Safe Word: An Erotic S/M Novel
by Molly Weatherfield
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Book Summary Information
Author: Molly WeatherfieldEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-04
ISBN: 1573441686
Number of pages: 200
Publisher: Cleis Press
Book Reviews of Safe Word: An Erotic S/M Novel
Book Review: Excellent Writing, but not the very best in show!
Summary: 5 Stars
`Safe Word' by Molly Weatherfield is the sequel to `Carrie's Story'. When I reviewed the latter title, it was obvious that a sequel was in the works, as the story seems to so obviously stop in the middle of things. This novel is not quite so obviously designed to support a sequel, as it seems to give Carrie, the principle character, a clean break with all her paramours and dominants from these two novels. The opening for a third is simply made by leaving Carrie at the start of what may be a normal romantic relation with a new partner.
Like the first novel, this work is head and shoulders above practically all other novels in it's genre, as it successfully creates a backdrop to Carrie's submissive relations and uses this framework to create bridges between the more graphic events. In fact, it is no accident that the author quotes items and scenes from the famous novel `The Story of O' by Pauline Reage, as this is certainly the work against which this needs to be measured.
While both my visceral and intellectual response to this novel was positive, I could not help but find some weaknesses. The largest by far is the implausibility of the hidden culture of wealthy masters and permanent submissives who together travel around from one party and event to the next, and spend the time in between training the submissives to be better imitations of domestic animals. One of the great virtues of `The Story of O' is the plausibility of the backstory. While it did posit two households dedicated to training and housing submissives, these households were relatively small, and easily hidden in remote French country houses and chateau. Reage's story also has her heroine maintain her `day job' in between erotic incidents and vacations.
In truth, I may be just a bit too demanding, as this genre has its conventions just as science fiction or fantasy posits either impossible laws of physics or magic and spells out what things would be like if we make these assumptions. And, is this not really a fantasy. My only complaint is that the easier it is to suspend disbelief, as well as a character here and there, the more enjoyable is the story. I am surprised that, to my knowledge, no fiction writer in this genre has used the writers, actors, director, and crew engaged in making a bondage film as the scene for a novel. This is a legitimate venue for all sorts of variations and a strong plot element could be built out of putting something on the screen that is not so made up as one may think.
Even if I successfully suspended disbelief for the purpose of this story, I still missed a good representation of the psychology of submission that Reage does so well. I note one paragraph on page 31 which enters Carrie's mind and describes her reaction to some aspects of her submission, but by in large, this is all just a matter of fact recitation of events by Carrie to Jonathan or Jonathan to Carrie. Once we get the general picture of this world, most of which was explained in the first book, things run pretty much on autopilot. This visceral reaction means that the level of excitement created by the graphic scenes was not very high. At no point did it seem that the author created the kind of anticipation or realization that really turned on the juice for the reader. To compare this to scenes in the great fantasy novel, `Lord of the Rings', there was never any confrontation with the Balrog in Moria or tension at the funeral pyre of Denethor or drama at the killing of the Nazgul king on the Pellanor fields. I may be asking too much, but I do believe there was no good evocation of the great numenal mysticism on can find when one looses oneself to submission.
My final problem with this plot is that the device of the title is not introduced until the last few pages. I would have thought the `Safe Word' notion would have been explained in the beginning of the story to create a tension based on whether or not Carrie will reach a point where she will invoke it. Instead, it's introduced at the end, becoming a deux ex machina to get us out of the story.
I will buy and read Ms. Weatherfield's next book as soon as I hear of it's being published, but I will hope she adds a bit more spice to the psychology and a bit less implausibly to the backstory. I would also welcome a bit more color from Ms. Weatherfield's obvious interest in food and restaurants.
Summary of Safe Word: An Erotic S/M Novel
From the author of Carrie?s Story comes the continuing tale of a young woman?s uncompromising sexual adventure. Carrie leaves Jonathan, the S/M master who initiated her into a life of slave auctions, training regimes, and human ?ponies? preening for dressage competitions. Whisked away to Greece by the demanding gentleman who has chosen her as his own, she learns new, more rigorous methods of sexual pleasure.
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