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Taming the Beast

3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 · rating details · 654 ratings · 122 reviews

At the tender age of fourteen, Sarah Clark is seduced by her thirty-eight-year-old English teacher, Daniel Carr, and becomes entangled in an illegal, erotic, passionate, and dangerous affair—a vicious meeting of minds and bodies that ends badly. Devastated by grief and longing, Sarah embarks upon a series of meaningless self-abasing sexual encounters, hoping to reclaim the...more

Paperback, 336 pages

Published September 19th 2006 by Harper Perennial

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Mar 19, 2011 Kat Kennedy added it

Shelves: kat-s-book-reviews, should-have-been-bad, australian-writer

First of all, I would like to thank Iyah for recommending this book to me based on the fact that she believed me to be extremely perverted, I think.

You know sometimes how you guys have to remind me to give a book a star rating because I accidentally forget? No. Not this time. I won't rate this book. I CAN'T rate this book.

This book is so many conflicted things. Filthy, dirty, shocking, perverted, angry, degraded, frustrated. It's raw, honest, painful, sorrowful, empty, begging, pitiable.

I hated...more

31 likes · like · see review

Mar 27, 2011 Kwesi 章英狮 rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kwesi 章英狮 by: Rollie

Shelves: owned, emily-maguire, 2011

Before reading my passionate and lusty review of this book, I want to warn everyone that I'm not an erotic genre lover or sex addict or both. It was an accident that I liked this book because of its deeper meaning besides having sex with a teacher and with a restless book. I rated it higher than what I expected when I started reading it, every letters of every words of this book delivers a very strong emotion of a girl who needed someone to comfort her.

Sometimes, I ask myself, why do prostitutes...more

18 likes · like · see review

Apr 11, 2012 Loederkoningin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: lingers-in-the-mind, haunted-heroines, a-tragedy-unfolding, coming-of-age, intriguing-fucked-up-men, creepy-love-affairs, blazing-intensity, about-obsession, interestingly-twisted, bittersweet-self-destruction, murky-minds, twisted-romance, approach-with-caution, d-s, funky-fetishes

My mom used to say...
...and she used to say this preferably after I had done something irresponsible, like petting the German Shepherd of that friendly middle-aged man, who was living down the road by himself. Taking the coke he offered me and watching a bit TV, feeling pretty at ease while his dog lay stretched out on my lap. Therefore losing sense of time and returning home after dusk. Where I would find my mother in a state... She would go on about what COULD have happened and that I wasn’t a...more My mom used to say...
...and she used to say this preferably after I had done something irresponsible, like petting the German Shepherd of that friendly middle-aged man, who was living down the road by himself. Taking the coke he offered me and watching a bit TV, feeling pretty at ease while his dog lay stretched out on my lap. Therefore losing sense of time and returning home after dusk. Where I would find my mother in a state... She would go on about what COULD have happened and that I wasn’t allowed to visit That Man anymore and that she would pay him a visit first thing in the morning to find out why he would invite a 12-year old girl into his house. And that girls my age supposedly knew it all, but anything crazy and perverted I could imagine - and mostly couldn’t! - actually existed in this world. To bottom-line it: I had to be more careful.
Of course I thought that was a stOOpid and belittling thing to say, so I often just shrugged.

But while reading Taming the Beast, the thought of how it, indeed, could have played out chilled me. And up to a certain point I only know too well how the troubled heroine in this book, Sarah, must have felt. I know how obsessions can hit you hard at that age, how you can cling to them so desperately and melodramatically that 8 years later the intensity of your emotions stirred back to life can be just as strong.

OhSarahohSarahohoh...I wish someone would've stolen her away from Mr. Carr, made her hot chocolate and hid her somewhere far away from parents and predators("But also", Mr. Carr said. "You could look at it the way I do. If your mother hadn't been so distant and unloving, maybe you wouldn't have been such an easy fuck."). Perhaps she eventually would've "snapped out of it" (which was probably the most useful advice Mr. Carr gave her), although that's not very likely. I don't think she needed rescuing because she was infatuated with her teacher and had a fling with him. I cannot say that I'm shocked that he seized the opportunity. The fact that he wounded and ravaged her when they resumed their relationship years later slightly nauseated me, but hey, different people have different tastes and what can you do if two adults are in a destructive relationship? That's their choice. Eventually he turned out to be her victim just as well. That doesn't mean that I didn't find it hard to grasp Mr. Carr's succeeded attempts at isolating her and breaking her down deliberately. How could this man with two young daughters not take proper care of her? How could he feed this vulnerable girl who handed herself over to him not much else but Scotch and pills and more Scotch and pills?

Some reviewers mentioned how they hated Sarah for continuously making all the wrong decisions. How what happened to Jamie was all her fault, for not allowing the good boy to rescue her from that manipulative, abusive fucker (But! Have you never experienced how someone can sweep you off your feet so completely, that whether you should give up everything you are is not even an issue that crosses your mind? Especially not when you’re that young and vulnerable, insecure and oblivious to what you can become?). How Taming the Beast did not play out as they had liked, how this awful book made them feel uncomfortable. How it was all about sex and erotica. It's neither. It's never about supposed-to-turn-you-on-sex. It's Sarah; submission, despair, fatalism and self-destruction.

I loved the delicate ending. Had feared that Sarah would eventually snap out of it just like that, especially after what happened to one of her friends. I'm grateful for Maguire's subtlety. Her ending is realistic and true to the story, yet full of hope and opportunities. (less)

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 12, 2012 Nikita Ompang rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-books, novel

In every way I look at it, I don't have any idea on how to rate this book. Moreover, I don't know what to say in this review. But before I say anything else, I'd like to say that I read this out of pure curiosity of what the book's really about than just lust.

Well, I'd say it is first disgusting. VERY disgusting. I mean like, EEEWWWHATTHEHECKUGHWTF! With all the things Sarah's doing and thinking at the age of 14, I didn't know how to react. And I want to be honest, I didn't fully read the book....more

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Jan 14, 2011 Iyah rated it 2 of 5 stars

I couldn't put into words all my reaction for this book. And my head is all confused so right now my face probably looks like this.

o.O

I was actually thorn between rating this book 2 stars or 4 stars.

I wanted to rate it 4 stars because for an erotic literature, this book is quite interesting. The sex scenes, the emotions and the actions are in full detail. So much detail that probably if you have a very wild imagination it would be like watching a BDSM pornographic video.

And probably a lot of e...more

10 likes · like · see review

Apr 26, 2010 DoctorM rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: brdytw-girls, hot-reads-and-erotica

A small autobiographical opening:

Once upon a time, a very lovely and Dangerously Younger girl sat back on my couch and kissed me. "I'm a train wreck," she said, "and you're a predator. We're pretty much the perfect couple."

Which is one way of saying that Emily Maguire's "Taming the Beast" is stunningly powerful. And of course a clear way of saying there was never a chance that I wouldn't fall in love with her heroine. But anyone who knows me knows that Maguire's Sarah Clark is probably the epito...more

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Oct 19, 2011 chucklesthescot rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, worst-ever-books, femalehardship, harsh-regime

14 year old Sarah is seduced by her 38 year old teacher and they embark on an affair that is passionate and violent, until his wife discovers he has been cheating and he chooses to move away to save his marriage. Sarah self destructs with meaningless sex with everyone she meets until years later her ex-lover comes back to continue their destructive affair.

There is no plot to this book just sex sex sex and it got boring after 40 pages of it especially with all the sexual violence and humiliation...more

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Mar 03, 2011 Jessica rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: older/more mature teens and up, people who like heavy reads.

Sarah Clark is smarter and more mature than your average fourteen year old girl. At first she is an innocent bookworm but is on the fast track to growing up when she embarks on a new relationship with Daniel Carr - her thirty-eight year old English teacher, who is controlling and abusive. Their secret love affair is sad, desperate and obsessive - meeting in the locker rooms and secret places after school to fulfill their longing need for each other. Eventually faced with an ultimatum, his wife a...more Sarah Clark is smarter and more mature than your average fourteen year old girl. At first she is an innocent bookworm but is on the fast track to growing up when she embarks on a new relationship with Daniel Carr - her thirty-eight year old English teacher, who is controlling and abusive. Their secret love affair is sad, desperate and obsessive - meeting in the locker rooms and secret places after school to fulfill their longing need for each other. Eventually faced with an ultimatum, his wife and kids or his relationship with Sarah, Daniel chooses to be a family man. After making his decision and leaving rather abruptly, Sarah feels devastated and heartbroken. She starts leading a reckless life of promiscuity to have the feeling of being wanted and felt. Sarah is now seeing sex as casual - too casual - with hundreds of partners, most who she barely knew at all.

Left to pick up the pieces is Jamie, her best friend. He is the only man in her life to never run in the opposite direction and always stick by her side, through thick and thin, no matter what. He is completely head over heels in love and would do anything in the world for her. For him, it would always be her. But there was that one relationship that Jamie could never live up to or come in between and that was Daniel Carr. One night, while trying to make her way through a crowded bar, she hears a familiar voice behind her. This was a voice that she hasn't heard in seven years, but one that she would never forget. She turned to see him standing there, looking at her. He was back in her life, just like that. Daniel had a hold of her but this time there was no letting go. She was sucked right back into it all - right where they left off.

It was a good book, but a few things did bother me and left me thinking “why?” The attraction Daniel had to Sarah when she was at the very young age of fourteen. He’s supposed to be a safe authority figure as a teacher and someone to be trusted. Instead, he was preying on a student with sexual urges that he eventually acted on. With an age gap of twenty-four years, I just don't understand what could turn you on about someone so young. How he felt for her, I wasn't exactly sure if he had a genuine love or if he just liked the upper hand and control that he possessed in the relationship. Obviously their relationship that they have isn't a healthy one, loving someone so much that it hurts pretty much becomes literal with them two. I just wanted to shake her and tell her take her damn blinders off. She pretty much gives up on everything that she worked so hard for, to stay in the house all day and have sex.(less)

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Sep 25, 2007 Laurie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I'm surprised that none of the characters in this book contracted STDs, but thus is the land of fiction where promiscuous sex can always be handled with a simple abortion. Thankfully, the author spared us details on that and only alluded to the main character having some. The author probably didn't have time to go into detail on all of that because the first part of the book goes into so much detail about sex. Which, for me, is just fine, because I tend to really enjoy sex in literature. I don't...more I'm surprised that none of the characters in this book contracted STDs, but thus is the land of fiction where promiscuous sex can always be handled with a simple abortion. Thankfully, the author spared us details on that and only alluded to the main character having some. The author probably didn't have time to go into detail on all of that because the first part of the book goes into so much detail about sex. Which, for me, is just fine, because I tend to really enjoy sex in literature. I don't know why, but it's always very lovely. Anywho, if you think that being turned on by an inappropriate relationship between a 14-year-old girl and her 28-year-old teacher is wrong, then stop reading now.

The second part of the book is basically the main character, Sarah, going through guys like she, hopefully, goes through underwear...or another article of clothing that you change every 5 minutes. She's an unlikable hero at times, but her own love of literature is a nice break from the details of her life. Really, I guess she's kind of a romantic heroine in a sense. (It's interesting to read how the author interprets this character through reading Jane Eyre. I just love the books with those P.S. sections at the end of them.)

By the third part of the book, I was getting annoyed at pretty much every character. Nobody was changing. It was like reading the same scene over and over and over again, and I felt like I was reading it in a young adult novel.

Thankfully, things picked up again in the fourth part and final part. The ending was certainly not what I expected at all. It didn't really have the oopmh that I wanted, but it was still surprising and made me think a bit at the end. About what...I don't really know. About why the main character is so self-absorbed and idiotic enough to stay in an abusive relationship simply because it was what she had chosen and there was hope? I'm not sure she has much hope, but I suppose that it didn't seem like Jane Eyre had much hope either with a blind husband and burnt-down house. Oh well.(less)

2 likes · like · see review

Mar 10, 2013 La Mala rated it 5 of 5 stars

Estoy revolucionada con esta novela eròtica . Es tremenda y difìcil pero sin dejar de ser profunda y tan bien escrita que con alguna que otra frase se me hizo un nudo en la garganta .

EXCELENTE . La empecè a leer a la noche y demàs esta decir que me retrasò todo lo que tenìa planeado porque no podìa parar de leer .

El dìa que pueda pensar en esta historia sin deprimirme o sin que me den ganas de leerla de nuevo , voy a escribir una reseña pasable .

--------------------------------------------------...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Ian Mapp rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 21, 2012 Maree Kimberley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: australian-women-writers-challenge

This book is not for everybody. It's raw, unflinching and at times difficult to read. But it's also gripping, heart-rending and a brutally honest piece of writing. It took guts to write this book, to keep going until its raw, bitter and yet hopeful end.

There is a lot of sex in this book. But it's not erotica, or porn. It's a book about trauma and vulnerability and the ability of a predator to justify his behaviour and manipulate his prey. There is a searing honesty to this book, which given its...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Lynley rated it 3 of 5 stars

My tepid three-star rating doesn't reflect how masterfully this book was written, and is instead a reflection of how difficult I found it to immerse myself in this fucked-up world. After being utterly gripped by the first section, it took me the next three weeks to pluck up the courage to read the rest. I'm the sort of wuss who turns away during the Saw movies because I can't stand gore. As it turns out, images of violence seem worse in books than on the big screen.

I seem to have read a few nov...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Ian Kirkpatrick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Emily Maguire has a breathless talent and a fascination with the cloying nausea of intoxication. This is a book which forces you to throw back a full tequila shot then immediately demand another two.

I had equal parts of fascination and revulsion for Sarah Clark. Maguire claims that Sarah is profoundly unsure of herself, yet I was profoundly unsure of Sarah as I was forced to witness her spiral into self-degradation. Maguire’s writing is so powerful, so disturbing that I found myself alternating...more

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Nov 02, 2011 Darryl Sloan rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have a liking for stories that go places where most authors fear to tread. If the author is insightful and courageous, you end up with fiction that tells the truth about life. My last outing into this territory was Stephen King's Rage, a tale about a student who holds his classmates at gunpoint. Emily Maguire's Taming the Beast is a story about another school-related taboo: the forbidden sexual relationship between teacher and student.

Sarah Clark is a fourteen-year-old girl who feels like a bi...more I have a liking for stories that go places where most authors fear to tread. If the author is insightful and courageous, you end up with fiction that tells the truth about life. My last outing into this territory was Stephen King's Rage, a tale about a student who holds his classmates at gunpoint. Emily Maguire's Taming the Beast is a story about another school-related taboo: the forbidden sexual relationship between teacher and student.

Sarah Clark is a fourteen-year-old girl who feels like a bit of a misfit; her English teacher, Daniel Carr, is thirty-eight and is married with a daughter. Recognising Sarah's intelligence, he pays her special attention, loaning her books. They spend lunch-times together, having private discussions, alone in his classroom. Then one day he makes a move on her, and she accepts. A passionate secret love affair develops, where they both can't get enough of each other. On Mr. Carr's side, there is a lot of conflicting emotion: the fear of Sarah's naivety getting them caught, the guilt over what they are doing, the fear of losing his wife and daughter. Disturbingly, the sexual relationship between Daniel and Sarah becomes violent at times, but they both seem addicted to each other regardless. Central to the book's theme is the metaphor of "the beast with two backs" - when two people become like one organism, and cannot be satisfied when apart, no matter how badly they treat each other. Recognising the destructive nature of their relationship, Mr Carr breaks it off, resigns from his job, and moves himself and his family to another town far away. Sarah is heartbroken.

All this takes place in a few chapters at the beginning of the book. The majority of the story concerns Sarah in her early twenties. She has become excessively sexually promiscuous, having hundreds of previous lovers in an attempt to recapture what she lost with Daniel. But no one will do. Then, out of nowhere, he reappears in her life, divorced and available. And both of them still want each other. This time the relationship becomes even more destructive and violent than before. But the two seem powerless to resist. Caught in the crossfire is Sarah's longsuffering best friend Jamie, who has been besotted with Sarah since she was a girl.

What I got from this book was a portrait of a completely self-absorbed woman - one whose view of sex is intirely about me, me, me. Everyone exists to serve her. She even seduces Jamie, despite the fact that he is a husband and father. All around her is the emotional wreckage of the people she has vampirically drained. And central to her "psychosis" is that age-old bullshit story of finding "The One" - the idea that there's one special person you're meant to be with and no one else will do, and to be alone is to be incomplete. The thing is, what I'm seeing in the story is not what the author intended. By all appearances, the author defends the idea of finding The One. She just wants to replace the romantic stereotype of this age-old tale with something raw and animalistic. Frankly, I'm not convinced. In the real world, people enter sexual relationships, and for a while it's exciting, even obsessional, but after time the sex becomes familiar. Love isn't this monstrous thing that drains so much from people that it almost kills them. What planet are you on, Maguire?

The genuine insight of Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita is absent here. All I see is a piece of pretentious melodrama with added shock value. This was the story of a self-absorbed little tart with delusions of profundity. Emily Maguire attempts to out-Nabokov Nabokov, but hasn't got what it takes.(less)

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Jul 20, 2011 Rachel rated it 1 of 5 stars

Well, this book goes down as one of the worst books that I have ever read. It was another of my Harper Collins First Look review books. Although the summary indicated that it was about a girl who is molested by her teacher when she's 14 it did NOT say that the book was almost completely porn.

It was horrifying. She's molested by this teacher and they start having an affair and the teacher is manipulative and sadistic. Her life spirals down into the gutter after. She sleeps with every man she meet...more

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Feb 02, 2011 Christie rated it 2 of 5 stars

"A thought-provoking and searing first novel." - The Age

Sarah Clark is a smart kid. That’s what we’re told, anyway. By the time she turns fourteen she’s read every one of Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, and then the works of Donne, Marlowe, Pope and Marvell. At fourteen she meets the English teacher, Daniel Carr, who will change her life.

“For the entire forty minutes of his first class he spoke about why Yeats was relevant to Australian teenagers in the year 1995. In the second class, Sarah put...more

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Mar 29, 2009 Rhonda Rae Baker rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a heart-wrenching book...not for the faint in heart!

I chose it over Lolita because of wanting to know what happens within the mind of the 'abused' and could care less what the 'abuser' was thinking...any pedophile is disgusting and sick...their prey are innocent and to be protected as well as sympathized with.

This novel was beautifully written and hard to read because I became very sickened with what happened as well as angry with the choices the protagonist made while understanding why...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Joe Stamber rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: paper, read-2000s

When trying to describe this book to my partner, to whom I'd recommended it, I told her it had a lot of swearing and sex in it, but it wasn't erotic, pornographic or dirty, it was just part of the story. TtB tells the story of a teenage schoolgirl, Sarah, who is seduced by her teacher into an explosive affair and the sort of life it leads her into. Throughout her sordid like, she is adored by her childhood friend, Jamie, with a loyalty that is both touching and pathetic. In the wrong hands, the...more

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Jul 12, 2011 Angela added it

Shelves: couldn-t-get-enough

I'm torn on how to rate this! I couldn't put it down. I was completely spell bound by the amount of disgusting violence mixed with (mostly) sexual encounters. Some of the time I was turned on, most of the time I was repulsed, and throughout I continued to shake my head, hold my breath, and finally breathe a sigh of relief when the chapter was over. I felt as obsessed with finishing it as Sarah and Daniel were with each other. It felt sick and demented, yet strangely satisfying and I HAD to go ba...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Lindsay rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was absolutely captivated by this book. I don't think it deserves the low reviews it has been given purely because of the subject matter. It is a raw and honest portrayal of an obsessive, possessive and destructive relationship. I think that Emily Maguire did a beautiful job in writing the story with such realism even if it is at times shocking and unnerving. I think that some people who have rated it lowly struggle to believe that such relationships exist, but there are couples who do behave...more

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Mar 14, 2012 Liliana Saquicela rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult

To be completely honest there were times when I didn’t even know if I could or wanted to finish reading Taming the Beast for fear of finding something even more crass than what I had already read. But I wanted to see how Sarah’s story would play out, because honestly I didn’t really see any kind of good outcome in her future that wouldn’t eventually end up with her or someone dead.

All of Sarah’s problems began when, Mr. Carr, her English teacher, seduced her into an illicit affair that would da

...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Laura Macdonald added it

This was a very compelling book to read, but also quite disturbing in many ways. It tells the story of Sarah, who first has sex with her English teacher when she is only 14. After a short but intense affair, he moves city at his wife's insistance, in an effort to end the relationship. Sarah then goes into a cycle of promiscious and sado masochistic behavior for the next 8 years, and seems to be on a spiral leading her to certain death.

The sex and violence are graphically described but also are v...more

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Dec 13, 2011 Flesheating D-Ray rated it 1 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 15, 2012 Tumbleweed rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, own, favorites, reviewed

I want to laugh at those words all reviewers see above the space where we type this: "What did you think?"

What did I think? I can't think. I'm not sure I'm coherent enough to leave a proper review, whatever that entails, and it probably consists of too many curse words for this site. I'm all sensation and feeling, raw and untamed, and I ache but OH is it good. It's good and wrong to love a book this much despite the fact that it's so f-ed up but that's okay, because I can't bring myself to care...more

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May 04, 2012 Kimberley rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: grown-up-only, it-s-on-my-shelf-may-read-again, read-2012, as-part-of-a-challenge

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. There are many words to describe this book, brutal, disturbing, truthful and honest are only a few that spring to mind.

Emily Maguire has approached and tackled a taboo subject head on and should be commended for her efforts.

Part one of this book takes place while our main character is 14 and still at school, this is where her relationship begins and the her sexual desires are molded. Sarah comes across as an intellegent girl but in a way this makes her seam older than she actually is, then her f...more There are many words to describe this book, brutal, disturbing, truthful and honest are only a few that spring to mind.

Emily Maguire has approached and tackled a taboo subject head on and should be commended for her efforts.

Part one of this book takes place while our main character is 14 and still at school, this is where her relationship begins and the her sexual desires are molded. Sarah comes across as an intellegent girl but in a way this makes her seam older than she actually is, then her family is introduced and you understand why this is. The descriptions of her molestation by her teacher, Mr Carr, are not as graphic as I expected from reading other reviews but were enough and dealt more I felt with the pychological aspect than the physical, both being as important as the other. In those first chapters I found myself wondering why no-one intervened, even when she told her best friend Jamie about everything, a boy who seemed so level headed and caring but let it carry on because her friendship meant more than his knowledge that what was going on was wrong. Even in the first part of this book there was the element of S&M although compared to the latter part of the book this was quite tame. At the end of the first part of the book it was already plainly obvious that Sarah was on a very dangerous path of self destruction, she had tasted an element of life and was addicted to the natural high in the same way a drug addict is addicted to the high from their chosen substance.

The second part of the book is when Sarah has, along with her friends, finished high school and is in college, there are references to the fact that she left home before finishing high school and was working hard to put herself through college, she wanted to make something of her life and she wasn't afraid of working hard to get it, but she was also still looking for her natural high of what she had felt when she had been with Mr Carr and it was unattainable with anyone else. She has many sexual partners, uses drugs, smokes and drinks to excess. She is still very much in contact with Jamie who looks out for her, she loves him as a friend but his love for her is more but unrequited, all the way through he is there to pick up the pieces when things go wrong, basically keeping her alive and praying that someday she will ask for help for her self harm to stop but sadly other things happen. Jamie has to get married when he gets a girl pregnant, even on his wedding day he can't get Sarah out of his system and their adhoc sexual encounters continue, she also has another friend, Mike, he is older but he too is now watching out for Sarah although this comes more for his own sexual gratification rather than actual love. All through this section Sarah's attitude towards people is selfish and hurtful but it shows how strong her friendships are with the people who really care for her are.

The third part of this book is set 8 years after the first part of the book, Mr Carr returns and Sarah's life is once again turned completely on it's head. Mr Carr and his wife are now divorced and he has come back for Sarah, their relationship starts with him saying that this time he wantsd to do things right and you wonder if by this he means that the violence will stop but it doesn't, he has Sarah review her time without him and we get the full story of why she left home and the relationship with her parents degraded to nothing, he knows how to play and control Sarah but she knows his game, knows what he is doing and why but she still goes along, lets him into her body and mind at a level few people can comprehend, they finally move in together but this comes at a cost, he forbids her to ever see Jamie again, she has one week to pack up her flat and say her goodbyes, right to the end Jamie still pleads and tries to save her from what he believes to be a situation that could potentially kill her, Jamie's own downward spiral has sadly begun, all he wants to do is the right thing by his friend and the woman in his heart but he is aware of what is expected of him as a husband and father, their goodbye is truely heartbreaking but not how Sarah wanted it. Starting her new life with Mr Carr is eye opening, centres on both their insatiable sexual appetites for that natural high and how they have to push further and further to achieve it but on the other side, something I haven't seen anyone refer to is the trust they have in each other to do the extreme acts that they subject each other too, the first act alone seems extreme but as the story continues is quite tame in comparisson, describing being bound, drugged, drunk and oxygen play, even though it is stated that Mr Carr payed a lot to learn to do this technique properly it scared me that there was no mention of a safe word, everything that was done was done entirely on trust alone, as things progress it is the same with the mind games.

The last part of the book is set just over a year after Sarah and Mr Carr move in together and Sarah goes to see Jamie at work, her physical state has deteriorated to a state that is extremely concerning but so has Jamie's mental state, despite her saying she is happy and in love and she concents to what is being done to her it is literally breaking his heart, they make love in his office and it comes across that Sarah concents to it as it was how they should have said goodbye before, they both still love each other but not in the same way, from there Sarah feels like she can't go home so she goes to see Mike and his wife but finds they are now seperated. While there Mike receives a phone call to say that Jamie is dead, though no details are given by the author, the impression from his mental state I get the impression that he committed suicide, Sarah is destaught at the funeral and only after that and another night at Mikes place does she return to Mr Carr.

The last part following Jamie's death to me felt rushed compared with the rest of the book, there is no mention of how Mr Carr reacted to Sarah staying away for a couple of days, whether he comforted her at her loss or punished her for going against his wishes and we are left wondering if their relationship continues on it's current path which from my eyes at least I feel will result in one or both of them dying.

It was a difficult read in places but I'm not sorry I read it, it was a powerfully raw book and a love story in a way, albeit unconventional and twisted but in the end Sarah ended up with the person she loved despite the cost in all aspects of her life and others being so high.

Would I recommend this book? yes but with a warning that it's a hard book, if you don't like honesty on a subject it may be better to avoid.(less)

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Jul 19, 2011 Diane ϟ [ Lestrange ] rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: own, adult-fiction, 2011-reads, reviews, disturbing

When your sexually abused at the age of fourteen by a half genius -half psycho pedophilic, what the bloody hell will you do? Will you run the hell out and call a police, keep it to yourself and have a psychological trauma about it or accept things and be addicted with it?

We all have a choice what path will we take, there’s no destiny or fate but choice and free will. You’re now in that place because that’s the one you have chosen. And hypothetically the course of action is to always take the eas...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Shannon rated it 4 of 5 stars

So stunningly powerful...never in my whole life have I read a book that has shocked me so much. It made me see the cruelty, as well as the longing, of the human nature. Sarah Clark is definitely not my idea of a heroine in the slightest sense of the word, but she is indeed a character that has rocked my sense of understanding why we do what we do. Overall, the book was excellent in that the senses and emotions of each character seeps right out of the book and into our minds. Even if you could no...more

1 like · like · see review

Sep 17, 2011 Patrick Neylan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I was on the brink of hating this book right to the end. You'll hate it too, if not for the sexual content then maybe for the occasionally gauche writing style, but you should still read it. Taming The Beast is an evil, vicious, perverted, beautiful love story. Like a 21st Century Wuthering Heights, it graphically captures the destructive force of love.

Never mind that Sarah is seduced at 14 by her teacher. Of course you'll worry that these scenes are quite explicit (hell, I did: I've got a 14-ye...more

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Mar 19, 2012 Alexandra rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book was way beyond my reading choices, I decided to give it a go bc the story sounded very intriguing and I personally like teacher/student relationships and how they're developed. This book however was purely sex, having intercourse,Sex,more sex sadistic/masoquist, and intentionally heartbreaking to read because the characters obviously treat sex like something as simple that you would do in the morning and it becomes unbearable that you just want to throw away the book as far away from y...more

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“That's what Jamie didn't understand: it was never just sex. Even the fastest, dirtiest, most impersonal screw was about more than sex. It was about connection. It was about looking at another human being and seeing your own loneliness and neediness reflected back. It was recognising that together you had the power to temporarily banish that sense of isolation. It was about experiencing what it was to be human at the basest, most instinctive level. How could that be described as just anything?” — 71 people liked it

“But then, life is a constant withering of possibilities. Some are stolen with the lives of people you love. Others are let go, with regret and reluctance and deep, deep sorrow. But there is compensation for lives unlived in the intoxicating joy of knowing that the life you have - right here, right now - if the one you have chosen. There is power in that, and hope.” — 58 people liked it

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