Bill
I would give this closer to 3.5/3.75 if I could, but this is almost like reading two books, and everything from the house's POV is the book I wanted to be reading. Moments of real writerly greatness and moments of real YA romp, I wasn't sure what audience this book was leaning into. It felt like a fairy tale but not the refined kind, until you get to the house's POV.
no one in this book has a discernible human emotion at any moment, and i think there's a built in structure where if you think this book sucks it's because you're judging the characters for their absolute batshit behavior, which in most cases i would say is true. but here it's just absolutely unrecognizable action and reaction, stuck between meandering purple prose paragraphs where not one of the philosophical ideas about submission and desire sticks the landing. these are not serious people. the only moment of reality comes when fatima starts asking eve what the fuck her dumb rich white ass is doing defending this absolute manipulative monster of a man simply because she likes being dicked down and degraded by him. i cannot in any way recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading because it might turn you against all literature. also the last line being like “he was the greatest act of service i had ever received” REALLY? we're gonna end the book with the title? GROW UP!
