Broken by Sage Whistler

[reviews_and_ramblings]

This is not the first twincest story I read by Sage Whistler and now like before I was warned on the Taboo nature of it... strange to say, I have more problem to read about BDSM stories or on non-con sex than about twincest, actually I don't have any "squeaking" feeling about it. Let's be clear, probably it's like so since we are talking of a male on male twincest, so no worries about possible genetic trouble for the progeny... see how odd my mind is? I'm not tickled by gender prejudice or moral question, but a scientific issue could set me off, probably I should stop to be so analytical. So, coming back to the story, it was not the twincest side that was important to me, but more the balance between the twins.

Gabriel and Tristan are 24 years old, but they don't see each other since they were 17. At that age Gabriel, the older of few minutes and also the hot-head of the two, came out to their parents and he was kicked off home. It's not clear if at that age Tristan had not enough courage to follow his twin, or if he, even if for a brief moment, felt the same as his parents, the result was that the twins were separated and only spoke on the phone from that moment on. Now 7 years later, Tristan needs a place to crash after a bankruptcy, and Gabriel is there to help him.

At first, from Gabriel's thoughts, and despite Tristan's behavior at 17 years old, I felt as Tristan was the stronger brother. And it's strange since it was Gabriel who went out of home when he was still a teenager, it was him that managed to become a famous rockstar, it's him that now has the money to help also his brother. But while Gabriel was waiting for his brother to arrive, I saw Tristan through Gabriel's eyes like a steady and solid figure, like the mainstay that Gabriel needs to not wreck. Tristan is to good one who always was the son their parents want; he is the cultured and honest to God, while Gabriel is the "gay" one, with a past drugs addiction. He is also the one who, even at 17 years old, fantasized about his twin, desires that he still has today.

But then we meet Tristan, and we realize that he is not at all what his twin sees. Tristan is a man eaten by remorse, he feels like a failure, first to his twin to abandon him so many years ago, and now to his parents to not being able to be the successful son they wanted. And even if he has not the courage to come out like his twin, also Tristan has forbidden desires, even if he has never played upon them. This is probably something I didn't understand so well, meaning that I didn't understand if Tristan is gay, and his desires are first of all towards his twin and then also other men, or if he is only focused on his brother. Actually it's not so important to know, but it would help me to better understand Tristan.

Of the two twins, Tristan is for sure the one with more personal issues. I feel like he stopped in his evolution when his brother left, and he is only now starting to grow again. Gabriel on the other hand, lived and mistook, but at least he tried the world; strange to say, despite it I feel like he hasn't a big self-esteem, a problem he probably inherited by his parents refusal. Both twins need each other to be complete, since they both see in the twin the man they would like to be, or maybe the other half they lack.

Broken is a novel with great potential, and since I even have a "twincest" tag on my menu, I'm happy that there are authors out there willing to write on this subgenre, but I wouldn't have minded some further investigations on some issues: the relationship with their parents, the sexual orientation of Tristan aside from his love interest for Gabriel and maybe a test on their relationship outside the safe haven of their home. And now the point of strength: the story is very romantic, there is a bunch of supporting characters that I wouldn't mind to see in upcoming novels (there is good material for at least other two novels) and the sex is good (I like the blushing virgin attitude of Tristan, and the naughty behavior of Gabriel).

http://www.total-e-bound.com/product.asp?strParents=&CAT_ID=&P_ID=561

Amazon Kindle: Broken
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing (September 14, 2009)

Reading List:

http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Comments

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

We must both be weird, then, because I'm the same way. :) Consensual incest fiction doesn't bother me so long as everyone's willing and having a good time, (and heck, if realspace siblings want to have sex under those same circumstances, I'm certainly not going to gripe about it) so long as any het couples take belt-and-suspender level precautions against pregnancy.

And even on that end, a friend of mine is a nurse who worked for an agency which dealt with a lot of incest and various other sex-related crimes, and she says that 1) it happens a lot more often than most people think, 2) often the people having sex don't know they're related until they have a DNA test done on the baby (which means a lot more people who are closely related are having babies and never do know, because most people never bother DNA-testing their kids) and 3) the odds of birth defects for a one-time close relative pairing really aren't that much greater than for the general population. It varies from defect to defect, but it might be the difference between one-in-fifty-thousand (for two random people) and one-in-five-thousand (for full siblings). It's ten times more likely with siblings, but even one-in-five-thousand is pretty good odds, you know?

Angie

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

I remember a stats of some years ago done on blood tests, it said that 3 on 10 child were not of the real child of one of both the parents, and nor the child or the parent knew (they were probably resulting from an affair or something similar). So yes, you can have a lot of halfbrothers out there and don't know. Elisa

[angelabenedetti.livejournal.com]

Exactly. [nod] Aside from divorces, and kids given up for adoption and such. My father had two sons by two earlier wives before he married my mother. One is named Dennis, and I don't know what the other one is called. I've never met either of them and have no clue what they look like, nor how many other kids my father might've had after he and my mom divorced when I was less than a year old. I might well have ended up with one of my half-brothers. It would've been a pretty incredible coincidence, but there are about 300 million people in the USA, almost all of whom will have multiple sex partners during their lives. With that many numbers to work with, even incredible coincidences are going to happen fairly often.

Angie

[yachay.livejournal.com]

I didn't like this one nearly as much as I liked Torn. And in this one, there were lot of shallow points, lot of holes. I really wished they would have had more deeper conversations about this, more doubts, I really hoped it would have been more realistic in a way, and I felt a tad weirded out about how easily the few people accepted this all. And I wanted to know more about the parents and what their childhood was like, it was really interesting start,and left me hoping for more answers.
Also, I couldn't get in these characters, it felt like there was something missing.
However, Sage did a good job, and the drama-part was surprising. I have to hand it to her, especially since this taboo is not that popular, and finding authors willing to write about it is hard.

I am not sure do you know, but Sage has mentioned that there might be continuation to this. The bodyguard will be getting his own story in the future. I can't wait, since he was my favorite character :)

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

We feel the same so. I think it has potential but the potential was not fully developed. And I like a lot the bodyguard character and I think that Micah, in 4 years or so, could be a good match for him ;-) Elisa

[yachay.livejournal.com]

Yes, Brogan was just awesome!
I do hope that story will come soon. ;)