This imaginative story of reincarnation and astral projection switches between modern day England and early Renaissance Scotland. While the back cover copy notes that barbarism and perversion play a part in the story, readers should prepare themselves for many disturbing scenes of sexual sadism, public masturbation, and a graphic rape.
The central character, Edwina, inherits an old cottage, where she has an out-of-body experience taking her back to the year 1570. Her consciousness sees Joan (the cottage’s owner) and Edward (a previous incarnation of herself) during sexual foreplay. Her consciousness unexpectedly enters Edward’s body, and she experiences first-hand the aftermath of his cross-dressing masturbation. As punishment, Joan ties him to the bedposts, whips his penis, and masturbates in front of him before they engage in sexual intercourse.
Edward soon leaves England for Edinburgh, Scotland, where he is caught masturbating by Queen Anne of Scotland, who brings him to work at her castle as a servant. Anne is possessed of four different personalities, and her evil side enjoys torturing Edward, whipping his penis and buttocks with a spiked leather strap. Edward romances Anne’s sweet side, while dreading reappearances of her evil personality. As another man, who also endures her sadistic attacks, agrees to help the evil queen retain power, Edward, Joan, and Edwina join forces through time to stop this from happening.
The story offers an intriguing premise: combining out-of-body experiences with previous incarnations. Unfortunately, the conceit’s promise becomes overshadowed by relentless sexual perversity that is bound to turn off all but the most stalwart readers. Additionally, the author awkwardly solves the problem of Edwina’s first-person narration, which doesn’t allow him access to other’s thoughts and motivations, by having medieval characters mumble plot points aloud. Other flaws include overuse of particular words (“reckon,” “penis,” “cuppa,” “what the hell”), anachronistic language (“Shut the fuck up”), and typos.
More metaphysical explanations of what is happening and why and fewer sadomasochistic descriptions would broaden this book’s appeal.
Also available as an ebook.
