first place.
Overall, I found many of the essays thought provoking and think they would make great conversation starters among intermediate kinksters, but as an introduction to the scene this is not a complete primer. The essay on whips outright encourages interested readers to go on to further research, and I’d say the same for the whole book.
A longer review of this book is available at my website, TC-Mill.com.
This primer is an anthology of sixteen brief essays covering everything from personal stories of sexy roleplay to instructions for making a gag out of rope. Many of the essays are quite short, even less than a thousand words, and the overall book is only 60 or so pages. Despite that, it provides plenty of diverse viewpoints, experiences, and starting points for further exploration.
The opening glossary is extremely useful, and shows a nuanced understanding of BDSM dynamics (for example, distinguishing tops & bottoms giving & receiving sensation from the dominants and submissives who exchange power) without becoming confusing to a novice. Or so I assume, although I’m not new to the concepts myself.
In fact, as someone who already knows a bit about BDSM, I found a lot of the essays too short to give more than a taste of the experience: to say “I like to do this thing, and it took me some time to accept that fact, but now I have and it’s awesome.” This is a very helpful message for newbies to the scene to hear, but I’d prefer a guidebook to dig a bit deeper. I also became annoyed by how many references to 50 Shades of Grey there were. It’s really time we put that book behind us, if we ever had it in front of us in the first place.
Overall, I found many of the essays thought provoking and think they would make great conversation starters among intermediate kinksters, but as an introduction to the scene this is not a complete primer. The essay on whips outright encourages interested readers to go on to further research, and I’d say the same for the whole book.
A longer review of this book is available at my website, TC-Mill.com.
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