Helpful Score: 12
I don't know how the author can be a "sexspert" and live in Japan and yet somehow know nothing about geisha.
Geisha were not high class prostitutes, or courtesans, and were not obsessed with sex - that's an age-old Western misconception that she does nothing to dispel and everything to reinforce.
She doesn't even bother to deal with the training period geisha go through, just skips to the (quote unquote) good part about selling virginity - and a sex-obsessed western 18-yr-old girl hiding in a teahouse. And the idea that geisha run around with expensive kimono with nothing underneath- and oops their obis just always come undone... good grief.
And even that... she doesn't get it on but one time at the end of the book, so it's not even a proper erotic novel.
If you want a one-night read and don't care about reinforcing stereotypes of Asian women (and no, I'm a white girl writing this) and mockeries of other cultures histories and traditions - be my guest. But this is pulpy trash, I was severely disappointed.
Geisha were not high class prostitutes, or courtesans, and were not obsessed with sex - that's an age-old Western misconception that she does nothing to dispel and everything to reinforce.
She doesn't even bother to deal with the training period geisha go through, just skips to the (quote unquote) good part about selling virginity - and a sex-obsessed western 18-yr-old girl hiding in a teahouse. And the idea that geisha run around with expensive kimono with nothing underneath- and oops their obis just always come undone... good grief.
And even that... she doesn't get it on but one time at the end of the book, so it's not even a proper erotic novel.
If you want a one-night read and don't care about reinforcing stereotypes of Asian women (and no, I'm a white girl writing this) and mockeries of other cultures histories and traditions - be my guest. But this is pulpy trash, I was severely disappointed.
Helpful Score: 11
I considered throwing it in the garbage rather than posting it on here and subjecting another human being to it.
The prose is so purple. I mean, who uses phrases like 'dear little slit' and 'most honorable penis' SERIOUSLY? It would have been laughable. Until I reviewed it saying so on amazon.com, and I'm not kidding, the author's friends cyberstalked me for months, calling me a racist and a liar. They found and posted my full name on anonymous boards. I guess I'm just lucky they didn't find my social security number.
This is the worst book I've ever read, due to literally trying to ruin my life. I can't wait to be rid of it.
The prose is so purple. I mean, who uses phrases like 'dear little slit' and 'most honorable penis' SERIOUSLY? It would have been laughable. Until I reviewed it saying so on amazon.com, and I'm not kidding, the author's friends cyberstalked me for months, calling me a racist and a liar. They found and posted my full name on anonymous boards. I guess I'm just lucky they didn't find my social security number.
This is the worst book I've ever read, due to literally trying to ruin my life. I can't wait to be rid of it.
Helpful Score: 5
That's right, no stars. It's perfectly horrible. Overwritten & implausible: Imagine a young girl falling for a man who flashes her. Bad bad bad bad BAD.
Helpful Score: 4
The book was about a girl wanting to have sex, but only has sex one time. Yet it's supposed to be an erotic novel? It was also supposed to be about the world of geisha, yet the only things I read about being a geisha was that they sold their virginity and lived in a tea house. That was it. Also, the characters were poorly developed and there is a big time chunk of 3 years missing in the book. The language was atrocious. Referring to anatomies as "dear little slit[s]" and "honorable penis[es]."
This book was a joke and I wish I would not have wasted the time.
This book was a joke and I wish I would not have wasted the time.
Helpful Score: 3
Please be aware of what you are getting when you order this book. It is not a sexier version of memoirs of a geisha, it is an erotic novel that happens to have geishas in it. The writing, characters, setting and plot pretty much fall second to the sex.
Helpful Score: 1
This book was actually a good love story. But, as someone who is really into reading about Japanese culture, it doesn't seem to me that the author did as much research as she should have. Although, she had some of the traditions mentioned right; other things were not. She portrayed Geisha as being almost like a prostitute, but that's what the courtesan were for. Geisha did entertain men, but they didn't have sex with them. They entertained their customers with their art, dancing, music playing, singing, and pouring sake for them, but sex was left to the courtesans or for their lovers that were kept secret. The story was good, but I was disappointed in the lack of knowlege about the Geisha world that the author had.
Helpful Score: 1
This book isn't anything like I thought it would be. I thought it would be softly erotic, like a more 'revealing' Memoirs of a Geisha. I was sorely disappointed. The story lacked imagination, and the main character resisted the one thing that would have made her a true geisha- the selling of my misuage, even though she'd spent all her life dreaming of becoming a geisha! Very disappointing read. If your looking for a book closer to the lines if Memoirs of a Geisha, don't waste your time with this book!
browse Janet B.
Different from what I usually read, but very good.
Excellent book good story line!
