A review by wintergreyborn
Bad Things by Varian Krylov
4.0
Great author, creates mixed emotions
*Spoiler alert* This book gave me mixed emotions. The captivity was brutal and abusive yet also arousing. I nearly stopped reading the book a couple of times because of discomfort but continued. It is clear that the captive man is experiencing an emotionally manipulative situation and could very well be harmed for life, yet at the same time, the captive man's and the captor's arousal is also a part of the story. The story made me feel uncomfortable, yet interested, and a little ashamed of it. And that is exactly what the author wanted me to feel. The writer says that they are interested in the psychology of sex and you can certainly see that. This author is very talented at manipulating the reader's emotions. The writing encouraged you to feel conflicted. My emotions as a reader reflected the emotions of the characters and the emotions of the characters reflected mine. A lot of the time, in these kinds of fantasy stories, authors create a situation that in real life would be abusive but then go "oh everything's okay, he liked it so it's romantic and everything's okay", i suppose to reassure the reader and preserve the fantasy. This author delved right in to the darkness and lingered there for awhile. The fact that the captivity would leave a mark was acknowledged. The fact that lines were crossed was acknowledged. The conflicting emotions and questionable morality was acknowledged. And the need for healing and time to come to terms with things afterward was acknowledged. I think the best example of this is in a scene after the captivity when the dominant character emotionally asks the submissive character " did i rape you?" And then tells the submissive character that only you can decide if you were raped. You and the characters are made to wonder the same things. The romance after the captivity, was it true or was it Stockholm syndrome? I wasn't sure and neither were the characters. It brings out a lot of the questions and emotional complexities that surround sex and bdsm, and that surround a lot of bdsm fantasies. Now, near the end of the book, i thought the plot and writing went downhill a little bit, it started feeling rushed and less thought out, and after the author introduced more of Carson's history and past abuse a lot of problems were suddenly blamed on that and the way it was done made it seem like the author was suddenly trying to find a way to shift some of the blame from what happened with Xavier, but really i think it was mostly just hurried writing near the end that made it seem that way. But, overall, after reading this book I was left with the impression that this author is very intelligent and talented.
*Spoiler alert* This book gave me mixed emotions. The captivity was brutal and abusive yet also arousing. I nearly stopped reading the book a couple of times because of discomfort but continued. It is clear that the captive man is experiencing an emotionally manipulative situation and could very well be harmed for life, yet at the same time, the captive man's and the captor's arousal is also a part of the story. The story made me feel uncomfortable, yet interested, and a little ashamed of it. And that is exactly what the author wanted me to feel. The writer says that they are interested in the psychology of sex and you can certainly see that. This author is very talented at manipulating the reader's emotions. The writing encouraged you to feel conflicted. My emotions as a reader reflected the emotions of the characters and the emotions of the characters reflected mine. A lot of the time, in these kinds of fantasy stories, authors create a situation that in real life would be abusive but then go "oh everything's okay, he liked it so it's romantic and everything's okay", i suppose to reassure the reader and preserve the fantasy. This author delved right in to the darkness and lingered there for awhile. The fact that the captivity would leave a mark was acknowledged. The fact that lines were crossed was acknowledged. The conflicting emotions and questionable morality was acknowledged. And the need for healing and time to come to terms with things afterward was acknowledged. I think the best example of this is in a scene after the captivity when the dominant character emotionally asks the submissive character " did i rape you?" And then tells the submissive character that only you can decide if you were raped. You and the characters are made to wonder the same things. The romance after the captivity, was it true or was it Stockholm syndrome? I wasn't sure and neither were the characters. It brings out a lot of the questions and emotional complexities that surround sex and bdsm, and that surround a lot of bdsm fantasies. Now, near the end of the book, i thought the plot and writing went downhill a little bit, it started feeling rushed and less thought out, and after the author introduced more of Carson's history and past abuse a lot of problems were suddenly blamed on that and the way it was done made it seem like the author was suddenly trying to find a way to shift some of the blame from what happened with Xavier, but really i think it was mostly just hurried writing near the end that made it seem that way. But, overall, after reading this book I was left with the impression that this author is very intelligent and talented.