Broken - I.G. Frederick

The description on the back cover pretty much sums up the tone of the book. The story is about a highly unethical and abusive professor who forces people into situations where they feel they cannot say no and then exploits them for sex and money. The main character experiences tragedy at the start of the story and quickly finds out that she is running out of options. She hears about a research assistant position that would allow her to stay in school and advance her career. She finds out that in order to secure this position, she must submit to the professor for BDSM and sexual acts. This book pretends like she has a choice and that her consent isn't coerced but it is very clear that her consent is forced and given under duress. Not only is her consent taken against her will, there is limited negotiation of boundaries, safewords, or limitations. She is forced to participate in prostitution and violations of her body. She is told that if she tells anyone no one will believe her, she will be penniless, and her career would come to an end permanently.

As the story continues, she is given the opportunity to perform as a Top in a scene. She discovers that she enjoys being the Top in scenes. Her character development and emotional reaction is a common response for those who have abused. While this is a slightly empowering development, she never actually deals with the abuse she experiences. All the other characters in the story treat this as common place and fail to acknowledge the unethical professor as being in the wrong. The story treats it all like this is common place and the coerced consent wasn't coerced at all. This book is an abysmal portrayal of BDSM. The real world setting and treatment of consent does not speak well for the BDSM community. For those unfamiliar with BDSM culture it perpetuates negative perspectives that could be damaging to people. While rape fantasies are a common theme for some, these stories should be placed within an obviously fictional setting.

Aside from the blatant issues around consent and abuse, the story is not very well written. The BDSM and sex scenes were not arousing and in some cases repulsive to think about. The author does have a fairly engaging writing style which doesn't make it tedious to read but it lacks in good detail. The author missed opportunities to provide extra depth to characters and situations. With some of the abuse that occurs, the author could have expanded on how the main character emotionally responds. This could have been a great opportunity to redeem the unethical behavior that started the story off. We could have seen a real transformation and empowerment. Instead we get a shallow and artificial development of the characters.

Overall I would not recommend this book.