Reviews

Nine 1/2 Weeks by Elizabeth McNeill

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maribeaux's review against another edition

3.0

A human trafficking victim is manipulated to work abroad as a maid after being told the large amount of money she will earn. Her traffickers pay for everything. Turns out, upon landing, she is enslaved to work in a low-end brothel with the pretext of owing the money her traffickers so kindly paid for her; she is constantly battered and raped by her clients. The reason the people who manipulate her are very likely to get punished is because of the physical evidence of harm and nothing else. The justice system is still tied to physical evidence, nothing involving psychology, which is why cops do what they do and why rapes, sexual assaults and cases of mental abuse don't get prosecuted.
Which is also the reason why readers of this book call this work "sexy" and "a love affair". Call it what it is: another story of toxic masculinity.
I have a special interest in erotic literature, but there is absolutely nothing erotic about "Nine and a Half Weeks". Of course I understand it is advertised as such because of people who are unable to understand sexuality beyond the physical and in order to appeal to women like the narrator: weak, inexperienced, naïve, selfless, with a life so boring and monotone that anything out of the ordinary would be acceptable to make a difference. If you are a female and you think the use of emotional manipulation to give into BDSM requests of the you-either-do-this-or-we-are-done type are sexy, you have a big problem and you are also part of the bigger problem that many females suffer from daily, everywhere around the world: male dominance. It is because of females like you that these misogynists who never received love from their mother are allowed to thrive and of course a society that doesn't take into consideration anything that cannot be observed directly.

margocandela's review against another edition

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4.0

A short and intense book and while it deals with sex, lust and, maybe even, love it's written in such a smart, unflinching style that even the most graphic and shocking parts read as purely honest, not titillating or gratuitous.

shane's review against another edition

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4.0

Better than the movie, darker, somehow.

pati_c's review against another edition

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3.0

Wow. The straight to the point, these are the facts is certainly at odds with the topic. And I understand the reason. Not here to be judged nor to ask permission, this is what it is. The straight to the core works well. There's something that lurks underneath that makes it fascinating, this writer really had this relationship with this man.

kandicez's review against another edition

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4.0

This was re-read number...I have no idea, but the ebook version I read has an afterword by the daughter of the writer.

I've read other reviews where the reader states that "McNeill's" narrative doesn't allow the reader distance, but I felt very differently as I read. McNeill opens wit ha doozy of a sentence that lets you see just where this is going. “The first time we were in bed together he held my hands pinned down above my head. I liked it. I liked him. He was moody in a way that struck me as romantic; he was funny, bright, interesting to talk to; and he gave me pleasure.” This was the perfect opener for me. She gives us no names and drops us in the thick of things. To quote Stephen King, to me this is like "a kiss in the night from a stranger." Like being in the front car of a roller coaster. You see what's ahead, almost too slowly, but you can't stop it. Once the ride is in motion you are committed.

I love the narrative style in the this book. McNeill makes it clear that although she finds "him" physically attractive, that is the very least of their relationship. Even the fact that she only ever refers to Him as just that, "Him" speaks volumes. He is the only man, maybe the only person, that matters to her for these nine and a half weeks. That is the most disturbing thing about this novel. She's successful, attractive, if not beautiful, well educated, home of her own, and yet all that falls by the wayside when she encounters "Him." The capital H is implied by her narrative voice. Never "him", always "Him."

When I read the afterword by her daughter the book took on an entirely new meaning for me. Not only does she abandon all that makes her who she is to feel this sick and twisted pleasure he gives her, but she has a child while doing it? When I read this book as a teen, the actual content flabbergasted me. I just didn't know people did and enjoyed these things. As a middle aged woman, I am not so easily shocked or titillated, but with a child? That becomes scary, not just interesting.

I don't see her as a victim. She has a home of her own, and obviously a life that she eventually returns to. I see this as a summer of personal abandon for her. She states, more than once, that the idea that she is responsible for absolutely nothing in his presence is a delicious one. That I can kind of understand. Without the beatings, of course. ;)

leland_hw's review against another edition

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2.0

I read this (and saw the movie) when I was (most likely) a high school senior. At the time, I found it titillating and erotic. I had a...curiosity concerning BDSM and found the depiction here exciting. Now, however, with the um...popularity of [b:Fifty Shades of Grey|10818853|Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1)|E.L. James|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385207843s/10818853.jpg|15732562], I have found myself looking back at this teeny little book with renewed understanding of the relationship between Elizabeth and John (John Gray, by the way, which makes 50 shades Christian Gray sound even more copycat. Is Christian supposed to be related to John in some way? One wonders). A relationship that is abusive, manipulative and volatile (sound familiar modern readers?) Elizabeth is not empowered by John's attentions, she is largely confused and depressed by them.

Spoiler

John pushes and controls Elizabeth until she has an emotional breakdown and then ultimately leaves him to pick up the pieces of her life. Thankfully.

I don't want this to sound at all like I'm passing some sort of judgement on BDSM itself. Far from it. I feel that any sort of sexual play between consenting adults is perfectly fine. Done safely and with CONSENT the submissive in BDSM has the real power because he or she can with one word make everything stop. These are things I didn't understand at the tender age of 17.