Book Review: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty, #1)

About The Book:

  Title: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty, #1) 

  Author: A.N. Roquelaure (Pseudonym), Anne Rice 
  Pub. Date: May 1st, 1999 
  Publisher: Penguin Books  
  Pages: 253  

  Genre: Erotica, Fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Fairy Tales 

  Rate: 1/5 stars

Synopsis :

From bestselling author Anne Rice, writing as A.N. Roquelaure. In the traditional folktale of 'Sleeping Beauty,' the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. It is an ancient story, one that originally emerged from and still deeply disturbs the mind's unconscious. Now Anne Rice's retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire. Here the Prince reawakens Beauty, not with a kiss, but with sexual initiation. His reward for ending the hundred years of enchantment is Beauty's complete and total enslavement to him as Anne Rice explores the world of erotic yearning and fantasy in a classic that becomes, with her skillful pen, a compelling experience.

Review:

For all of you fans of fairytale retellings, I'm willing to bet that this book is not for you. Yes I loved ACOTAR and I loved The Lunar Chronicles just as much as the next person, but this takes retellings to a new level. I originally picked this up because I also have read erotica that I like, and I thought why not combine them together? What could go wrong? Well this is the actual perfect example of what could go wrong.

Basically, in this retelling the "prince" wakes up beauty with sexual intercourse and then takes her as his sex slave. Are you not convinced that this is kind of weird yet? Ok - well after the prince takes Beauty back to his palace we find out that the palace is full of a bunch of other sex slaves taken from other kingdoms. They don't belong to the prince, they belong to his subjects - in fact, Beauty is the prince's FIRST sex slave. So his mom has to instruct him on how to keep a sex slave...

Basically I don't even know how else to describe this book without making it sound weird. Did I know what it was about going into it? Yes. I just thought it would be more romantic. Anne Rice is a romantic writer. This was just awkward. If you are curious about this book, you could try it out, or if you're bored, might I recommend reading some reviews on Goodreads. Honestly, they are quite hilarious. And next time you want to make fun of the BDSM relationship that Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele have - just remember that there is much worse out there ... much, much worse (and yes, it is possible). I know, it surprised me too! 

- Jocelyn