Pros: Riveting pacing and plotting
Cons: Justification of emotional abuse
Rating: 1 out of 5
Review book courtesy of Penguin Group.
Also posted on Epinions.com.
I’ve read and reviewed four of Christine Feehan’s books including her latest, Burning Wild. I started out expecting good things, since she’s sold well and won plenty of awards. Turbulent Sea I enjoyed, but had minor issues with. Murder Game I had some relatively major issues with—in my eyes she blurred the lines inexcusably between a dom/sub relationship and emotional abuse. Dark Curse disappointed me on more mundane levels: the world-building felt like a hodgepodge mix of elements that didn’t really gel. And this time, Burning Wild has succeeded in absolutely, 100%, pissing me off. So prepare yourself for an unusually ranting book review. I try to keep my reviews as even-handed as possible, but this time, that just isn’t possible.
Billionaire Jake Bannaconni was bred by his parents in an attempt to create a leopard-shifter—but they believed they had failed, and they took out their rage on him through constant physical and emotional abuse. Eventually he broke free of them to become one of the most powerful businessmen in the world. A tragic accident left him to raise his young son alone, however, and also left a pregnant young woman alone to raise her baby.
From the moment Jake laid eyes on Emma he became obsessed with her. He manipulated everything around her so she’d have no choice but to move to his Texas ranch and take care of the house and both children. As the emotions between them get hotter, however, their lives seem to become more dangerous—someone is out to get them, and they’ll stop at nothing to succeed.
I’ll start with Everything Else, because once I start on the content that made me angry, that’s all I’ll be talking about.
First of all, Christine Feehan is, in many ways, one hell of a good writer. Her pacing is, in most cases, extremely good; my only exception is that her characters sometimes spend too much time over-thinking things instead of acting (particularly early on). Her plotting is tight and action-packed, and keeps me glued to the pages wanting to know what happens next. Her characters are largely fascinating (with the exception that the bad guys in this book are such over-the-top one-sided villains that they’re rather cartoonish). The frequent sex scenes are lavish, imaginative, and hot as hell, with some minor personal quibbles (spasming or clenching wombs will always make me think of PMS and cramps, not hot sexiness).
However, it’s extremely difficult to sit back and enjoy the above when I’m steaming mad about the rest.
Main man Jake is a cold-hearted bastard. Okay, no biggie, you say: it’s a common fantasy that women want to find themselves to be the only one who can warm the heart of the big baddie. This is fantasy, not reality. Sure. Normally I can accept that. I can accept dominant alpha males (although they get a little boring when over-used). I can accept depictions of dom/sub relationships (I’ll be reviewing a fantastic depiction of one when I review Jory Strong’s Ghostland later this week). There are, however, several reasons why this book’s depiction of an emotionally abusive, controlling, manipulative male lead went way beyond any of the above for me, straight to something that I find wrong.
1. A big deal was made out of the fact that a line was drawn between physical and emotional abuse, as though as long as Jake never actually hit Emma or the children he was somehow in the clear. Bullshit. Emotional abuse is real, and can be at least as devastating as physical abuse. To draw this line leaves many emotionally abused people feeling as though if they haven’t been hit, they have no right to call for help or leave their abusers.
2. Jake’s behavior was excused through his traumatic childhood. While it’s true that a traumatic childhood leaves a lot of emotional scars and often is a good reason for giving a person some slack and helping them through their problems, it is NOT an excuse for abuse. Many abused people do not grow up to be abusers. Again, the assumption seemed to be that as long as he wasn’t the physical abusers that his parents were, he was still a good guy.
3. Both of the above points ultimately were made to seem as if they didn’t matter because as long as Emma loved him, she could change him. By “surrendering” to him and doing whatever he wants, of course. Somehow we’re supposed to believe that this magically turns him into a loving man and puts them on an equal footing. Oh, yeah, and the fact that he’s sexy and turns her on is apparently an excuse, too.
4. Any manipulation of her on his part, no matter how nasty, is magically made okay because—get this—she really recognized that he was manipulating her all along and decided to allow it. It’s the worst kind of justification, not to mention it’s virtually a deus ex machina because none of her thoughts revealed until that point have apparently shown us the full truth of what she was thinking.
But ultimately, what makes this book so horrific to me is that it spends a very, very large number of its pages stridently defending Jake and justifying his actions. It’s one thing to simply portray a fantasy that some women might have. It’s another to go to such great lengths to justify abuse as a part of a romantic relationship. (This is exactly the kind of thing that gives the larger world such a dim view of romance and erotica novels.)
Normally I’d have to give Feehan at least a 2 or 3 because really, in many ways she is a very good writer, and it wouldn’t seem fair to give this book a 1 out of 5 due to one issue. This time, however, I’d feel remiss if I didn’t.
Let me explain something I thought I wouldn’t be talking about for a long while yet. I once knew a woman I’ll call Mary. She married an emotionally abusive man who was very controlling and manipulative. I and other people around her often wished that she would leave him, and tried to offer her help, but he had used financial circumstances and such to leave her feeling trapped (much as Jake did to Emma).
Later, when Mary was dying of cancer, I spoke with her in the hospital. She told me she knew intellectually that her husband would never change, but that she just could never emotionally give up on the hope that he would.
This is the kind of book that encourages that hope and that fantasy, that urges people to try to heal damaged, emotionally abusive people, that tells folks they’re safe as long as they aren’t being hit, that tells them go on, surrender, if you just really give in to your abuser then they’ll change. And after seeing Mary’s sorrow, after knowing she died without ever getting free of her husband, reading that attitude made me physically ill.
I have always felt VERY strongly that books, games, movies, etc. are not responsible for people’s actions—people are. I loathe the idea of censorship, banning books, etc. But if a young woman I knew was going to read this book, I would want to make sure we sat down afterward and had a very long talk about the realities of emotional abuse. There’s a difference, to me, between depicting a harmless fantasy, and spending half of your pages trying to convince your audience that the actions of an abuser are acceptable. And this book went waaaay over that line.
This review is written in memory of a very kind woman who deserved far more than what she got. May she rest in peace.
Tags: Christine Feehan, emotional abuse, shapeshifters, werecats
I’d just like to let you know that I read your entire review. I’m very sad about this and your reaction. I haven’t read any books by this author and I’m afraid that now I will not read any of them in the future.
I know what you mean by the author justifying the characters actions. I can’t believe that the author didn’t portray that male lead in a better way. How disappointing.
I hope that you feel better now that you’ve expressed yourself and that you have made peace with reading this book and losing your good friend “Mary”. How sad to have the memory be tainted by this book.
Thank you, Jess. I think I’m going to have to assert wifely prerogative tonight and ask my wonderful husband to do something fun, relaxing, and distracting with me. For once, I’m not even going to take this one to donate to the library—it’s going right into the recycle bin.
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Wow, Heather – I am amazed that even with your warning about how angry you were, you still managed to put out a fair review of the book. I understand and agree with your anger, and I won’t be picking this one up.
I haven’t read “Burning Wild” yet, but I had planned to. I don’t know if I will, now. I have the same complaint as you do about the male leads in her books. I’ve read every one of the “Dark”, “Drake”, “Ghostwalker”, and “Leopard” series, as well as other books she’s published. I’ve noticed that while I thoroughly enjoyed the earlier installments of her various series, the more recent ones have become darker and more mean-spirited. I don’t enjoy them as much. Her male characters don’t try to win the love of the women they want anymore; they just try to control them, and keep insisting it’s for their own good. That’s not love, no matter how much spin you put on it. Her earlier “Dark” books had her Carpathian men trying to woo their lifemates, and to give the women time to fall in love with them. But now they just take what they want and are–I agree–emotionally abusive. In some of her books I feel the abuse extends to the bedroom, as well. I used to buy every book in the various series, but now I don’t want to spend the money when I know I’ll be disappointed on some level, so I just check them out from the library in order to keep up with the major plot lines. The author has me “hooked” on the story, so to speak, so I don’t want to miss what happens to characters I cared about in earlier books. But now I end up skipping over lots of pages, because I’m upset at the way the female leads are treated. Sometimes I just skim through new book to see “what’s new”, and then that’s the end of it. I only re-read her earlier books. I don’t know what’s going on in Christine Feehan’s life lately, but she has gone over the line. The words “tender”, “sweet”, “romantic” don’t apply to her male leads anymore. It’s been a real disappointment for me, since I’ve loved her books for years–”loved” being the operative word here.
darla: I’m glad you felt it was fair! I was trying very hard not to simply slam it.
Leslie: I’m glad to hear that the earlier books were much better, because I was having a lot of trouble reconciling these books with Feehan’s vast fan-base and rack of awards. I guess this is one reason I don’t like long series: if the author goes down a path like this, you’re stuck wanting to know what happens to your favorite characters, but not wanting to read the author’s version of it, if that makes sense. I read somewhere that Feehan realized this book would be controversial but felt she had to be “true” to the characters. I can’t help feeling that this fails to address two important issues, though: that this kind of relationship is inappropriate to a genre that’s all about romance and happily-ever-afters, and that if she really was just trying to be true to the characters, she wouldn’t need to spend so much space justifying everything they do. I don’t know what’s going on in her life, but I hope she stops trying to force-fit it into the romance genre.
well ms. feehan did warn before hand that this wasn’t a book for everyone and unfortunately it wasn’t the book for you. especially when you sound as if you personally went through similar experiences yourself or people that were very dear to you. What’s sad too is that you mixed your own personal feelings into that of a book that is a harmless read whether readers choose to read it or not. Regardless we are all entitled to our own opinions so more power to reviewers, just try to at least assert some positive views once in awhile regardless or personal views.
I’m sorry that you can still call this a “harmless read” after everything I pointed out here, but well, that’s your take on things. I’ve read all sorts of romances, from dom/sub fantasies to fairly dark and violent reads and found them to be “harmless.” However, I was very clear in my review as to why this particular book crossed that boundary where others did not. If you choose not to see that—well, I hope you never have to know someone who does go through something like this, because believe me, you won’t be happy about having someone portray it in a romantic light and spend so many pages blatantly attempting to justify abuse as acceptable behavior.
As for how I should “try to at least assert some positive views once in a while regardless or [sic] personal views,” did you actually read my full review? I said quite a few positive things about Ms. Feehan’s writing abilities. She’s a very strong writer in quite a few respects, and I had no trouble saying so. Since it seems that you missed several major points of this review, I hope that before responding again you’ll give it a more thorough read.
Hi Heather, I have not read “Burning Wild” yet but will do so soon. I find your review quite interesting. Having read most of Feehans books I would say that the topic of childhood abuse in its different forms and its repercussions is of real concern for her. But so far, there have always been creatures with magic or supernatural powers to take care of those with damaged bodies or souls, a combination that places the healing and solution in the realm of a magic world where fairy tales come true. Apparently, in “Burning Wild” a mere mortal finds herself at the receiving end of the manipulative actions of a powerful shape shifter. And if I understand your review correctly, the author’s explications of the hero’s behaviour may be given with the best of intentions to inform and instruct people but they seem to justify said behaviour. I am looking forward to reading the book so that I will be able to compare my impression to your thoughts.
Please, forgive me for my poor English which, unfortunately, is not the foreign language I speak best.
Hi Septime, I look forward to hearing your take on it. I’ve heard from one or two other people now who say they really loved her earlier books, but have found some of her most recent heroes go over the line into being outright abusive. I have no problem at all with wanting to explore issues of childhood abuse and its ramifications, but I do think she has stepped over the line into justifying abuse in certain ways, and I hope she sees that and goes back to what I understand are her far better strengths.
I totally agree with everything you wrote. I am a fan of Feehan’s work, enjoyed pretty much everything she’s written, but agree with Leslie A that in her later books the heroes have become more abusive. That said, none of her books have made me this angry and disgusted. I literally wanted to vomit after getting halfway through this book. I can’t even finish it.
Hi Laina, thanks for including your feedback! Again, since I haven’t read as many of her past books, I appreciate hearing how her fans view this recent aspect of her writing style. I hope she’ll listen to people’s feedback and consider either dialing back on the abusive tendencies of her “heroes”, or exploring them in a genre other than romance.
I was really interested to read your review of “Burning Wild” which I haven’t read yet and probably won’t. I just finished “Dark Possession” (lastest in the Carpathian series) and “Murder Game” and was really disturbed and turned off by parts of both books especially “Murder Game”. I’ve noticed that the male character in both books (esp. Murder Game) literally physically force the female lead to do what they want them to do. There are several instances in “Murder Game” where he yanks her around and leaves bruises which the book notes that he’s proud of doing. But what really turned me off were the “love scenes”. They have gotten extremely graphic and now definately in the porn realm. The forced oral sex on him esp. where he’s holding her head down and “instructing” her how to do it better made me want to gag. I have absolutely nothing against sexy scenes in romances and have read many that fall in the very racy catagory but have never been so turned off like this. I agree that the earlier books were much better and the heroes more tender and loving. I’ve read them several times but I won’t be rereading these.
I like christine feehan, her book mind game was my first romance novel read and i grew to love her books and though i acknowledge that her newer books have become dark and really harsh, people shouldnt stop reading her books because a few are sick and twisted. Burning wild really freaked me out and some of the “love” scenes scared me but i still finished it out of loyalty to one of my favorite writers and will continue to read her future books because she may have some characters later that are more loving and tender. maybe.
Hi, Lindy! I appreciate your take on this—definitely I understand wanting to be loyal to an author you’ve enjoyed, and certainly if I’d been enjoying her books for years I’d be loath to give up on them, too. If I were in your place, I’d probably “check in” with one now and then to see whether she’d returned to the style I enjoyed, but I doubt I’d be able to stick with them the way you are. When there are so many gorgeous books to enjoy in the world, why put yourself deliberately through a bad experience with one?
I was struck by your phrasing of sticking with books that have “really freaked [you] out” in the hopes that Feehan might return to her former “loving and tender” characters; it oddly echoes the idea of someone sticking with an abusive lover in the hopes that they’ll change their ways.
I LOVE Christine Feehan! She is the greatest paranormal writer of all time. Her books (Dark and Wild series) are not about 100% human emotions and a lot about animal instinct and survival. I’m sorry that people (including myself) have had bad experiences in life… but that is life itself. It would NEVER jeopardize me from reading a book as good as “Burning Wild”. I think Feehan’s creativity and imagination is amazing. Jake’s character is very sweet and nurturing throughout the entire book, look at all the misfits he adopts and how gentle he is to Emma and the kids, not to mention how very, very, sexy he is. It is about survival; his survival. Sure his animal instincts come out, that’s what makes it so exciting and oh so interesting. I loved reading “Burning Wild”; in fact, I’m reading it a second time as we speak.
Hi Happy Dark Reader! If Feehan had simply justified Jake’s actions by saying he was part animal and therefore didn’t operate by human standards, I wouldn’t have had nearly as big a problem with this book as I did. It’s the fact that she spent so much word count justifying his actions within an entirely human context that makes it not-okay. Feehan doesn’t just let it stand at “he’s a leopard shifter, so he’s different.” She justifies and excuses his behavior throughout page after page of rather defensive characterization—it comes across like a person trying desperately to convince her friends that her obnoxious big brother is really a total sweetheart when he belittles and demeans them.
I’m glad you at least enjoyed this book!
Hi Heather, I have a niece named Heather, she’s a sweetheart. Thanks for your input; I was hoping that you would reply. You and I have different opinions on the message brought through the characters in this book. You see a serious control freak, when I see a man helping people with protection that are in desperate need because of misfortunes in their lives. He truly takes care of people. I see a man who survived absolute torture. A man who builds an empire, with a good head start, thanks to his only good relative his Great-Grandfather. And I see a message that no matter how bad your childhood way, you can conquer anything (including love when it was never taught to you) if you set your mind to it. Of course a persons childhood will always have an effect of who they you are. Look at what he has come from in the beginning of the book until the end. He’s already a different person. He’s always been alone, without any kind of love whatsoever… of course the going to grab on to something positive with both hands in an attempt to keep it. Even in reality, that holds water to me. I admire Feehan actually going to the rain forest and researching animal behavior and life there in general. I like the way she can take your mind to the rain forest and make a real visual of what it would truly be like. Honestly, Heather, I’m a true cat lover also .
If Jake’s actions were so understandable, I think they would have stood on their own without help. As it was, the book was thickened considerably by the number of pages spent justifying his actions. I’m not talking about narrative, depictions of his childhood, etc.; I’d put that in the category of story that stands on its own. But Feehan spent quite a bit of verbiage defending him; I don’t think she’d have felt the need to do that if she felt the character would be understandable on the merits of his background and nature alone.
I have a feeling you and I will have to agree to disagree on this one.
Sure, Jake had some redeeming tidbits to him, but I just don’t believe that they excused some of the things he did and tried to do. Nor do I think they should.
You’re funny, “agree to disagree,” that’s cute. Yea, we totally disagree, but I still think you’re cool! Sometimes when I’m reading a book and the writer ramble on and on about a character’s personality, it irritates and bores me, and I end up wasting my money on it. But, I honestly didn’t see that in this book. The explanations were interesting to me and didn’t seam like his character was being justified. He knew he could be a jerk, and mentions it several times!! I didn’t get board reading it. Not at any part of it. I would smile to myself and think WOW!!! Sometimes. I was thinking of the logic of the story. I mean, think about it… If you were powerful (in a make believe/magical sort of way) and were raised the way Jake was and could pull off all the things he did… now that is true fantasy to me. I loved the first part, the reading of the will! Wow, to me, that was powerful. I just thought the way he treated Emma was down right SEXY!!! lol. Waiting two years… being patient… jealousy… all that animal instinct (mm mm mm), I thought he was really awesome!
Hey, on another note, is Jory Stone really a good writer? I need some new reading material for the summer. I trust your judgment. I won’t hold it against you for not liking “Burning Wild.” I forgive you ((wink)). Make suggestions to me, my friend. Thanks.
Well, I’m reading “Ghostland”. Pretty cool!! I likes!
I used to be a huge fan of Christine Feehan – and loved her books, I can tell you from personal experience that I will never again buy another one of her books, to financial support a author by purchasing on of their books is to give your approval of their conduct.
And while I agree with Heather’s sentiments – my reasons are more personal. I have found that Ms Feehan is extremely prejudiced to anyone not living in the States – you can not purchase any of her ebooks if you do not live in the States or Canada. And heaven help you if you complain to her on her website – you are basically told to sod off – and be grateful and she write 4 books a year for us fans.
I think she has grown too big for her boots, and forgets that it is us fans that made her popular, and us fans who fork out our hard earned money to support her, and when considering that one of her books costs more what most people in my country earn in a week – well she will never receive any dime from me that’s for sure.
I must admit, I agree with you too. I read the book, and it was my first experience reading any of Christine Feehan’s works…the plot was thought out well and imaginative, with some great key aspects, and “climaxes” (I also agree with the womb clenching thing, sounds like severe PMS or child birth and really doesn’t make much “sexy” sense)…what I find aggravating however is her constant leaping from one character’s mind to another…for me, I get lost with that sort of writing style (generally I can wiz through a book, but being a bit ADHD this sort of thing makes me have to stop, and then re-read to get a grasp on who is thinking what in any given scene)—I personally think she should stick to ONE character’s POV through a WHOLE chapter, THEN move on to another in such a way that the storyline stays flowing and consistent…but for me, I will be just getting the hang of what one person is feeling, thinking, about to do, and then I am RIPPED away from their head and thrown into another person’s thoughts, feelings and potential actions–quite honestly it’s sloppy, and irritating to not be able to keep up, IMHO. (I am actually suprised that NONE of the critiques I have read mention that…it’s sort of a “writing 101″ thing to me–I understand that there are numerous ways to write, and that on occasion styles like hers can work…but in most books with multi character POV style they stay in ONE character’s head throughout the duration of a single chapter, and then move to another character in the next chapter–it makes more sense –to me– that way).
Another gripe, since I am on that track, is how she take’s, as I call it, the EASY way out with some things…like with her leopard people and some of their traits–rather than evolve ALL aspects of the things they can do (like she got stuck with how to explain it and gave up trying), she just takes an easy out and skims over the top of the subject (like, “it is so, because I say it’s so, now lets move to the next exhibit, shall we.”) Or with one I am struggling through right now, “Dark Curse” there is a scene in which Nicholas is talking to Mikhail, and telling him a story he already knows-(page end 81 to 82) -I feel she does this to bring the reader into the lore, but it’s LAZY and IMO there are ways to do such a thing without making the characters act or look like they are constantly trying to “one-up” eachother by telling redundant tells for the sake of telling them.
I am suprised at how well recieved her novels are with this style of writing…I recently found some of her other books–apparently I bought 2 others and then they got tucked away on one of my book shelves–left unread. So I will struggle through these last two, but I am quite sure I won’t be buying any more of her books–it’s just too laborious and exhausting to keep up with the mind jumping. I will take it as a cautionary tail of what NOT to do in my own writing–funny thing is I just read a few sites on writing tips regarding POV (because I have had a hard time nailing down my own POV style) and MOST, if not ALL of them said NOT to mind jump…and then I got her “Burning Wild” book and had a reader’s POV of how confusing and frustrating it can be when a writer writes that way…so it was the book I needed to cement that lesson in my mind–so thanks Christine on that one.
If she could elaborate on some issues instead of taking a side-stage-exit on the matter and stay with one character through a whole scene, I would have to say the rest of her imagination and story telling is quite awesome, and the romantic aspects can really be racey (if you like that sort of thing, I do). I have a short attention span with things I have to do twice or more to understand, so maybe it’s me and not her books, but I doubt it. Men on “power trips” CAN be sexy, but I agree she needs to pull back a bit on their leash and pop them back into calm, submission to the women–not overbearing and controlling to the point of being bastard bullies. I like that the men are struggling through past trauma’s and don’t trust themselves to not hurt someone, but that doesn’t give them an excuse to be emotionally abusive and ride on the coat-tails of their horrible childhood as justification.
Just my $1.00 worth…