Review: Beatrice, by Carl East

TW: This post contains a few instances of cissexist language.

This week, I read Beatrice (The Shemale), by Carl East.

First things first. There's a slur in the title. It's gross, and I wish authors would stop using these words. That said, I can understand why they do, and it's not (generally) out of bigotry. This is the shit that sells. A story titled 'Beatrice (The Shemale)' is going to be a lot more popular than one called 'Beatrice (The Transgender Woman)'. It's sad, and it's something I hope I can help to change with my writing. But it's a fact.

Anyway, based on the title, you'd expect this to be a story about a trans woman sucking, fucking, etc. Quelle surprise. Bea is actually not trans, but intersex, born with both male and female genitalia. She's probably more like a futanari - a Japanese hentai term for sexy women with giant cocks and wet pussies, but (generally) no testicles. Bea isn't actually an accurate portrayal of intersex physiology, but given that this is a fantasy, and that it's pretty rare to hear about the existence of intersex people AT ALL, I'll take what I can get.

So, aside from the political stuff, is the story any good? Well ... it's not awful. But it didn't quite do it for me. For one thing, the prose itself needs work. It's not unreadable by any means, but it does often feel lifeless, and I was unclear about Bea's status for much of the story (which is saying something, given how short it is). I think East's writing could (or maybe already has) improve with some practice, but right now it's not evocative enough to capture my imagination.

The plot is pretty silly. Bea has an 11-inch cock. One day she decides to masturbate it, and apparently breaks her cock-hymen because she bleeds (I really hope this is something the author invented, and he doesn't actually think penises have hymens). Some time later, she attends a slumber party with her (high school? it's not super clear) friends. They talk about all the copious amounts of fucking they've done, Bea gets hard, shows them her cock and they fuck. One of the girls then calls Bea "my girl/boyfriend," which ... yeah. That's the story. It's perfectly perfunctory, and there's just as much fucking, oral and cumming as you'd expect. There are no surprises, other than that original 11-inch one. It's all fine, but when I read erotica, I really need something *more* than fine to get me off. I can use my imagination to continue scenes after the text finishes, but if I'm going to do that, I'm not going to pay $0.99 for the privilege.

If there's a bright spot, it's that Bea is fairly charming as a character. There isn't enough time for a lot of character development, but the author treats her like a human being, and there is some genuine emotion here. And I'd say the story generally is a sex-positive, tolerant one, which makes the title choice all the more unfortunate.

While I can't quite recommend this one, I do think the author is capable of some good work in the future. Just let's ditch the slurs, k?