Κατάδυση στον κόσμο του S&M...Μια νεαρή χάκερ και συγγραφέας θέλοντας να εξερευνήσει ένα φριχτό έγκλημα, μπαίνει στην σκοτεινή πλευρά των BDSM κλαμπ και σταδιακά ανακαλύπτει πτυχές του εαυτού της που ούτε εκείνη δεν ήξερε πως υπήρχαν...Συνδυασμός μυστηρίου, τρόμου και ακραίων σεξουαλικών "παιχνιδιών" το βιβλίο της Κρίστα Φάουστ. Η συγγραφέας έχοντας περάσει μέσα από αυτόν το κόσμο φτιάχνει ένα αρκετά πρωτότυπο και ιδιόμορφο μυθιστόρημα με βασικά της εργαλεία τις προσωπικές της εμπειρίες και τον

I bought this book when it was first published way back in the early 90’s, back when I was reading a lot of Poppy Z. Brite and Caitlin Kiernan, when I was young and free, with money to burn and too damn busy with other stuff to read what I was buying apparently. At the time, the three author’s had a website together (possibly called Pandora-something? It’s gone now) which is how I learned of this book whose premise begged me to read it. For some reason, it got pushed to the back of my now triple...

CONTROL FREAK was my second audiobook (the first being THE COLD COLD GROUND by Adrian McKinty) and I'm pleased to report that I'm two-for-two; great stories with complimentary narrators.Narrators can greatly enhance a book or completely derail it. Luckily narrator Ann Carver's performance is a good fit for the semi erotic crime novel by Christa Faust - her debut written in the 1990's. Christa Faust's smooth poetic prose is akin to Megan Abbott and Daniel Woodrell at the top of their game.Fans of...

The progression here of novelist/journalist investigating a murder and then getting drawn into the SM scene reminded me a bit of Topping from Below, by Laura Reese, which was also written in the mid-nineties. Neither book shirks from the erotic violence of the scene and both deftly explore the psychological underpinnings of dominance and submission. There is a strong narrative pull-through as Caitlin persists in pursuing the murderer even as it is clear that she is at risk. She is constantly war...

This one was recommended to me by a friend and I absolutely loved it! The plot, the characters and, mostly, Christa Faust's writing, were all great and highly enjoyable. This is a seriously weird crime novel, but it's worth all the way.

Not my cup of tea. More of an exploration of the world of S&M than a murder mystery. By the time the who dun it thread is picked up near the end I almost lost interest in the book. The innocent girl discovering and exploring her budding sexuality and fascination with kink is an old tired genre.

Very interesting book. She states in the Introduction that she wanted to write about someone "...'ordinary,' someone 'just like you' who finds these curious unconventional desires inside herself and makes peace with them." Although the scenes she describes were unsettling and disturbing, I thought by and large she succeeded. The story line was reasonably tight, had good internal consistency, and some enjoyable lines, e.g., " ...their marriage was as cold and empty as a church.”

I really wish this book wasn't a mystery. Every element of that plot falls into total unbelievability that distracts from Faust's real interest in telling a story of becoming and self discovery in an area that for many is deeply taboo. Character development and setting 5 starsPlot 1 star.

I preferred the Angel Dare books, and I think that some of it might not hold up since it was written, though i'm not sure if some of the scenarios were to illustrate lack of consent and control in situations where people think that they have consent or control? I dunno. overall...enjoyable?

This is Faust's first book, but wasn't published until 10 years later, after other of her books. It definitely has the feel of a Christa Faust story, but it reads like a first book. The writing is often a little gimmicky and there are several plotlines that just vanish rather than resolve. But it's a good read and the main character's growth is quite well handled. Control Freak is set in early 90's NYC. Our protagonist is Caitlin. She is a writer and when her cop boyfriend is assigned to a parti...

3,5 αστέρια, βασικά.Πολύ ευχάριστο, καθηλωτικό βιβλίο και πρωτότυπο για την εποχή που γράφτηκε (16+ χρόνια μετά, όχι κ τόσο, εξού και τα 3,5 αστέρια εκ μέρους μου).Ξεκινά με έναν φόνο, ο οποίος θέτει σε κίνηση όλους τους εμπλεκόμενους χαρακτήρες σε ένα ταξίδι αυτογνωσίας, πειραματισμού, αποδοχής, κατάρρευσης και καταστροφής. 'Η κάθαρσης. Ανάλογα πως θα το δει κανείς. Η ιστορία έχει το πλαίσιο νεοϋορκέζικου νουάρ ντεντεκτεβίστικης νουβέλας στα τέλη των 90ς, αλλά τελικά, με αυτό ασχολείται μάλλον

Το συγκεκριμένο είναι σίγουρα από τα πιο σκληρά ερωτικά βιβλία που έχω διαβάσει. Ίσως και το σκληρότερο. Το BDSM βασιλεύει σε κάθε του σελίδα, η σεξουαλική διαστροφή δίνει και παίρνει. Και είναι επίτηδες το πρώτο στοιχείο του που αναφέρω, θέτοντάς το ως προειδοποίηση σε όποιον αναγνώστη δεν επιθυμεί να διαβάσει ένα ανάγνωσμα τέτοιου είδους, αλλά και σαν πρόκληση για τους απαιτητικούς! Το βιβλίο πάντως δεν είναι μόνο BDSM. Υπάρχει και ένας φόνος στις πρώτες του σελίδες και ο εντοπισμός του δολοφ

Have loved Faust's other niors, but the plausibly deniability just hit me too hard on this one. The face behind the hottest club being a complete psychopath? That's not a club people that would have retention. [I completely own that I might be too close to the subject matter for an unbiased opinion]Still love Faust though, I believe this was her first published work so I don't hold it against her. [she got betta] Highly recommend Laura Antoniou's 'The Killer Wore Leather' instead for a 'murder-m...

Three and a half stars. It's a decent first novel that is more about the main character's sexual/psychological self discovery than the murder mystery that bookends the real story. Although the book has thriller aspirations (that pay off in spades in Faust's work for Hard Case Crime), the initial conventional storyline introduced here is quickly abandoned and left only hinted at for the lion's share of the novel. When that story picks back up again at the end, it moves quickly (and a little impro...

Faust's forward to this edition discusses some of the difficulty she had in getting this published (and how it was eventually picked up by a fly-by-night outfit that later folded), and I can see why this one didn't go mainstream at that time. Even now, the tone and violence level can be a bit hard to take at times. But I do really appreciate how Faust doesn't go for bow-tidy endings - she definitely subverts your expectations pretty well, even if the solution to the book's opening murder is some...

CONTROL FREAK is the first novel by Christa Faust, published in '98 by Masquerade Books. I don't know if it's horror or crime? Maybe a combination of both, and throw in a heavy dose of s&m! CONTROL FREAKS see's pulp novelist Caitlin go undercover in New Yorks S&M underworld to track down a killer. She becomes drawn in, and the sexual dominant insider her is unleashed and she finds herself part of the game... Great eye for detail, I think it would take a true dominant to write such a novel. Eye o...

I find Christa Faust's stories to be odd in a quite interesting way. This one, though, went too far down the erotic path for my taste (and I'm not sure what the horror element is). I'm just too old to like that sort of thing any more. That doesn't mean it's not good.But if you're young and looking for a severely countercultural thrill, this book is an excellent choice for you. It's well told, which makes it a rare example of its type.

DNF. A few minutes less than two hours into the audiobook, reached Chapter 9, short of 20%.Sorry, I just couldn't keep going. The narration alternated between nondescript/just adequate and irritating. The story was interesting, but not interesting enough for me to disregard the narration that simply didn't work for me, nor interesting enough for me to switch to another format.

This is a great adventure into the the subculture with heavy integration of geekiness and technology. While I am not into the extremes of SM, I still found it entertaining. It is a bit dated so the Tech isn't current, but being tech savvy in that time it still makes sense to me.

re-read

Interesting but dated first novel by Christa Faust of the New York BDSM scene.

nice written, nice pictures, weired characters....i loved it.