The House of Jack: Tales from an Illegal BDSM Sex Club
A.M. Wyckid
Amazon Digital Services [link to buy]
ASIN: B005DZZELC

Rating: 1.5 out of 5 Paddles

A tantalizing title such as The House of Jack: Tales from an Illegal BDSM Sex Club, sets the reader up for a boundary-pushing literary romp that, sadly, never happens. The “House of Jack” short tales collection begins with a decent premise: Pro Dom Jack and his female team entertain wealthy and curious clients in various arenas of the BDSM scene. Anyone searching for illegal activity or scandalous action will not find it in these pages—all is safe, sane and consensual; no illegal activity here (and on the grand scale, pretty tame action).

Just about every facet of BDSM is at least touched on by Jack and his team: pony play, corrective instruction with no touch, public scene-ing, kidnap scene, pain play, wax and heat play, rope work, e-stim, etc. However, the book becomes just the above, a list of BDSM activities, and one after another. Some of the activities so unrealistic and so outlandishly portrayed, that they break the fantasy barrier and become almost silly (the haunted house on the hill vignette with the Sisters of Terror was just plain ridiculous).

Other stories have high-brow attempts at literary connection: an ode to the “Story of O” has promise, but ends up being a long and drawn out BDSM Coming of Age story that almost whimpers out when the final climax occurs, rendering the journey a fizzle instead of fission.

Characters, including Jack, lack sophistication and are one-dimensional. Jack is the perfect and calculating Dom; married housewives become instant public pain scene princesses in less than an hour under his tutelage, and he can beat you at chess too. The females are unrealistic and just present as decoration (which is a fine occurrence if the author did not try so hard to make them appear relevant, educated, and human).