What a stellar read !! I don't often really enjoy works from a hard sub's point of view, mainly because the experiences these characters feel are so foreign to my own. I'm extremely thankful as a dom, but as a person I find myself utterly confused at the Hows and Whys people would ever want to put themselves through the wringer like that (aside from religious trauma. That one I got pretty early on).
Well this is the first story ever to actually make me understand, even if only a fraction of it all. The repetitive mechanic of Simone "choosing" to not make a decision was an amazing narrative design move. The choice is there, in full view : she could make it. She just has to reach for it -- yet she doesn't. Time & time again, she goes where she's told to go, does what she's told to do, not because she doesn't have a literal choice in the matter : but because she refuses to make one knowing it could have consequences. Because her whole self-worth relies on not being a Bad Person, she needs plausible deniability. Kink, at its core, is wish and needs fulfillment. It makes sense that this fundamental need to not be made responsible for her own actions leads to the intense pleasure she feels when she is led around. It actually altered something in my brain to finally realize where that relief of relinquishing control to someone else can stem from..
The dynamic between all of the characters is the highest high of the story. Cora is a pebble thrown in Simone and Fox's well water and the ensuing havoc is a joy to witness. I know none of them is supposed to be "likeable" in the average sense of the word, but all of them were endearing for vastly different reasons. I think Cora is my favorite though. Her grandiloquence, the ways her prejudices show themselves in the smallest of ways (her line about the maid is amazing at conveying the kind of person she really is under her pretenses) and of course how unhinged she can get was so up my alley. Again, such a joy to read !