Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Boring and self-indulgent, 10 April 2006
By A Customer
This book was really disappointing. Normally I love biographies, but this was basically just a 200 page advert for Princess Spider's services. Towards the end of the book she also wrote about how people were now going to fetish clubs and using the net to meet their kink needs instead of visiting professional Dommes, which made me think this even more. I kind of got the impression she was concerned about potentially losing business and thought this book might help her out (which I rather suspect it will to be honest). I wouldn't mind a 200 page advert so much if it made scintilating reading, but she seemed to blow her own trumpet all the way through which got a bit annoying. I read so many times about clients returning to her because she was the best, and how they all thought she was wonderful, and all the other Mistresses were jealous of her at fetish clubs because all the men were queuing up to talk to her blah blah blah. There also didn't seem to be much structure to the writing - every chapter seemed to contain the same thing just told in a different way. I read all of this book because I wanted to see if it got any better. But quite honestly, it really didn't.
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Through The Looking Glass?, 15 April 2006
I saw the ad for this tome, and, remembering a voicemail message and brief exchange of email with the Princess In Question a few years back, knew I'd be buying it.
The search for sexual identity or emotional comfort zone can lead us along many unknown paths towards unknown pleasures. Once upon a time, people on that journey would have been dismissed as perverts or deviants and driven underground, but we live in times either more tolerant, or perhaps more broad-minded in the age of digital information (and power) exchange, and the imagery and dynamics are tolerated (and even promoted) across a range of genres.
Princess Spider, a high-profile 'player' on the UK D/s scene, has produced a volume which is neither 'how to' manual for the novice, nor memoir. She does give pointers to the curious without dispelling the allure of the unknown, and is able to contextualise her involvement in this scene, giving readers some insights into the roles, expectations and dynamics in play in the process.
She does somewhat 'de-mythify' the rituals and protocols of D/s in chambers and elsewhere, but from experience, I know that part of the fear (and thrill) is the realisation that there is never a last step. While the curious reader may not get too many clues as to what makes a Dominatrix, at least they may find the courage to take that first step. Those seeking to place a 'Goddess' on a pedestal should probably steer clear, however. There's enough here to explode that fantasy, not least her views on switching.
This book loses points for the high 'filler' content - the 'permission to speak' third-person narratives offered by 'slaves', and various other reports don't really add very much. On the other hand, the author does not pander to those seeking easy gratification - there are no illustrations.
Over the past few years, Princess Spider appears to have parlayed her hard-earned standing in the London fetish scene into participation in a TV show, thereby attaining a certain 'celebrity'. I was curious to learn more about what I'd turned down during that brief correspondence in 2002, ironically because what I perceived of her at that time unnerved me. Having read the book, I couldn't say I made a mistake, but, on the other hand, maybe I'd have been on the telly...
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good read!!!, 20 Feb 2006
Whether an experienced BDSM player, or just curious for a closer look into the lifestyle, I would like to give an enthusiastic heads-up on this book! Princess Spider: True Experiences of A Dominatrix. This is an authentic, behind the scenes tour of the BDSM world of today. It includes a variety of material that covers Princess Spider's own recollections, those of her submissives and slaves, and descriptions of the underground fetish community that exists in London. Princess Spider definitely has great style and extraordinary charisma that comes out in her writing. She also has a gallows wit that would make the executioner blush, “As long as it doesn’t turn black you don’t have to worry.” – Princess Spider …such observations are just one more of many reasons this submissive feels her book is both an entertaining AND informative read.
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