meganbmoore: (author said what?)
[personal profile] meganbmoore

You lot have no idea how much you owe me for writing this up for you.

Nora Buckley is a 40-something mother of two who has just learned that her husband is cheating on her with a girl barely older than their daughter. Nora, of course, is utterly the victim here. Now, let me explain something real quick. I despise cheating. Any canon that encourages the idea of cheating as being ok or an “improvement” on the status quo loses any respect I may have had for it. Don’t even get me started on fanon cheating. IMO, cheating on your significant other is just another form of psychological abuse, in addition to a betrayal. And yet, I can’t remotely sympathize with Nora. Why?

The woman was an utter doormat. She never tried to have any life or identity outside of being a spouse and mother. She never stood up for herself, nor is it indicated that she ever even indicated to her husband that she might want to do more than sit at home and bake cookies. The only indication that she ever tried to assert herself was that one time she wanted to try something other than the missionary position. This is both the ultimate proof of her oppression, and the sign of her husband’s Supreme Evilness. Please note that he, of course, is portrayed as irredeemably evil from the start. Not helping matters is the fact that Bertrice Small’s leads-especially her self-inserts female leads-are some of the most amazingly unlikable characters I have ever encountered in fiction. I always root for the evil women out to destroy the good guys, or the pitiful ones who are ruled by their Evil Sexuality. (Any woman other than the heroine who likes sex is always evil or weak.)

I claim no responsibility for any mental scarring should you continue reading this post.

So, new girlfriend wants to get married. Hubby wants a divorce. Nora angsts. Nora’s buddies go “Hey! We have a great solution!” and tell her about something called The Channel, where women can sign up and then they fall asleep in front of the TV and then go off to a magical land with unicorns that fart rainbows a place where their every sexual fantasy is fulfilled.

Naturally, 40-something women can’t become strong or assertive, much less have sex with young studs, so in The Channel, Nora is transformed into a 30-year-old with a fabulous bod. Inside The Channel, she gets a pair of boytoys whose names I can’t remember and they have threesomes involving everything Small can think of. Boytoy A is instantly in love with Nora and jealous of the idea of anyone else being near her. Boytoy B is weird and kinky (but gives great orgasms, of course) and bisexual. Nora later sells him to another of The Channel’s boytoys because she realizes he might like Boytoy A, and Boytoy A is her pet. 

Nora’s ultimate acts against hubby? The first is to stay in The Channel for weeks, causing her body to lapse into a coma, fudging hubby’s evil plans as he can’t finish the divorce proceedings and marry his girlfriend anymore. The second is her deciding that the new girlfriend is a stupid twit who just needs a better sex partner to fix her life “misguided” and arranges for her to visit The Channel and gain agency and a spine and better judgment through meaningless sex. Naturally, girlie only likes really kinky sex. The kinky sex does give her the “strength” to break it off with hubby, but not before he almost kills her.

In the end, Nora gets to be in charge of The Channel and keep Boytoy A. Boytoy B is never heard from again after Nora sells him.

I will admit, Small isn’t as rabidly homophobic here as she is elsewhere, or as “any female sexuality not the heroine’s is evil.” Nora’s friends use The Channel (one of them actually briefly trades partners with Nora for restaurant sex) without being vilified. Never mind that, as we do learn that the channel is “real” they’re cheating on their husbands, who are apparently largely pretty decent guys. There’s also less “homosexuality is evil and bisexuality doesn’t exist.” Nora is actually interested in seeing her boytoys together, before she gets jealous realizing that Boytoy B may actually like Boytoy A, and also that Boytoy A doesn’t hate it. In addition, Nora expresses an interest in a threesome with a maid. In virtually every other Bertrice Small book I’ve encountered, females being sexually interested in other females was the ultimate sign of evil.

Yeah, I know, even this makes you want to curl up into a ball and die. But you know, it really is an improvement. Trust me. And hey, at least there wasn’t nearly as much room for her normal skeevy race issues. If only because Nora’s fantasy apparently wasn’t to be abducted into a harem and seduce a kinky sheik to monogamy with her European purity. (Any kinky sheiks who aren’t seduced into monogamy by European purity are Evil, in Small’s world.) 

ETA:  To clarify on the selling of Boytoy B:  Nora gives him to girlfriend's boytoy in exchange for his making sure girlfriend will will dump hubby for not being as good in bed when she gets back to reality. 


 Off to cleanse my brain.  I demand internet chocolate and such.

Date: 2008-11-02 10:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] crystal-hoser.livejournal.com
...What? I-I think my brain just broke.

Date: 2008-11-02 10:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Oh, you know it did. It's just too broken to fully process the trauma. The question is: how long did it take for it to break?

Date: 2008-11-02 10:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] keelieinblack.livejournal.com
My god, I think you deserve daily internet chocolate for suffering through this one. Especially if the sex scenes are just as bad and laughable as Small's tend to be.

In the fine tradition of Twilight, so many parts of this sound like the basis for a novel that's really grim and psychologically disturbing. I kind of wish that one existed instead of this one.

Date: 2008-11-02 10:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Yeah. Even making the husband an actual villain or character instead of a cartoon would have helped. (And yes, the sex scenes were just as bad. The only improvement being that even she seems to realize that some terms should stay out of contemporary romances.)

Date: 2008-11-02 10:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] magicnoire.livejournal.com
W-wait. The husband tried to kill the girlfriend?

Date: 2008-11-02 10:29 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
She told him he was no good in bed and he went insane with rage.








Yeah.

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From: [identity profile] lady-ganesh.livejournal.com - Date: 2008-11-03 03:34 am (UTC) - Expand

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From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com - Date: 2008-11-03 03:36 am (UTC) - Expand

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Date: 2008-11-02 10:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] seriousfic.livejournal.com
Ahh, nothing like a big steaming heap of "when men cheat, it's because they're monstrous bastards, but when women cheat, it's because their needs aren't satisfied" to ping the ol' "i r teh feminist" meter. Sigh.

Sadly, the notion of "the Channel" sounds like a good way to explore the lines of emotional infidelity. What's to separate it from a husband reading Playboy? And what's to separate him from a man who actually goes out and has sex with his secretary? It sounds like instead of exploring those questions, the author just LKHs it up.

Date: 2008-11-02 10:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
yup. There are ways it could be good, and yet...

Date: 2008-11-02 10:45 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alexandral.livejournal.com
This is so Horrid!!!!!! I feel dirty!!

Date: 2008-11-02 10:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Imagine surviving the 300 page version, as opposed to the 1 1/2 page version.

Date: 2008-11-02 10:58 pm (UTC)
ext_32070: (Default)
From: [identity profile] escalove.livejournal.com
I suddenly feel terribly unclean.

You know, I am sure Boytoy B is thankful for being out of the book for the end. I don't feel quite as bad for him, save for the selling part.

Date: 2008-11-02 11:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
He and the boytoy he was sold to do seem to have similar...preferences (not referring to gender, btw) at least. And the other boytoy did ask for him.

Date: 2008-11-02 11:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] irysangel.livejournal.com
I just...I...

Magic TV land?

Pardon me, I'm still blinking.

Date: 2008-11-02 11:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
I KNOW!!!! Like, it's actually a plot point that she's worried that her kids will come home and see The Channel on her TV.

Date: 2008-11-02 11:08 pm (UTC)

Date: 2008-11-02 11:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kingcrankycat.livejournal.com
I'm curious what it says about me that the part I latched on to is the bit where her going into a coma prevents the divorce papers from going through? This doesn't work legally as -- depending on the circumstances -- he could have her 'sign' the papers by taking up power-of-attorney and confirming the divorce himself (although a good lawyer could easily subvert that), or (if she named her parents POA, for instance) have her declared a burden of the State (that's not the legal term) and nullify the marriage entirely. There are several more options than that open, too.

As for the rest, I will now purge it with a healthy dose of TiVoed "House" and "Life" episodes.

Date: 2008-11-03 01:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Yeah, that part didn't sit well with me for the same reasons, but it wasn't shining as brightly in the trainwreck.

Date: 2008-11-02 11:27 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] xplodey-di.livejournal.com
...baaaaaaaahahahhahaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Date: 2008-11-02 11:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] the-sun-is-up.livejournal.com
I think my face is stuck like this --> o_O

HOW MANY OF THIS WOMAN'S BOOKS HAVE YOU READ??? AND WHYYYY?

Date: 2008-11-03 01:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
I DON'T KNOW!!!

It's like a disease. Normally I just skim them for the WTF, but since I actually posted on this one...

Date: 2008-11-02 11:44 pm (UTC)
ext_12512: Hinoe from Natsume Yuujinchou, elegant and smirky (Default)
From: [identity profile] smillaraaq.livejournal.com
Wow, that's some SPESHUL crack she's smoking. You poor thing. Here, have some truffles in the coolest box ever (http://www.zchocolat.com/images/products/o-103-zb.jpg)...

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From: [identity profile] lady-ganesh.livejournal.com - Date: 2008-11-03 03:35 am (UTC) - Expand

Date: 2008-11-03 01:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fairest1.livejournal.com
So, uh.

Did she have sex with a virtual reality program?

Date: 2008-11-03 01:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
No. We eventually learn that the boytoys are real men.

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From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com - Date: 2008-11-03 03:38 am (UTC) - Expand

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Date: 2008-11-03 02:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] animeshon.livejournal.com
I'm almost tempted to read this simple cause BoytoyB but I don't think I could manage it :(

Date: 2008-11-03 03:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ryanitenebrae.livejournal.com
Oh . . . Oh my God. This is actually worse than the woman with the ferrets and the crossdressing and the Native Americans . . .

Date: 2008-11-03 03:23 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lotuseyes.livejournal.com
would that be Cassie Edwards? XD I seem to remember that she also had some...ridiculous novels out there as well.

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Date: 2008-11-03 03:20 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lotuseyes.livejournal.com
::hands you a lifetime supply of internet chocolate:: I tried to read a Small book once--because the covers are damned pretty at times, but I think I read the backcover and dropped it in utter horror.

Date: 2008-11-03 03:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
The back covers are tame in comparison.

Date: 2008-11-03 04:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com
My horror at this plot is beyond language, beyond anything, really. But she must have started off as a normal romance writer, right? Or did she leap right into this sort of stuff as soon as she set pen to paper?

Date: 2008-11-03 04:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
he started out with this stuff, only in the form of historical Mary Sue smutfic.

IMs?

Date: 2008-11-03 04:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] redbrunja.livejournal.com
Oh. My. Fucking. God.

What the hell?

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Date: 2008-11-03 05:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] badtzphoto.livejournal.com
ick. I'm sorry that you had to read it and write to review, too.

Is this "Chocolate Cups with White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse and Raspberry Sauce "Image good enough?

Date: 2008-11-03 05:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
mmmmm

Now, just find a way to get the real version to me in Texas.

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Date: 2008-11-03 07:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] logically.livejournal.com
Someone just honestly recommended one of her books to me at work.

I think I'll pass, since I'm rough on the genre to begin with. >>; Thanks for the warning.

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