PDF Remastering Jerna Ann Somerville Books
PDF Remastering Jerna Ann Somerville Books
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Remastering Jerna Ann Somerville Books Reviews
- Warning This review might contain what some people consider SPOILERS.
Rating 9/10
PROS
- Jerna yearns for a relationship in which he can submit, yet he's not painted at all as a weak or dependent character, physically or emotionally. I adore Sammy from Sean Michael's Between Friends series, but the fact is that he doesn't work very well by himself; he quite literally NEEDS his Dom, Peter, to ground him. This is not the case with Jerna he functions perfectly well as a strong husband and an independent man, which in my opinion makes his submission even more poignant.
- The setting is borderline fantasy, but the world of the story so closely resembles reality that many of the editorial comments about relationships, religion, the treatment of prisoners, etc. can be taken as an allegorical cautionary tale. It made me stop and think on more than one occasion.
- Somerville does an excellent job of creating believable situations in which sex is used to express a character's emotions. There's a decent amount of sex in this book, but none of it's very graphic, and it always serves to illustrate Jerna's emotional state.
- The sense of community that develops between Jerna and his co-workers (and clients) is heartwarming without being saccharine. And the ending, though not unequivocally happy and problem-free, is believable and perfectly suited to the story.
CONS
- There are large sections of this book that are horribly painful emotionally. Jerna endures an unbelievable onslaught of dehumanizing physical torture and psychological abuse before his journey ends. This makes the ending that much more uplifting, of course, but I had a very difficult time reading parts of it.
- Although most of the characterization is very well done, there are a few characters whose actions are so unpredictable--good, then evil, then kind, then cruel--that they struck me as unrealistic.
Overall comments I gave this book 5 stars not because I wholeheartedly enjoyed it, but because it's fantastically written. The characterization of Jerna and several of the secondary characters is outstanding, but I found parts of the book--particularly the first 60 pages or so--so painful that I very nearly put it down without finishing it. I'm glad I did finish it, but I won't be reading it again anytime soon. - This book is first and foremost about love and finding one's true self, in my opinion. Very different from many m/m books, and avoids most of their cliches. It centers on character development yet its plot moves very smoothly, action-packed, and it was very hard for me to put it down once I started reading it.
Positives
1) Just read all other 7 reviews on the book ) Six of them are 5-star.
2) This is first and foremost a story of a man who managed to remain human/humane despite suffering in prison / brothel instituted by a cruel and soulless futuristic society (whether it reminds ours or not, and by how much - the author leaves it for every reader to decide for themselves...). This is presented brilliantly in this book, and the author doesn't distract us with any unrelated content or too many graphic scenes or too much brutality. The development of a human soul and human relationships are in the center of the book.
3) Characters are very well-developed, even side ones, everyone is multi-dimensional and most are fairly realistic. The main character, Jerna, is kind and gentle, and thus he might sound as unrealistic to some readers. I personally do not like over-sweet fragile characters. Yet, Jerna is also very strong, wise and resilient, and thus I found him very likable.
4) The book is often described as BDSM, but it's certainly NOT the focus of the book, and it's very different from most of other BDSM-themed erotica/literature out there. All the scenes that the author chose to describe are softcore, and the focus is actually not on BDSM but on other aspects of human relationships and, of course, love (i.e., non-physical, non-BDSM aspects of it). Some of the situations Jerna finds himself are really bleak, but nothing is truly hardcore or gore-ish is explicitly described. Besides, Jerna is a truly positive character, and keeps his faith. The overall impression the book left on me was fairly uplifting and certainly not depressive. And yes, the concluding chapter of the book is a bit of a fairy tale and very sweet.
Negatives (in my opinion)
1) Some of female characters are a bit unrealistic (way too kind or over-emotional/ a bit illogical) and overall a bit less developed as compared to male characters. Well, it's still a m/m book, and in most of those we do not get any female characters at all (or very weakly-developed). This is not the case here, and thus, this book does avoid this particular cliche of many m/m novels ("no women in a m/m book") pretty well.
2) Jerna gets through some really nasty stuff, but it's obvious the author self-censored most cruel scenes and hardcore BDSM and so on, to spare her non-BDSM or just squeamish readers. (Such scenes are mentioned, but not described, while the author typically chooses to give us overall a fairly continuous narrative in most other parts of the novel. Some of more softcore, "tolerable" (to most readers) scenes are described in detail.) In my opinion, the story is meant to be realistic and show building of the character, so I was surprised at the omission of the parts where our main character would grow and exhibit his strength most. Just my opinion of course, and highly subjective. I think most of the other readers actually applaud the author's choice on this, especially those who do not like BDSM or those who avoid books with non-con.
Overall, recommended to all open-minded readers, those who like BDSM-themed books (with a warning that erotic BDSM aspect of the book is underdeveloped, imo) and especially those who do not. Even if m/m novels is not what you typically read, consider giving this one a try. - After reading Remastering Jerna, I have to ask myself, "how can you rate this 5 stars when many of the other 5 stars on your bookshelf pale in comparison?"
Ann Somerville has a beautiful imagination and incredible talent. The only thing I did not like about the story is that it ended. And, I really despised that.
I think I'll wallow in the story for a while - maybe do some rating adjustments while I'm at it...;)
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