Emily Maguire, Taming the Beast

Taming the Beast

Emily Maguire

Harper, Sep 2006, $13.95

ISBN 0061122165

In Australia, her family encourages doing excellent in school so fourteen year old Sarah Clark works hard to meet their expectations. When she meets charismatic thirty-eight years old English teacher meets Daniel Carr, no one thought twice of his spending time with her because of the respect the family has for educators. However, Daniel provides the teen with hands on lessons that would devastate her family if they knew; he teaches her S&M sex before leaving for a new position in Brisbane.

Sarah is depressed by her mentor's departure and her schoolwork reflects this gloominess as she no longer is interested in learning though a few years later she attends college. Instead the nymph has no time to brood or study as she experiments with unsafe encounters with hundreds of men seeking a Daniel clone to quench her seemingly endless appetite for violent sessions. As the years pass with her needs never fully satiated she turns to her childhood friend Jamie until Daniel reappears seeking a tryst.

TAMING THE BEAST is not an easy character study to read though it is well written and very deep as Daniel sexually assaults the willing underage teen even if Sarah encourages him. Neither of the characters is likable as he abuses his position of trust as a sexual predator preying on the young while she has become a sex addict whose needs override everything else. Emily Maguire provides a powerful violent Aussie Lolita.

Harriet Klausner