In the world of BDSM, there's a theory that the best Doms are also subs. Think of it--if you are a Dominant, how do you know what your submissive wants? Maybe if you're a Dom who has done tons of research, if you've asked your sub a million questions, if you've learned their personality inside and out, upside down and sideways, maybe you have some kind of idea of what they want--what they need. But even that is just an idea. How much better is it when you know because you've been there? If you know because you've had the same needs? It only stands to reason that you'll know how to best please your partner if you have had the same desires. And what if you're approaching the whole thing from a vanilla pov and really have no clue at all?

In Claire Thompson's Club de Sade, Carly doesn't have a clue what BDSM is all about--but her life circumstances change and before she's at the end of her rope, she--based on her Meg Ryan looks which supercede her obvious lack of experience--bravely gets a job as a Dominatrix. She's twenty-six--and a young twenty-six at that-- naive, single, pretty and completely unqualified. She even secretly takes a beginner BDSM class, where she sees the instructor's sub glide into sub-space, and takes a small fancy to the instructor himself. Then she gets back to the business of learning the business of being a Domme. She takes to it like a duck to water. It turns out there's more to her job than she thought--not just the act of role-playing for cash, but the internal dynamics of the whole power exchange. She begins a journey of learning about herself, not because she wishes to cause her submissives pain, but because she finds that more and more, she relates to their needs. She becomes popular because she has a connection with her clients. Interestingly, the Doms she meets know how she's wired before she does.

Because this was written by Claire Thompson, I'm not surprised at Carly's depth. I'm not surprised at her growth as a human being. I'm not even surprised at the transformations in Carly's former boss, who gets a kind of ironic justice at Carly's hands (and a completely different justice at the hands of his wife.) Claire Thompson has a gift for bringing reality, sanity and tenderness to the fictional world of BDSM, while at the same time illustrating all sorts of life lessons that people otherwise might not be receptive to. How many fictional BDSM tales gently and clearly display the difference between a caring Dom and a bully--even illustrate how to gently and inoffensively tell the bully that they're well--being a bully-- in a way that could actually do some good? And I doubt there's a more effective way than the way it is illustrated in this book that one should never leave someone bound and unattended.

So this is what I have to say about Club de Sade: The story is engrossing. The characters are charming. I wish I were half as brave as the naive and plucky Carly. Eve is a wonderful friend. Jessie is a Dom any sub would dream over. And Carly's path from vanilla to pseudoDomme to Domme in training to enlightened sub is both realistically done but also quite fascinating, even a bit spiritual. It is a public service that Claire writes these tales that manage to be lovely, educational and cautionary all at the same time. A good read for the BDSM inclined and especially the curious. Did I mention, Claire Thompson rocks?

Reviewer Maitresse
Copyright 2005