Now, I have never actually read an entire straight erotica novel. I have read gay erotica novels/high spice romance novels, but straight erotic is obviously not my cup of tea. Honestly, neither is BDSM. I am not offended by it, or grossed out by it, but as far as interests go for me personally, it really isn't on the list. So Vamp is my first. I know it won't be my last, because I do plan on reading the other "A Vivid Girl Novel" books, but I don't think I am going to be using this book as a benchmark as to hold all straight BDSM erotica to.
So, I finished reading Vamp. It took everything in me to push through the never ending orgy that was those last four chapters to get to an ending that felt like such a shrug. I should mention, these chapters are all around 20 pages long, and those last four are a continuous orgy, with one snack break and an awards ceremony thrown in to give everyone involved a rest. This book, while fun to read due to some of the insane writing choices made, was pretty much everything I don't like about erotica magnified. Repetitive sex scenes padding out a thin plot driven by inconsistent and flat characters. Yes, there are a few interesting ideas and scenes sprinkled through out the 272 page length, but the majority of the book is a rinse and repeat of the same sex scenes with different window dressing to try and spice them up.
I do think I figured out who the book is written for, and why this line of books may have not done so well. I think this book was written for male fans of Savanna Samson (or whoever the cover contract performer is for the other books), who wanted to read a story where they got to spend a wild night with their favorite porn star. Here is the problem. Straight guys are generally not the audience who picks up these books, and if they did somehow decide to pick this one up, they would have to push through over 200 pages before Savanna even gets to show up. When she does finally show up she just does the exact same thing that every other woman in the book has done, but now with more commanding dialogue. They would be much better off watching one of her movies.
I could be wrong, though. This book could totally have been intended for a female audience. Either way, it doesn't really appear that these books found any audience in the long run.
Obviously, I didn't like this book. Somehow, though, I did manage to enjoy reading it. I mean, I for sure skimmed through some of the humping and bumping, because if you read one double penetration you've read them all, but the dialogue and inconsistent characters were sometimes laugh out loud hilarious. Also, the mere physicality required to perform some of the sex acts described in the book would require near contortionist levels of flexibility. Part of me wondered if everyone in Vamp was part of the weird race of humanoids from Brian Yuzna's cult classic Society.
However, as much as I got a kick out of reading Vamp I can't recommend this book. At least not without a hefty warning. The book deals with BDSM, and not always in a responsible way. Namely, it really does very little to cover consent in the BDSM world. While I understand for pacing purposes a lot of stuff is glossed over leading up the sex scenes (like how everyone is just ready for anal at the drop of a hat), but this book committed a pretty big sin. There is a scene about 70 pages in this book where consent is so dubious, I nearly put the book down for good. The non-detailed version is basically a flashback where Sergio assumes that the woman he is with is enjoying herself, even though everything else he is telling us is making clear the she is really not enjoying herself. It felt so cruel and gross. I am going to go into a bit more detail in the next paragraph, but I'll bracket that with a spoiler tag just in case anyone wants to read Vamp or more importantly may be triggered by descriptions of sexual violence. I do promise not to go into great detail, though.
SPOILERS START
About 70 pages into the book Sergio recounts a series of sexual encounters with a fellow college classmate back when he was younger. A good deal of this involves him demeaning her, or treating her poorly. One of these scenes involves him getting jealous of her getting attention from other men at a club. He then takes her home, ties her up, and makes her perform a sexual act on him while he humiliates and degrades her. At no point is it ever described that she had consented to this kind of sexual activity, or that she was okay with humiliation or bondage play. In fact, the way the scene is written I feel it is pretty clear that she really was not loving what was going on. The whole flashback culminates in him essentially forcing her to have anal sex with him on a balcony. The way it was written had a very disgusting "Her mouth says no, but her body says yes" vibe, and it honestly made me ill. This book is supposed to turn people on it, is the crowd that loves crying and begging for someone to stop really the crowd that you want to be catering to?
This story, and these scenes have NO baring on the rest of the plot, and could have been easily taken out. I honestly believe they were left in to give the book, and Sergio, a harder edge. There are moments later where he whips out some true blue 1970's misogynistic porn dialogue that feels completely out of left field. The rest of the book Sergio speaks like he is tripping on something at a Yoga retreat. He's all about being in the now, and finding his desire, blah blah blah. It was just weird, and REALLY uncomfortable to read.
END SPOILERS
Now, do I think Vamp is a lost cause? No. Like I said, there is humor to be found in this book, and the writing does clip along. I also don't think the concept of the magical sex club is a bad one. I think it could have been executed better, but there were some moments that actually worked. When I say they worked, I don't just mean the story telling content worked, but also the erotic content. This book is erotica, and the purpose of the book is to be exciting and arousing for the reader. While I wasn't personally popping a cold sweat while reading, I could see the merit in some of the material. The issue is the same issue I have had with numerous erotica novels I have attempted to read in the past, the sex becomes repetitive, and therefor, not exciting to read. It is even worse when the characters have no real emotional involvement.
Vamp involves Sergio engaging in a series of sexual encounters with various women across various rooms. Yes, the end goal is Savanna, the witch in search of her lost love, but even when we get to her, she isn't really a person that Sergio has connected to. He claims he feels connected to her, but outside of being connected by virtue of penetration, there is no moment where we feel them actually connect. So the big, for lack of a better term, climax of the book where he gets to meet the woman who may or may not be his long lost live is kind of just more of what we had read before.
This book is also WAY too long. There are whole chapters that could be taken out of this book, and the story would not be changed in the slightest. A story like the one told in Vamp really would benefit from the novella length. Slimming down the story, and in turn the repetitive sexual encounters, would make the encounters more exciting and enticing for the reader. Sliming down the cast would also probably help as well, as this book includes so many random sexual encounters that when we get to the character we are supposed to be lusting after, she just kind of blends into the background.
I do have to point out that my complaints may not be completely the writer's fault at all. There is a good chance that the woman who wrote this book had a set of rules that she had to follow that dictated how frequently the book had to include sex scenes. It very well may have been that each chapter had to include at least one full sex scene. There is also a good chance that the novels length was a requirement as well. This book was published in 2005, when traditional publishing favored longer books. The option for digital publishing was around, but that was in the early days of eReaders and smart phones. So, when you don't have enough story to sustain a larger wordcount, you pad.
Partially why I feel this is the case is because some of the chapters later in the book feel rushed. There is less build up to what the scene is supposed to be, and we just start the chapter with the characters in the room and fully accepting what they are about to participate in. These chapters felt the most copy pasted.
Alright, enough rambling about Vamp. Let me sum this up.
Was it a good book? Not really.
Did it work as erotica? Might have for someone, but I found it kind of dull and unoriginal.
Would I recommend it? No. The inclusion of what basically felt like a sexual assault in what is supposed to be a book about sexual pleasure soured what could have been a campy, perverted romp.
Overall, the book gets ** 1/2 stars out of *****
It isn't unreadable, and as on odd piece of media tie-in history it is interesting, but overall it fell flat.
I am going to give erotica a break for the next book I'm reading, and check out Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. The book is actually one of the office's book club picks, so those always turn out to be interesting. It'll be a nice change of pace from Vamp.
Signing off for now! See you next time.
-R.Rose
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