I can't believe that Anne Rice wrote this book and I am honestly not sure how to rate it. First of all there is no story in the book and no connection to the original fairytale of the sleeping beauty.
If the book was called The Claiming of Cinderella or The Claiming of Frankenstein's Bride, I don't think it would make much difference. Moreover if Lestat appeared in a scene spanking the Sleeping Beauty again you wouldn't notice.
Still the writing style is flawless and this is a huge plus.

Ok to be clear I am not a prude, I have no problem with erotica.This is a BDSM fantasy book.There is so much spanking and at first I was a little shocked and thought how awful for their bottoms, but really the spanking is the least of their concern especially with respect to their bottoms. This book was filthy and not church lady filthy,
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well if the ChurchLady read this she would say it was filthy.
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But I mean people are covered in dirt, there are gross kitchen scenes and Kitchen people. I mean food is prepared in that kitchen we should not engage in those activities in a food prep area,veggies going into anus's(amoung other things)oh and crude eniemas(sp) thats right poo, there is several refences to poo,some in the kicthen. That seals the deal for me. Yuck

My Proper Review

Okay what to say, what to say?

Honestly I'm pretty shy to review this book, just bear with me and my random shenanigans. Okay so I'll just assume that people who are reading this book review are 18 years old and above. Please if you're below 18, stop reading this and do something else.

Moving on, the reason I read this book is merely out of curiosity. But my first encounter with the idea of BDSM was last year(I'm not going to explain the definition of BDSM, if you haven't heard of it, please search it on wikipedia) when I've read Lover Unbound by J. R. Ward which was the fifth book in her The Black Dagger Brotherhood series.

When I've first read about it, I pretty much like it, the idea of "BDSM" and actually I think it was also last year when my friend IRL have a VCD about BDSM and we watched it. So at first I was hesitant to watch it but having read the book Lover Unbound I was curious to know how does it look like IRL. After watching it I was surprised and scared like shit because it's not how I imagined it would be. Idk how to describe it but the video was weird, grotesque, ugly, with their terrifying apparatus and what not and I was more like angry while watching it. I didn't like it at all.

So that's why I'm expecting that I'll not even finish reading this book because of that past experience and pretty much I have so many dear GR friends who have rated this book 1 star.

So this is what happens, I read it, and I can pretty much say that I hated it at first. The first scene in this book was actually a rape scene. The premise was copied from the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty and of course the princess was curse and she was in a state of deep sleep. And in order to wake up the princess and lift the curse, a prince must kissed her.

So yeah the prince came and he doesn't just kissed Beauty. He like slashed off her night gown using his sword and then he rape her and then after that he kissed her. So Beauty was finally free from the curse and I think she immediately felt a connection with the prince who have saved her.

The first part was shocking and confusing for me because when I think about a prince like this one

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(Sorry Prince Caspian for putting you on this one)

okay as I'm saying when you think of princes it should not be like this one in this book because the prince just raped the princess and he doesn't want the princess to have any clothes on. He just wanted her naked all the time. And he even paraded the princess body to the crowd and he even post her and tied her and then he called out an old man to touch her breast etc.

So yeah WTH right?

Yeah I was pissed off at first because this is unbelievably absurd but as I got halfway through reading it. I began to understand the story fully.

When the prince arrived at their castle and then you'll be introduced with different sex slaves in the castle. And then I started to surmise that the rules of their kingdom was different from the norm.

So sex slavery and BDSM was the norm in their kingdom. Even princes and princesses were considered as sex slaves. They must submit to their masters etc. And they have the structure like when you're a sex slave you'll be given groom and a page and there are different punishments if you rebel or just to test you. And there are also different sex games I guess that you need to do in order to please your master.

That's when the story got really interesting because I felt like everything that I considered weird at the first half of the book was slowly explained here. And then I love the fact that the sex slaves in this book have different personalities and way of thinking or handling the situations they are into. I just really like it because as I was reading it I felt their emotions, frustrations etc. It was really thought provoking and for me I just realize many things like how can violence especially if it's sexual affect people's perspective about themselves and also about hopelessness and acceptance and yielding.

I think that this is a great book actually if you're just open minded and look at it in a different perspective and not just looking at it with you know sex and everything.

And also the writing was superb and I really like Anne Rice's choice of words. She kind of remind me of Judith McNaught novels with added dark side and erotica flavor on it. Definitely recommended and I can say that this is definitely a "Classic" of the Erotica Genre.
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***I'll post my in-depth review tomorrow.***

Note:

Okay so I just finished the book and I really like it. I'm surprised and a bit shock, idk what else to say right now but it actually was written very fluidly and solidly. At first I don't get the plot at all but as I was reading it, the plot got deeper and I like the fact that I actually sympathize with the sex slaves in this book. The feeling was tormenting and scary and thought provoking I think. I just gave it four stars because the ending felt empty for me. However I'll still read the next one.

I'd really recommend this book if you're an open minded person and you can tolerate reading a book with too much BDSM on it. Just don't expect this book to be romantic. There's nothing romantic in this book to be honest with you. Sleeping Beauty was treated more like a sex toy rather than a princess in this book.

WARNING: ANIMATED .GIF DUMP, just because I can't take this book seriously.

Finished, and I am so glad that this book is now out of my life and hidden away. This book elicited very strong emotions from me, from disbelief to WTF to OMG enough with the spanking already! in as little as 30 pages.

I've mapped out my emotional progression from the beginning to end:

Pre-read with high expectations:


Pages 1 - 100:


Pages 100 - 200ish:


Page 200 - end:



This book is absurd. I know this is supposed to be some glorified BDSM sex fantasy, but all I could think when the princes/princesses were punished was How do they *not* get diseases?  Rubbing honey on your crotch to attract flies overnight? Being swept down there with the bristles of a dirty broom? WHAT THE F-

The worst part is that all of these fetishes, quite shocking when we are first exposed to them, get so darn repetitive. I've never read the word "spank" as many times as I have in this book because it's noted on almost every single page. It was a relief to finally finish the book, not just because of the perversity (not that it's lacking--this book is dirty) but because the overused plot devices became quite laughably boring.

I really don't have anything against BDSM or anyone who's for it. But when it's handled in such an unpolished and over indulgent manner, it's hard for me to place much literary value on a book.

Therefore, 1 STAR and recommended for those curious individuals who can stomach some of the more experimental and dare I say grotesque elements of BDSM.

So my friend sent me an article about "50 Shades of Grey", mentioning that real erotica experts thought 50 was crap and "Sleeping Beauty" was the real thing. Because I am nothing if not thorough, I bought Sleeping Beauty #1.

WHAT. THE FUCK.

No. NO! NONONONONO. Who on earth thought THIS would be a good counter from the erotica world? I do not get BDSM off of this, I get some sort of weird torture porn. You know what puts me right off a sexytimes book? Rape. And there is a HELL of a lot of rape in here. Cruelty and meanness and pain and rape. And people who get a charge off of rape can go stand waaaaay over there, where I can keep an eye on you.

I swear to god I'm not a prude. I have read and enjoyed erotica, even BDSM erotica before, but admittedly it's been situations where the submissive is tacitly permitting their treatment rather than being tortured - I guess what I'm saying is I like my BDSM with an undercurrent of actual emotion and enjoyment and with a safe word, or at least with a measure of emotional investment from the sadist side. I get how it's empowering to trust someone else to that extent and to test limits. This is not that. This is not about control, this is about abject humiliation. This is breaking people, and the entire story that Alexi tells just makes me want to throw things. The Queen sends him off to get raped repeatedly by abusive morons. This is not the result of neglect - she deliberately sends him to people she knows will brutally, serially rape him. There's a reason I don't want to watch movies like "Hostel", and also a reason why movies about sex trafficking haunt me. Rape and nonconsensual sex do not do it for me.

Look, whatever floats your fictional boat is fine, but for me this was actually pretty repellant. I do not want to read a book about people being farmed out to rapists. I do not want to read about people being beaten down both figuratively and literally. I can't quite believe I'm saying this, but FIFTY SHADES IS BETTER THAN THIS SHIT. Yes, it's a gross misrepresentation of an actual BDSM relationship and there are tons of other major issues with the story and characters, but nobody rapes anyone, and that's good enough for me!

I am going to have nightmares tonight. I really, really do not like rape. The End.

I want to bleach my brain after reading this. No, I'm not a prude (I'm a gynecologist, I've seen and heard EVERYTHING). It's just THAT BAD.



Public service notice: This book has been brought to you thanks to the generous sponsorship by the word 'spanking'. Which is repeated so many times it almost does not look like a real word anymore. A drinking game with taking a shot every time spanking is mentioned would not last long (that is, unless you have truly remarkable alcohol-digesting enzymes and a stomach made of steel).

And since there are only so many ways to spank somebody (and this book quickly explores ALL the possibilities), the book quickly becomes quite repetitive and incredibly boring. And 'boring' is definitely not the word that any erotica book should be described as, right? Right?



I've mentioned before that I have zero problem with any sexual activity that however many consenting adults engage in. But I do have a problem with rape presented as being okay and even sexy. The Prince rapes Beauty while she is unconscious. Rape is never okay, and it should not be used as a "sexy" way to start a story. Make it consensual or do not write about it at all, and definitely do not present that as sexy. That's just disgusting. BDSM is consensual; otherwise just call it rape and stop trying to make it sexy.

Another reason for the brain bleach is the sheer awfulness of this dreck, which I really tried to forget. But seeing three women today engrossed in that Twilight BDSM fanfic that we do not speak of reminded me of having read this one a few years ago. Well, 'read' is not quite accurate of a word; it was so badly written that I ended up having to skim through most of it. And still I could not escape the endlessly boring spanking or the atrocious language.

Yes, everything else aside, the writing in this book is unbelievably bad. The language sounds fake, wooden, juvenile, and forced. The descriptions are terrible and would be out of place in every book except for one teaching how to write badly. Don't even start me on grammar and punctuation! (What did these two ever do to Anne Rice? Am I supposed to be so hot and bothered from reading this so that I don't notice elementary mistakes?) But the language itself reads so clumsy that I almost wonder whether A.N. Roquelaure Anne Rice is not a native English speaker.

I don't have much experience with reading erotica, so please, somebody enlighten me. Since these books are, well, books, they should have some kind of a plot, right? Or does the 'sexy' subject make them exempt from such? Because this one definitely does not have a plot unless you count the forty billion instances of spanking. Am I naive to expect plot in what is marketed as a book?

Anyway, as I said, I started skimming pretty early on (easy in a plotless book) because even my semi-saintly tolerance for bad fiction ends at some point. It is boring, badly written, almost glorifies rape, and apparently does not believe in consent. I would not recommend it to anyone. 1 star is almost generous. I have no idea what possessed me to read it. But it's been years since I've read it, and remembering it still makes me shudder.

as of 2 weeks ago i finished this book and moved on to the second novel: Beauty's Punishment. sooo naughty but written with a woman's voice and perspective. i kind of wish i could get a sense of a real dominating and submissive male voice- however, it still turned me on bigtime!

yay! i attended a naughty toy party and as a bonus, my friend lent me the 1st and 2nd volumes of this series. naughty toys and naughty reading go soooo well together ;-)

If not taken too seriously, this book is a hilarous romp. Fairy tales are a study in extremes, and The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is no exception. From sensual and savory to dastardly and disgusting, this erotic retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" offers a little bit of everything (along with laughable words like mound, organ, and pubis as well as a wearying amount of spanking; good heavens, so much spanking!). Anne Rice explains in the preface that she embarked on a mission to write an erotic novel with sexual content on nearly every page - one that explores the sexual aspects of vulnerability, degredation, humiliation, and subjugation - and she absolutely delivers.

I had a friend who turned me on to Anne Rice when I was a teenager and I loooooved the vampire books. Then I started these - WHOA. Blew my eyes wide open. Naughty naughty naughty.

So recently I came across them while digging through my basement and thought it would be fun to see what a 37 year old Jenny thinks of these since my only perspective is from 20 years ago and teenage eyes.

The story is pretty much what I remembered. Beauty is awoken by a prince (or should I say by a penis?) and the Prince takes Beuty off to Sex Camp (Aka his mommy's castle) to spend an undisclosed amount of time learning to be a submissive little toy.

So my new eyes (with a much stronger perscription glasses) spotted that this book is pretty dated. I know it is supposed to take place in medieval times - but the way the story is told always reflects the time the book is written in - and this book is permeated with the era of Romancing the Stone and flipped up collars. It's like when you catch an espisode of The Love Boat and you realize that show was really sexist and kinda terrible - but when you watched it when it originally aired you didn't see any of that. And no - I am not saying this book is sexist - I think a book with hardcore bondage and whipping is hard to call sexist because you are moving into fetishville and normal labels are hard to drop on people in Fetishville.

I think the possessiveness of the Prince is sort of a dated attitude. (Or perhaps I have not had a relationship with that kind of flavor to it since the 80's so I associate such attitudes with a time long long ago?)

Anywho - I still found the writing quite good in this book, and although the book has lost it's shock factor for me now, I still found parts of the book raised my temperature a bit (hee hee) and I will probably put this book right back on my shelf in the basement to read again in a decade or two to see what my AARP card does to my opinion of this book.

I got this in a boxed set one Christmas from my GRANDMOTHER. She knew I collected fairy tales and their adaptations. I'm fairly certain she had no idea the books were erotic. I think she just saw "Sleeping Beauty" and assumed I'd want it. She wanted to borrow it from me when I was done. I kept pretending to forget it every time.

First Book: Fun and novel read. Interesting background and lots of creative naughty bits for fun.

Second book: Lost steam. She lost most of the background and plot and even though there was a variety of positions and objects -- she recycled quite a bit of the sex scenes.

Third book: I've NEVER read an erotica book that I considered flat out BORING until I read this book. I skipped what little bit of the plot was there. I believe she used MAD LIBS to write out the sex scenes. They seemed idetical except for which piece of fruit was inserted where. I've been more stimulated reading the phone book.

This book should change it's title to The Raping of Sleeping Beauty. Because that's basically all that's going on, really.

After a debating with myself for awhile, I finally decided to sit down and write a recommendation for this series. My hesitance comes from knowing that these books is not for everyone. This is one of those book series that people either love and treasure or hate with a fiery passion. Don't believe me, check the other reviews for them. While it is still one of my all time favorite erotic fantasy series, I feel compelled to warn anyone interested in reading these books to be aware that they are not romance or even remotely like any erotica you have ever read. These book take place in a fantasy world without limitations or consequences.

If you have any issues with portrayals of abuse or sexual violence these are not the books for you. The opening scene of the book involves Beauty being “ravished” (a fancy term for non-consensual sex aka rape). Here is a list of a few of the kinks portrayed in these books: sexual slavery, extreme domination, pain play, pony play, public humiliation, spanking (LOTS of spanking), piss play, enemas, fisting and so much more. Now, if I haven’t scared you off let’s get on with the actual recommendation.

The books take place in a lavish, fairy tale world where BDSM kink is interwoven into the culture of a powerful kingdom. It is customary for princes and princess from all across the land to be sent to this kingdom to serve as sex slaves in order to teach them discipline and to better prepare them to be strong, empathetic rulers. Beauty is awaken from her enchanted slumber by the prince of this kingdom. He literally wakes her up with sex, by penetrating her at the same time he kisses her and that pretty much sets the tone for the books.

One of the things I love about the books is the lush fairy tale style in which the story is told. It allows the reader to slip into its reality, despite all the extreme situations. As my warnings at the beginning indicate there is no kinky ground left uncovered in the pages of this series.

In the kingdom sexual slaves are part of everyday life. I do mean every part. From the stables, to the kitchen of a common tavern. Beauty sees other beautiful princes and princess naked, like herself, being made to carry buckets with their mouths and pulling carriages while dressed up like horses. The slaves placement in society is either an honor to their obedience or a punishment for their failure to perform to expectations.

Every aspect of their culture is influenced by the dominance, and submissive dynamics. Punishment is meted out in forms of public humiliation and degradation, while rewards are given in sexual play. Because this is a sadomasochistic society pain and pleasure our intertwined, whether it is reward, punishment or just daily life every breath is filled with sexual sting of erotic torture. The slaves’ nude bodies are decorated with elaborately bejeweled sex toys (buttplugs, nipple clamps and even a weighted clit clamp contraption that to this day still makes me shudder with horror). The purpose of all of it is to keep the slaves aware of what they are and to keep them in a constant state of sexual arousal.

With these details the books continues to weave an intricate world that allows the reader to fall deeper under its spell. That is not to say that we become desensitized to what is happening. In fact, that is one of the most clever strokes of Rice’s storytelling. We, the readers, are anchored to our own sense of discomfort, shock and taboo titillation through the conduit of Beauty. Her naiveté, confusion and fear helps keep us grounded, but it also allows for a deeper exploration of erotism of these scenes.

I love how even when Beauty is crying through her spanking or blushing over exposing her body to other people she is aware of her own arousal, even though she too innocent to truly understand it until later on in the story. Her body's’ reactions are described in details that are easy for the reader to grasp, while still maintaining lavish atmosphere of the story. It is a impressive trick to describe a female bodies' various states of arousal with such graphic detail, while never resorting to crude modern language. Those details allow the reader to truly experience what Beauty does in a very intimate way and that is the key to what is so captivating about these books.

Even though the story is told in the third person, the reader is deeply attuned to Beauty. We travel with her through this foreign kingdom, being shocked and at times horrified by the extreme displays of erotic torture and surprising forms of sexual play laid out in public for all to see. As she comes to understand, though in the beginning she feels humiliated by it, her own body's reaction to all of it.

As the series progresses and Beauty begins to learn more about the sensual world she has been plunged into. We see her character slowly transform into a thoughtful, courageous and bold young woman. Who is deeply in touch with her own desires and is brave enough to help others explore their sexual boundaries too. So too is the reader allowed to embrace their own arousal over the sensual scenarios and come to a place of understanding the boundaries of their own desires.

Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty series was published thirty years ago, but it is a timeless erotica classic that is still capturing readers imaginations and fueling their sexual fantasies today. It became a classic not because of ad campaigns or the trendy taboo of "mommy porn." In fact, Anne Rice originally published the book under a pseudonym to avoid damaging her already successful career as an author of her famous vampire horror series. In 1983 gay, vampire rock-n-roll singers weren't nearly as taboo as women exploring BDSM fantasies. Yet these books flourished on little more than consumer curiosity and word of mouth.

I myself was given my first copy of The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by my best friend, who stole it from his older sister. He wrapped it in a paper bag and slipped into my backpack like it was a package of illicit drugs. After I read the first chapter I was high on my first taste of erotica. Despite the many years that have passed since the first time I read the books, I still find them deeply entertaining and erotic.

While many readers struggle with the content and worry about the themes, all of which are valid issues and should be discussed. I think it’s important for all women to allow themselves to fantasize without judgement or shame. These books represent an extreme side of erotic fantasies, but still a very valid one. If you're feeling brave and want to explore the boundaries of your own sexual fantasies, especially if those involve dominance and submission, pleasure and pain and a variety of extreme kinks that would even the most seasoned of erotica readers than these just might be the books for you.