A review by leelah
Bliss by Lisa Henry

1.0

There was an idea, really interesting idea,but completely wasted at the end.

Rory and Tate met under unusual circumstances. Both are from Tophet and both came to Beulah, idyllic, utopian city-state in search for better life. Tate crossed the border illegally and running from police, he crashed into Rory and knocked him down. In crime-free Beulah those who break the law have choice to either admit the crime and go through the restitution program for several years or go to trial and risk life sentence. And nobody choose trial. For Tate restitution means that he will have to go through medical procedure of installing bio-chip in his head that acts like character adjustment and doing house chores for a guy he knocked out for seven years. Very soon he realized mistake he made because chip makes him obedient- a slave who only lives for his master's praise. Rory gets crash course on Beulah judicial system even before he began his new job as assistant for Justice Lowell- he will have to live in the same house with the man who attacked him and he's not happy with these arrangements at first. But Tate is really attractive and sweet and he looks at him like he is everything he ever wanted, so Rory decides to give into him and starts relationship with him.

Triggers:

I'll tackle this first because I just want to get over it. And let me be straight- this is not bad in terms of rating, it affected me, but it wasn't the only; it wasn't even the biggest reason for my rating.

Spoiler

I don't shy away from dark themes; I read both authors before and I buy Lisa Henry's work by default because she dips into dark waters just enough for my taste. On top of that, Riptide actually has really great warning option on their website and I use it always before purchasing. My point is this:I knew what to expect, I was warned.
But, I personally had really, really hard time with this book. Of all non-con situations in books, I think this one is the most... vile I ever read. I'll explain: So, chip works this way- rezzy (people with chips) are completely dependent of master- they crave for his praise. They feel good when master is pleased and they feel bad when he is not pleased. But that need for praise is chemical, involuntary reaction of their body, it's described like hunger, they would do anything for him. Their minds, though, are intact. Chip has no effect on consciousness, so they are aware of everything. They can't say anything because chip hurts them, so they are in constant fight with what chip makes them want and what they want. Tate is not even gay, but Rory is and Tate wants to please him! This is snippet of scene when Tate and Rory have sex for the first time:

Rory looked up at him, his dark eyes huge and his black
eyebrows furrowed. “You don’t like it?” he asked and sat back
on his heels. He kept his hand wrapped around the base of
Tate’s cock, and Tate couldn’t help but thrust into it, and what
was more, he didn’t know if that urge was because of the chip
or because of his own need.
“No! I do, I do, of course I do. I . . . love . . . everything you
want to do to me.” That’s a lie, oh God, it’s all a lie. Help me.
Don’t touch me, help me.

This entire premise of chip made me so damn uncomfortable. There is no outright violence or gore or anything... but, jfc pass me the bleach. Chip makes his body do things, but in his mind he screams no. This is not even non-consent in my mind- It's like a sexual act with kid or someone else vulnerable who doesn't have capacity to give or not give consent. It's not even mind control because his mind is still his, but he can't vocalize or express his will in any way. This entire scene made me feel dirty, with a terrible feeling in my gut... There is this Mivacron myth if anyone ever read about it- Mivacron is skeletal muscle relaxant used for anesthetic purposes during surgery. So, there is this urban legend that when Mivacron was first tested on patients, so many of them died from heart attack, but those who survived surgery after paralytic effects of relaxant would wear off they said they can feel everything, the pain and every cut and they screamed inside, but couldn't move or say anything - Mivacron is powerful relaxant but has no anesthetic effects. It's a terrible to imagine and this entire premise of chip reminded me of that because it's a truly horrible. I blame my brain. :\

Plot:

This is actually the main reason for my rating. And plot failed in two ways imo:

Lowell- So,Tate is of course being all obedient per chip's conditioning, and Rory says to Lowell that Tate is being all nice....Lowell says to him: "He is playing you, he is pretending." This is the part I lost all my respect for plot. Lowell is a villain- I get it. He lied on purpose, but what is his purpose? I loved dystopian setting at the beginning because Beulah had that futuristic society feel- progress is directly proportional to restriction of human rights and free thinking. Yes, chip is bad and evil to us, but Lowell at the beginning believed in that shit, he thought chip fixed them and made them better for Beulah, he was this complicated bad character because he was charismatic and nice to his employees and he was passionate about restitution program... But all that was wasted and Lowell became just villain we read so many times about- he knew that chip is bad and he used it to fuck boys. From rehabilitation through restitution ideology we come to fucking using position of authority. Yawn. Boring... Why put it into dystopian setting then? Why put this story in Beulah?

Rory - I had a same feeling I had with [b:Strain|18460726|Strain (Strain, #1)|Amelia C. Gormley|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1378456748s/18460726.jpg|26114046]- at some point plot became a servant of kink. They are behaving like slaves, but chip makes them happy to serve. What, suddenly every "criminal" is into domestic discipline and that's not suspicious? Folding your socks is highlight of his day and you don't find that strange? We know that chip is not perfect- Tate actually manages to say few words before his nose starts bleeding- if that's not a sign something is wrong, I don't what is. Tate cried after sex, Aaron's face is contorted in pain...Rory, just came to Beulah and he is really uncomfortable with rezzy arrangements- he has to live in house with a criminal, yet he doesn't inform himself about chip. He doesn't even read Tate's papers until Alexandra tells him about her suspicions. There is actually a resistance group fighting against restitution and Rory never heard of it, before he finally gets that something is iffy about the whole thing...after well scenes and scenes of humiliation and fucking... Basically, we had to read Rory being stupid and blind so Tate and Aaron would go through a lot of humiliation and torture scenes with monster butt-plugs and other stuff- like I said, plot in service of kink. -__-

Romance- Hmm... I liked the challenging idea of romance between Tate and Rory having their circumstances in mind, but I didn't like white picket fence ending. Aaron for example deals with ptsd but Tate is all sunshine. It's true Rory was a..."good master" :shudder: but Tate was sexually used by other, disgusting people as well and the fact that his consciousness was intact during his ordeals I would expect he came out of it at least little bit mindscrewed...but no, he is completely unaffected. I'm glad he kept his shit together, but it would be more believable if he at least have nightmares about it. :\

This turned into TL, DR...Sorry.