Tracey's Collar -- Katie Smith

Due to issues with the stories site, I was unable to post a review to Tracey's Collar (posted on August 19), but since I would like to review it nevertheless, I thought I would post my thoughts here.

10/10

This story inspired me to read all of Katie Smith's stories, and she is clearly a very talented writer. But it wasn't just the quality of the writing that interested me; it was the way her particular interpretation of the "enslavement" genre focuses on the aspects that I find most appealing. Her stories all start with a basic (probably accurate) premise that there are many women on the world who fantasize about being forcibly used as someone's sex toy, but who, nevertheless, understand that the reality of such a situation would not be nearly as appealing as the fantasy. Such women can function in our society when they can find relatively safe outlets for their fantasies (such as this website, for example), but what would happen if you took such a woman and placed her in a society where enslaving women was the norm? For one thing, she would be constantly surrounded with situations that would arouse the darkest parts of her own imagination. For another thing, although there would be many outlets for her to express the submissive side of herself, those outlets would all be extremely dangerous. So, she takes greater and greater risks.

Each of her stories explores that same basic theme, although they do so in different ways, so that they all stand on their own. Each story, moreover, is better than the last, with Tracey's Collar being the best so far.

I hope to see more works from this fine author.