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Chastened: The Unexpected Story Of My Year Without Sex (2010)

by Hephzibah Anderson(Favorite Author)

2.75 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0670021865 (ISBN13: 9780670021864)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Viking Adult

review 1: I picked up this book because the premise intrigued me, but unfortunately my interest waned after the first chapter. I kept reading, hoping it would get better, but it didn't. I feel like the author couldn't decide whether to make this a personal memoir or a treatise on dating, chastity, and feminism in the modern age, and as a result the book felt very confused, something that was definitely not helped by the writing itself. I am a fan of concision-I believe that it shouldn't take a page or more to say something that can be said in a sentence. However, the author is fond of long-winded descriptions that don't add anything to the story. In one chapter, she spends almost a page describing the soundtrack at a bar. The point of this description? To compare it to how she's fee... moreling on the date. Something that could have been said in a sentence or two. Overall, this book needed some major editing-by the end, I was skimming sections. I'm surprised that I even finished it.
review 2: things that made this book absolutely awful:1. the author defines sex as "penile penetration." so in her year of chastity, everything else is allowed. at one point, she describes receiving oral sex, which, really, is about as far from chastity as almost anything i can imagine. 2. the author's first action of chastity is buying a new chaste wardrobe, as though not putting out has anything to do with the way one dresses. then she seems a little put off that no one notices the differences. i think i would be more upset if all my friends said, "look at you, you're not dressing like you're easy anymore!"3. the author very quickly becomes delighted by how much more attention she seems to get from men when she's not giving it up. at one point, a suitor joking asks to marry her to resolve immigration issues. she's all, "that's more marriage proposals than i ever got pre-chastity."4. her whole reason for chastity is whack. "i'm tired of having sex that doesn't result in true love forever. let's see if not having sex can get me a ring on this finger." (this is not a quote from the book. it's my summary.)5. the whole last chapter, the wrap up, reads like a chapter in the rules. i didn't like the rules when i read it in 1997, and i'm definitely not into it now. less

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