A review by expertbooksmuggler
Light Me Up by M. Bonneau

fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

 
Light Me Up is a short story centered around Chase and Jess. Jess is the lighting designer for Chase’s band and damn good at what she does. She’s obsessed with perfection, bossy, and no-nonsense when it comes to her work.  Unfortunately for her, Chase is determined to harass her sexually despite her lack of interest. It’s a feigned lack of interest, but he doesn’t know that and therefore we cannot say that it excuses his behavior. She is his “tiny Chinese firecracker” and he WILL have her. 

Damn, the man was persistent, and the moment she went down to the stage, he’d be all over her again, just like he was every time they were in the same room.  His behavior hadn’t changed since she first met him a year ago.  He’d decided he wanted her as another notch on the neck of his guitar, and he wasn’t giving up, no matter how uninterested she tried to appear. 

Jess as a character is… interesting. We learn this fun little tidbit about Jess (TW: rape?) 

She’d been bossing boys around in the bedroom ever since her very first time.  She chuckled, recalling the look on Fred Kaminski’s face when she pushed him down on the bunk bed in her dorm room, freshman year, and told him she was going to use him to get rid of her virginity.  He’d lain there, in shock and confusion, for the entirety of the short act, and then called her a creepy little Asian nympho at a party the next weekend, but she hadn’t cared.  She’d laughed in his face.  A man who couldn’t handle her bossy-ness was a man she didn’t need. 

Jess may stage lighting by day, but she’s also dominant and loves to take control of men. That is fine… as long as all parties are consenting. That scene above? Does NOT seem very consenting. Men can be raped too, and men can be sexually assaulted, and I’m not sure we want to make that scene seem like a positive attribute of Jess. Let us not forget to highlight the Asian nympho stereotype. We’re up to “Chinese firecracker” and “Asian nympho” oh but wait- Chase’s friend referred to his obsession with Jess as Asian fever on page 10. 

Please note that the firecracker reference is in the description and the words ‘Chinese’ and ‘China’ do not appear in the book. The word ‘Asian’ appears in the book twice when racist stereotypes are being used against Jess. 

There are also issues with inaccurate BDSM practices. Jess asks the concierge of her hotel to find her a BDSM club (wut) and then off she goes! Lo and behold, Chase is there. He followed her cab and is there to confess his feelings. So Jess sets a challenge for him! He isn’t experienced in BDSM, so the obvious first test is to yank off her heels and have him carry her to the hotel on his back. Chase heads off to the hotel with Jess grinding her p*ssy against his back because why not potentially include strangers in your BDSM test? 

Jess, who admits that she’s been told she is distant with her submissives, also inflicts pain upon Chase in order to determine his limits. No, she did not get consent for that either! 

There was not a content warnings page within this book, but I guess one thing I can say is that I think the graphics that were used to promote this book aren’t as heavy on the mismarketing of the book and aligned more with the contents inside. 

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