Monday, January 25, 2021

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Beyond Addiction by Kit Rocha

 




Beyond Addiction is book 5 in Kit Rocha's erotic and explicit post-apocalyptic romance "Beyond" series.  If you're reading this review you're most likely familiar with the series and its first four books, and well, as a result I won't be going too in depth here.  The series has a very comforting formula usually....a couple - or a trio or larger grouping on occasion - tries to figure out the other through lots and lots of sex, with each other and with others, figuring out each other's kinks, while also trying not to harm the other's emotions as they deal with the struggles of gang life in their post-apocalyptic slum of a puritan city. 

That said, Beyond Addiction actually messes with the formula a little in some interesting ways, and so even though it features a middle portion that will be familiar to series readers, I doubt anyone who enjoyed the first four books will find themselves feeling it is repetitive in a disappointing way.  If you liked the earlier books in the series, you'll enjoy this one, if not, you won't. 

TRIGGER WARNING:  Rape as backstory.  


----------------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------------
Trix escaped Sector Five, where she was abused and forcibly addicted to dangerous drugs, and managed to somehow survive withdrawal and find happiness under a new name in Sector Four as an O'Kane, even without the one man who made that old hellhole worthwhile.  But when the leader of Sector Five kidnaps her as a present to an O'Kane traitor, she finds herself staring at the hell she once left.  

Until that man, Finn, comes back into her life and immediately rescues her, shooting the leader of Sector Five in the head.  But the new head of Sector Five is an even more dangerous and cruel man, and Finn and Trix are forced to run for their lives, knowing their only hope of freedom is to make it back to Sector Four.  

But even if they Trix and Finn can make it back to Sector Four, is there really a place for the two of them together?  Their former relationship occurred when Trix was a hostage to a deadly drug addiction, when Finn didn't take action to rescue her, so was their love really real?  And is there a way to rebuild it inside the home of the O'Kanes, the gang for whom consent is an absolute requirement, whom Finn has already failed once before?
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So the usual Beyond formula is pretty well established by this book - Two or three people, at least one of whom has a connection with the O'Kane gang, get together, with at least one of them trying to show them new sexual experiences as they figure out their emotional snarls that they may have together....before one of them, pretty much always one of the guys, tries to save/help the other in a way that totally disrespects who they are, leading to a fight that is only resolved when the other one apologizes - with lots of sexy sexy moments along the way. 

Beyond Addiction switches that around a bit in a number of ways though:  First, the story spends its first act outside of Sector Four, with Trix and Finn on the run, and so while there is romantic moments and sex at that point, it's more to the side than anything else.  Then when they get back to Sector Four (Spoiler, but not really), they have to deal with Finn's past as an enabler for Sector Five, and what that means for Trix and Finn's relationship.  

For Sector Five is perhaps the biggest antithesis of Sector Four - both Sectors make their business selling an illicit substance to Eden (Alcohol for Sector Four, Drugs for Sector Five), but where Sector Four preaches free love among willing participants, Sector Five is not about consent, with its leader and its worse #2 making their drugs as addictive as possible to prevent the women of Sector Five from being able to leave and truly consent.  Finn was an enforcer for that regime, and he tried to avoid ever willingly giving such drugs to any women, but he helped the regime work through force, and his relationship with Trix occurred back then at a time when her ability to consent was questionable at best, even as Finn tried to help her get off the drugs to the extent he thought it was possible (and he had reason to believe it wasn't fully possible).  

And so, so much of the relationship between Finn and Trix is them trying to figure out each other now that that question is resolved (there is no question about consent to the reader, although Finn worries about it, as for sure do the rest of the O'Kanes) rather than them trying out new sexual positions - none of the two is particularly inexperienced.  And so this is perhaps the most singularly focused Beyond novel so far, other than one short scene where Dallas and Lex join in, the only sex scenes of relevance are between Trix and Finn as the two of them try to figure out where their lives go from here.  And it works really well.  

Helping it work really well is the fact that Finn's "Betrayal" is not like the actions of prior Beyond male characters, where they try to help the other person behind their back - or don't let the other person know about some danger they're taking on - without realizing what they're doing is a betrayal of the relationship.  Here, Finn knows full well what he's doing, is confronted by it, and even then explains it to Trix BEFORE he does it - and while she doesn't consent to what he's doing, and is heartbroken by it, I wasn't screaming at him "YOU IDIOT WHAT ARE YOU DOING" like I was the others.  It was more reasonable and it made it work even more.

I should add by the way that the series has done a really interesting and solid job making me care about all the characters and the plot in general, so even the non main characters, or even the older main characters who don't get POV asides, manage to shine and be interesting.  For an explicit romance series, where the romance is the main feature, I kind of really enjoy the greater arc as much as anything else?  And that's as impressive as anything.  

In short, this book switches up the formula a little, and it works really well and if you enjoyed the first four books, you'll like this one too.  

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