Review: Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas

Published Date: March 21st, 2010
Finished Date: January 10th, 2012
Publisher: Burlesque Press
Format: eBook
My Rating: 3/5

Blurb from Goodreads:
Emily Vargas has been taken captive. As part of his conditioning methods, her captor refuses to speak to her, knowing how much she craves human contact. He's far too beautiful to be a monster. Combined with his lack of violence toward her, this has her walking a fine line at the edge of sanity. Told in the first person from Emily's perspective, Comfort Food explores what happens when all expectations of pleasure and pain are turned upside down, as whips become comfort and chicken soup becomes punishment.

DISCLAIMER:

This is not a story about consensual BDSM. This is a story about "actual" slavery. If reading an erotic story without safewords makes you uncomfortable, this is not the book for you. This is a work of fiction, and the author does not endorse or condone any behavior done to another human being without their consent.

My Review

Firstly, I don't get the cover. Not that I don't know that there are two people in the nude hugging in the dark, but I can't really tell where's the girl's arms, legs and ass are... The artistic side in me has not always been good, so, it may be just me. Secondly, this book is all about psycho-analyzing and such, and I know it's supposed to be a very disturbing story. It is a little disturbing, but it didn't really have an effect on me. And I'm not a fan of that ending. I was immediately intrigued with CF when I first read its synopsis that I dropped all other books I was reading and started on it. It was ok, I didn't really regret my choice, but this one could've waited.

My Summary - which would probably contain spoilers

Emily Vargas is a minor celebrity self-help guru, someone who addresses large audiences on empowering women. She's comfortable talking in front of crowds, and she knows how to communicate with any type of people. She thinks that women should be stronger and more indepedent, but things are usually easier said than done.

Emily was kidnapped at a bar, and when she wakes up, she's tied to a chair, bound, gagged, and eye-masked. Her captor doesn't speak to her, nada communication in any way or form. He just sits there, spoonfeeds her chicken soup, the one food that she has always found comfort in, and touch her. She resists at first, but Emily is a person who needs noise, sound and life around her, and so to get even a hint of a smile or angry response from her captor, she surrenders to the advances of her captor quickly.

She was trapped with a captor who played mind games with her for months, and her detoriation is evident from the pictures he takes of her in his "playroom" (BDSM term) from a little unwilling, to begging for more. And when he gets bored of her and dumps her back into her life, Emily doesn't know what she wants anymore. But as time passes, her decision becomes clear. But is it to return into the arms of her "master" (BDSM term)/captor, or to hand him over to the police where he'll get his just desserts?

End of Summary

I thought that the psychological play in CF was very unique and smart. The way Emily's captor started to break her and predict Emily's responses was amazing - not that I'm a sadist or anything, but it was really well-done. That said, even though it was a whole new experience for me, it didn't have that much of an effect on me; I even thought it was a little bland at times. I stopped reading it for a few weeks cause it got really dull, and I thought that Emily's degradation was a little too quick. She surrendered too fast, and she broke too fast. Someone with her level of confidence and intellect would have lasted longer. This is one of the things I found unrealistic.

Her captor had his own tragic past, he is smart and successful but because of all that pent-up emotions inside, he became a little obsessed with his little "project" on Emily. He wasn't crazy, far from it, but he had this predatory aspect going on for him. It can be a little unnerving, but as I've said, this book's psychological effect was lost on me because of its hasty progression.

CF was told in the first person perspective, but every time they had sex, it would change to third-person perspective. I find it really weird actually...

I thought that CF wasn't a bad book, just not a book that will occur to me when someone asks for a book recommendation. The end of it wasn't the best of endings too, so yes, COMFORT FOOD is a unique but average blend of psychological play, BDSM and the bonds in a family. I wanted to give it a 2 or 2.5, but I had to give credit to all her amazing research on psychology.

My Rating