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"The Summer of Love" by Spoonbender (paying for abortion)
10, 5, 3
"The Summer of Love" by Spoonbender (Theodore@spoonbender.demon.co.uk). Guest review by Bronwen (bronwen@anon.nymserver.com). It's 1967. A young girl is desperate for an abortion. A stoned one-off - and the boy doesn't want to know. Every teenaged girl's nightmare. Her best friend's older sister knows an abortionist, but the fee is out of our heroine's reach. No need to panic. Her best friend's older sister knows an easy way of earning the money. Yep, you guessed. Pay for the abortion by doing what she did to get pregnant in the first place. But the client turns out to be a john with a heart of gold, and all ends happily. Way too happily. I had insuperable problems with the heroine's reactions. Too many to list. But here's one: the story ends with the girl, now a woman, looking back over 20 years to this marvelous experience. This woman, a virgin until the fateful night, is happily reminiscing about the great sex she had to pay for her abortion..... I'm not saying abortion is automatically disastrous. Indeed, most women who have abortions are relieved, but few look back to the events surrounding it with any pleasure. Twenty years on, she would surely put her thoughts into context - these are her child-bearing years. Does she have live children now, or perhaps not? It seemed very strange to omit this inevitable train of thought. Also, as 1967 was the year of the Abortion Act, when it became legal in the UK (and the story's set in the UK) it seems odd to have no reference to the massive debate and changes going on at the time. Celeste always ends her request for a review with the words " if you do not want to review this story, just say so". I nearly did that with this story, because I don't want to discourage Spoonbender from experimenting with consensual stories. As most of my favorite stories are consensual and he's a good writer I welcome this diversification. I really enjoyed his recent "Room 416". As usual with his stuff, "Summer of Love" is well-written and presented. I expect the sex is hot, but I was so put off by the plot that none of it worked for me. Correction. The man made sense. I've met men like that. But the woman - well, I couldn't recognize her at all. Sorry, Spoonbender. Maybe I'm weird. I hope plenty of other women read this story and give alternative feedback. Ratings for "The Summer of Love" Athena (technical quality): 10 Venus (plot & character): 5 (plot made sense, character didn't) Bronwen (appeal to reviewer): 3 (turned-off, though not squicked) |