As Blume says,

This book was first published in 1975. My daughter Randy asked for a story about two nice kids who have sex without either of them having to die. She had read several novels about teenagers in love. If they had sex the girl was always punished—an unplanned pregnancy, a hasty trip to a relative in another state, a grisly abortion (illegal in the U.S. until the 1970′s), sometimes even death. Lies. Secrets. At least one life ruined. Girls in these books had no sexual feelings and boys had no feelings other than sexual. Neither took responsibility for their actions. I wanted to present another kind of story—one in which two seniors in high school fall in love, decide together to have sex, and act responsibly.

This was the cover I had:

That’s Katherine Danziger, a New Jersey suburb high school senior. Look at that blond hair! That pert nose! And that locket? That’s from her boyfriend Michael, a high school senior in the next town. In the book, the necklace was a silver disk that was engraved with “Katherine” on the front, and “Michael …  Forever” on the back. *swoon*

Here’s the first page or so:

Sybil Davison has a genius I.Q. and has been laid by at least six different guys. She told me herself, the last time she was visiting her cousin, Erica, who is my good friend. Erica says this is because of Sybil’s fat problem and her need to feel loved — the getting laid part, that is. The genius I.Q. is just luck or genes or something. I’m not sure that either explanation is 100 percent right but generally Erica is very good at analyzing people.

I don’t know Sybil that well since she lives in Summit and we live in Westfield. Erica and I decided to go to her Ne w Year’s party at the last minute for two reasons — one, because that’s when she invited us, and, two, we had noth¬ing better to do.

It turned out to be a fondue party. There were maybe twenty of us sitting on the floor around a low table in Sybil’s family room. On the table were a couple of big pots of steaming liquid Swiss cheese and baskets of bread chunks. Each of us had a long two-pronged fork, to spear the bread, then dip it into the cheese. It tasted pretty good. I had gotten about two bites when this guy said, “You’ve got some on your chin.”

He was on Erica’s other side, sort of leaning across her. “You want me to wipe it off?” He held out his napkin.

I couldn’t tell if he was putting me on or what. So I told him, “I can wipe my own chin,” and I tried to swallow the bread that was still in my mouth.

“I’m Michael Wagner,” he said.

“So?” I answered, as Erica shot me a look.

She introduced herself to Michael, then tapped me on the head and said, “This idiot is my friend, Katherine. Don’t mind her . . . she’s a little strange.”

“I noticed,” Michael said. He wore glasses, had a lot of reddish-blond hair and a small mole on his left cheek. For some crazy reason I thought about touching it.

Forever, which deals frankly sexual intercourse, birth control, pregnancy, and STDs, was met with controversy when it was published, and continues to face censorship threats (as recently as 2010 in Florida). It is a relatively short, simple story, with a tight focus on Kath and Michael’s romance, beginning New Year’s Eve their senior year of high school, and ending that summer. Forever is written in the first person, from Kath’s point of view. Back then, she functioned, for me (like her, a white heterosexual suburban girl), as a bit of a placeholder. Rereading it, I can see that Kath is sensible, cautious, caring, and average in intelligence and ability. She’s a tennis player, a modern dancer, and a candy striper. Rereading it, a line stood out that I had not remembered. When Michael’s father asks her what she wants to do, she answers:

“I want to be happy,” I told him. “And make other people happy too.”

Kath has a loving, intact nuclear family: mom is a children’s librarian, dad is a pharmacist, and little sis Jamie is an artistic prodigy. Her grandmother and grandfather are lawyers, but “Grandma is too busy with politics and Planned Parenthood and NOW to see many clients.” When Michael first meets her family, they are hooking a rug together. The walls are painted white (this was unusual in the US in the 70s, when wallpaper was the thing), and Jamie’s art hangs everywhere.

I read Forever in seventh grade, when I was struggling with my own family issues. I envied, really envied with a force I could practically taste, Kath and her perfect family. On a reread, I thought the Danzigers might come off as too perfect, and I guess to some they will. But I think the close relationship worked for the story. The tension when Katherine disagreed with her parents over her relationship with Michael was real, and I loved it that it was hearing her mother making love that led Kath to expect and work for her own sexual pleasure:

and I moved with him, again and again and again—and at last, I came. I came right before Michael and as I did I made noises, just like my mother. Michael did too.

It’s true that there are many references in Forever that date it. I’ve already mentioned hooking rugs. On their first date, Katherine dresses carefully, 1970s style:

Jamie had embroidered my jeans with tiny mushrooms and I’d bought a light blue sweater to go with them.

Michael and Katherine are “going together”, not “dating.” They “make out.” They play “records” at a “fondue party.” The big fear is pregnancy, not so much STDs, and instead of “STD” or “STI”, we have “the clap.” No HIV, of course. The funniest bit is that Mr. Danziger has to restrict the girls to 15 minutes each on the phone, to give everybody a turn! I doubt teens today can fathom having to wait for someone to get off the phone.

One very depressing element of reading Forever is the sense you get reading it that the characters believe that battles over abortion, birth control and the sexual double standard have been won. Kath and her friend speak bluntly and unselfconsciously of getting an abortion if they need one, and there is no sense of shame, worry about parental consent laws, discussion of how to find clinics, or concerns about get around clinic protesters. When Katherine needs birth control, a Planned Parenthood is easy to find. When one of their friends becomes pregnant and decides to continue with the pregnancy, it’s about “wanting to have the experience”, not an objection to abortion. As Kath says,

In the old days girls were divided into two groups—those who did and those who didn’t. My mother told me that. Nice girls didn’t, naturally. They were the ones boys wanted to marry. I’m glad those days are over but I still get angry when older people assume that everyone in my generation screws around.

One thing that everyone remembers about Forever is that Michael calls his penis “Ralph.” From a 2005 interview:

But for those of us who grew up with it, its significance can perhaps best be measured by one odd and lasting side-effect of its popularity: the consigning of the name Ralph – which is what Michael memorably decides to name his penis – to the dustbin of history. “I’ve heard from several young men who say: ‘Judy, how could you do this to me?’” Blume admits. “I apologise to all of them. It’s nothing personal.”

Honestly, it is silly, but Kath and Michael know it’s silly. And, as a romance reader, I have seen much, much worse when it comes to the personification of a penis. Michael is more insistent and motivated to have sex than Kath, but it comes off as less of a gender thing than a reflection of their different personalities. Michael is a little wilder, a little more experienced, an occasional pot smoker with a messy room. Katherine is the classic older child –  organized, responsible, thoughtful — but her sexual desire is just as strong.

The sex itself is not particularly titillating. Michael has age-appropriate trouble with patience, and there’s a lot of fumbling for both of them. It’s a fairly conservative book in that sex is viewed by pretty much everyone as something to do with someone you care about, never just for pleasure.

The portrayal of their relationship is absolutely sweet, genuine, and heartbreaking, from the moment Michael wipes the fondue off Kath’s chin at the New Years party, to their angry breakup in a motel that summer.  It took me right back to that blind intensity of first love. It’s a spare book in many ways –  mostly dialogue, action statements, and stylistically it sometimes reads almost like a newspaper article — but Blume manages to work in some, erm, motifs that work really well to add emotional resonance. The title “Forever” is put to wonderful use. Kath notices a question on a pamphlet, “Have you thought about how this relationship will end?” that comes back to haunt her. And, reading it as an adult, I noticed the way death – the death of Kath’s grandparents — serves as a counterpoint to any dreams of “forever” for mere mortals.

There is also a friend of Michael’s, Artie, who suffers from depression and attempts suicide. I had completely forgotten about Artie. While his plight adds some tragic depth to the story, his character is not really fleshed out. There are no non-white, non-middle class, or non-heterosexual characters, and although most of the characters are Jewish, this is never mentioned explicitly in the text. Sybil’s “fat problem” is pretty callously described a few times in the text, another reminder of how things have changed. I would not expect that with a YA novel today (but could be way off base on that). It’s interesting that when this was published there was no YA category. I wonder where it got shelved? Next to Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret?

Katherine, Michael and pretty much everyone in the novel is a model of good behavior. Even the guy Katherine meets (a senior at Northwestern with a mustache!!) at summer camp refuses to kiss her until she breaks it off with Michael. And there’s a good amount of sex ed in the book. So, yes, there is more than a bit of the After School Special here. I could see that annoying some readers, but I honestly felt it worked with the story. Then again, I re-read this book with a lot of nostalgia, so you may not be able to trust anything I write here.

Rereading Forever was a fantastic treat. Unfortunately, there is no digital version of this book. I found my old copy, with sexy pages folded over, in with my junior high yearbooks. Lots of wear and mildew. But what a great evening resulted from that dusty sojourn.

To my great surprise, many of those in attendance have never heard of a Feed Reader. When they want to visit a blog, they just go to the URL. Some of them are on Blogger, and use the Follow function to visit other blogs.

A feed reader is a way to put all the blogs you read in one place. I use Google reader, which allows me to quickly identify every new post. I can favorite posts, email them, etc. If I want to comment, I just click on the post title, and land on the actual blog. There is no commitment to actually reading posts, and the reader is never “full” like some email inboxes. If I’ve been busy or on vacation, I just click “Mark All As Read”.

There are many many feed readers, and, looking at my stats, some of this blog’s visitors are starting to use these other services in larger numbers. These include Feed Demon, NetVibes and Feedly. LifeHacker has a nice post that clearly and helpfully describes the top feed readers.

To “subscribe” to a blog, which means getting new posts in your reader, just click the button:

Click to subscribe to RRR

If you click the link above, you see how many choices there are.

If you are a blogger, I can’t emphasize enough how important it is to make it easy for a reader to find and click your subscription button.

Kristen and I put together some basic blogging tips for the group. Our audience was most interested in attracting readers. They were very excited about reader comments and wanted more. Here’s what we wrote:

How do you attract visitors?

1. Above all, write good content
2. Comment on other blogs in your niche
3. Link to other blogs in your niche (both in posts and in a links list)
4. Write guest posts for other blogs in your niche
5. Respond promptly to any comments
6. Write posts with clear titles, and good “tags”, or “keywords” that make it easier for search engines to find it
7. Link your blog posts to your Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and other social media accounts

For me, the idea is really to focus more on being a good community member.

One of the attendees was a publisher looking for tips for her self-published authors. I’m not sure if she saw my eyes turn black and my fangs descend once I realized I had, in relative captivity, a member of that wild and woolly marketing species known as the “self-published author”, but we definitely took the time to share some author “dos and don’t” from our point of view as book bloggers.

Finally, a librarian informed us that she had secured a grant to loan each library book club member a Nook, loaded with reading selections of their choice. A rep from Barnes & Noble came in to show staff and patrons how to use their borrowed Nooks. I don’t know anything more about the program, but it sounds wonderful.

If you’ve got anything to add, or a difference in opinion, please share. I’ll forward it along to the coordinator.

All of these are films I loved, and still love, films that made a huge impression on me, a very strong reaction I can still summon in the dark recesses of my memory, films I want my kids to see. I’m not claiming these were all great films, and I am not sure I would love each of them as much today as I once did. But, boy, I love(d) them and they mean(t) a lot to me.

Star Wars (1977)

Star Wars gave me an amazing heroine to root for, something I still look for in my fictional pursuits.

Blade Runner (1982)

It wasn’t the action or the violence as much as the question: what makes a human being a person?

The Terminator (1984)

I *did* thrill to the violence in this one, I admit. The scene in the gun store, the scene in the night club … pure awesomeness. But it was the time travel paradox and the way it was wrapped up in a human love story that really interested me. (Road Warrior gets an honorable mention)

Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

I am not a Woody Allen fan, in general. But I love this film, because of Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, and Jerry Orbach. I remember being floored that good did not win out in the end. Evil pays, if you can get away with it. Glaucon posed this challenge to Socrates thousands of years ago. Nietzsche took it up memorably a couple of centuries ago. I think it’s the toughest most interesting question to ask: why be moral?

Wings of Desire (1987)

This film made a bigger impression on me than any film I had seen before or since. Surprisingly, given my love of romance, it wasn’t so much the love story that I was drawn to. I had seen and enjoyed foreign films like My Left Foot, Room with a View, Jean de Florette, etc., but was still pretty new to “foreign film” and “independent cinema”, so there was all of that. Then, the subject matter: angels wandering around Berlin to testify to and preserve reality. Rilke. Finally, the exquisite performance of Bruno Ganz.

The Graduate (1967)

I first saw this in college, around the time of graduation, so it had obvious resonance. I was never thrilled with the portrayal of women in the film, but Dustin Hoffman as Benjamin Braddock just does it for me. In fact, if I had to bring this list down to one, this might be the only movie standing.

The four full length films of Krystof Kieslowski. Love.

No, I don’t think Tom Tykwer is anywhere near as accomplished as some of the other directors on this list, including Kieslowski (Heaven was written by Kieslowski, meaning I was bound to love it), and none of these films, except maybe Winter Sleepers, stands on its own the way the other films do, but when I think about how much enjoyment I’ve gotten out of Tykwer’s body of work, the pleasures in each of these films, however imperfect (one of them being that they each feature very strong women), I have to put them on this list.

The Seventh Seal (1957).

I show this one in Ethics, and have seen it probably thirty times. It never loses its impact. This is the truly existential film of the bunch. Like Crimes and Misdemeanors, another unflinching ending, but with incredible visual impact.

I Heart Huckabees (2004)

I’m a huge fan of the director, David, O. Russell, and I love both Shwartzman and Wahlberg, and god are they funny in this movie. I love, love, love Naomi Watts, and she’s here, too. And the role of a sleazy Wal-mart type executive is perfectly played by Jude Law (an actor I can take or leave depending on the part). I definitely do not watch this movie for the “existential detectives” played by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin. I don’t think there’s an ounce of real philosophy in this movie. I just love it.

Rushmore (1998)

Bill Murray has had a great “later” career, and I love, as you know, Jason Schwartzman. I’ve never understood why Olivia Williams is not a big movie star. This one is another visceral love. I just love everything about this movie, I find it hysterically funny, and sweet and unique. Wes Anderson is a director, like Sofia Coppola, who I love as a director, without actually loving any of his movies…except this one (ok, and Fantastic Mr Fox.)

All About My Mother (1999)

I really like Almodovar, but I have felt emotionally estranged from all of his films. Except this one. Maybe because I saw it right after I had my first child, but I felt that what it had to say about motherhood, about grief, and about friendship was profound. I guess film buffs have lots to say about the intertextual nature of this movie, but for me it was all about the straight ahead drama.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Gene Wilder delivering the line,  “Help. Police. Murder.” when Augustus Gloop fell into the chocolate pretty much makes this movie for me, but there is so much more.  Don’t even talk to me about the remake. It’s all about Gene Wilder. (And Young Frankenstein is a runner up here!)

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

I’m actually not a huge Hepburn fan at all. For me this is all about Cary Grant. The film plots a romance trajectory I really love, even though in the cool hour I recognize problems with the “strong woman brought down to size” trope.

Welp, this is going to have to be enough for now. I’ve left off directors I adore, like Atom Egoyan, Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorcese, John Sayles, Mike Leigh, and Sofia Coppola. I’ve left off movies I really enjoy, some of which are guilty pleasures, such as Dumb and Dumber, Center Stage, Scott Pilgrim, Elf, Zoolander, and Dazed and Confused but that I don’t exactly marvel at. Some great movies aren’t here — Au Revoir Les Enfants, Raise the Red Lantern, Citizen Kane, Blue Velvet, Schindler’s List, etc — because as impressive as they are, they don’t feel like “mine” in the ways these do. And then there’s the large chunk of movies that, in my dotage, I could not bring to mind for the purpose of writing this post.

This post was offbeat, but it felt good to take a bit of a break from books. Thanks for reading!

2. But before that, I’m meeting Kristen of Fantasy Cafe for coffee. We’re giving a talk at our awesome local library on how to have a successful blog. I’m going to focus on the personal and social aspects. More on that next week. I made a joke about it on twitter that got RTd by Juan Cole. My brush with greatness for the week!

3. Speaking of the Bangor Library, they have an awesome book group that meets monthly to talk about “edgy” (mostly genre) fiction, PNR, SFF, YA, straight romance. I’m reading their last month’s choice, A Certain Slant of Light, by Laura Whitcomb, a ghost YA-ish love story, very slowly, but really enjoying it. It’s one of my 2012 goals to actually make it to one of their meetings.

4. I’m also reading, just as slowly, Lily by Patricia Gaffney. Proper review later, but Gaffney is one of those writers you pick up, and say “this is how it’s done”. I just think she is in a class by herself. The Kindle edition is just $2.99 right now.

5. And I’m also reading this PNR/sci fi series by Nina Croft. I plan to review (well, the two books I’ve read) but, while there is nothing new here (basically, it’s a PNR version of Star Wars) it’s a very enjoyable, very fun little series.

6. It was a big week on the blog, thanks wholly to my post on 50 Shades of Grey. Based on my stats — by far, my best days ever –  and the linkage in to RRR, this phenomenon is just getting underway. I’ve decided to create a new blog called “mommieporn”, fill it with ads for (a) sex toys, (b) wrinkle cream, and (c) yoga mats, and write short reviews of self-published erotic romance, the angstier the better.  I’ll be rich in two weeks. (And yes, I find it annoying the way this phenomenon is getting reported. I’m delighted there are women who are feeling “naughty sexy” as a result of reading 50SoG, but many middle aged women readers knew erotic romance quite well before reading this book, and, moreover, felt pretty sexy already, and I wish we heard those voices too.)

7. In the classroom… I just love my classes this semester, making it two semester in a row. I do have some things to work on in feminist philosophy. I’d like a better vibe in the room (the five men all sit in the back, for one thing), and I need to get a better sense of the balance to strike between discussion and lecture. In ethics, we spent some time discussing the Komen fiasco in connection with Kantian moral philosophy, so interms of pedagogy, it was fortuitous timing. I was invited to sit on a master’s committee in English by a student who is working on a feminist analysis of urban fantasy (hopefully that topic will be nice and shrunk by the time she actually writes her proposal). We plan to do an independent study this summer on urban fantasy, which I’m looking forward to as I haven’t read much UF nor have I read much of the critical literature (wonder how much there is?) on UF. My lowest moment was telling a student she was wrong, and then realizing as the words were emerging from my mouth that she wasn’t  (not only was she not wrong, but she had a better and more creative answer than the one I was seeking) and apologizing to her in front of everyone.

8. Most of you know I am married to a historian. Last night my older son said “Philosophy rules, history drools”. My work here is done.

9. I plan to write a review of A Wrinkle in Time, because my younger son and I just read it. Little did I know it is the fiftieth anniversary of its publication. Check out the Book Smugglers list of all the bloggers who are participating. Lurv a la Mode also recently reviewed it.

10. I liked this post from Red Hot Books: Give Readers Some Credit and Stop Working the System. I’ve been talking about this with many readers: we now view “all 5 star” ratings on GR or AZN with deep suspicion, and a lack of range in reader response is a huge red flag. Yes, authors, I’m saying what you think I’m saying: you’ll need to ask your minions to write you some 2 star reviews.

11. I’m definitely going to Book Blogger Con and Book Expo America in New York in June. Recent news (after I registered, naturally) is that the bloggers who founded BBC a couple of years ago have sold it to the company who runs BEA, which has said, “We are pleased to be able to take this responsibility over for them and to build even greater recognition for the Book Blogger Convention by fully merging it with our BEA marketing efforts, programs, and attendee outreach.” Nobody is asking what this means for BBC, to not have the event owned by bloggers, and I don’t want to go to those threads full of “Congratulations!!!!” and be the ant at the garden party by asking this question. All I know is that there is no news at all of speakers or events for BBC, nor of who is going to be putting the event together (will it still be bloggers?). Registration is a complete nightmare, with many bloggers paying different amounts and getting different answers as to why.  Book bloggers are increasingly viewed not as a varied group of independent voices on books with wide ranging agendas, but as marketing tools for publishers. It’s hard for me not to worry a bit about this development given the current climate.

12. I’m sorry there is not more linkage here. I’ve been busy (a sick child in the earlier part of the week, which *should* mean lots of time to get stuff done, but in fact means jumping up every five seconds to fetch something for said child). I’ve also been trying to eat more healthfully which always makes me a complete crank. That said, I’m delighted it’s the weekend and I hope you are too!

13. Go Pats!

I was invited to review Everything I Know About Love, I Learned From Romance Novels by Sarah Wendell for the February issue of Open Letters Monthly, and I did.

PS. If you know a child who likes graphic novels, I’m giving away a copy of Lost Trail: Nine Days Alone in the Wilderness, a terrific true story about a boy who was lost on a mountain in Maine (just comment enter by Friday; US only).

Fifty Shades of Grey is an erotic novel self-published by first-time British author E.L. James in 2011 which has already spawned two sequels and, maybe, a movie deal. I just read it and have, naturally, fifty things to say. Adults, read on:

1. The blurb:

When literature student Anastasia Steele is drafted to interview the successful young entrepreneur Christian Grey for her campus magazine, she finds him attractive, enigmatic and intimidating.  Convinced their meeting went badly, she tries to put Grey out of her mind – until he happens to turn up at the out-of-town hardware store where she works part-time.

The unworldly, innocent Ana is shocked to realize she wants this man, and when he warns her to keep her distance it only makes her more desperate to get close to him.  Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her too – but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success – his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving adoptive family – Grey is man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a passionate, physical and daring affair, Ana learns more about her own dark desires, as well as the Christian Grey hidden away from public scrutiny.

2. The cover is perfect for the novel. Why are we stuck with such literal cover art for contemporary erotic romance?

3. As reported in Publishers Weekly, Fifty Shades of Grey started as Twilight fan fiction. I have seen the first three Twilight films, and read part of the second Twilight book (it was a DNF), and, despite looking for it, detected almost no resemblance. If I hadn’t seen a link to the PW article, I would never in a million years have guessed the provenance of this book.

4. That said, for some readers the issue isn’t how closely Fifty Shades hews to Twilight, but the author’s use of the Twilight fan fiction community. Amazon.com reader Jennifer offers a good summary of the argument in her comment on Amazon.com:

In what was her most unethical act, EL James (aka Snowqueens Icedragon) also borrowed Twilight’s large fanbase on the condition that she would not profit from her fanfiction. She didn’t have to run marketing campaigns like Stephenie Meyer and other legitimate authors must do. She knew that people would buy her book due to her success in the fanfiction world, a celebrity that she attained under the deceitful pretense that she was simply honoring Meyer’s work and nothing more.

I would need to know more about timing and motivation to comment on this. To hatch the whole plot from the start would be pretty crafty.

5. The price for, $9.99 for the ebook (see Amazon), from a debut author, self-published, is outrageous.I read Fifty Shades thanks to the generous Kindle lending of a friend.

6. Having read romances for the last five years, I’ve noticed BDSM romance, and BDSM elements, becoming more mainstream within the genre. With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it’s obvious that someday a BDSM erotic romance would break out and become a phenomenon the way Fifty Shades has.

7. For evidence of the phenomenon, see Pornography for Mommies, an article about Fifty Shades in the Huffington Post. Or don’t, if you don’t want to be annoyed by the condescension (but it’s self-condescension, so maybe that’s ok? Or… maybe that’s the oldest and most hypocritical trick in the book? You decide!) in comments such as:

Also, I have been so busy reading “real” books that, no, I have not read anything dumb and erotic like this since college. And I think that’s true for many of my women friends. We read the latest historical fiction bestseller­s (like The Paris Wife, or The Help, which are definitely not bodice-rip­pers) and then we sip wine and meet for book club. So that’s why it is fun (and funny) to rediscover this stuff in our 40′s. Not sure why this one was the break-out erotica to “trip” on, as you say, but it has certainly crossed over.

8. People get mad at you if you like this book:  You don’t know good writing! You are part of the horde who encourage the publication of poorly edited books! You don’t care that the author ripped off her Twilight fanficdom and/or Stephanie Meyer! You are promoting work that encourages the stereotype that folks who are into BDSM are “damaged”!

9. And they get mad if you don’t: You’re an elitist snob! You don’t get it! You are some crazy Twihard who can’t bear the thought of Edward with a whip! You’re sexually repressed! You are trying to tell women which sexual fantasies are ok and which aren’t!

10. Boy, is this book popular. Check the number of reviewers on Amazon (4.5 stars, 180 ratings, 190 likes) or Goodreads (4210 ratings, avg rating of 4.41 out of 5). Just compare that to the latest book by New York Times bestselling romance writer Nora Roberts, The Next Always (published around the same time, also priced at $9.99):  Amazon (3.5 stars, 197 reviews, 1014 likes… the last number showing Roberts’ strong Facebook presence, something James can’t now, or perhaps ever, compete with), Goodreads (3687 ratings, 3.88 average rating).

11. But wait! Fifty Shades is not, technically, a romance novel (no happily ever after, although there is one at the end of the series). It’s not published by a romance publisher. The cover is certainly not romancey. And, I could be wrong, but I don’t think it was primarily romance readers that first discovered this book: it was members of the author’s fan fiction community. Indeed, my “friends” on Goodreads give it a much lower average review.

12. If you want more Fifty Shades, you can read the next two books in the series, Fifty Shades Darker (supposed to be pretty good) or Fifty Shades Freed (supposed to suck).

13. If you need even more, people are saying you should try Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire, or The Realm of You by Tara Buckley.

14. The author repeats certain phrases and adjectives over and over. For example, Christian’s “long” fingers, the “unbelievably sexy way” his pants hang off his hips, how “beautiful” he is, Ana’s “flawless skin”, even the word “fuck” (Ana’s constant “Holy fuck!s”, Christian’s frequent, and decreasingly erotic, threats to “fuck” her “hard”). Here’s a tip: people notice the use of unusual words like “fractionally”. They really notice them after five or ten times.

15. Someone needs to take this author’s thesaurus and hide it someplace safe.

“Anticipation hangs heavy and portentous over my head…”

“‘So I brought you here,” he said phlegmatically.

“The ceremony takes another hour to conclude. It’s interminable.”

“Another mercurial mood swing; it’s so hard to keep up.”

“I’m lost in a quagmire of sensation.”

“I revel in his possession, his lust slaking mine.”

“Trepidation lances through me.”

“He’s got right under my skin, literally.”

Edited to add:[I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT THIS ONE!] “I turn into my pillow and the sluice gates open.”

These words… I do not think they mean what the author thinks they mean.

16. The author had some rather– erm — creative ways of surmounting the inherent narrative difficulties of first person: Anastasia has a subconscious that’s not very sub:

“My subconscious is behind the sofa again, head hidden under her hands.”;

“I look to my subconscious. She’s whistling with her hands behind her back and looking anywhere but at me.”;

“My subconscious is nervous, anxiously biting her nails.”;

“My subconscious has her Edvard Munch face on again.”

17. She also has an “inner goddess”:

“My inner goddess is jumping up and down, clapping her hands like a five year old.”

“My inner goddess stops jumping and smiles serenely.”

“My inner goddess shakes her head at me.”

“My inner goddess pops her head above the parapet.”

18. 80 references to Ana’s subconscious. 59 to her inner goddess. I’d say there are four main characters in this book.

19. There’s a lot in Fifty Shades that reminded me of romance. In particular, the hero has some classic alpha traits, like the characters in Presents: controlling, possessive, jealous, wealthy, sophisticated, more experienced, sexually and otherwise. Like J.D. Robb’s Roarke, Christian insists on doing things for Anastasia: buying her an Audi, a Blackberry, a Macbook.

20. The references to brand names (see #13), be it food and drink, clothing, cars, furniture… is very unlike the typical romance novel. These things will date the novel but for now, they give it a more contemporary feel than most contemporary romances I have read.

21. Christian is not just alpha, he’s a tortured alpha. His claim that he cannot “make love”, but only “fuck…hard” echoes Zadist from J. R. Ward’s Lover Awakened.  The tortured alpha whose childhood abuses prevent him from having a normal romantic relationship is such a common theme in romance, especially in paranormal romance, that I’m surprised more PNR romance readers aren’t flocking to this book.

22. In contrast to a lot of alpha heroes in romance, especially of the Presents variety, Christian is often surprised, saddened, and amused by Ana. He is sometimes scared, vulnerable, needy. And he can be genuinely funny. Reading Fifty Shades made me realize how limited an emotional repertoire many romance heroes are allowed to have.

23. One of the things I liked about Anastasia was her tendency to say what she was feeling, both in the moment, and via email. She also teases Christian, shocks him, baits him (she compares it to “shooting fish in a barrel”), ignores him, forgets about him. I don’t think it’s insignificant that he asks her to sign a BDSM contract near the beginning of the book, and at the end, she still hasn’t signed it. My surprise at her actions and reactions made me aware that I had some different expectations for this kind of story. In short, these things made the book feel different to me than many contemporary romances I have read.

24. Despite #23, I don’t think Ana’s a model of the strong, autonomous heroine (too much of her behavior comes off as the bratty backtalker to daddy).

25. This book contains the line, “it’s the sub that has all the power.” I’ve seen that before and I don’t get it. It seems to contradict the common assertion that the Dom/sub relationship is built on mutual respect and equality.

26. I’ve read a few other erotic romances with BDSM, including books in which one party was introduced to the lifestyle/orientation. In other books, the narrative is one in which the protagonist “uncovers” the hidden D or s. The transition is pretty immediate. I thought this narrative was different — Ana enjoys the fantasy, to some extent, but she’s not a sub — and pretty interesting in its way.

27. Ana is underdeveloped as a character. There’s a lot of telling the reader how strong she is, how smart. I can’t say there was much showing. She likes to read British literature and drink tea. Not a lot to go on.

28. Christian’s status as a Dominant was not portrayed consistently, regardless of whether you read him as “Dom because he’s built that way” or “Dom because he was damaged as a child”. I think they had more vanilla sex than BDSM. And the complete control threatened by the Contract never materializes.

29. Fifty Shades felt different, or fresher in some ways, than a lot of contemporary erotic romance. A scene at a college graduation. The heroine works in a hardware store. An actual job interview. Etc.

30. I’ve never read an erotic romance in which a tampon is mentioned, let alone removed by the hero. Also, an ob/gyn exam.

31. I haven’t mentioned secondary characters. They exist. And that’s about all I can say about them.

32. The pace was very, very slow. I found Fifty Shades a slog after 50%.

33. I think a professional edit could have made a big difference.

34. Ana’s personality was often conveyed through her attitude towards food. If she was nervous, she wouldn’t eat. If she was aroused, she couldn’t eat. If she was tired, she wouldn’t eat. If she was feeling adventurous, she tried oysters… This was an attempt by the author to characterize the heroine, but Ana’s relationship with food is very concerning.

35. On the other hand, I do think college graduation is the perfect time for an English major to get wrapped up in an intense relationship. I’m not kidding.

36. Ana is a 21 year old in 2011. She often forgets to turn on or bring her phone. She’s not on Facebook. Really? Of course there are people like that, but those choices felt more like author’s decisions than coming from her character.

37. I had no problems with Ana’s age. Many people get married right after college graduation, never mind having a serious relationship. I’m puzzled by some readers’ complaints along these lines. Christian is less than ten years older than Ana. Am I missing something?

38. The emails between Christian and Ana were very effective and well done. They moved the relationship along and showed that the medium and the message, if not identical, intersect in interesting ways.

39. On the other hand, it is unusual for college students to use email in personal relationships. Students see email as formal communication, with parents and professors. They text in personal relationships. Perhaps the author was trying to make a point about Ana’s attitude towards Christian? Or not?

40. Thanks to Kindle, I can share some popular highlights, like “Never trust a man who can dance.”

41. The hero likes classical music, opera, and also Kings of Leon. Kindle readers highlighted each song named.

42. The most popular highlight is “‘Flower Duet’, by Delibes, from the opera Lakme“.

43. The most popular non-song highlight is a quote from Dale Carnegie: “A man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.”

44. That reminds me … in one way Fifty Shades is very much like a lot of contemporary romance, especially Harlequin Presents: love of wealth. There’s a lot of vague protesting, but the reader is treated often to Ana’s joy in the perks of dating a wealthy man: private dining rooms, penthouse suites, upgrades to first class, etc.

45. I enjoyed this book, and I totally understand why so many readers refer to it as “crack” (bad but irresistible) but I  won’t be reading more in this series.

46. Stay tuned for a second post with 47-48. Then a third post with 49-50.

Edited to add: Dear readers, there will be no additional posts on this book. I was trying to make a joke playing off the way the narrative ends so abruptly (really, it just ends), despite the fact that 90% of the traditional romance arc has been completed, and then two more books drag out what, in a romance, would be the last two chapters. However, Lazaraspaste of Dear Author plans a long detailed review in the next week or so. I’ll link to that when it’s up. Edited — again –  to add: It’s up! Go forth and read!

Like all Maine children, my boys have read Lost on a Mountain in Maine, the true account of a 12 year old boy, Donn Fendler, who, in 1939,  survived alone on Maine’s tallest mountain, Mount Katahdin, for nine days. My younger son, age 10, likes novels, but likes graphic novels even more. When we found out that a graphic novelization was published in late 2011 by Down East Books, I emailed them and asked for a copy. They were gracious enough to send it the next day, and I’d like to give it away to a random commenter.

Fendler’s story is one of resilience, fortitude, hope, luck, and faith. In an interview at the end, Fendler says he believes his faith in God was the most important component of his ability to endure the weather, dehydration, hunger, and, worst of all, black flies. But he also thanks his Boy Scout training and his will to live.

My son says “it’s a good book”, “an enjoyable read.” When asked to compare it to the book, he says it is “much better.” When asked why, he gave me an example. In the graphic novel, early on, Donn promises to bring his mom back a souvenir from his camping trip to Maine. In the middle of his ordeal, he finds a “souvenir.” Then, he loses it. In the original book, my son says, “the time is completely scrambled … the things that happen even before the trip happened when he lost the souvenir in the novel.”

My son thinks the illustrations are “very well done.” Unlike some of his favorites, such as the Bone series and the Amulet series, Lost Trail is drawn completely in black and white, but he says the graphics are just as good. The artist, Ben Bishop, is based in Portland, Maine. A third contributor is Lynn Plourde, a Maine children’s book author. I am no expert, but to me the graphics look more like manga than, say, straight comics like the Bone books. The images perfectly match the pace of the story, and really emphasize the emotional component. I also liked the way the manga influence seemed to take the story a little bit out of Maine, not with the big manga eyes and pert noses, but with the composition, the shading, the lines. I also think the graphic novel form works great for action stories with strong central characters, so the fit is perfect. My sons both say that the graphic novel version is much more exciting than the longer format.

But I am no expert, so here’s my photo of one page to let you be the judge of what drawing style it is:

I’m delighted that this beloved Maine story has been reworked in a graphic novel form, without losing what made the original so special. Judging from the reaction in our house, it’s a big success. As Stephen King has said, “Donn Fendler’s story of survival is both terrifying and uplifting. It’s wonderful to see it in a format that will introduce it to a whole new generation of readers. Here’s a graphic novel about a real American superhero.”

If you’d like to be entered to win (U.S. only) this book, please make a comment below before Friday February 3 at midnight EST. I’ll use Random.org to pick a winner and send it right off.

My spouse is on a Hornby glom — we’ve got copies of High Fidelity, About A Boy, Fever Pitch and How to Be Good floating around the house — but nothing interested me until I heard the plot for Juliet, Naked (2009): Annie and Duncan live together companionably but without passion on the east coast of England. She’s a curator at the local museum, and he’s a teacher who lives for his leadership position in a tiny but rabid internet fandom devoted to American musician Tucker Crowe, who has been in hiding for twenty years. When a package arrives that contains a copy of Juliet, Naked, a demo version of Crowe’s biggest record, Annie decides to mount the first salvo in her rebellion against Duncan’s smug tyranny of taste in film, TV and books: she listens to it before he gets home from work. Outraged at her “malevolence”, Duncan nevertheless has work to do: he listens to it himself, several times, sometimes while crying, and then writes a long glowing post on his message board about the album: “Juliet, Naked means that everything else Tucker Crowe recorded is suddenly a little paler, a little too slick, a little too digested … And if it does that to Crowe’s work, imagine what it does to everyone else’s.”

In a moment of clarity, Annie, who thought Juliet, Naked was mediocre at best, radically revises her estimation of Duncan — and herself:

It wasn’t that he made her feel incompetent and unsure of herself and her tastes. It was the reverse. He knew nothing about anything, and she’d never really allowed herself to notice it until now. She’d always thought that his passionate interest in music and film and books indicated intelligence, but of course it didn’t have to indicate anything of the sort, if he constantly got the wrong end of the stick. Why was he teaching trainee plumbers and future hotel receptionists how to watch American television, if he was so smart? Why did he write thousands of words for obscure websites that nobody read? And why was he so convinced that a singer nobody had ever paid much attention to was a genius to rival Dylan and Keats? Her partner’s brain was dwindling away to nothing while she examined it. And he’d called her a moron! One thing he was right about, though: Tucker Crowe was important, and he revealed harsh truths about people. About Duncan, anyway.

She recognizes that Duncan’s review was meant more to prove his connection to Crowe’s “people”, his superiority to other fans, and his genius, than to share his love of music with fellow fans. She  decides to type a rebuttal on the website, which Duncan grudgingly posts, and receives, to her shock, a lot of positive comments from the regulars. In her private email, a short but grateful note appears from the reclusive Crowe himself.

As the book unfolds, it becomes the story of Annie and the story of Tucker, but not in the way you might think (“overly patient woman realizes she deserves more, jilts self-centered boob, rescues drifting, washed up rocker, lives happily ever after”). My sense, talking to my husband, and seeing three film adaptations, High Fidelity, About a Boy and Fever Pitch (the one with Colin Firth, not the one with Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler Jimmy Fallon), is that Hornby is very interested in a certain kind of male midlife stuckness as it intersects with some kind of obsessive fandom (music, soccer, etc.), and Juliet, Naked certainly continues with that theme. Duncan is a mostly unsympathetic, self-centered boy-man, whose character doesn’t change much, if at all. But Tucker is stuck more in the way that the Hugh Grant character in About A Boy was, not due to obsessive fandom, but just a crippling inability to take stock of unfulfilled promise, a fear that moving on will mean letting go — of nothing, but still, and a kind of lazy, self-induglence that is inherently masculine. Tucker, who has been hiding out in rural Pennsylvania, has a string of exes and five kids, and has to come to terms with all of it.

An interesting twist is the way the internet amplifies the perils and promise of human connection, especially among fandoms. What would the John Cusack or Colin Firth character in those films (sorry for not reading the novels) have been like with the internet? I confess that I saw a bit of myself in Duncan, especially the way he deifies his knowledge of something pretty obscure and unimportant  … a not very comfortable feeling. The way that Duncan reacts when he finally meets his idol is a mini-treatise on many of the questions about substance and surface, identity and fluidity, authenticity and fakeness that internet culture forces us to ask. But it’s not just about internet fandom: Annie and Tucker’s relationship unfolds via email as well:

Dear Annie,

I’m sending this email about five minutes after the last one. My advice, it now occurs to me, was entirely worthless and borderline offensive. I suggested that we can redeem wasted time by cherishing and nurturing our children, but you don’t have any children. Which is one of the reasons why you feel you’ve been wasting time. I’m not quite as perverse or obtuse as it might seem, but I can see that my pitch to be your guru could have gone better.

She has to decide: does she trust him? Is this really him? Can he trust her? What happens when an online relationship or connection becomes a real one, as it does for Tucker, Annie, and Duncan?  And what is “real”? The image of a person built up by others, or his self-image? Or neither? Or both? This last set of questions arises in particular in relation to Tucker’s musical legacy: has he made anything enduring and worthwhile? Who is to judge? Who is responsible for artistic creation? What, in terms of human connection, has been sacrificed to keep a musical “legend” intact?

I found this book to be a very astute reflection on relationships, digital and otherwise, especially the way a seemingly harmless long term relationship can suddenly look suffocating and even kind of horrific. There’s definitely a melancholic tone, an awareness that we get into ruts and can’t make up for lost time when we finally emerge from them, but Juliet, Naked is still a very, very funny book. Everything about the clueless Duncan is pretty funny, or it would be if Annie wasn’t such a sympathetic (maybe too sympathetic, my only complaint about the book) character. And Annie’s relationship with her inept, judgmental therapist had me the laughing out loud. In one scene, Annie decides to have some fun, and heads out to the pub with her friend Ros, who is gay, where they meet Gav and Barnesy, two “Northern Soul” dancers:

“A lesbian?” said Gav. “A real one? In Gooleness?”

“She’s not a lesbo,” said Barnesy.

“How can you tell?” said Gav.

“It’s just what birds say when they don’t like the look of you. Do you remember those two at the Blackpool all-nighter? Told us they weren’t into men, and then we saw them with their tongues down the throats of the DJs.”

Ros laughed. “I’m sorry if it seems like a brush-off, ” she said. “But I was gay long before you two walked in.”

“Fucking hell,” Barnesy said in wonderment. “You just walk around, gay, like.”

“Yep.”

“I’ve got to tell you,” said Gav, with sudden excitement. “I …”

“You don’t have to tell me at all,” said Ros.

“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

“You were going to say that, even though gay men make you sick to your stomach, the idea of gay women you find titillating in the extreme.”

“Oh,” said Gav. “You’ve heard that before, have you?”

“How does that work, anyway? said Barnesy. “If one of you’s gay and the other one isn’t?

There is much more to the book than I’ve mentioned here. In particular, I was so impressed with the way a central mystery, set in the bathroom of a Minneapolis club (the opening line is “They had flown from England to Minneapolis to look at a toilet.”) managed to be ridiculous, funny, trivial, intriguing, banal, meaningless, significant, and, moving, all at once, kind of like this book.

I’m on to How to Be Good next.

Hypocrites of the week:

1. PIPA co-sponsor Senator Roy Blunt, using a copyrighted image without permission for his Twitter background (via a PHI 230 Ethics student)

2. Newt Gingrich, with the NY Daily News providing humorous commentary:

Gingrich treats Romney like some kind of felon, but nobody is supposed to care that while he originally led the charge against Bill Clinton on Monica Lewinsky he was conducting his own affair with a congressional aide, now Callista Gingrich.

Coward of the week:

Captain Schettino (via Gawker)

We happened to be doing Aristotle this week in ethics class, and what a great way to illustrate his concept of cowardice!

Literary Links:

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Morality in Fantasy: 2012 Edition by Cora Buhlert (via @victoriajanssen)

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Via The Advocate, the best new erotica and romance for lesbian, gay, bi, and trans audiences.

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Wickedly Funny: the Humor of Anne Stuart’s Heroes, by Victoria Janssen at Heroes and Heartbreakers.

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The Trouble With Productivity, from the TLSBlog.

Can you be productive by not being productive? Are there artistic possibilities in exhaustion, failure and laziness?

Do I need to explain the appeal of this article?

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How To Read more: A Lover’s Guide (via @sallyheroes ) I really need to take some of this advice more to heart, especially:

8. Give up on a book if it’s boring. Reading isn’t something you do because it’s good for you — it’s not like taking your vitamins. You’re reading because it’s fun. So if a book isn’t fun, dump it. Give it a try for at least a chapter, but if you still don’t love it, move on.

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A remembrance of the late Penny Jordan, by Jay Dixon at Teach Me Tonight:

She wrote well in many genres, yet remained unassuming, diffident about her own talent, but always keen to help new writers.

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More authors talking about bad reviews:

Harlequin M&B author Wendy S. Marcus on Reader Reviews and What Not To Do. Loads of wrongness in the 71 comments, but the post author concludes with:

The most important lesson of bad reviews: Do not engage the reviewer. (At least I remembered that!!!)

Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

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And YA Author Maggie Stiefvater, in a post about negative reviews that does what I hate more than anything else on the inerwebs, pretending to be the cool, educated, rational one, when everything about the post screams I’m hot, bothered, ignorant, and irrational!!!! Also commits my second most hated internet error, backpeddling in the comments section, while claiming that the readers just didn’t “get” your point. Oh, and my third: referring to oneself as an “academic” when one has a bachelor’s degree. Ms. Stiefvater, I will never, ever read one of your books.

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Good responses from Jane at Dear Author and Azteclady at Karen Knows Best.

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In case you missed it, the comment thread of this Strange Horizons review of Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan is worth a look, on the question of “review” versus “something authors don’t much like” (via @booksmugglers).

Liz, do everyone a favour and head down to Temple Bar, have a pint and seriously consider what it is you feel like putting out there for all to see. Because THIS is NOT a review. This is the ranting blog post of a post-pubescent bully without the forethought or the tact to do a PROPER review. Trinity College could do without folk like you on their student roll sheet. I’m not joking, I hope one of your professors reads this.

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Via @meredithduran, How to become a romance novelist, an old (1996) article in the Boston Phoenix. Interesting reading. Sample:

You revile it. The bosomy “clinch” cover is the bête noir of choice for successful romance writers. The heroine’s cleavage suggests lactation; the hero clutches her from an angle that could bring little pleasure to either party; they are coupling frantically on a bed of rhododendrons. When you get together with other successful romance writers, your complaints about the clinch mount into a communal frenzy. You suspect conspiracy.

“In my darker moments, I regard them as a form of sexual harassment,” Chekani says. “It’s the distributors who want the sexy covers on the books. These are guys. And these are the people who put the books on the shelves.”

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I love these T-shirts: philosophers, literary luminaries, film directors, astronauts, and others, from Caitlin Hinshelwood. My fave:

Borges by Caitlin Hinshelwood

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The cure for thinking is work, at Prof Hacker:

 

thinking is the hobgoblin of big minds. Thinking, according to Stallybrass, is:

Hard,  painful
Boring, repetitious
Indolent (1583)

On the other hand, working is:

Easy
Exciting, a process of discovery
Challenging (1583)

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Is this gossip, news, or am I in the midst of some terrible Pepsi Joy/Rum nightmare? Paul Rudd is set to play Wesley in the Princess Bride remake. (via @Milerama)

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My week in ethics:

The bad:

1. Not knowing, for a minute, what to say to a student who claimed that it’s a moral duty for a US military to execute a child of a suspected Taliban member, in order to prevent him from growing up to become a terrorist.

2. Waiting, and waiting for my students in feminist philosophy to figure out what is wrong with Kate Millett’s formulation, “blacks and women” in Sexual Politics.

3. Driving through a snowstorm to get to my 9:00 am contemporary moral problems class this morning after a 7:30 am hospital meeting, only to find that someone has written on the board, “PHI is cancelled today” and most of the students have left.

The educational:

1. Getting annoyed at an email from an administrative assistant saying that some unnamed doctor has asked me to come to their hospital — 2.5 hours from my home –  to give a CME talk in bioethics at 8:00am, unpaid.

2. Talking to a surgeon this morning who will miss next week’s meeting because he is driving 2.5 hours to give a volunteer CME talk on breast cancer at a rural hospital 2.5 hours away. *gulp*

The good:

1. Meeting a new Hospice “friend” today, a WWII veteran, marveling again that someone has allowed me into their home, wondering how on earth I could help these amazing people.

2. Falling into inexcusable and immature paroxysms of laughter when the NP asks my boys whether they have experienced “constipation or diarrhea” at their well-child check-ups today. Nobody makes me laugh like those two:

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Hope your weekend is groovy. See you tomorrow, I hope, with another review.

Worth begins with an author’s note that explains the City of Dragons, aka Atlanta. There are two kinds of natural science, physics and metaphysics (energy emitted by kin and Lesser-Breeds), and two kinds of being that have evolved from them, humans and kin. For some reason, kin are called dragons. When humans and kin breed, they produce half-breeds (male offspring of Kin and female human) and Lesser-breeds (Half-breed and human offspring; can be used as Food).  Dens are where the kin live, ruled by their Queen Dragon. The Dens are surrounded by walls built by humans to keep the two kinds of beings separated, and the Gray Zone is the lawless, decrepit, uncivilized area surrounding the Wall, inhabited by Lesser-breds and Humans. The Gray Zone books, of which Worth is one, are shorter, m/m and more erotic.

We then get a glossary which is an abbreviated version of the very long one on the author’s website. The author’s tendency to use italics and capitals in place of real worldbuilding interfered with the story. Just like J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, cosmetic language changes do not new meanings create. Here are some examples of words that did not need to be glossarized, especially for regular readers of any of the genres the author is attempting to combine in this novella:

Alchemy: Magical Science

Blood Rage: Loss of control due to not Feeding.

Feed: The act of taking Blood, Flesh, or Metaphysical energy.

food: Substance that is consumed.

Halvsie: Slang for half-breed

mark or marked: The scar left by a Kin, Male or Female.

Owned: To be under the control/protection of another.

Taste: Flavor.

Whistle: A high pitched sound, made almost exclusively by submissives within a group or white-scales.

I think a skilled writer can communicate the meanings of these words in the usual way.

Please note: The rest of this review deals with adult themes.

Worth is written in the first person point of view of Liam, a twenty something human. His mother died in front of him, leaving him to live in the Grey Zone with his stepfather, Richard, who had “whored her out”, and then proceeded to alternately rape and whore out Liam. Liam agrees to stay and be used in this way by Richard and his drug-addicted, violent, poker playing buddies to keep his young brother Kevin, who is autistic, and his teen brother Chris, safe from Richard’s sexual appetites, if not from his violent outbursts. Oh, and he has a cleft lip and is typically the subject of “disgusted and frightened glances”, and gets beaten up (including knife cuts and burns) a lot by people who are not Richard. And Richard killed his puppy.By the time we meet him he has no sense of inner worth, thinking, “I was cheap … I was good at sucking dick and taking it up the ass.” Hence the title of the novel.

One day Liam is hanging out in a bar, and in walks a good looking Lesser-Bred, dressed, like most of his kind, in “ratty jeans and nothing else.” He strokes himself through his jeans. Liam is instantly attracted. They go out back and have oral sex. The Lesser-Bred, Jericho, can create heat, but his best ability is the metaphysics that “let me take him in without choking him.”  The relationship between Liam and Jericho proceeds without conflict or, for this reader, any interesting aspects. Liam learns about Lesser-Breds, but there is almost no character building for Jericho (other than that his scent is “buttered chicken”; for those seeking a respite from “sandalwood”, Jericho is your man)  and it’s never clear why he likes Liam. For Liam, it’s clearly so new and so nice to be wanted and treated well, I got the feeling Jericho was interchangeable with absolutely anyone willing to do that for him.

Liam’s motivation is to keep his brothers safe. Besides his lack of self-worth, protectiveness of them is his defining character trait, and his frequent thoughts about the need to keep them safe felt quite repetitive. Chris is a typical teen. Like Liam, he is gay, something Liam doesn’t notice or care about. I found it interesting that there is no default sexual preference in the Gray Zone, or if there is one, it’s not hetero.

The plot involves Liam being offered money to deliver one man back to his family. The man is a Link, which means he is owned by a Human. Dangerous work, which is, of course, closely connected to Jericho.

I was thinking as I read Worth that perhaps PNR is where we find depictions of real poverty — or, perhaps, stereotypical depictions of the underprivileged — in the romance genre. Many aspects of Liam’s world were very familiar — references to Seinfeld, Easy Bake Oven, 911, Tylenol, PopTart, Slim Jims, Mickey D’s s, etc. And many of the characters were kind of stock poor people characters. There’s his mom, smoking a Marlboro red while sitting on the couch, watching TV, dying of a brain aneurism, falling onto a nappy puke-colored carpet as she says, “Baby, you know I love you, right?” Or the mom/prostitute named Jewel who says things like, “Liam, baby, do me a favor, don’t shit on my rug and tell me it’s chocolate”, and “don’t fuck with me cracker boy”,  but has a heart of gold and a stash of Disney movies and Froot Loops in her dingy apartment, the perfect place to leave Kevin when necessary.

One line the novella crossed is that it sexualizes cannibalism, something I hadn’t seen before. Humans who are Links feed (and it is always italicized) Kin. Liam thinks, “I couldn’t imagine any Human surviving the kind of damage a dragon could inflict taking flesh and blood.” When Jericho and Liam have sex in the shower, Liam realizes “When my tongue pressed over his palate, I tasted other things. instinct told me it was people: Lesser-Breds. Humans” (again, for those of you sick of heroes tasting like whiskey, coffee or “man”, has Wilder got a new taste for you!). Jericho says, of someone he killed, “I ate him. Well, parts of him”. Liam’s introduction to feeding is eating a bowl of raw meat. He realizes he is changing when he attacks someone and thinks “I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d taste like. How loud he’d scream when I tore him open and ate out the softest parts.” At one point, Jericho takes out a cooler and gives Liam sandwiches that “may have been bologna or some other kind of deli meat…”. Eventually Jericho feeds Liam, and I felt the author pulled her punches a bit, since it read more like a vampire blood sucking than the taking of “meat”, as Jericho described the fleshy inner thigh.

So, this fictional world is a mashup of m/m erotica, romance, paranormal, dystopian, and, obviously, horror. As I read Worth, I wavered between thinking how rare it is for an author to write as dark as this, and thinking, “oh, give me a break”, when yet another awful thing is done to Liam or his brothers.  I had a big problem with the feeding, although, the philosopher in me asked whether it’s really logical to enjoy vampire romance but draw the line at flesh. So, while there are definitely some interesting elements in the worldbuilding, and while it’s rare to read a “romance” so thoroughly set in among the urban poor, the problems I had with the romance, characterization, writing (make that Writing), and other shortcuts mean that I won’t be continuing with this series.