ChrisHayton

Disclosure: I purchased the novella “The Thin Wall”. I do not know the author nor have I ever had any communication with her about this book. The comments that follow are my own personal opinion. I received no compensation of any kind, or from any one, to provide this review.

This book made reference to The Marquis de Sade’s “Philosophy of the Boudoir” which chronicled sadomasochistic sex among wealthy eighteenth century aristocrats. I missed the sadomasochistic reference in the novella. The deviance in sexual behavior was minimal and nothing compared to De Sade’s work.

The characters in “The Thin Wall” came off as spoiled irresponsible brats with drug problems, and unsuccessful artistic careers. Only Julian was a successful lawyer, and understood his sexual drive. No character surprised me, as they paired off. The hook-ups were immediately obvious.

The book lacked a good plot and I found the writing had too much description. Although poetic, it was out of place and stalled the pace of the story. I found the first part of the book okay, but by the halfway point, the writing became tiresome as the writer began repeating the same phrases and echoes. The large amount of long narratives telling what’s happened, and how the characters felt, slowed the pace of the book to a crawl. She needed to show the characters and their emotional situations.

This novella was classified as “Dark Erotica” or “Dark Romance” but I found it didn’t fulfill either for me. Some passages inferred sexual activity, but no explicit sex was detailed in this book. The “romance” was boring and predictable. I read dark fiction and this book had me dozing. There was nothing disturbing or dark about it.