This book is very difficult for me to review. On the one hand it is very difficult to describe the emotions in which this book instills in me and on another note, I don't want to explain anything too thoroughly, as in, I don't want to spoil it for anyone. You might think, what is there to spoil? Everyone knows what Story of O is fundamentally about. But I assure you, that there are surprises in this book that have made it a notorious classic.

Like most erotica that is worth purchasing, this book rather easy to breeze through. I think it took me two days because I couldn't put it down until I had to put it down. The slavery dynamic is so intense, and the brutality is so jarring in the best way possible. It's past edge play and it's a hardcore fantasy novel filled with the darkest and most blissful passages. I finished the last chapter and felt so open-minded and accepting of this book and this fantasy, until I read the tacked-on epilogue in the last few pages.

I don't think I've ever been so enraged by a book in my life, not even by The Handmaiden's Tale or The Fountainhead. I was so emotionally connected to this character, and while I have to commend the author for turning erotica into art with the most perfect ending, it was not one that I could take sitting down. And I say that in the best way possible. This book gave me bliss and then haunted me for weeks. I can't really say I've run into other BDSM novels that manage to twist the knife in quite the way that Reage does. Maybe it's the masochist in me, but I really relished the love-hate relationship I had with this book. It's nothing short of consuming.