Again, as with the first and second - the basic premise is intriguing, but Rice loses me as the story grows ever more unrealistic, especially in regards to the limits of pain and punishment. ( )

I loved it. I only wish we got just a little more about Beauty and Laurents ending but over all i loved the entire series and loved every page of this book. ( )

In the final volume of Anne Rice's deliciously tantalizing erotic trilogy, Beauty's adventures on the dark side of sexuality make her the bound captive of an Eastern Sultan and a prisoner in the exotic confines of the harem. In "Beauty's Release", Anne Rice makes the forbidden side of passion a doorway into the hidden regions of the psyche and the heart.

Part of the allure of this version for me was a release from the utter crudity of the European castle and village. Religious and philosophical thoughts of the region combine to show them that they are simply cogs in a grander scheme, and they take pleasure and freedom in this anonymity.

The first moment of their sultanic experience is to be degraded even more. Their being transformed into sexual toys is considered by their captors as destroying their intellect. They thus become mute animals that have no other level of existence than this very sexual drive and desire to satisfy all sexual and also cruel pulses in the sultan and his court.

But this third volume shows the metaphoric or even allegorical dimension of the trilogy. Beyond the erotic speculation in the book, Anne Rice shows how degrading a human being leads to the discovery she says, the building of a new consciousness that will have a lasting existence. Human beings are emerging in their humanity or even humaneness through the difficulties and the challenges they encounter, and first of all the degrading and enslaving situations. The more overpowered one is, the greater his psychological strength. This is kind of optimistic because many human beings are destroyed through these experiences and experiments. But it is based on the concept of resilience in human beings : their capacity to resist degredation, not by rebelling, but by reinforcing their psyche.

Upon completing the series, it helped to think of it anthropologically as if these strange undercurrents were the results of a completely different culture. In that respect it was quite interesting to observe the push for control, compliance, dominance, and love, and question whether that can be squared with ideas of entwined aggression and tenderness. Anne Rice provides the framework and fairy tale, but readers must ultimately decide that answer for themselves.

Book Details:

Title Beauty's Release (Conclusion of the Erotic Adventures of Sleeping Beauty, 3)
Author Anne Rice writing as A. N. Roquelaure
Reviewed By Purplycookie ( )

My least favorite of the series. I am very tired of the paddling, even in all of its inventive forms. I understand the story line but I'm bored, and even end just leaves me numb. ( )

The final story in the Beauty trilogy. Some of this was really silly - slaves bound and painted gold as statues, the harem full of women who become obsessed with Beauty - but the boys are kind of hot. I do love the toppy slave and the slavemaster. And the ending . Beauty certainly gets what she wants in the end (no pun intended). ( )