A bizarre tale that presses buttons—but perhaps not the ones that typical readers of erotica might hope for.
A problematically perverse erotic thriller.
As if the geopolitical situation of the Middle East were not already rife with literary possibility, this debut novel incorporates aliens, vampires, a talking dog, and page after page of disturbingly rendered nonconsensual sex into a tale centering on the titular undead al-Qaida leader. Although the industry standards of erotica usually exclude rape scenes, here they serve as incremental actions moving the plot forward, beginning with bin Laden’s rape of a deep-sea diver who recovers his corpse and unwittingly unleashes his sexually insatiable spirit upon the world. Bin Laden, as imagined here, is a man of unparalleled might who has sex with virtually every character he meets, drawing power from them as he forces them into submission. Meanwhile, Janet, a young woman who can talk to ghosts, works with the U.S. government to bring him down, and she receives help from the ghost of Naughty Bitch, a dog who, after being raped by a still-living bin Laden, jumped off a cliff in order to escape him. Admittedly, the sheer absurdity of the novel’s plot and concept may hold a sort of camp appeal, and fans of black humor may laugh at bin Laden’s insecurity about the size of his penis and his guileless, broken English. The characters’ logic may also amuse; for example, one of bin Laden’s willing sexual partners reasons: “OK, I will try because I want to be a celebrity who fucked bin Laden’s ghost.” That said, if erotic fiction’s central aim is to arouse, this book doesn’t fulfill that requirement. Although the content may be shocking and even offensive, its overall lack of nuance makes it more funny than sexy, and it’s more likely to stir outrage than desire.
A bizarre tale that presses buttons—but perhaps not the ones that typical readers of erotica might hope for.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2013
ISBN: 978-1490372099
Page Count: 280
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 24, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Michaels’s fan base isn’t likely to be increased by this improbable distaff pastiche of Mission: Impossible.
The Sisterhood takes on yet another evildoer in their endless quest to right wrongs against unjustly maligned women.
Architect Isabelle Flanders’s life was destroyed when her coldly ambitious employee Rosemary Hershey framed her for vehicular manslaughter and stole her ideas and her fiancé Bobby Harcourt. Now the Sisterhood (The Jury, 2005, etc.) has devised a diabolical plan to help her get revenge and recover her reputation. Wealthy Sisterhood stalwart Myra Rutledge installs Isabelle in a luxurious office and buys a Virginia property to set up a bogus contest in which local architects will be invited to design a sumptuous horse farm, planning to make Isabelle and Rosemary the only finalists. Meanwhile, Bobby, long fed up with Rosemary’s greed, sues for divorce, planning to start his own architectural firm. Rosemary, who’s receiving anonymous letters reminding her that it was she and not innocent Isabelle who ran down and killed a family, is sinking into a funk as the Sisterhood increases the pressure. A rainy night in a cemetery, bogus snakes and a broken rope finally get Rosemary to confess and leave the Sisterhood ready to plot their next adventure.
Michaels’s fan base isn’t likely to be increased by this improbable distaff pastiche of Mission: Impossible.Pub Date: April 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-7278-6349-5
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Severn House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2006
It’s difficult to drum up sympathy for this missing child, swaddled as she is in such a dull and harmless plot.
A questionable decision leaves a couple in a situation no parent wants to face: it’s the middle of the night and their baby is gone.
Anne and Marco Conti seem like the perfect upstate New York family. He runs a successful software development company while she stays home with 6-month-old Cora; maybe soon she’ll go back to work at the art gallery she loved. Yet looks are deceiving: his company is floundering, and she’s struggling with postpartum depression. A nice night out at a neighbor’s birthday party might be just the thing everyone needs. But when the babysitter cancels, Anne and Marco decide to leave Cora alone, taking the baby monitor with them and checking on her every half hour. This ends predictably badly. When they return, drunk, after 1:00 a.m., Cora is gone. What ensues is a paint-by-numbers police investigation, led by the personality-free Detective Rasbach, who seems to cycle through potential theories as to Cora’s whereabouts the same way Lapena must have in her early plotting stages, except it all ended up on the page. When it’s clear, or at least partially clear, what happened to the child, any remaining tension hisses out like a pricked balloon. Anne’s wealthy mother and stepfather seem a too-obvious plot device, and they are, while her issues with the very real problem of postpartum depression are merely glossed over or trotted out during faux-fiery monologues.
It’s difficult to drum up sympathy for this missing child, swaddled as she is in such a dull and harmless plot.Pub Date: Aug. 23, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2108-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
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