Taming the Beast

Well, this book goes down as one of the worst books that I have ever read. It was another of my Harper Collins First Look review books. Although the summary indicated that it was about a girl who is molested by her teacher when she's 14 it did NOT say that the book was almost completely porn.

It was horrifying. She's molested by this teacher and they start having an affair and the teacher is manipulative and sadistic. Her life spirals down into the gutter after. She sleeps with every man she meets. She's totally obsessed with the teacher, Mr. Carr. Her best friend does his best to help her but he ends up just sleeping with her as well as his own life gets dragged down the toilet with hers.

Then the teacher shows up again and she becomes show more his willing sex slave. The story ends when her friend kills himself and she stays with the psychotic teacher who sexually tortures her.

It was an awful book. If I hadn't been obligated to read it for the review I would have thrown the book away. It was unredeemable and the story only reinforced horrific themes. The teacher gets away with the entire thing and gets to keep her and keep abusing her. The 'good guy' kills himself and the main girl, Sarah, although she realizes that her life is a disaster, never does anything to try to help herself. She remains the helpless victim forever.

UGH. It was AWFUL. It made me uncomfortable to read and disgusted. show less

Reading this book was a frustrating experience for me. It's divided loosely into three parts: One, in which fourteen-year-old Sarah is seduced/raped by her gross, stupid, and stunningly uncharismatic English teacher (that was my impression, not the Sarah's). Two, in which Sarah the young woman hangs out with her friends and has sex with every man she encounters. Three, in which her English teacher comes back into her life and makes her act all weird and stupid again.

I really liked Sarah as presented in the second part: she was smart, ballsy, independent, fiercely protective of her friends, and didn't give a damn what anyone thought of her. All in all, a terrific literary creation. My frustrations arose from the fact that all these show more attributes are presented as *neuroses*, brought about by her unfortunate encounter with the English teacher in the first part. And what I wanna know is, why do women need a history of sexual abuse to justify a libertine attitude? Why can't fictional women be smart and sassy and cool and sexual without having had something terrible happen to them?

I suppose the author might answer, "Well, where's the story in that? If nothing bad ever happens to Sarah, there's not much reason to read the book." And I'm sympathetic to that problem. Still, there has to be a better way to introduce conflict for a woman than to have her A) get raped, and B) fall in love with her rapist. I'm not saying every story needs a happy ending, but reading about a (formerly) smart, independent woman who decides it would be a good idea to spend the rest of her life getting the crap kicked out of her by her sad sack of a high school English teacher, and it's all supposed to be okay because "they're in love" -- well, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. show less

Estoy revolucionada con esta novela eròtica . Es tremenda y difìcil pero sin dejar de ser profunda y tan bien escrita que con alguna que otra frase se me hizo un nudo en la garganta .

EXCELENTE . La empecè a leer a la noche y demàs esta decir que me retrasò todo lo que tenìa planeado porque no podìa parar de leer .

El dìa que pueda pensar en esta historia sin deprimirme o sin que me den ganas de leerla de nuevo , voy a escribir una reseña pasable .

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Bueno , acá voy ...



La historia en su totalidad , las complicaciones y las acciones de cada uno de los protagonistas es lo que más atrapa . No hay nada más gratificante que leer un libro que te deje ALGO . Que pase show more un tiempo y sigas pensando en él y tratando de entender porqué pasó lo que pasó , qué quiso decir la autora con tal cosa y que significa tal capítulo o las consecuencias finales para cada relator . A mi me dejó una sensación de tristeza , angustia , de tanto en tanto cierta afinidad o comprensión , pero sobre todo satisfacción .

Es una novela erótica muy difícil de leer (por sus escenas , no por su escritura) y seguramente para la gente que se asquea o se impresiona muy fácilmente no sea muy grato empezarla . Sin embargo si pueden pasar del terrible y explícito primer capítulo , seguramente puedan seguirla .

Más allá del contenido sexual , vale la pena leerla . Maguire escribe tan bellamente que en ciertos párrafos me hizo acordar un poco a la poesía en Lolita (ya saben , Humbert Humbert y sus hermosas palabras para actos enfermizos ; esa poesía que te gusta pero te deja la piel de gallina ) pero con un toque más moderno y palabras menos sutiles .

Muy recomendable para la clase de gente que vio o leyó "LA Profesora de Piano" y se la bancó hasta el último minuto . (Si , así de dura es esta historia .) show less

This was a very disturbing book for me. Many times I wanted to stop reading it but I was compelled to finish it hoping for a redeeming ending. In this hope I was disappointed.

Sarah was a 14 year old student in Sydney when she encountered the man who would change her life. Daniel Carr was her English literature teacher and Sarah was a precocious reader. Her parents were workaholics and emotionally and often physically absent. Mr. Carr seduced Sarah with poetry and soon they were having intercourse after school. After a few months of the affair Carr moved away to Brisbane and Sarah was bereft. She became sexually promiscuous and very wild although continued to receive good grades. At age 16 she moved out on her own, supporting herself by show more waitressing. Her main support was her best friend, Jamie, a nerdy, shy boy who was in love with Sarah. Seven years later Sarah was at Jamie's birthday party when she was confronted by Daniel Carr. Carr has never been able to forget Sarah and the feeling is mutual. Their relationship spirals down into more and more violence but Sarah is convinced she loves Carr and he loves her.

I just cannot buy the argument that this kind of relationship is loving. I don't think that people who really care for one another want to hurt them. Maybe that shows my lack of sophistication but I have seen far too many women abused physically, sexually and emotionally by men to feel that violence is a part of love. show less

Taming the Beast is one of my favourite books. The plotline, the characters, it was all sensational and titillating and depressing at the same time. It was real, and gritty, and the cold hard truth about some people and some relationships.

It didn’t seek to glamourize anything. Instead it stripped us of comfort and made us deal with the fact that people aren’t perfect, and we’re all messed up. Some are able to hide it better than others, and some are able to move past it, but the world isn’t always going to have a happily ever after.

Even though I cried – bawled, really – at the ending, I still love this book. I feel like I will constantly be looking for another Taming the Beast. The plot and characters were memorable and show more fantastic, and I just want more. show less

There is a very thin line between art and pornography. Now, I've read some books that I can safely put on either side of this line, however I have never read a book that straddles it so dangerously as Taming the Beast.

The premise itself is racy - a fourteen year old starts an affair with her English teacher. Actually, the premise is a bit cliche as well, but the novel does not suffer for that fact.

My problem with the novel isn't the writing per se either, the novel is quite well written. The action moves quickly, the characters are mostly interesting and consistent.

My problem with the novel was in how gratuitous the violence and sexual content were. At times, it simply did not feel necessary. Now, I am far from being a prude, but even I show more felt uncomfortable at times reading this and I'm not sure what the author was trying to prove or say in writing this novel. Again, I don't have a problem with the topic or the idea of the content, I just feel like the author took things too far.

Maybe that was her point though. If so, it is unclear to me as to why she did so. In any event, this is not a book I will be tempted to pick up again, and I will not recommend it without a hefty warning about the content. show less

I am a bit puzzled how to rate this book. It was very readable - but did I want to read this? What was it about? Perhaps, there are no answers...