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A review by hostile
X by Davey Davis
Did not finish book. Stopped at 35%.
1 star!
Lee is abusive, but it's alright because they've found an outlet for their abuse. They're a sadist, they're enmeshed in kink. They abuse people consensually!! Except they routinely violate people's consent and manipulate people to get what they want, which is to hurt them, rape them, etc. They're no Humbert Humbert, though, so all of their "manipulation" is blithely described, their desire to rape people maliciously is just a fact of the book. There isn't even an attempt to couch this in the language of negotiated desire, to make it CNC. So blandly presented I am made to go "man, this guy is a boring rapist" which is an equally bland response. There's nothing postmodern about this. The only consent manufacturing (get it) the author does is painting Lee's victims as masochists who ask for it by being masochists, which I do not buy into. Oh, but their manipulation and neglect of their friends and community is all so they can find X who will redeem them by making them bottom. God, I just don't care. Maybe if this is your fantasy the erotic parts will be good for you.
Maybe just read Mishima, Genet, Guibert, Nabokov, Kathy Acker, Despentes, Heather Lewis, I could go on, instead?
Lee is abusive, but it's alright because they've found an outlet for their abuse. They're a sadist, they're enmeshed in kink. They abuse people consensually!! Except they routinely violate people's consent and manipulate people to get what they want, which is to hurt them, rape them, etc. They're no Humbert Humbert, though, so all of their "manipulation" is blithely described, their desire to rape people maliciously is just a fact of the book. There isn't even an attempt to couch this in the language of negotiated desire, to make it CNC. So blandly presented I am made to go "man, this guy is a boring rapist" which is an equally bland response. There's nothing postmodern about this. The only consent manufacturing (get it) the author does is painting Lee's victims as masochists who ask for it by being masochists, which I do not buy into. Oh, but their manipulation and neglect of their friends and community is all so they can find X who will redeem them by making them bottom. God, I just don't care. Maybe if this is your fantasy the erotic parts will be good for you.
Maybe just read Mishima, Genet, Guibert, Nabokov, Kathy Acker, Despentes, Heather Lewis, I could go on, instead?