DECADENCE

Seeking liberation and a fuller awareness of self, Nia Simone Bijou enters a glittering fantasy world of erotic temptations. But some unfinished business shows up at her erotic playground.

A successful screenwriter from Trinidad, Nia has no shortage of willing lovers. Most recently, she has indulged in a spontaneous ménage à trois with a lovely woman from Vancouver and Bret—Bret, who (like an erotic magician) can work carnal trickery with a basic towel. Recalling a torrid sexual marathon with the exotic, powerful businessman named Prada, Nia cannot deny that she longs for him but finds herself reluctant to pursue a relationship with him, since no one man could ever satisfy her for long. Even worse, he says he’s in love with her. Further in her past lurks Chris, her first love and the man who broke her heart. Restless and in search of sexual adventures, Nia joins the exclusive club Decadence, which offers adult pleasures—awarding membership only to the most physically beautiful applicants (after screening them for all known sexually transmitted infections). Initially a voyeur, Nia is quickly drawn into active participation, engaging in anonymous sex with men and women who signal their wealth with Mont Blanc watches and Louboutin shoes. Dickey (An Accidental Affair, 2012, etc.) focuses on aroused body parts (often with pretentious, quasi-mystical euphemisms). Combined with such clinical observation, Nia’s minute description of every throb and moan cheapens the hedonistic exploits into crude thrills. Her ostensible quest for a man who can indulge her every fantasy devolves into a three-ring circus of sexual acrobatics. By the time Chris, Prada and Bret return to her life, and Nia must make some real-life decisions with real-life consequences, the reader is numb and ready to go home.

More debauched soft pornography than tantric sexual quest.