“I don’t always like… the things that I like,”
― Erased: A Dark Romantic Thriller
So I liked this but I can’t help but wonder about the people that like this, especially the women. I wouldn’t change a word but how blurry that line must have been for the author. Some stories play jump rope with it, some do their best to fade it and for others the line isn’t there at all, my favorite.
I guess that makes the Halloran Asylum the perfect place for this story, and the whole dime a dozen aspect, or maybe I’m reading far too into this; in my experience most women wouldn’t cater to this, not out loud anyway. Maybe that’s what this book makes me think about the movie “Sucker Punch”, I don’t want to give too much away but yeah the bad guys, I mean the really bad guys don’t get to have their way with the heroine. See even now I believe I should have to talk to a shrink about these desires but why, feelings like this are natural or the characters seem to think so all the way.
“Sticks and stones
May break my bones
But chains and whips
Excite me” S&M, Rihanna
“Erased” doesn’t exactly cross the line, it seems to show the line of erotica and “reality” or at least in a way I’m reminded like in any movie this is all fiction and should not be duplicated… which parts though hmm? That’s where it gets blurry, on one hand I compared this to a movie on the other this could just as easily be ripped from any headline; news flash, our heroine is also a reporter. Now on a personal level I would have liked to see more from the villains and from Marla’s interactions, another reason I’m reading the bonus epilogue for this and the prequel, decent freebies really.
Seriously though why is this sort of stuff looked at as crazy, dirty for sure, hot as Hell definitely, makes you feel wrong somehow but talk about our influences. As though I can influence you to read this book and I’m talking to the ladies here, because being a straight guy with massive experience across the internet I doubt most guys would but should I give it a shot?
“You’re a natural submissive, and I want to work with that.”
Erased: A Dark Romantic Thriller
It’s a weird case with most women, how can Marla be so badass on one hand and then in the next so submissive, this is sort of the essence of BDSM. Now guys I could recommend “Kojin Taxi”, “Shusaku” pretty much anything in the Harem genre though you shouldn’t expect a lot of sex scenes from random beauties, I really hope you like Marla though.
Except that name… sorry just personally preference, but I’ve come up with some strange names but stop me if you’ve heard this, girl gets kidnapped, girl and bad boy hook up, everybody gets what’s coming to them in the end. I’m not spoiling anything if you read this genre that’s the common story thread and then I have to ask why don’t men and women watch this sort of stuff together. Truthfully it’s more a BDSM story than a prisoner story which just makes the setting all the more perfect because it’s treated as though it’s crazy for Marla, Gabriel, and Halloran to feel the way they do.
Which leads me back to the guys, you know what separates a guy like Halloran from, such and such guy in Nevada… consent, you don’t have to imagine this just go Nevada and you can find the same thing, guys losing money to spend time with beautiful women. I like this story, I really do but maybe for women it’s a fantasy and for guys that talk about or even consider it, quite possibly it’s just primal nature. There are a few things that will make you feel bad, maybe because you’ll like it or a touch a feminism but again, these stories are marked toward women.
Myself… I only got into the genre because of “Fifty Shades of Grey” and before that I studied the Marquis de Sade but to have someone actually say like in “Erased” that some of these things can actually be okay… For the fellas if missionary and maybe an occasional happy ending is all you’ve been taught then, this book will actually be a great read.
“Someday you and I are going to have to work out a safeword,” he says. “Because in our world, sometimes people say ‘stop’ and don’t mean it.”
― Sansa Rayne, Erased: A Dark Romantic Thriller
Being a guy of course I know plenty of girls and we sometimes talk about my latest read that might turn into their latest read but I’m actually more into putting let’s say words into action. With these words, I think I’ll give them a four out of five… yes I’m that hard to please or am I a snob?
For example, I know one woman who would be all for this except for being on the receiving end, she likes the whips and the bondage as long as she’s doing the whipping, so I think this book wouldn’t be anything new to her. Another one will talk about being spanked, choked, and even tied up but gets nervous if a guy gets close, she would read this with gusto though because it’s a different world sexually for her truthfully. How I got into this myself… that’s a story I’ll have to write someday but as for this book in general, I actually know an erotica reading group, so recommended.
“We live in a weird and random universe, people.”
― Erased: A Dark Romantic Thriller
So what didn’t I like… I asked this somewhere before but you can never have too much sex and I suppose the author didn’t want to overwhelm the reader but wait to you see my story. I honestly wish and maybe I’m a bad guy but if the other bad guys had taken their turns with Marla that would have been pretty interesting. Also that Iris tidbit was a bit of a snooze, yes I get it, Gabriel is good and everyone else is bad, didn’t necessarily have to drive another nail through her coffin.
All in all, four stars, easily earned, not as many quotable thoughts but there is always something and I am somewhat enticed to read a bit more from Sansa Rayne, did I mention the free epilogue and prequel? What did I learn from this, that again I’m not sick, that adult anime can take novel form, and straitjackets sort of creep me out but then again worked for Sucker Punch.