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Review by Aricia Gavriel
Publisher: Chastise Press This series -- a set of five stories to date, ranging in length from quick read to long novel -- are filed under my “guilty pleasures,” because I shouldn’t enjoy them at all, never mind enjoy them as much as I do. I must state at once, “domestic discipline” is something I’ll never understand (put it this way: anyone who tries to hit me will have their arms ripped off and served grilled, with a side of their sautéed toes), and as for bondage/s&m ... they’re languages so foreign to me, they could be Martian. So why are the misadventures of diarist Gillibran Brown on my list of guilty pleasures? The series was recommended by a pal who knows I adore Brit humor in general and northern humor in particular. I couldn’t resist taking a look. The stories are related first person by Gillibran, who maintains a repartee and inner dialog reminiscent of the Pledge siblings (!), and the first two, Fun with Dick and Shane, and More Fun with..., are exactly that -- huge fun: so riotously funny, I laugh out loud. Seeds of change are sown in #3: Achilles and the Houseboy, which isn’t as funny but still enormously engaging; and those seeds germinate in #4, Gilliflowers, which has a very different flavor while the overall tale emerging from these deceptively haphazard journals is steadily darkening, headed for a #5: Christmas at Leo’s, which I found disturbing, seldom genuinely amusing, deeply moving, a tad depressing, and far from what I’d expected -- which isn’t to say Christmas ain’t a five-star book. It is ... but not for the same reasons the first two were five-star. The backstory: very attractive gay Teesside lad in his mid-20s, coming from a poor background where he was emotionally abused by a homophobic stepfather, has fibbed/conned his way into a job as a housekeeper for a wealthy gay couple. In fact, Gillibran wasn’t merely unqualified, but entirely clueless regarding cooking or cleaning. Homeless, broke, with a loan shark after him, he was willing to run a risk -- and for once he lucked out. The couple who employed him are the titular Dick and Shane, businessmen worth a collective fortune. Shane: 40s, tall, built, micro-organizing control freak with no sense of humor, owns a construction company. Dick: 30s, to the manor born (mummy’s a QC) and an equal partner in a design firm, dom or sub at whim, incalculably kinky. D and S were floating on cash when they took contracts in the north that’d command years; rather than lease, they invested in a “quasi-mansion” requiring staff. Enter Gilli, who got lucky at last when Dick took an immediate fancy to him, clearly neglecting to verify credentials or ask for a police clearance. Gilli couldn’t know then, but D and S have a secret. Not being a couple: they’ve always been out. But privately they share a “domestic discipline” relationship ... and casual readers may be forgiven for wondering what in the hell that means. (It’s not socially acceptable but, at least in America -- who’s surprised at what happens there, LOL -- regional churches actually advocate corporal punishment in the home. At its baldest, it’s legalized “spouse beating” -- the police should stop it if kids were beaten. For clarity’s sake, I’ll briefly butt in with a personal pov, so you know where this review is coming from -- its only fair of me. To many of us, “dd” seems a slippery slope. Consenting adults give permission for a dominant to beat ’em, for breaking set rules ... if a miscreant’s mindset is appropriate, it’s possible an asinine personality may be improved, daft habits broken, via the dread of agony and shame earned by wanton defiance, in this spin on old-school aversion therapy. Subs consent, (don’t deck the brute ... or just show the contusions to a cop!). The other key factor: a dom needs a cool head, keen sense of proportion and skill in the arts of inflicting pain -- a nasty concept to gentle beings to whom deliberate infliction of pain is anathema. The boss is sanctioned to swing a cane, soap the mouth, Tabasco douche, impose hard, non-con sex. Didn’t all this go out in 1899?! If anything goes bung ... hooked on the power-over quotient, a furious dom goes overboard with punishment, or simply gets it wrong ... sub = victim. The potential for danger is immense; so, no, I personally don’t agree with dd even in principle. But that’s me. Whatever floats your boat. Anyway...) Dick and Shane have shared a dd relationship for years; it suits them for reasons that become clear as the plot thickens. Dick is verrry kinky, as well as being the proverbial walking wet-dream, while older, tougher Shane has been in the s&m scene for what seems all his adult life. They’re both big, strong men with an appetite for kink -- Enter the houseboy: of an age to be Shane’s son, half his size, mesmerized by both older men, instantly in lust. How Gillibran stumbled into the ménage with D and S hasn’t been revealed, but one can guess. However it began, as the first tale opens Gilli is entrenched in the ménage and cool with the dd bit. He accepts a sound thrashing if he’s been bad, and Shane respects the fact the houseboy is not an s&m bottom, and therefore has limits set comparatively low. A little beating goes a long way for Gil. Everything in the garden is rosy, a good time is had by all, with sporadic thrashings to sweeten Gillbran: he has a smart, sassy, acid-funny mouth which just won’t slip into neutral. He can be slap-dash in his work, breaks things when he gets mad, drinks and spends too much. He’s inordinately sensitive, quick to offend and even faster to retaliate, no matter if his target is 20 years older -- and/or Shane’s mean sister! In the first two books, the situations are hilarious, the repartee side-splitting. Gil seems comfortable paying the price for what he’s said/done, and one must sympathize with Shane, who’s spraining both shoulders, correcting the naughty lad. In fact, the leatherings are actually so far inside Gil’s limits, he never learns: he’s provoking Shane, sniping at elders and betters, right to the end of the fifth book ... by which time, much has changed in the lives of these men. As in real life, people evolve. Both D and S have changed as much as has Gilli, albeit in different directions, for different reasons. During #4: Gilliflowers, the only party who apparently fails to know Shane’s reached rope’s end is Gil himself. Readers must see it plainly. Shane likely expected Gil to wise up, mind his manners, but the mouthy northern lad never did. Now Shane’s impatient, his wrath escalating. Sass that once rather amused, ameliorating punishment, has become simply aggravating. Result: Shane thrashes harder, longer, in the hope of making Gilli come over sweet and polite. It won’t work, for complex reasons. Gillibran never owned a submissive mentality. And he has epilepsy. It’s an on-going battle not only with himself, but with Shane, who wants him to buckle down, embrace the condition, live with it, which Gillibran can’t. Epilepsy meds have psychological side effects: we readers watch Gilli change as dose levels are increased over and over -- but Shane can’t recognize the effects of the meds he himself insists on. He sees only wanton rudeness, and punishes ever harder. At the same time as Gillibran wrestles his personal demons -- not least of which is a wise booze ban; it’s close to impossible to honor, though it’s for the good of his health -- his mom is diagnosed with terminal cancer. She’s in the last stages as he labors under the double kosh of medication and ever-more-fierce thrashings inflicted for misdeeds that seem beyond his ability to control, likely as a result of the meds. In #5: Christmas at Leo’s, Gilli exhibits signs of serious mental instability. Now, he can barely control tongue and temper at all. He’s driven Shane to real fury; Dick, who adored him, is beyond tolerance and now punishes with a heavy hand. Neither D nor S seems to be able to recognize the fact Gil has become mentally unstable, overwhelmed by old memories, overcome by grief, obsessed with people’s remarks to the point of paranoia, perceiving every second word as a slight or assault. He’s utterly powerless to curb tongue or deeds, constantly lashing out in retaliation, though terrified of the increasingly harsh punishment regimen. The bosses’ blindness is fairly understandable, since one of Gilli’s symptoms is an inability to express what he feels, explain himself, ask for help or even accept it when it’s offered. Also, both D and S are by now fighting to save their companies. The global recession is biting; they stand to lose much. Pressures of work overburden and preoccupy them, leaving both too weary to cope physically or emotionally with a Gilli who’s unraveling before their eyes. The happy ménage has gone sour. What D and S have completely lost already is the stable, fulfilling relationship they shared as a couple before inviting Gil into a trio. It’s often said “needy, greedy” Gilli wants too much, demands more than either can give, requiring that Shane love him equally as he loves Dick, which is unreasonable. The golden days are over. Gilliflowers displays a gathering gloom, and Christmas is dark, as Gillibran searches his soul, possessed by memories of family dramas. With the epilepsy drugs and the burden of anticipatory grief, he’s trapped in a pit of often irrational emotion for which D and S have no patience. The love Gilli once felt for his “men folk” rapidly fades as the punishment and intolerance alienate him. It all seems unjust, unwarranted, beyond what he can (or wants to) endure... Yet, in fact, is this Shane’s master plan? Lighter punishment did nothing to sweeten Gillibran’s disposition. He’d do as he liked, pay the price, sob, then do it again, and again, till the older men are simply angry. It’s past time he quit the adolescent behavior ... matured. He is a chronic epileptic who can’t imbibe, will soon lose his mom, has intense issues with his family and with his own jealousy and anger. These are adult concerns, yet he’s trying to wriggle out in ways we criticize in teenagers. In fact, does Shane recognize the signs of mental instability? In other words, what now? Shane, being what and who he is, would doubtless suggest “kill or cure” therapy. Terrorize, hurt and humiliate Gillibran till something gives. If he has a mental breakdown, it can be properly diagnosed and treated (so Dick and Shane get their life back). If he quits, walks out, D and S get their life back. If something clicks in his brain and he starts turning on to pain, he might become a fine sub, polite, silent, diligent ... D and S get their life back. If he snaps, runs amok with a machete for revenge, he can be fired (or arrested!) ... D and S get their life back. (Yee-ouch -- if he self-destructs in the grip of fear, pain, despair, well, D and S get their life back.) Yep, kill or cure. The Christmas episode is dark, ominous, disturbing, rarely funny, very moving, and parts are downright scary. Both D and S demonstrate a nasty side. There’s a rape, if one may use the term. The sub says a resolute “no!” to sex not once but several times, yet is bound and used hard, painfully, for punishment, by both of them. Christmas at Leo’s is sometimes not a pleasant read, but it’s compulsive. One watches in aghast fascination as Gillibran spirals into psychological instability, and Dick and Shane take on grim aspects indeed. A sixth book, Revelations, is promised. I’m holding out a hope that all will be revealed -- Shane knows exactly what he’s doing; Gil gets used to the meds and his mind comes good; his mom goes out peacefully, allowing closure; and perhaps much we saw in Christmas was skewed by epilepsy drugs, so one might “do a George Lucas,” and re-tweak events “from a certain point of view.” (Thank you kindly, Obiwan.) The series is five-star, right up to Christmas at Leo’s, which is also due five for its keen human insight and chilling portrayal of a man’s plunge into deep psychological problems, told in first person. If Revelations does indeed turn this around, gather the flapping ends, bring us to a place where we find Shane did the only thing possible to save Gilli from imminent self-destruction ... then, this is a series I’ll reread often. The slow, steady shift in tenor has been brilliant; the gradual change in characterization is masterful, and I’ve never seen a self-portrait of psychological deterioration done as well, much less better. It seems, near the end of Christmas, Shane is trying to take a hapless sub in a dd relationship and thrash, scare and humiliate him into the slave mentality. But we know Shane better than that. Don’t we? Or do we?! Suffice to say, as the sunshine and roses are pared away, the scenario is growing as shadowed and haunted as many a psycho-thriller. It could end darkly for all players ... I live in hopes that it won’t. Mr Brown: get your finger out and write the next chapter in your book of days! |
1. Fun With Dick and Shane