Cuándo lo leí hace ya muchos años, me gusto muchísimo la historia. ( )

Not my thing. ( )

Extremely kinky BDSM without much else. ( )

A lot better to read than "O", but started to get very boring and repetitious towards the latter half of the boook, right after the Bridle Path games. Prince Alexei's never ending story takes up way too much time, and I found myself skipping through it. Unless you are a fan of hearing how slaves are forces to submit and have their will broken (ok if told in a few pages, but 30 pages is way too much!)then you will enjoy the last half of the book. In any case, it was an interesting twist on the Sleeping Beauty story--but I will not be reading books 2 and 3. I read the synopsis on Wikipedia and that was enough for me. ( )

This book simultaneously terrified and enraptured me. It was like a train wreck that you can't look away from but still feel icky looking at. My face was painted with a look of horror and disgust at every turn of the page.

People seem to have very strong feelings about this book, me included. First off, I read lots of reviews about this book prior to reading. I felt the need to prepare myself for what was inside. Second, the writing style is that of a fairy tale; its a literary device here and it works. Just know that this isn't your run-of-the-mill read. Third, I will be finishing the series but I need to mentally prepare myself.

This is VIOLENT, ABUSIVE, BDSM erotica, which is definitely not appealing to me, might be for others - definitely not my jam. BUT, Sleeping Beauty is "sexually awakened" in the most violent of ways and eventually finds agency in owning her sexuality after the most ridiculous sexual humiliation and abuse, making the story, as a whole, a little easier to swallow. Throughout the entire book I kept thinking: this has to get better for this girl, and it does, sort of. The crux of this story is Beauty finding herself, owning herself.

You won't get much depth here in the way of spice, but I think that's the point especially considering Rice's use of the fairy tale-esque language. The "spice," if it can even be called that, isn't central to the moral of the story and it takes a back seat to the actual point of the story thanks to Rice's crafty use fairy tale style writing. It softens the blow of the abuse and casts the actions of the characters in the most innocent light. It's almost comical - ALMOST.

Anne Rice had an interesting mind and this is one book that makes me wish she was still around so that I could talk to her about it over coffee. An interesting read if you've the stomach for it. ( )