so i got to the part where kate is freaking out about the button on the dress... and then i stopped reading and started skimming... and ive come up with a few points about this book:1) the synopsis is a lie! this is not erotica! the sex scenes arent even detailed as you would expect from erotica. there is just some vague dialogue of them talking about how she likes him to pull her hair.2) there seems to be a lot of lady-hate going on with the reviews for this book... ill admit that kate is a pretty dreadful person... but i also understand that the environment she is in is pretty fucking shitty also. if you look at this book from a feminist standpoint, you might find greater insight into this character and greater sympathy for her problems.3) child abuse is not ok ever. how do i know it was child abuse? she lied about it after. 4) her relationship with her husband after her first child, and maybe even after their marriage devolves into a creepy father-daughter thing when it really should be husband-wife. this is why the whole "daddy-issue" thing that people are complaining about comes into play. i think understanding the dynamic between the two is really the point of the book, but i only skimmed. now the various tells about this are the changes in their sex life after the occurrence of certain events.5) along with the "daddy-issue" thing i have to say i am really offended that there are some assholes out there complaining about people with what they have coined "daddy-issues".women who have "daddy-issues" were generally abused by their fathers as children/teens. abuse varies between emotional and physical, however making light of child abuse is NEVER OK. and it really irritates me when grown adults berate another human being and victim blame them for the abuse that happened when they were a child by a person who was entrusted to protect them from abuse.example: if you had a dog and decided to use that dog as a football one day, would you blame the dog for looking too football-like once it bit the person who caught it as it flew across the yard?no. you would probably get new glasses. and go to jail for animal abuse.6)the husband is clueless about the abusive relationship, but its set up earlier in the book that these people only married because of the sex.they didnt really know one another, they didnt really marry for the same reasons. they just got married to be married.and this is bad.thats the point of the book.marrying a person you DONT REALLY KNOW is bad. marrying a person you just met a month ago IS BAD.you should know the person youre getting married to.or you shouldnt be married at all.im for the "shouldnt be married at all" thing because, well, our mothers and grandmothers got married, and look what happened to them.7) i have a question, and dont bullshit about spoilers and not telling because i dont really care how it happens i just want to know what happens. so a few chapters from the end the husband (collin?) manhandles kate and grabs her hair and forces her head into the kitchen sink. my questions about this:1) was he trying to kill her?2) the way its worded it sounds like hes done it before. is this true? if so, what was the context of the event? did she request him to do that? did he just freak out and try to shove her in the sink? was there something stuck in the garbage disposal?you see, in the context of the last sink scene, it seemed pretty non-consensual and she was really trying to stop him.and i guess the answer to this would tell me whether or not the kate-collin relationship was abusive.if it is then my train of thought would be this: children who have been abused get into abusive relationships and abuse their children.which is a cliched mofo if there ever was one.if its not then my train of thought is this: children who have been abused go onto abuse their children. and maybe some psychobabble about how victims blame themselves for their own abuse and purposefully go find crappy relationships.while these ideas are both interesting, and the execution of these ideas was, to say the least, interesting, i still find such a philosophy utterly repugnant. which means this book scores a default of F.star wise? 1i will give this 1 measly star, because without it my review would not register. This novel was very thought provoking. In a way it was also a bit scary to think that similar situations are playing out every day in our own neighborhoods, our own families, and perhaps in our own lives. It was far from resolved by the end but I think that made it work even more. I sort of wanted to smack Kate because she had a husband who still wanted her; two beautiful girls; and a comfortable life. Then again you felt for her. She wanted more! Yes, she had daddy issues, lots of them! This shed a light on issues of how women are treated in society and particularly within a family dynamic. Dark but worth the read!
What do You think about Games To Play After Dark (2011)?
Not an engaging story ... the main character was totally harebrained
—joanne
Interesting read right before I am about to get married! lol.
—leon
