Rating: 3 stars
Buy Links: Amazon
Length: Novella
It seems fitting that the final episode in the second season of The Flesh Cartel is the straw that broke the camel’s back, both for the twins, Dougie and Mat Carmichael, and for me as a reader. The time came to read this book, knowing I had to write a review, and my stomach started churning. This was my first sign that I was ready to be done with this serial. And when I, once again, read pages upon pages of torture and abuse with not one little light at the end of this horribly traumatic tunnel, I knew it was the last one I could read.
In the sixth episode called Brotherhood, Nikolai is up to his same old devastatingly sickening tricks. This time, he wants to irrevocably break the tie between Mat and Dougie, since he knows it is their devotion to each other that is keeping them from being the slaves that he needs them to be. Nikolai loves Dougie. He wants him as his own, but he can see that he hasn’t become the submissive, brain-washed drone that Nikolai needs him to be. His plan is a set-up, which he needs Mat’s agreement on so it will be successful. What follows is a series of mind-boggling torture until Nikolai can get Mat to see that, until Dougie gives up on his brother, he will live in misery and pain.
After Mat agrees to the plan, then we get to read the play-by-play. If you think you’ve read it all at this point, think again. In order to break down Dougie, he needs to not only be subjected to the worst amounts of pain and abuse, he also has to think his brother has abandoned him in the midst of it all. It’s a psychological game that just continues in perpetuity. It’s the worst of Stockholm Syndrome and abused victim mentality on a continuous loop. It’s mentally exhausting.
Please understand that I can handle a lot of things. I understand that this serial is called The Flesh Cartel. There are very few things that disgust me or make me feel uncomfortable. I feel like I do a pretty good job of separating real life from fiction, so I actually enjoy reading about things outside of my realm of real-life experience, even disturbing ones. At this point, however, I’ve read over 400 pages of the equivalent of torture porn, and I’m just not interested in continuing a serial that allows no hope for redemption. Perhaps it’s somewhere on the horizon, but after many pleas of, “Please! Give us a little hope!” and realizing it’s nowhere near making an appearance, I’m ready to call it a day.
As always, it’s very well-written and emotionally gripping. If you’ve enjoyed the serial to this point, you will not be disappointed. I’ll leave it to you though, dear readers, because my tortured psyche is screaming for a rest.
Oh. My. God. Thank you for this review. I thought I was the only one who was through with this shit.
I had the same reaction. I’ll probably get them and let them sit, at least until the end of the next season, but I don’t think I can do these tiny pieces as they’re doled out.
Do you think it’s the serial format? I’m wondering if it wasn’t the best way to present this sort of story. If it were all compiled into 1-2 volumes and you can just BLOODY FINISH IT, would it be easier to bear? I think it would. I think that the prolonged waits and lack of any sort of positive is killing it for me.
For me, it isn’t the serial format. I’ve enjoyed other serials from other presses like Less Than Three and Storm Moon. In this case, I think it’s just the subject matter and how it’s handled with the plot (or lack there of). I can totally handle non-con usually, but this so many steps beyond that into pure torture porn, ya know? I feel like you can be an amazing writer technically and get the emotive part down but still tell a bad story. Might be better when read as a whole instead of in parts, yeah. But is it even a good story? I’m not so sure. Just my opinion there, tho.
I was really hoping you would stick with it so I could find out how it ended. Unfortunately I bought the whole first season in advance and I couldn’t even stomach the first one.
I don’t know that the book would be any easier to handle if we had to sit down and read hundreds of pages (like 600 or so?) of it in one volume. But I have to admit that the serial format kind of makes me mad in this kind of situation because it almost feels like they’re drawing it out in order to get more money from more installments. This may totally not be the case, but when you read each episode and one thing happens and the plot does not progress, it starts to feel like that.
Truthfully, I just don’t understand the objective of the authors. It’s no longer compelling. You would think that two authors with such immense talent would be able to recognize the need to move things along quicker. Who do they think the reader is that enjoys this constant barrage of disturbing content?