Don't Feed the Trolls by Erica Kudisch

Don't Feed the Trolls
by Erica Kudisch
Pages: 205
Date: April 3 2017
Publisher: Riptide Publishing
Series: None

Review
Rating: 3.88
Read: February 22 2017

*I received this book from NetGalley and Riptide Publishing in return for a fair review.*

Mini-review: Curious how the book has been marketed so far, I looked it up on NetGalley (Netgalley link and the publishers website (Riptide Link). The book has been put into two sections on NetGalley – General Fiction (Adult) and LGBTQIA – and Riptide has other works up that they’ve put in the Romance section so that was done on purpose. And the publisher has the genre listed as ‘drama, new adult’.

So there you go – this is a LGBTQIA new adult general fiction book filled with drama. But do not specifically look for romance.

Genre: Drama, New Adult, LGBTQIA, General Fiction
Setting: New York City, Seattle (GeeKon convention), Los Angeles, Eternal Reign game
Occupations: Actress, Singer, Writer, Gamer, Drag Queen
Main Characters: Fatiguee Altestis */Daphne Benoit **/Daphnis ***/Bannedict *** (* - Eternal Reign name used by the character; ** - birth name; *** the character, after controversy erupts, enters Eternal Reign on a new server on an alternative just-created account named Bannedict (and when asked by someone what their meat name is/was, they reply ‘Daphnis’, which is, apparently, the male form of Daphne)
Major Characters Alain/Ivy LeVine (drag queen roommate, Ivy being the drag queen name); Jackie/Lady Francois (rich fanfiction author (the Lady Francois part, though I’m not sure how often that name actually gets mentioned) with many devoted followers); Sachem/Orin (Sachem is Fatiguee Altestis’s second in command in the Eternal Reign game, and the meat people (or the players who control the characters), Orin and Daphne have a long history together); Uhruu*D*/Laura (current head of the server Bannedict/Daphnis plays on, potential romance interest).
Side Characters: Malcolm Harding (head of publicity at Summerstorm); Ivan (angry dude-bro); Martin Summers (head of Summerstorm, which puts out Eternal Reign – barely in book); Neal Merino (MMO correspondent for Jongleur/maintainer of Eternal Reign subreddit); Kilosi (character in Eternal Reign).
Story: The book opens with the main character receiving news that their submission in a novelization contest had won a contest (prizes include such things as a ‘badge’ for GeeKon convention). Certain amount of shocked screaming then occurs among the main character, whose name shifts depending on the situation, Alain and Jackie. Between excited squeaking and delivery of celebratory dinner, Daphne logs onto the internet – to be meet with waves and waves of vicious cyber-bullying attacks based entirely on the fact that Fatiguee’s won and assumptions that, since the game character is female, then the player is also female.

Naturally this deeply impacts Daphne who is already having a tough time of it – what with her real life attempts to make it as an actor haven’t gone that way lately. And stuff. So a certain distancing from Fatiguee occurs, but not from the game. No, the creation of a new game character, a male character, occurs – Bannedict. This almost immediately leads Daphne to tell someone through in-game chatting that their real life name is Daphnis.

The controversy swirls. Games played. White-knighting occurs by Orin. Gamergate-like backlash ensues. Gaming convention occurs. Gender questions are raised (as in, as the snippet on Netgalley puts it, ‘I might not be a woman, not really.’)

Review:
Thoughts: In general, this was an enjoyable book to read. In general. Certain rough patches occurred, hence the drama genre tag, certain realizations made through the fog of ‘do I just think it would be easier to be male, or do I actually think I might be?’

As far as the gaming aspects – most of the stuff that occurred flew right over my head – I mean the in-game descriptions. And I kind of had the impression that Laura and Daphnis would spend more time together in the course of the book (even if only through the game). They did, just . . . less time than expected. And good thing this isn’t really a romance because there was more ‘romance’ like stuff between Orin and Daphne than between Laura and Daphnis (thin relationship then pouncing).

I thought of certain things when I was thinking of what to put in a review. Like above how I mentioned that much of the in-game stuff flew over my head. And I was thinking how much or little of my own experience I should mention. Like, should I mention that I played MUDs, MUSH’s and the like back in the early and mid-1990s? Played multi-player games of Doom in college? Played one version of one of the Star Wars online multiple player games, played another version of Star Trek, twice attempted to play WoW and got bored quickly; and that I myself am basically a game character? No? Not mention? Mention? Normally it isn’t an important part of a review of a book, except here when I make comments like how the gaming stuff flew over my head. Probably because I’ve spent the most time involved in games that were/are different than that described in this book.

Right. Well, interesting good book.

Rating: 3.88

Read and Reviewed: February 23 2017

References made by me to other vaguely similar work/topics:
Internet/cyber bullying - Camp Rewind (woman tries to hide from internet/cyber bullying by going to an adult summer camp) & Drawn Together (I didn't finish the first, and haven't tried the second; my understanding of the second is that online stuff occurs, but most of the abuse is in person relating to a relationship).

Gaming/convention - Playing Passions Game, Love Games, Girl on Geek, The Student, the Rogue, the Catburglar

Genderfluid - transgender or not transgender? - Under My Skin (or, having people take you for more than one gender depending on 'things' (accounts, roles, etc.)

Woodland Bondage Crawl by D. Night

Woodland Bondage Crawl by D. Night

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I've forgotten which path lead me here, but I noticed that an author I'd read read way back in January of 2015 - two stories that themselves where published even further back in time (2013), suddenly had more stories up to be read. Starting in January 2017. Going from 2 total stories to 13 total. 11 stories published in 2017.

Soo . . . guess I should try one, eh? Especially since the ones that look most interesting to me are 'free to me', including two that look like they might be lesbian erotica (I think, that or femdom; I'll have to see if and when I get to them - both have Mistresses in description, and I think the sub is female).

The two I read in 2015 involved self-bondage. One in public - in a young woman's own backyard (there was the potential to be seen, though the risk wasn't huge . . . just . . . larger than some might wish to face). Other involved two women getting into self bondage their first night at college. I had liked the backyard one more than the college one. Both were similar sub genres, though, self-bondage, so that's why I dove into the new self-bondage one instead of trying one of the two lesbian erotica stories first.

I'm babbling and all I've read so far is 'I' . . . which is the first word in the story. heh. On with the story. If I understand correctly, this will be a self-bondage session in the outdoors - specifically in some kind of wooden area. Woods area. There be trees.

gah. Like with the other review I wrote, something occurred that garbled my review. And now I can't recreate it fully. Heck, I had to 'ungarble' the above, babbling though it still is.

Story: woman goes to public location outdoors. A less used area, but still an area that can and does see people from time to time. She, the woman, proceeds to drop keys and marbles (to guide her path to the keys) around the area. Then puts lots of bondage stuff on that includes basically having to wiggle (I had originally said crawl, but it is more wiggling) towards the keys. While wearing clamps on nipples and . . . I've forgotten how the lower clamps where situated. On the labia? Something like that. Something is also on the clit. I've forgotten now what. Oh, and the nipples are leashed up to head so head movement pulls breasts/nipples.

Woman, bound like so in self bondage, then proceeds to wiggle/hop (when one set of cuffs are removed) and move from key to key. Falling, wiggling, orgasming wildly.

Whatever I had originally written was probably better. Alas, I figured it would be better to write elsewhere and then transfer here. But . . . that failed. And I didn't notice until after I'd cleared everything. So I had to recreate everything.

Not sure what I wrote about rating. I see that I tagged this 3.75, so I'll say the story falls around there.

March 2 2017



View all my reviews

Party Favors by Jaime Clevenger

Party Favors by Jaime Clevenger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There are many story paths that can be followed down in this adult lesbian fiction choose your own adventure book. As of this point in time, I’ve completed 4 paths, and aborted on a fifth. As I put when I initially put a comment in this box – completing one story path way seemed to equal 11% of the book.

I initially had a rather significant problem with this book. A problem I probably would not have had if this had been a ‘normal’ book and not a ‘you’ book. That and I didn’t have enough information to be ‘you’ when I started – I knew that I had been split from my ‘girlfriend’ for a week and that I’d be seeing her at a fancy dress party (which I somehow worked out in my mind to mean a ‘come dressed as batman’ type of party, which was wrong (not that type of party)), and that I had thought that things had been going ‘too fast’. But I needed more information to be able to be ‘you’. How long have I been dating this woman? Two weeks? One week on, one week separated? Broke up because ‘too fast’, so it can’t be more than a couple of weeks, right? That was the second problem - the not enough information to be ‘you’. The first problem was how it was a ‘you’ book but ‘you’ kept doing things – thinking things and doing things that are counter to my nature. This, again, is ‘okay’ if this was a normal book, but harder to take when I’m supposed to be ‘you’.

What I had put in the box initially after 1 and a half paths followed: (view spoiler)[1) I don't have enough information to be 'you' - for instance, the 'you' has a girlfriend who she wants to take a break from but, at some point, also said 'I love you' to . . . so, how am I supposed to be seeing this relationship? Brand new that went too fast? Longer term? Something longer than a week, at least, since 'we've' been separated for a week by the start of this book; 2) things happen that might vaguely annoy me (or not) in an ordinary book, but here? Super distracting and very annoying. To the point I had to abort one whole pathway. The problem is directly connected to the fact that the 'you' keeps doing and thinking things that I would not - she's kind of anti-me. Which normally isn't much of an issue, but here I'm literally supposed to be the character in the story, hence the 'you' (doesn't help that there are enough similarities, in a way, between my RL and this character that it makes it harder to 'play a role'; but the actions and thoughts are such that things rubbed me wrong). To a large extent that was an issue with one of the pathways, but much lesser of an issue for the other pathway I went down (for whatever reason; only thing, really, that pissed me off on that pathway was attempting to offer money to the go-go dancer to come home with me . . . even after she had stressed that she wasn't 'working' right then and there - a comment that 'you' made twice - offering money. mmphs; gah, since I included that I have to include what was driving me batty about the other pathway - and why I had to abort it - trying to pick up women in front of my 'maybe is maybe isn't' girlfriend while she attempts to do the same . . . fuck no. Just . . . no).

Right, so, I'd give the pathway I went down, which frankly was too short (it ended right before the much talked about 'stage appearance' was going to occur, mmphs), a rating of ... hmm . . . 3.9. (hide spoiler)]
So – the long and short of it is that there are several story lines, several ‘pivot points’ that have stories that branch off of them, and my problem was twofold when I started the book – the you wasn’t acting like me and the path I chose didn’t give me an out. Jeannie, my ‘girlfriend’, tells me that we will attend this party (while we are standing at the entrance of said party, me dressed as batman while everyone else is dressed in fancy clothing), and ‘we’ will attempt to make each other jealous by openly flirting and potentially sleeping with other women. She then enters the party. My choices are now: a) go inside dressed like batman; b) try to find the party host and beg for a change of clothing. I chose a choice not given – c) leave. As in, I backed up to the previous pivot choice point (the only previous point – hence my impression that a huge amount of the book was now going to be closed to me) and choose to leave the party earlier – before Jeannie’s asinine suggestions.

Ran directly into someone from work and now I, the reader, am beginning to worry that none of these paths will work for me. But no, that was a nice path. Quite fun. The choices I made, the path I followed, was good enough, albeit short. So I initially gave the book a rating of 3.9 (okay, no I didn’t, I gave that one story path that rating – hence (apparently I’m using that word now a lot) my not actually rating the book when I initially put in my ‘words’ 2 or 3 days ago.

Two days after I completed my first successful path (and one aborted attempt); I dove back into the book. I shrugged and dove down the path I assumed would be closed to me, the ‘let’s make each other jealous’ path. And I completed three storylines down that direction – though I only went down the ‘beg for a change of clothing’ pivot point – and didn’t complete all the paths down that direction, and didn’t try any down the ‘enter the party dressed as batman’.

So I’ve ‘been with’ . . . potentially spoiler-y so (view spoiler)[1) go-go dancer fun time story; 2) Lara (well, one of the stories involving her); 3) Katherine; 4) Jeannie story lines (technically the Jeannie story is the ‘next morning’ story but it followed on the Katherine one in a ‘your story is done here or go to ‘next morning’’). (hide spoiler)]

Funny thing about GoodReads. After the first go through I’d have rated this book 3.9. After 5 go throughs I’d rate this book 4.5. An increase of 0.6 stars. Yet GoodReads still records that the same. As 4 stars. Because of their adamant refusal to have half stars. *shrugs* So . . . yet another 4 star book, eh? And fuck if it’s sitting on the same shelf as a book I rated 3.75 through 4.74 because obviously a book rated 3.75 stars is exactly the same level as a book rated 4.74 stars.

Rating: (3.9 + 4.6 + 4.6 + 4.4 = 17.5/4) = 4.375

March 1 2017




View all my reviews

Tub Diving by D. Night

Tub Diving by D. Night

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Okay then - let's see what this author can do with a bit of lesbian erotica - dominance and submission.

'This one suggests the mistress sit on the edge of the tub.' . . . and this one is a little too . . . I don't know the right word. Imbalanced. Robotic. 'Passive'.

'A slave will join her mistress in the tub and bathe her.' [yes robot mistress, I shall also be sure to check your oil]

Story consists of one woman, 'a slave' named Jenni washed 'mistress' Courtney. Then Courtney washing Jenni while Jenni is bound.

A slice, a scene, nothing more. Between two women of unknown age, position, etc. One is a mistress, the other is her slave. And the scene is as I mentioned - two women washing each other, then (as I have not mentioned) one of the women going down on the other . . . through water.

There was a bit of detachment from the story, and an odd bit of closer than expected 'feelings' about the action/story. As noted, this is just a slice, a scene, an erotic D/s scene. And despite my robot comments, that was more of the beginning impressions. There's more feeling here.

I always kind of rate these stories differently than 'normal' stories. As in, I know they are snippets. Scenes. Rated as a full story - and there's too much missing. Beginning, end - the scene ends in a somewhat natural place, but the reader knows more is just about to happen. Even with that said, its hard to know exactly how to rate scenes. Even if a lot of words are used to indicate that the story is being rated as a scene, not as a full length work. Bah, whatever.

Rating: 3.65

March 1 2017



View all my reviews

Game Day by D. Night

Game Day by D. Night

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Unfortunately the review I wrote got swallowed up by other reviews. I'm unsure what happened exactly but it's gone now. So I just note:

Woman locks herself into a 'bondage frame' positioned so that occupant can see broadcast game. Computer set up to read the data as the game occurs, and make items on the frame respond. Various actions will cause two ping pong paddles to spank the bound woman. 'Good actions', like the keeper stopping the ball from going in the goal, will cause the 'thingie' attached to clit to vibrate (though the shot itself by the opposition on 'her team's goal' will cause the paddles to spank her - though lighter than if a goal actually occurred). Other actions will cause the dildo to move. Mostly, and maybe only, if her team scores.

Interesting method to keep attention on a game. Oh, and I had this in the review that got eaten - this is self-bondage. Done to self.

I do not remember the words used around the rating but it came out to having me stamp '3.5' on the story.

March 2 2017








View all my reviews