Review: Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas
Title: Comfort Food
Author: Kitty Thomas
Release: March 21st, 2010
Goodreads Entry: here
Genre: Erotica, Dark Erotica
Rating: 1 Stars
When I was asked to review this book, I excitedly said yes. After all, I am not vanilla in any way, I like kink here and there, and have an open mind. I’m a pretty firm believer that most controversial subjects can be overcome, or at the very least made non consequential, if something is written well enough. Unfortunately Comfort Food is not one of those books. FYI – there will be spoilers.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room. The main character is kidnapped, deprived, locked away, and coerced into having sex with her captor. Even tho all of these things are uncomfortable and difficult to read about, after making a few phone calls and conversing with a few people more knowledgeable than I, I was convinced that if written well, I could get past my own hang ups. If you can connect with the characters, if you can connect with their motivations, you can connect and accept their story. I mean look at the tv show Dexter… how many of us absolutely adore that man even tho he is a violent murderer? I know I do.
Unfortunately, I hated the characters. I found Emily to be disappointing. She starts off as an educated and independent woman but is quickly turned into a pathetic shell of who she is. She is smart enough to know her captors motivations but goes along with them almost from the very beginning. I don’t remember her once considering holding out to see if she would be found. As a strong, independent, intelligent woman I found myself quickly placing her in the “To Stupid to Live” category. Maybe if she had held out and fought first? Maybe if she wasn’t so educated in regards to her captives motives? Maybe if her actions at the end were not so predictable? If any of those things had been different I think her character may have been at least tolerable.
Additionally, “Master”, is a cold manipulative bastard who shows no emotion and no concern for her well being. The only thing we get from him is his desire to control and break Emily. Yet, supposedly this is all handy dandy because he is good at delivering on the orgasms and is a handsome guy. I’m sorry, but no thank you. I may love myself a cocky alpha bastard, but good looks and a talented tongue can not overcome cruelty. Further, most cocky alpha bastards act of out love, protection, or wanting to provide pleasure…. “Master” acts out of none of those things. His sole goal is to break her and make her his, to break something beautiful. I’m sorry but what? In the end when his motivations were revealed I was completely shocked and disturbed. I mistakenly thought that the end would somehow justify the means, but the author left him absolutely unworthy of redemption. Because of my complete lack of connection with these two, I found the sex scenes entirely lacking in heat or eroticism.
All that said, unlikable characters do not always mean a bad book. There are many characters we all LOVE to hate, the key to those books is good writing. Comfort Food just doesn’t have the writing chops to pull this story off and could use the eye of an experienced editor. Sentence structure was awkward and distracting at times and I often got distracted or bored by Emily’s inner monologue. To throw the reader off even more the sex scenes are written in an awkward 3rd person perspective when the rest of the book is first person. It caused a disconnect that only added to the lack of eroticism.
As a somewhat kinky girl myself, I “get” the appeal to a kidnapping and/or rape fantasy and I get the appeal of giving yourself so completely to a master. However I don’t “get” or find believable the journey Comfort Food tries to take us on.
Disclaimer: After a discussion on Goodreads the author asked me to reconsider reviewing this book, worried I could not do so impartially. I believe I have done so, but I am posting this disclaimer so you can make your own judgements.
FTC Disclaimer: Book was given to me for review by author in exchange for an honest review
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21 Responses to “Review: Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas”
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Great honest review KV. I bought this because I had seen so many mixed reviews and a friend said try it and see if you can handle it. I couldn’t.:( I’m so vanilla I’m like a new flavor. lol But my probs were the same as yours. I couldn’t connect. My personality is so diff from Emily’s that no amount of reasoning could get me to accept her acceptance of the Master.
Wow KV i thought this book would have been right up your alley. I guess we all can’t like everything, we’d be boring if we did =P
but i Loved Comfort Food, i totally understood both Master and Emily and the whys of their motivations. You saw her as a pathetic shell of who she once was, i saw her embrace a life she wanted, albeit not a conventional life society deems as normal. She says she always thought something was wrong with her for the things she wanted, and yes she didn’t ask for Master to kidnap her, but she allowed him to break her, nothing happened without her consent, she had choices, he didn’t break her with violence, he didn’t threaten her, and in the end it was her choice to do what she did do.
I liked Master too, even being a sick freaky sadist that he was, i saw into his psyche and he wasn’t far different from Emily, he just went about things in an extreme manner, if you looked close enough you’d see they did have love, again i say not the conventional hearts and roses, but they had love, they both fed a need in the other, and he was caring towards her. I didn’t feel by the end Master needed redeeming, he wasn’t right in his actions, Emily knew that, he knew that but i was happy with the ending. A girl has to embrace her kink wired sometimes, i know i did going into this book, so did Emily.
Snice im all the way over in the LOVE camp, it was cool to read the other end of the spectrum opinion =)
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Just a suggestion — if you want to read a book about kidnapping/mastering/ownership that is totally different (but totally realistic and breathtaking) try The Collector by John Fowles. It’s not erotic, but it does provide the psychological aspects that people expect with this sort of work. It is also written beautifully (as an older book, the prose is different but I really appreciated it), and has an ending that will leave you reeling for days.
In fact, I’m going to make myself read it again soon. It’s hard to read, but that’s the point.
Huh. I’m with Sparklybearsy – I thought this would have been right up your alley
I didn’t think I’d like this book but I really did, which is funny because you thought you’d like it and didn’t
I identified with Emily (not myself, but I do know people who thrive on attention and stimulation and I could totally see that in her character). I agree with you that Master was just a bastard, straight up. I also saw the descent from independent woman to slave as believable based partially on her rape flashback with her boyfriend and partially on those personality traits I mentioned above…
Do I view this as a romance? Hell no. Do I see Master as an Alpha male? No, he’s a sadistic fuck. But their “relationship” was a trainwreck I couldn’t look away from. And the psychological conditioning was interesting to me.
Thanks for this review – this is why I love book blogging!
Oh, forgot to add I liked the 3rd person POV – I thought it was a nice indicator of her mental state.
You hit the nail on the head with the issues regarding storyline, content and disconnect with characters. And yes, it needed some serious editing but given overall structure and character development, I’m not sure even that would have helped. You had the same issues I had. Great honest review!
Wow. I read Patti’s review of it today and thought I could like it. Now I’m actually not so sure any longer. Perhaps I should get it just to make up my own mind. Great review nonetheless. You made me think about this book even before I started it.
I’ve heard such great things about this book…interesting take on it.
The first time I read this book, I really enjoyed it. But the more that I think about it, the more I wonder what made me enjoy it so much. I think it’s largely due to the fact that it’s such a mindfuck. I did like the writing style, even if the 3rd person disassociation sex scenes gave me pause and made me go “HUH!?” but it’s not a book I’d read more than one or two times.
Great review. When I read the book, I didn’t think I’d like it. But I ended up loving it. I think I liked it so much because I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Like MK said, it’s a total mindfuck. And I like that 3rd POV during the sex scenes. Comfort Food is book that you’re either gonna hate it or love it. Kinda like Twilight. LOL!!
Thank you for the honest review. This book is not for me. All of the components and elements you describe that are lacking in this book are requirements for me. I am not vanilla, and I love a good mindfuck from time to time, but this is beyond anything I would enjoy.
I love your honesty! I think I’ll still give it a go though. I do love a mindfuck, and perhaps some of the darker elements might draw me in. Great review!
Thank you for offering an honest, thoughtful review.
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