Book Review: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

Ann Rice writing as A.N Roquelaure

Published by: The Penguin Group

Format: Paper Back

Page Count: 253

In the Traditional folk tale of ” Sleeping Beauty,” the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a Prince. It is an ancient story, one that originally emerged from and still deeply disturbs the mind’s unconscious. Now Ann Rice ‘s retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of his lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire.  Here the prince awakens Beauty, not with a kiss but with sexual intentions. His rewards for ending the hundred years of enchantment is Beauty’s complete and total enslavement o him… as Ann Rice explores the world of erotic yearning and fantasy in a classic that becomes , with her skillful pen, a compelling experience.

I was recommended this book by a very good friend of mine, she loves books and recommended a lot to me. I had told her that I was reading the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy and she told me that if I enjoyed those I would enjoy The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty. I went to the library and checked it out.

My initial reaction of the title and content was that this book was going to be very sexual, wow me, and shock the heck out of me and I could not have been more right, it is so descriptive and so sexual I could see right away that this book is extremely similar the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.

This book has a lot of similarities with the Fifty Shades of Grey books: control, dominance, and more. Fifty Shades had Christan Grey do a lot of the same sexual acts to Annastaia and the Prince does to Beauty. The spanking for pleasure, saying yes sir or in this case Yes my Prince, or whatever pleases you prince, red marks, the biting of the lip which the prince adores, and in Fifty Shades of Grey Anastesia bites her lip and it turns Christan. I could go on and on about the similarities. I like how the books are somuch alike but at the same time its annoying to me because as I read The Claiming of Sleeping beauty its like I am reading Fifty Shades of Grey again just with different characters and different plot.

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty is full of sex, torture, and humiliation. I like how the book is written but the torture and humiliation parts really got to me because I could not imagine anyone being treated that way. Having to eat like a dog or a cat at times, crawling on hands and knees to fetch supper, and being touched very sexual almost to the point that I would say being sexually abused,  that is just my opinion. However, the time period that this is to have taken place I guess it is normal to being tortured and humiliated like that.  There is a lot to be said about the nature of human relationships presented in this book.  There are those who need to control everything, and those who wish to submit.  There is a lot of interest with dom and sub type of books right now, and with that being said this book fits very well into it.

I think that this book is awesome, and extremely well written, its actually more then well written. I liked reading a book  like this because it had Princesses, Princes, Lords, Ladies, Queen’s and Kings. It was so neat too because when people think of sleeping beauty they see and remember the prince that woke up a princess with a kiss. But this, is way different. It is a must read because you get to see how everyone’s classes made them act the way they did.

Must Read, but be prepared for the sexual descriptions that are too come!!!!