BOOK REVIEW: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983)

Author:  A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)
Year Published:  1983
Genre:  erotica

QUICK RECAP: Beauty has been sleeping for 100 years & gets raped by her “prince charming” and voila, she wakes up! She’s brought to his kingdom (naked and constantly humiliated all throughout the journey) and was introduced to this world of sex slavery and BDSM.

All throughout, Beauty gets to be degraded, used & abused in every way by the Queen and down to lowliest of servants in the kitchen/servant’s hall. Beauty offers her never-ending loyalty to her Prince, falls in love with Prince Alexi, gets mesmerized by her Lady Julianna, and becomes awestruck with the Queen. Yeah… We might have an idea that Beauty is not exactly a stick-to-one kind of gal.

THE VERDICT:

Weird. Degrading. Weird. Just weird. Oh and yeah, you might think it’s really weird. I guess you wouldn’t understand/appreciate this book if you’re not really into BDSM because this is total icky slave humiliation and “training” stuff (which some would probably love).

This book would be okay IF the slaves signed up for that “sex-slavery training” willingly… but in the story, they were gathered from their kingdoms and brought into all this stuff, not of their own free will. So if you consider everything that happened to the princes and princesses, it’s rape, inhumane treatment, “animal” cruelty since they were treated as animals, and other taboo stuff. And yet, while it is weird and icky, you can’t deny Anne Rice’s ability to make anything sensual. Also she delves into human psychology and desire. You find yourself wanting to try to understand why slavery/dominance is appealing to others. How they think and feel at the moment. And though there are A LOT of scenes that weirded me out, it’s the struggle of Beauty to understand why her abject predicament suddenly feels right to her, that caught my interest. That even when her mind says no, her body betrays her…

Once you get past the initial shock and barf-inducing laughable scenes, or if you found yourself skipping through paragraphs, then you’ll realize it’s not that bad. But it’s just not that good as well. Basically it’s weird and gross. lol


I didn’t like it, but I didn’t hate it. Despite of the WTF moments in the book, Anne is known for her talent in sensuality and erotica but this is not for me. I’m not squeamish or anything, I just didn’t like it. But I didn’t stop bec. there’s a mystery behind the story and I kept thinking Anne would redeem herself in the next installment.


MY RATING: 2/5 - recommended to those who appreciate erotica, but to the squeamish, conservative types, please be warned.

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