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The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
- Sleeping Beauty Trilogy, Book 1
- Narrated by: Samantha Prescott, Corbin Steele
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
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The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
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Summary
From best-selling author Anne Rice, writing as A.N. Roquleaure, in the traditional folktale of "Sleeping Beauty", the spell cast upon the lovely young princess and everyone in her castle can only be broken by the kiss of a prince. It is an ancient story, one that originally emerged from and still deeply disturbs the mind's unconscious. Now Anne Rice's retelling of the Beauty story probes the unspoken implications of this lush, suggestive tale by exploring its undeniable connection to sexual desire. Here the prince reawakens Beauty, not with a kiss, but with sexual initiation. His reward for ending the 100 years of enchantment is Beauty's complete and total enslavement to him…as Anne Rice explores the world of erotic yearning and fantasy in a classic that becomes, with her skillful pen, a compelling experience.
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What listeners love about The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Tiffany
- 07-08-18
OMG
No real plot! WTF did i listen to. Brain bleach please !!!! should be named the raping of sleeping beauty, couldnt finish it.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Mrs Steele
- 19-05-19
Silly
Not erotic, just miserable. Too much crying. Found the narrator's voice a little off-putting too.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
- Sjpsam
- 14-01-18
brilliant can't wait for the next book
can't wait for the next book. beautys character changes are awesome her friends are just a must too
1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- shankled
- 08-01-23
Don’t even bother
Seriously. Don’t even bother. I’m trying to return it desperately. Absolutely not worth the time wasted in listening to it.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- K
- 14-07-22
Couldn’t get further than Chapter 4
I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that’s made me feel this disturbed, and I’ve never failed to get further than four chapters of a book before.
If there is no consent, it’s rape. If there is no way a person can truly consent from a position of powerlessness, it’s abuse. This story begins with a young woman being raped while she sleeps. After that, of the chapters I could manage to get through, things only got worse. The Princess is abused physically, mentally and emotionally, degraded, humiliated, dehumanised and treated as less than other human beings. The Prince also invites others to abuse and degrade the Princess, and I can only assume, as the story progresses, the instances of abuse could only escalate in severity.
There is also no discernible reason for the Prince’s behaviour that I could understand. Perhaps if I read the whole book I might find out what his motivations are, but this was torturous for me to get through just a few chapters. I’m not willing to damage myself emotionally to see if there’s a reason behind the abusive treatment the Prince subjects the Princess to. I’m also not willing to damage myself emotionally to see if the Princess throws off her abuser, or even tries to fight back, so it’s a hard pass for me.
I can’t recommend this to anyone, even those who might enjoy a story like this. I don’t think we should encourage physical, sexual, emotional or mental abuse. I don’t think we should encourage dehumanising, degrading or humiliating treatment of other human beings. The fact that the whole world in this book (in the chapters I managed) either accepted, encouraged or participated in this horrific abuse, including the Princess’ family, without questioning the morality of it, leads me to conclude no one should read this.
This book perpetuates unhealthy attitudes to abuse of powerless individuals. It perpetuates unhealthy attitudes to women and enduring social constructs that should have been abandoned long ago. It also doesn’t provide an avenue for these attitudes to be challenged for the audience, at least in the chapters I could get through.
It’s not my practice to review a book I haven’t read (or listened to) in its entirety, but this one is a special case. It’s not just that I can’t see it’s value as a piece of fiction, but I think this could actually cause damage to people and society. If this hasn’t put you off, I would recommend doing what I should have, and read a few more reviews of this book before deciding whether to purchase it.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Kels
- 01-12-18
Bad. Unless you like spankings, I guess
I really wanted to like this book. I was intrigued by it being a retake of Sleeping Beauty. (It's not, it's literally mentioned 3 times and not for any real reason.) I was excited for power play and interesting BDSM dynamics. (I don't think it even really counts as BDSM. None of the slaves are there by their own choosing. They are all spanked constantly, but not pierced, burnt, or "harmed" and the spanking is not to the point of drawing blood, I know this because the author seems to think that's really important everyone be reminded of that several times. There is no real consent given and the after care, when it is given, is left to other servants.) I was excited for some hot sex scenes. (They're only meh, they're short, and they're few and far between. I'm all for a good rape fantasy but honestly I was surprised that the word rape was used at all in the book since nearly all sexual encounters are not consentual.) I was hoping for some interesting characters. (Nope, all pretty one dimensional and no real growth happens to anyone.) Overall it was bad at nearly everything I was hoping for, but if you like spankings have I got the book for you.
One last beef, the author specifically points out that Beauty is 15. a. This is a really normal fairytale princess age so that's fair enough I guess, but it really stuck with me that this is really not just rape but child rape. It could have just gone unsaid, hey exact age is not relevant to the story at all, but for some reason the author felt the need to say it.
88 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mike
- 25-08-15
Different...
Do not go into this book thinking it is anything like 50 Shades of Grey. It's a book that focuses more on the sadistic side of BDSM then the pleasure or sexual nature of it. Example would be describing in detail whipping and flogging, followed up with "they had rough sex".
Also, be aware there is not a whole lot of character development. The book seems to have a very specific goal of conveying events, rather then making you feel for any specific character.
Once you let go of any predetermined pretenses, it is a good story and I would recommend it. Have an open mind though or you will be disappointed.
63 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Leesa
- 06-02-13
Surprising
I don't think it's badly written. In fact if you enjoy this sort of book I'd say it's the best I've heard. Unfortunately for me, I was anxious all through the book wanting Beauty to clobber everyone over the head and leave the castle. I enjoy BDSM books. I just don't enjoy one that is constant degradation. Beauty is awakened by her Prince, taken to his castle, and basically misused by everyone. I guess I'm too set in my ways but I would prefer a story of Beauty and her Prince with true love, some BDSM, with just the two of them. If you enjoy a book full of constant spankings, games, degradation, and lots of other princes and princesses that are slaves just like Beauty, then you'll like this one. I just didn't enjoy this one. I always listen to the entire book to give a fair review and this one gave me a headache. But it did provoke me, LOL, I wanted to clobber everyone!!
57 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- shade16
- 21-11-19
Rape Culture
I'm part of the BDSM community in several cities in the state that I live in and I don't know a single person who would force people against their will into a BDSM lifestyle in the way the characters in this book are forced. This is a flat out lie about how BDSM works, a disgrace to the community, and straight up rape of a teenage character. I'll say that the actual BDSM in this book is closer than 50 Shades but this has way more rape. BDSM is not about shame and not about using shame. I couldn't even finish this garbage.
54 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Will Sharbutt
- 04-12-16
purest fantasy erotica ever
I am a man and I love this series. Each book brings you further in. You'll either love it or completely miss the point. It's not about humiliation or pain. Its not 50 Shades of Grey which is rooted in reality. This is a fantasy. Readers must be willing and able to submit and suspend disbelief. Only upon accepting the premise of the story can one begin to relate to the characters and defeat all of the hang ups of the rational mind.
38 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Max
- 01-01-17
Well if you want a big helping of BDSM smut,
then you've found it. the writing is about as good as anything else in this genre. +1 for having same-sex scenes about as frequently as hetero scenes,with plenty of dominant women.
36 people found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 23-02-20
More Like Horror than Erotica
I'm not a prude, but it started bad and got worse. Particularly the part about Prince Alexi. I don't enjoy the glamorization of an underaged boy being enslaved, raped, beaten, tortured, and violated in every way until his mind is broken and he develops Stockholm's Syndrome because there's no other escape but to accept it
It's not romantic to be forced into unwanted sex or violence. It's not love for a boy to literally begin to see himself as the queen's property because he's brainwashed, in the most literal sense, into feeling that way
And because if he doesn't give in, he's tormented in the worst ways possible until he loses his senses, until he will do anything to avoid the mistreatment, and until he sees being beaten and having large objects inserted as a relief from worse degradation
Consensual BDSM is one thing. Abuse that's depicted responsibly is one thing. But for the continuous rape and mind-breaking torture of adolescents to be meant to be romantic and erotic is in poor taste
32 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- KPowell
- 14-12-15
Lacked luster
Any additional comments?
This book was absolutely amazing but I am so happy that I had previously completed the paperback of this. The narrator does not bring the book to life. If I had not previously read this book I would not want to listen to the other books in this series.
27 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JBS
- 03-10-14
She Thought Outside The Box!
What did you love best about The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty?
I loved the rawness of this book and the entire trilogy!
What other book might you compare The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty to and why?
I have nothing to compare this to thus far, although I have heard it may be able to hold rank along side 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade ~
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I was intrigued - albeit a bit wide eyed and saying gross here and there...
Any additional comments?
This trilogy has set the bar so high for me that I fear I may never find another book to listen to that holds the same girth. I sigh a lot at this seemingly large fact.
26 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Tanya
- 03-09-15
Damn!
I blushed through the whole book! It captured my attention in the very first chapter. Details, details, details without being boring. Very good!
22 people found this helpful