A Doll's Story

A Doll's Story by Lez Lewis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is a long novel, promising to be the first of ten.  Honestly, this book was difficult for me to finish.  I picked it up several times and had to put it down.  After I finished the book, I did a bit more research and learned it was inspired by the on line sex game, Sociolotron, http://www.sociolotron.com.  This is just not my type of book.  I don't enjoy role playing games so this probably added to my confusion and lack of engagement.  The constant thoughts going through my head while reading this book was, "Where do these people come from that they can't remember? And what the HELL is going on?".  I believe a lot of this had to do with the fact that I had no baseline understanding of this world and I frankly, didn't care for the characters enough to have a vested interest to learn about them.

I probably would rate this a 2.5 star, but I'm not and here is why.

Ms. Lewis does create an intriguing world.  Her concept is sound, just a tad slow in revealing unless someone knows the back history of Sociolotron.  While most new authors struggle with telling more than showing, Ms. Lewis does not.  Some of the time, I had to re-read passages to accurately visualize the scene.  I give her props for strong imagery.

Ms. Lewis also does a good job of setting up two warring factions with a strong dose of malicious intent between both sides.  I do like this set up; I just wish it didn't take so long to get to this point.

Ms. Lewis  showcases a bit more of the heavier parts of BDSM which I enjoyed.  TPE, slavery, piercings and branding were well done.  The branding ceremony was interesting and explained more of the story line.  The altars were just plain weird.  For me, I kept thinking of a Sybian designed by a mad scientist with Japan.  Where else would tentacle sex come from, but Japan?  Since I can't help but be riveted to Japanese taboo sexual practices, this peaked my interest.

If I could eliminate one thing from the book, it would be the consistent use of the word, MINE.  It was cute the first couple of times.  I'm not sure the intent or the meaning behind this, just that after a while, every time I saw the world in all caps, I thought of the seagulls from movie, "Finding Nemo".  The juxtaposition of sex slaves writhing in an orgy with diving bombing brainless seagulls in my mind just caused greater confusion.



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