A review by vallebre
The Juliette Society by Sasha Grey
4.0
Well, what is there to be said about Sasha Grey's maiden voyage into fiction?
Anyone who knows anything about the author beyond the fact that she's a former pornstar knows at least one thing - she's fucking smart. Indisputably smart. She has a keen observation and a very unique voice that's clearly all her own. I really enjoyed her narration style for the first-person perspective of the main character - her internal dialogue is really, really good and an entire chapter on the merits of cum-play was more than just provocative, it was actually very well articulated and illustrated.
The book itself gives you a bit of a wrong impression, though - the Juliette Society is not the focus of the story in the way you may have been expecting. I was looking for a deeper dig into the Society itself, the roots, the members, etc. Perhaps I've been too spoiled by Suzanne Collins in wanting to know exactly how a society works so it can be overthrown efficiently. The bulk of the story is spent with the narrator lamenting her lack of a sex life with her boyfriend Jack as well as describing the particulars of her sexuality as it expands and becomes more all-encompassing. While that angle may have had, let's face it, a porno-like aspect about it (nubile young girl meets sexually incandescent other young girl and it ignites her lackluster sex life by pulling her into things she never imagined doing or wanting to do), it was handled surprisingly well. It's also nice to see a female protagonist who is unabashedly, unapologetically sexual without it being rooted in childhood abuse or serious emotional dysfunction. Grey didn't rely one bit on the tired old tropes of why women want to fuck - she simply let us take a peek into the mind of one. I appreciate the hell out of that.
Which of course, brings us to the sex scenes. Even had I not known Sasha Grey was the one writing the book, it would have been clear that someone with a lot of adjacency to porn was behind it. The scenes are very explicit and very visual, very clearly painted pictures. They're good, they read like a porno. Very effective though just as disjointed as some porn movies make sex scenes seem - there were times when they felt shoe-horned in for the sake of being titillating. Still, considering the purpose of the novel, I can't say I was surprised. My only real complaint is the sporadic use of "butthole", which will never, ever be a sexy word and almost breaks the flow of the setup. At one point, the narrator opines that she doesn't find any slang terms for a penis other than "cock" to be sexy, that "dick" does nothing for her. I appreciate that - "butthole" does nothing for me except remind me of all the bad insults I used to sling in third grade.
Her skewering of Bundy, a character who seemed to be based heavily on that asshole whose name I've already forgotten that's now in jail but started the whole Girls Gone Wild franchise was laugh out loud good. I loved it. My only issue was the way he was supposed to be sympathized with to some degree at the end as a poor, pitiful guy with no chance who had made shitty choices because he had never been taught otherwise. Bundy is a rapist. He films girls who are clearly intoxicated performing sex acts they regret and profits off of them. There's nothing redeeming about the guy in any way.
The climax (hehe) was predictable - who didn't see that the old guy from the party was Jack's politician boss? The near-murder felt like a neat wrapup on a story I was hoping for more depth from, a quick way to explain it all away in the last few seconds. It was a little unsatisfying. But, I did rather like the ending, the careful, precarious balancing act between the narrator and the murderer, a mutually assured destruction arrangement. I'm sure that wasn't what people were expecting, and while the moral ambiguity of the decision can be readily criticized, it felt realistic. Our narrator isn't a heroine. She's not out to change the world or save lives or rid the world of evil. She's a college girl who wants to save her own ass and the subsequent ass of the man she loves.
In short, it was a good read. Quick, very witty, interesting prose, interesting concept. I do recommend - and I hope Sasha Grey writes again.
Anyone who knows anything about the author beyond the fact that she's a former pornstar knows at least one thing - she's fucking smart. Indisputably smart. She has a keen observation and a very unique voice that's clearly all her own. I really enjoyed her narration style for the first-person perspective of the main character - her internal dialogue is really, really good and an entire chapter on the merits of cum-play was more than just provocative, it was actually very well articulated and illustrated.
The book itself gives you a bit of a wrong impression, though - the Juliette Society is not the focus of the story in the way you may have been expecting. I was looking for a deeper dig into the Society itself, the roots, the members, etc. Perhaps I've been too spoiled by Suzanne Collins in wanting to know exactly how a society works so it can be overthrown efficiently. The bulk of the story is spent with the narrator lamenting her lack of a sex life with her boyfriend Jack as well as describing the particulars of her sexuality as it expands and becomes more all-encompassing. While that angle may have had, let's face it, a porno-like aspect about it (nubile young girl meets sexually incandescent other young girl and it ignites her lackluster sex life by pulling her into things she never imagined doing or wanting to do), it was handled surprisingly well. It's also nice to see a female protagonist who is unabashedly, unapologetically sexual without it being rooted in childhood abuse or serious emotional dysfunction. Grey didn't rely one bit on the tired old tropes of why women want to fuck - she simply let us take a peek into the mind of one. I appreciate the hell out of that.
Which of course, brings us to the sex scenes. Even had I not known Sasha Grey was the one writing the book, it would have been clear that someone with a lot of adjacency to porn was behind it. The scenes are very explicit and very visual, very clearly painted pictures. They're good, they read like a porno. Very effective though just as disjointed as some porn movies make sex scenes seem - there were times when they felt shoe-horned in for the sake of being titillating. Still, considering the purpose of the novel, I can't say I was surprised. My only real complaint is the sporadic use of "butthole", which will never, ever be a sexy word and almost breaks the flow of the setup. At one point, the narrator opines that she doesn't find any slang terms for a penis other than "cock" to be sexy, that "dick" does nothing for her. I appreciate that - "butthole" does nothing for me except remind me of all the bad insults I used to sling in third grade.
Her skewering of Bundy, a character who seemed to be based heavily on that asshole whose name I've already forgotten that's now in jail but started the whole Girls Gone Wild franchise was laugh out loud good. I loved it. My only issue was the way he was supposed to be sympathized with to some degree at the end as a poor, pitiful guy with no chance who had made shitty choices because he had never been taught otherwise. Bundy is a rapist. He films girls who are clearly intoxicated performing sex acts they regret and profits off of them. There's nothing redeeming about the guy in any way.
The climax (hehe) was predictable - who didn't see that the old guy from the party was Jack's politician boss? The near-murder felt like a neat wrapup on a story I was hoping for more depth from, a quick way to explain it all away in the last few seconds. It was a little unsatisfying. But, I did rather like the ending, the careful, precarious balancing act between the narrator and the murderer, a mutually assured destruction arrangement. I'm sure that wasn't what people were expecting, and while the moral ambiguity of the decision can be readily criticized, it felt realistic. Our narrator isn't a heroine. She's not out to change the world or save lives or rid the world of evil. She's a college girl who wants to save her own ass and the subsequent ass of the man she loves.
In short, it was a good read. Quick, very witty, interesting prose, interesting concept. I do recommend - and I hope Sasha Grey writes again.