BOOK REVIEW
Becoming Venus
By Esme Louise James
(Simon & Schuster)
2 out of 5 stars
Becoming Venus is about a woman’s desire and sexual exploration. I really should have noted this from the blurb, and the first chapter, and from most of the book, and yet I sill read a large chunk of it first thing in the morning. I do not recommend reading this book over breakfast. It does not pair well with a bowl of muesli. I also really do not recommend reading it at work. First of all, maybe do your job instead of reading a novel, but even if you wanted to read it in the lunchroom during your break, I suggest reconsidering. You probably don’t want to experience the sorts of sensations the book causes while surrounded by your colleagues.
At this point of the review you’re probably expecting the next line to reveal where, precisely, I recommend reading it, and you probably are anticipating more details on the sorts of sensations the book is likely to cause. However, I am sorry to disappoint, but I’m not really sure I would recommend reading this book, full stop.
Becoming Venus should have been an incredibly hot and sexy romp through female sexuality but I felt myself regularly wrenched out of the story by an overabundance of adjectives, cliches, and a character who owns a grand piano, not even a baby grand, but a proper grand piano and says things like “it will take far stronger drinks [than these] for my playing to sound remotely impressive.” Maybe I don’t spend enough time around filthy rich people, but why do you own a grand piano then??? This attitude annoyed me so much that I couldn’t take the character seriously, which was a challenge given he is one of the main antagonists.
The main plot line involves Rose, a PhD student who dumps her controlling boyfriend and becomes involved with a group of people who frequent a particular sex club in Melbourne. Within the safety of the sex club’s rules and boundaries Rose explores not just what turns her on, but other parts of her identity and what she wants more broadly from her relationships with others. The book had worthy and interesting things to say about coercive control, and there were some nice depictions of Rose’s friendship with her flatmate.
We all bring our own particular biases to what we read, and good literature should challenge these biases. However, no one would call this book ‘good literature’ and I will freely admit that the many scenes of Rose being whipped didn’t do it for me (but all power to you if you like that). Rose tries a lot of different things in the book and I definitely found some of her adventures very hot, but my main challenge was the way it was written, rather than the concepts. Even when I managed to time my reading so I wasn’t trying to embrace horniness at 7.30am with a bowl of cereal in front of me, I found the writing over-the-top and jarring. For example, at only 8 pages in, we are treated to the line “Sinatra’s textured voice flowed into my ear, and I let out a moan in appreciation, drinking in the sensuous sound.” And at this point no one has even started to take off their clothes.
I also took issue with the way the dialogue was written. It all sounds like a particular group of people I knew at university who were fixated on sounding wittier than they were, meaning everything we said to each other was stilted. The same is true of these characters, which would be a clever technique in the sex club scenes where the characters are definitely trying to impress each other with their sophistication, but given that Rose and her flatmate talk to each other the same way (and these characters have known each other for years), I feel confident in saying that it’s a bug with the dialogue rather than a feature.
The book certainly wasn’t all bad. If you assume a book about sex clubs is mainly written to turn people on, then Becoming Venus gets a passing grade. It did turn me on more than I expected. If you’d like to read something fairly lightweight, and maybe read a bit about bondage before trying it yourself, this could be a good way in. However, if you are interested in a book that fully immerses you in the world of underground sex clubs and makes you want to rip off your clothes and tie up the nearest willing person to do unspeakably sexy things to them, this may not be that book.
