The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty (1999) - Plot & Excerpts
I've heard lots about this trilogy, good and bad. It's been touted as great BDSM fic, an erotic fairytale and a great read. There were voices that said it's vile and horrible. There seemed to be no middle groundCurious, I requested the books on Netgalley when Penguin made them available as a re-release.Curiosity killed the cat. I should have remembered that old adage. Despite my usually high tolerance for kinky stories, I struggled through this book, with my teeth clenched and my fists balled in anger. I felt sick to my stomach on many occasions, especially when Prince Alexi tells the tale of his own abuse and degradation. Whoever claimed that the story told in this book has anything to do with BDSM ought to look up the term and learn that one of the key elements of BDSM is the ability to make it stop, with a safeword that ends either the scene or the relationship. It's also supposed to be sane, safe and consensual. None of the slaves in this book gave their consent for the treatment they received, nor was it sane or even safe. No thought was given to the fact that injuries would occur, especially if someone is sodomized repeatedly without lube, or proper preparation. No, this book is about abuse, repeated rape degradation, humiliation, breaking the spirits of young, innocent boys and girls and spanking. It describes the pain, horror and fear these boys and girls experience at the hands and tools of their masters, after having been thrust into this world of sexual sadism without an explanation and being simply expected to obey, in all things, no matter how abusive and humiliating those things are.Did I mention spanking? Spanking, as punishment or for the amusement of the vile people who are in charge. Spanking with bare hands and paddles and leather covered sticks. Spanking while strung up like a roast pig, spanking while scurrying on hands and feet to pick up things, spanking while bridled (incl. bit) and wearing hoof-like shoes, running for your life. Spanking while having a rod inserted into your anus to hold you up. Spanking, spanking, spanking. Spanking until your behind is welted and bruised (which isn't spanking but beating, but let's not split hairs). I can't even call this a rape fantasy, because that still would require that the slaves in this book have any kind of recourse to stop the fantasy. Alas, they have none. None whatsoever. NONE. I don't understand why the author shrouded this as the retelling of a fairytale. There's nothing remotely romantic or erotic about any of the plot, contents, or characters. Nor does it have anything to do with awakening someone's sexuality. There's not even much emotion in it. Sure, Prince Alexi confesses his love for Beauty, but I can't believe that he knows what it really means, considering his own story. I don't think any of the characters in this book know the true meaning of love. The characters are one-dimensional, without any emotional depth. The only one that somewhat intrigued me was Prince Alexi, who then lost all points with me when he unemotionally recounted the tale of his own abuse. The writing style, keeping it in the tone of a fairytale, also doesn't lend itself to showing. We're told of emotions, but I could never actually comprehend them in the given situations. Lady Juliana professes to 'love' Beauty, but does nothing to help her situation. The Prince who claims her professes to be obsessed with her, that he loves her like no other, yet is the one who begins the rape, abuse and humiliation. And the Queen, his mother, is the vilest of them all. Her conduct is sadistic and cruel and utterly reprehensible, and her depravity knows no end. Strangely enough, she doesn't seem to have a husband. I wonder if that means anything. Perhaps I'm missing the point. There is a scene at the end of this book in which Beauty takes a stand and manipulates the situation to get an outcome she desires (albeit one that may not be in her best interest), which is the only time her character shows any kind of backbone. This is the only reason I will likely read the next book, because I'm curious enough to want to see what will happen next. Cats have nine lives, right?Also, if you decide to call a male penis an organ or a phallus throughout the entire book, then you probably don't want to call the matching female anatomy a vagina. That just didn't gel for me.One positive thing I can say about this book is that Ms. Rice succeeded in keeping the writing tone (not the plot or the contents) to that of a fairytale. I received a free ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.
Disclaimer: I read this book on a dare. I'm not a fan of pure erotica and I'm no expert in BDSM, so it was pretty much obvious from the start that I wouldn't enjoy this read. That's why I'm not rating this book, as it wouldn't be fair to lower its average rating "on purpose" - not that I think one rating would cause such "damage", but anyway...So, how should I start this review ranting of mine? ;) Okay, how about the plot? Plot?!? Yes, dear friends, this book has a plot - an absurd and underdeveloped one, but a plot nonetheless. I don't feel like giving away any more of my damaged brain cells to this nightmare, so I'll just copy/paste the plot summary given at the beginning of the 2nd book, Beauty's Punishment:After her century-long slumber, the Sleeping Beauty opened her eyes at the kiss of the Prince, to find her garments stripped away and her heart as well as her body under the rule of her deliverer. At once, Beauty was claimed as the Prince's naked pleasure slave to be taken to his Kingdom.With the grateful consent of her parents, and dazed with desire for the Prince, Beauty was then brought to the Court of Queen Eleanor, the Prince's mother, to serve as one of hundreds of naked Princes and Princesses, all playthings of the Court until such time as they should be rewarded and sent home to their Kingdoms.Dazzled by the rigors of the Training Hall, the Hall of Punishments, the ordeal of the Bridle Path, and her own mounting passion to please, Beauty remained the undisputed favorite of the Prince and the delight of her sometime Mistress, the lovely young Lady Juliana.Yet she could not ignore her secret and forbidden infatuation with the Queen's exquisite slave, Prince Alexi, and finally the disobedient slave, Prince Tristan.After glimpsing Prince Tristan among the disgraced of the castle, Beauty, in a moment of seemingly inexplicable rebellion, brings upon herself the very same punishment destined for Tristan: to be sent away from the voluptuous Court to the degradation of harsh labor in the nearby village.That doesn't sound too bad, does it? Well, if you think so, just read my status updates to get a "tastier" insight into the extremely kinky, painful and humiliating sex antics Beauty and the other love slaves go through over the course of this book. I gasped, I frowned, I cringed and I gagged - oh boy! - but I also rolled my eyeballs and laughed hysterically at what was supposed to be erotic and thrilling. I "blame" Ms. Rice's juvenile writing for that: it was wordy and redundant, the story didn't flow effortlessly and all characters were one-dimensional and unlikable - in summary, this book became downright boring after the initial shock provided in the 1st chapters. I had to drink myself into almost oblivion to finish this read.Now, how can an erotic story be boring? One word: repetition. Every other page, there was someone being spanked. Beauty and any other (un)fortunate love slave in sight got spanked for everything, over and over again. Oh, you bad girl, you need to be punished... Spanked! Very good, my girl... Spanked! I'm not amused. Spanked! You're so exquisitely beautiful!... Spanked! Are those tears of joy I see running down your face?... Spanked! I love you so much!... Spanked! Spanked! Spanked! Gaaaaah!All things considered, I can't say I hated this book. I was irritated and coudn't wait to be done with it, but that wasn't out of utter disgust. It was out of sheer boredom. Even though this book is definitely out of my comfort zone, it could have kept my interested if Ms. Rice had filled its pages with all sorts of kinky stuff. Like I said above, I'm not familiar with the BDSM scenario and I could have been easily thrilled (in a good or bad way, it doesn't matter) by whatever "novelty" she wrote. Alas, all the excitment died after the 1st chapters and I didn't "learn" anything new... Disappointing!
What do You think about The Claiming Of Sleeping Beauty (1999)?
I want to bleach my brain after reading this. No, I'm not a prude (I'm a gynecologist, I've seen and heard EVERYTHING). It's just THAT BAD.Public service notice: This book has been brought to you thanks to the generous sponsorship by the word 'spanking'. Which is repeated so many times it almost does not look like a real word anymore. A drinking game with taking a shot every time spanking is mentioned would not last long (that is, unless you have truly remarkable alcohol-digesting enzymes and a stomach made of steel).And since there are only so many ways to spank somebody (and this book quickly explores ALL the possibilities), the book quickly becomes quite repetitive and incredibly boring. And 'boring' is definitely not the word that any erotica book should be described as, right? Right?I've mentioned before that I have zero problem with any sexual activity that however many consenting adults engage in. But I do have a problem with rape presented as being okay and even sexy. The Prince rapes Beauty while she is unconscious. Rape is never okay, and it should not be used as a "sexy" way to start a story. Make it consensual or do not write about it at all, and definitely do not present that as sexy. That's just disgusting. BDSM is consensual; otherwise just call it rape and stop trying to make it sexy.Another reason for the brain bleach is the sheer awfulness of this dreck, which I really tried to forget. But seeing three women today engrossed in that Twilight BDSM fanfic that we do not speak of reminded me of having read this one a few years ago. Well, 'read' is not quite accurate of a word; it was so badly written that I ended up having to skim through most of it. And still I could not escape the endlessly boring spanking or the atrocious language.Yes, everything else aside, the writing in this book is unbelievably bad. The language sounds fake, wooden, juvenile, and forced. The descriptions are terrible and would be out of place in every book except for one teaching how to write badly. Don't even start me on grammar and punctuation! (What did these two ever do to Anne Rice? Am I supposed to be so hot and bothered from reading this so that I don't notice elementary mistakes?) But the language itself reads so clumsy that I almost wonder whether A.N. Roquelaure Anne Rice is not a native English speaker. I don't have much experience with reading erotica, so please, somebody enlighten me. Since these books are, well, books, they should have some kind of a plot, right? Or does the 'sexy' subject make them exempt from such? Because this one definitely does not have a plot unless you count the forty billion instances of spanking. Am I naive to expect plot in what is marketed as a book?Anyway, as I said, I started skimming pretty early on (easy in a plotless book) because even my semi-saintly tolerance for bad fiction ends at some point. It is boring, badly written, almost glorifies rape, and apparently does not believe in consent. I would not recommend it to anyone. 1 star is almost generous. I have no idea what possessed me to read it. But it's been years since I've read it, and remembering it still makes me shudder.
—Nataliya
Oh no,no,no,no,no,no......NO!! What in the name of Holy Mother was that???A JOKE???Because seriously,if it is then call me dumb but I don't get it!!Now first of all,let me clarify that I love erotica and the fact that this story was supposed to be an erotic-retelling of Sleeping Beauty, captured my attention.My heartfelt apology to all those other reviewers who warned Readers away.I did not heed their warnings because I was too curious.But I guess,in this case at least,the age old saying came pretty true....Curiosity killed the cat!!!---------------------------------------------------------------Anyway,here we see the Prince(oh,my heroic prince),heroically scales the walls and bushes and thorns and all the other stuff to rescue Beauty(cursed to sleep with her kingdom). And then as soon as he sees her,he tears her gown with his sword wakes her up by having sex with her(she was still asleep by the way and woke up during the end) and then claims her.By claiming her if you're thinking he claims her as his princess and they ride away to the sunset,you are very wrong.He claims her as his SLAVE.Now ever since I had read my first fairy tale,Cinderella,I had always dreamed of a Prince Charming,loved him,sighed with my friends over him,and just...LOVED him.And look at this Prince Charming.... "Now everyone is going to want to have a look at Beauty," the Prince said to the Captain of the Guard. "Bind her hands over her head by a rope from the sign over the Inn gate,and let the people have their fill of her.But no one is to touch her.They can look all they like,but you stand guard and see that no one touches her."Now at this point I stopped to ask....What the hell is happening???I went through the blurb of this book again to see if this book was a parody of fairytales and BDSM.It was not!!Hence my original question....IS THIS A JOKE???And now Readers,the beginning where the Prince finds the princess and takes her (I'm not going into a discussion whether it was rape or not) and then wakes her up,was actually the best part of the story.Yes,you heard me right.The story became more and more ridiculous as it progressed.And the worst part.....Nowhere did I feel the urge to laugh!!I am sorry,but I cannot tell you about it anymore!!**shudders**Henceforth,I'm going to try my best to forget all about it......------------------------------------------------------------------ Update---Okay,one more thing.As I was explaining to my friend,if these were meant to be taken as sick,twisted and dark things,it would have been different.I do love dark erotica and am currently reading one.But here,it was presented as if these are our greatest fantasies come to life.Now,I do not know about fantasies,but definitely NIGHTMARES for me!!!That's all for now,Ta-Ta!!
—Dd
I am not sure how I feel about this book. On PAGE 3 the sex and degradation begins and it continued-page after brutal page. I am not a prude by any stretch, I just think this is not the book or subject matter for me. The sub/dom theme is just a little much for me as it is presented in this book--especially since there seems to be little to no relief for the submissives. To answer the review question, "What I Learned from this book"--Well, I learned that being a submissive 24-7 seems to really suck with a capital "S". The book was successful at making me feel a number of emotions, being turned on was not one of the emotions. More like angry, sad and repulsed...and let's not forget disturbed. Very disturbed. I can see the interest in sub/dom, bdsm if it is played out like it is in Lover Unbound--you know where you play the role and then go back to your regular life. Not when you LIVE the role constantly. I do not know if I will finish the trilogy. My nature is to finish out of curiosity...kinda like a train wreck. You don't want to watch and you know it will probably end badly, but you just can't help yourself. One of my GR friends said she read it and the 2nd book only gets worse--my question is: How on God's green earth is that possible?✳✳ Reviewed on I ♥ Bookie Nookie Reviews___________________________________________________If you like this type of book, you might enjoy one of these groups. Check us out!Menage ReadersErotic EnchantsBookie Nookie's Erotic Lending Group
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