The gothic style of writing was well done and the horror elements were well executed. Excellent spice.

"In the forest, a long time ago, lived spirits who would dance a man to death."

Trigger warnings: carnal aggression, references to suicide, mutilation, female abuse

Set in Paris in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Marionette is quite an interesting read, for it deftly combines the tropes of erotica, horror, and folklore to question and subvert the concept of hypermasculinity operating in the then society. The narrative centers around Cece Dulac, a young, naive girl from a poor background, who, following her aunt's footsteps, travels all the way to Paris to embrace its glory and glamour by becoming an exotic dancer. While she does succeed in becoming the object of attention, she soon finds herself caught in a diabolical arrangement when she agrees to attend a special event organised by Monsieur Rossignol, which she later discovers to be a séance. She initially perceives it to be theatrical, but it is not, as she finds herself possessed by a spirit that slowly begins to overpower her very being.

The narrative is quite bold, offering the readers a view of the darker side of the pristine romances one finds in Victorian novels and using its narrative to critique the sexual objectification of females that deprives them of their identity and power. It poses a very significant question - in a world that operates solely through patriarchal mechanisms, where do women turn to in order to reclaim their power?

However, I wish this were a full-length novel and not a novella, for the pace seems to be quite rushed, which in turn impedes a stronger development of characters. I also found the ending to be slightly abrupt. But these are minor criticisms. The novella is a powerful, albeit disturbing tale that shall surely contribute interesting perspectives on the performance of body and sexuality.

I was excited to get approved to receive an ARC of this because the cover was awesome and the description sounded like something I would enjoy. Unfortunately, that’s about as far as it went. If this sounds like something you would be interested in, by all means give it a chance. It is decently written but it falls short and points more toward rape/nonconsensual scenes rather than erotic horror.

2.5 rounded up.

(ARC from NetGalley) Not gonna lie, the cover is the best thing about this. The setting was perfectly atmospheric and creepy, but the non-consent/dubious consent is a straight up no from me dawg. Genuinely the setting had better descriptions than the characters for 200 pages. Please look up CW before jumping in.
P.S. it’s not really romance/erotica, more of a horror with tiddies

Before my review, I'd like to say, If this is your type of book, by all means pick it up. For all its faults, it is well written and evocative.

Based on the cover and description I was expecting a dark but sexy erotic horror novel along the vein of Crimson Peak. What followed was 6 chapters of decent build up, peaking with a young woman being possessed and forced by the spirit to have sex with her best friend in front of an enthusiastic audience. I will give the author this, she gave us content warnings at the back of the book (which I appreciate in a novel/novella like this.) However, they were not even remotely accurate. What happens on page isn't dubious consent, it is sexual assult/rape with an audience watching and enjoying themselves while it happens. I made it about 50% of the way through (through the first violent scene and the morning after) and said enough.

Terrifying Titillating and Deliciously Decadent can’t begin to describe the harrowing, yet ultimately satisfying adventure that envelops you in Antonia Rachel Ward’s “Marionette”. I was afraid to stop reading.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

#NetGalley #Marionette #DeliciouslyDecadent #TerrifyinglyTitillating #AfraidToStopReading

This one had one of the most gorgeous cover I have ever seen! I liked the concept and the idea of the marionette, but the execution in this book is a bit underwhelming for me. The writing style is what I think made me not enjoy the book as much as I wanted. It's very long-winded and there's a lot of descriptions of everything in here from the places to the very small details and I am just not here for it. Maybe for readers who wanted to savor every word and every description of places and furniture, this would be appealing, but it certainly is not for me.

When seances meet erotic shows in Paris, you get Marionette.

Cece is the star dancer in a theatre in Paris, but hungry for more power, money popularity and adoration to agrees to join a well-known show that Monsieur Rossignol hosts. But it all goes downhill from there.

Moulin Rouge is one of my all-time favourite movies, and this gave me major moulin Rouge vibes!

The plot was interesting. Erotic seances, weird sex shows and humans with various kinks enjoying it. Combine this with a mystery to solve and it starts out rather interesting. However, the mystery was just too obvious. The hints were so blatant that by the time George finally click I was just like “seriously”? The abrupt ending also didn’t do the overall story any favours as it felt like it stopped right in the middle of something.

Moving on to the characters. As this is a short book, you are understandably not going to form massive attachments to these characters but I liked Cece. George however I did not. The first time he meets her and watches the show he is already talking about how he can tell she’s different and he needs to protect her. His saviour complex developed in 0.5 seconds. He talks about how he’s different from all these depraved people and how he knows she’s different but he’s just bad and depraved in a different way judging by some of the things he did. Near the end I found myself hoping that Cece and Selena do join forces and go through with Selenas plan because when Cece said “This is me. Just not the me you wanted to believe in” I was like YES EXACTLY!! He doesn’t know her at all and yet claims to love her while its been roughly 5 days and he’s seen her all of like 4 or 5 times. You are in love of the idea of her and what you hope to be for her as a person. So no, George was not it!

The apparent romance was also non-existent. There was nothing from Ceces side shown ever. He was in love with her in 0.5 seconds which, don’t get me wrong, I know some guys are like that but it circles back to he isn’t really in love with the real her! Which means every time she did something that didn’t fit within his version of her he’d complain and it made him intolerable. That aspect of the whole plot and how he saved her, was just not believable at all.

Overall I liked the plot even if the mystery was super obvious. What ruined it for me was the characters (namely George) and the so called Romance between him and Cece.

Rating: 1.5 stars

The concept was interesting but the execution was not great. This whole book just seemed rushed. I’m not sure if it’s meant to be a novella since it was like 200 pages but I think it would’ve been so much better if it was longer, with longer scenes, and give the opportunity for the readers to actually get to know the characters. The romance seemed very forced and the plot was okay at best. I do love the cover tho it’s so pretty.

DNF - 45%

I love a good horror book and spicy book as much as the next person but this one for me fell flat and for all the wrong reasons.

Right off the bat, this book is not for the weak of heart as there are a lot of non-consensual sex scenes. Because of all of this it made it hard to actually support the love between the main characters, or really like or care for any of the characters at all.

I ended up being unable to finish this one just because it wasn't what I had expected it to be.

Just because I didn't like it doesn't mean someone else won't. The more I read on the more I figured out that this book wasn't meant for me.

NSFW review for an NSFW book

Thank you to Netgalley for an e-ARC in return for an honest review!

Trigger warnings (please take these seriously): non consentual sex, dubious consentual sex, mutilation, murder, violence, abuse, female objectification, sexism, demonising sex workers.

Do I need to say much more than the trigger warnings?

This book is just filled with "woman are just whores", basically every single sex scene is essentially non-consentual, and because its so short in the couple times when it does start to redeem itself (a female character saying something other than "haha sex" for example) it just very quickly brushes past it.

The main "romance" (despite 90% being of non or dubious consent..) is also questionable as the man is shown to be sexist and have a massive issue of saviour complex and can't help following his dick despite knowing something isn't right. If you know something isn't right and you don't think the other person is fully there mentally, whether spirit's are involved or not, don't whip your cock out!

I didn't think fifty shades could be topped as the most abusive and disturbing book in terms of sex/romance/etc. This also isn't an erotica. It's a paranormal horror book set in a brothel/strip club with prostitutes/slaves.. (?). It's got sex, but also at the same time I don't really want to count how many times the word "flesh" was used as a descriptor. The sex scenes where also all incredibly brief, only a paragraph or 2 for the most part.

I think my main thought after reading this is really, are the straights ok?

4.5 stars

I loved this little novella about a possessed exotic dancer. The setting was incredible. It's a sliver of time in Paris I wish I could visit, but obviously cannot. So, when an author does it justice, as Ward has done here, I'm thrilled. It felt period-specific, not at all like someone living in 2022 wrote it. (Except that it was much, much more immediately engaging than say, George Du Maurier or the like. And yes, for me, MARIONETTE definitely channeled TRILBY, but with a twist, which I also loved.)

I liked Cece's character and while MARIONETTE was perhaps too short to explore every facet of every character (it's a novella, remember), the ending felt right, character arcs complete. Especially considering how things played out and what discoveries we make as readers toward the end. I loved the ending, actually. I'm here for a revenge story, I'm here for female bodily autonomy, and I'm here for females NOT being pitted against each other in service of men.

I'm more familiar with horror than with erotica as a genre, so I'm probably not the best one to speak to this, but I felt the balance between the two was done well. It had sexy hotness AND story. Never one at the expense of the other. This was my first Ward read and I can't wait to read more from her!

Thanks to NetGalley and Brigids Gate Press for an advanced reader copy of this novella. My thoughts are my own.

This book had a few uncomfortable scenes. I mean, one of the points of horror books is to make a reader uncomfortable. The seance was definitely on the line with the dubious consent. So this novella is very dark, so be sure to check out trigger warnings. So that's my PSA. I read dark romance a lot, so I'm used to a lot of darkness, and while the topic is uncomfortable, it was well-written.
hat
However, overall, it was a pretty cool novella. I think it could have been a wonderful full length novel--then it would be possibly that the characters would be a liiiitttle more developed as well as the ending.

This book was incredibly frightening. Being trapped in one's body is definitely a fear. Cece is controlled by Selena and she has no control. The descriptions of this make it so terrifying. The descriptions were really the strong suit of the novella.

The cover is so interesting to look at. That seriously deserves all the points. I am obsessed with that.

Debbie does the afterworld!

DNF @50%

I'm a horror and smut reader. And when you combine both, you have my full attention. How can you put two of my favorite things together and get something wrong? There's no way! Absolutely no way! Well, Antonia has proven me wrong and now I'm a liar.

This made me feel uneasy. A guy would hold a séance and have ghostly beings enter ladies. The ladies would be a vessel for these spirits. Then the guy would have his way with them without the actual person's consent. Nope. That’s a huge no from me. There are warnings at the back of the book but it mentions consensual relations but there is nothing consensual about what is going on here. How can something be consensual when the private séances are kept a secret and the ladies have no say once the spirit enters them?

There was a part of the book where Cece wakes up and her clothes are off. She notices bruises and other things on her body that she doesn’t remember but it scares her. I had to stop reading after that. It’s rare that something gets to me but this one did.

Marionette was a book that I thought would be a fun quick read but it quickly turned into a nightmare. I would not recommend this book to anyone. It was horrible.

First of all, that cover is what caught my attention and second the story seemed sexy and gothic. That was exactly what you get from this novella. I really enjoyed this and wish it was longer. I highly taking this one with you to the beach or cabin in the summer. Will be looking forward to purchasing a physical copy.

This was just wow. For a novella there was so much going on, but it went together And the story made sense. There was definitely insta-love like most short stories with lots of erotic scenes mixed with horror and ghost.

What this book did really well is the setting. I felt immersed in the world despite not loving this story. I felt that the dubious consent warning at the end of the book hardly covered it. It was very uncomfortable for me to read this knowing that every time Cece was engaging in sex it was not consensual for her. As well as at the end when George explicitly says No. I understand that this is common for darker erotica, but the story wasn't firm enough for me to forgive this fault. I never believed the "love" between our main characters. It was only lust. I was also irritated that none of our character motivations were solid. Cece and George were flip-floping intentions and personalities so much, I ceased to care by the end.

I knew I was gonna love this just from the cover - and I did. It's sexy and just a little bit dark and kinky. this is my kind of beach read and I just happened to be at the beach.

It's a quick little novella though, and while the overall message is great, I would have loved to see this fleshed out into a lush, full novel. Because of its short length the characters didn't have a chance for depth.

But, it's a tale of overcoming trauma both in the self and in one's bloodline, and especially trauma around men. Which is fine and all, but I do hope there is more to come - I'd love to see Rosie get the sexy, kinky, gay happy ending she deserves.

(This book's ISBN doesn't appear to be on Goodreads yet so I can't post my review there right now.)

My first official sampling of Antonia Rachel Ward's work is the erotic gothic horror novel Marionette and I'm pleased to say it's a solid one.

Cecily "Cece" Dulac is a dancer in Paris, a former small-town prostitute following in her aunt's footsteps in high society. Alone, Cece finds herself lured to a seance by one Monsieur Rossignol that ends up changing her life in the worst ways, with a spirit named Selena inhabiting her body. George Dashwood is an aspiring artist who falls for Cece and finds himself wrapped up in the haunting.

Ward's writing is very good. Lyrical, haunting and perfectly suited for the gothic tradition, as well as the blending of the erotic. Some of the happenings are truly and genuinely disturbing, such as Cece waking up after a seance with her body abused and her having no idea how the bruises got there. Cece begins to lose herself, subsumed into Selena as Selena seizes more control. The downside of the novel is that while the characters are intriguing, the length doesn't allow them the time to shine that they deserve. Cece and George's romance has little time to develop, and George himself ends up somewhat flat in comparison to Cece and others around him, particularly Cece and Selena.

The horror of being trapped in one's own body is detailed explicitly, however. The sequences of Cece forced to experience what Selena does, to be bound by her, and in no control are genuinely frightening. Ward lays out a conspiracy along with a surprisingly sympathetic villain when all is revealed, and the pieces of the plot end up connecting rather masterfully to her credit by the end.

Overall, despite being rough about the edges, it's a very well done book and I look forward to what Ward does next.

Thank you to NetGalley, Brigids Gate Press, LLC. and Independent Book Publishers Association for this eArc!

I have mixed feelings about this book. While I loved the setting in Paris and the paranormal/horror/mystical vibes, I felt a bit disappointed by underdeveloped characters (which I admit can be difficult given the books length as a novella), an in my opinion seemingly one-sided romance and a jarring ending. I also think the classification as erotica does not quite fit this story.
Overall an average read.