A review by esseastri
Docile, by K. M. Szpara
3.0
Okay, this wasn't earth-shattering by any means, especially if you've read any fanfic whatsoever, but the WRITING! It's a pretty standard BDSM fanfic (tho much better written than a lot of BDSM fanfics, especially other ones that have been traditionally published...). But it digs into questions of consent and personhood and personality. It's not as nuanced or subversive as I wanted it to be, but it made me think--I was thinking about it constantly whenever I had to put it down, and I've been thinking about it since. So it must have done something right!
And the writing was quality. The character work was exquisite, and the gradual changes in both Alex's and Elisha's personalities as they affected each other were subtle and beautiful and horrifying. It's a creeping, unsettling, tender, lovely sort of horror that had me reading until 4am two nights in a row. It's almost a Frankenstein--Alex falling in love with the monster he creates, realizing he's the monster and has been all along, Elisha realizing that he's never the monster and relearning how to be human... it's a subtle and delectable tangle of character knots, and I loved watching it unfold.
Content warnings for rape, dubcon, kinks of all kinds--what you'd normally find in any good slave/dubcon fanfic. Tumblr is going to have a field day with this book, but listen: it's well-written. It's so well-written. Szpara good at words. That's all I got.
And the writing was quality. The character work was exquisite, and the gradual changes in both Alex's and Elisha's personalities as they affected each other were subtle and beautiful and horrifying. It's a creeping, unsettling, tender, lovely sort of horror that had me reading until 4am two nights in a row. It's almost a Frankenstein--Alex falling in love with the monster he creates, realizing he's the monster and has been all along, Elisha realizing that he's never the monster and relearning how to be human... it's a subtle and delectable tangle of character knots, and I loved watching it unfold.
Content warnings for rape, dubcon, kinks of all kinds--what you'd normally find in any good slave/dubcon fanfic. Tumblr is going to have a field day with this book, but listen: it's well-written. It's so well-written. Szpara good at words. That's all I got.