LEASH - JANE DELYNN

A nasty little book. I believe I heard about this book in the context of a discussion erotic novellas. Like THE STORY OF THE EYE, this book benefits from being a short little novel that rockets through the plot and headfirst into an insane ending. The basic plot is simple (and reminiscent of FIGHT CLUB). A modern upper-middle class cosmopolitan woman is bored with her humdrum life and basic girlfriend. She reaches out through a personal and eventually gets in touch with a mysterious, compelling stranger who slowly takes her down an increasingly deranged and perverted exploration of BDSM. Eventually this stranger and the sort of sex they are having together consumes every aspect of the narrator's life and, like I said, it culminates in a sort of narrative zoom-out and an extremely fucked-up event that really rounds the book out. The whole time as the sex-acts get more and more extreme one wonders, “how the fuck will they top that one? How will this book end?” and, to my delight and chagrin, DeLynn pulled it off and conceived a satisfying and profoundly perverse ending. The book touches on all sorts of themes around pleasure and desire, as might be expected. However, it’s also heavily interested in modern ennui and boredom and power. There is some interesting stuff about race (which is more teased at then fully explored) and some at-times-terrifying episodes about and featuring pets. I haven’t read a lot of lesbian erotic fiction but I feel confident saying that this volume is among the most perverse and entertaining. It’s short and disgusting, it’s a fun little read on a long afternoon.