I've been debating posting this review for the past several days simply because I was unsure if I should, given that the actual content of this story/series is not really meant for me at all.  I figured I may as well at least get it off my chest, though, because I'm tired of thinking about it. This is more narrative and character analysis, and I fully admit that I'm probably looking a bit too much into my own tastes with it, but oh well.

I'll preface the rest with just one quick statement: None of the below is meant to absolve Scott of his culpability whatsoever. He fucked up bad, and he obviously has to eventually make that right.

But ultimately, he's not the only person in that house with that culpability. Judy is not blameless for what happened, and her physical and emotional abuse of her son over the course of his formative years lead directly to his lifestyle and what happened to that woman. A hallmark of abused people is that they tend to hugely fuck up later as a result of it, and that's basically what I see at play here. Narratively, I find it sickening that Scott has actually been sentenced to suffer at the hands of the person who is ultimately just as guilty of the crime as he is, for no other reason than the fact that his mother essentially made her abuses legal in the eyes of the law. It's essentially her manipulations coming full circle: She broke her son through her own sociopathic hedonism to the point where not only did he lose his escape from her abuse, but he lost it through something that society at large will pin solely on him because rarely do people look beyond the surface of why some people act the way they do.

It's why I got such a pit in my stomach over the falling out with Kyle: He and Scott are, in my eyes, the only two people in that house who actually care about that woman and her child. Yes, Scott massively fucked up in that talk, but I really hope that as time goes by, Kyle starts to see that his older brother is sorry for what he did and that the two people having their way with him don't care about the woman, they care about the opportunity Scott gave them.

On Maggie...

Well, I honestly snarled in disgust when she mentioned that woman and her baby to Scott because, as more or less stated above, no part of me believes that she cares. Judy's done a good job of raising a girl she can live vicariously through. It has always struck me that Judy doesn't seem to demand of Maggie what she liked in Ella during the first story: That despite enjoying the domination, she loved Scott as a person. But I get the feeling some things about Judy have changed since.

But, on the other hand, and this may be me looking for what I hope to be there:

I think Scott's apology did more than he may think it did. Maggie, ultimately, is not Judy. She is incredibly opportunistic, but I don't believe she has ever shown the sheer manipulativeness that Judy has, even in Boot Camp. That ability to always leave you guessing as to what she's really thinking. Maggie is honest, if not in words, then in actions and mannerisms. Most of Scott's fuckups with her come from bad decisions where he either refuses to read or react to her very unsubtle personality. But for just a moment there, her little persona broke, and I think (and hope) that moment might be genuine. In the short term, I don't expect it to do anything for him. But it might be a seed he can cultivate as time passes by simply taking any opportunity he can to behave a like a brother to her, whether it be potentially helping her with homework or just being the only person there for her to talk to if something happens in her personal life outside of the house.

Boy that was a lot of words about a fetish story.

Author's Response:

That certainly was quite a few words about a fetish story! I appreciate the thought you've given your opinion on this, especially since, as you say, the content itself isn't to your tastes (I believe I remember you saying you lean more towards gentle content).  Your take on Judy's culpability is pretty spot-on, and is definitely something I want readers to take into account when they see how much a winner she comes out of this whole thing. Even outside of fetish stories, it always interests me to consider the blame of outside factors when an individual commits a heinous act, either intentionally or not. Kyle is certainly the only member of the family solely focused on the actual victims, and as these stories go on he will come to be a little more in Scott's corner. As for Maggie, you're quite correct that she is not completely her mother's daughter. Judy is a power-hungry matriarch, and while Maggie does relish having control over Scott, her desires come out of a deeper hurt and adolescent emotion as opposed to Judy's purely dominating instincts; so, it is fair to say that not all hope is lost for Scott in convincing her to come around to his side as well.  Thanks again for your thoughts on this!

Really great suspense throughout this... I kept wondering when Maggie was going to squish em'  heh, heh...

Look forward to more of the Stevens family, and Scott   ;`)

Great work Jack!

So hey, between these last two chapters I binged through Rise of a Princess which I had somehow missed.

I mean the following statement to be taken in an extremely favorable manner as it encompassed my thougts of going from Maggie to Caroline then back to Maggie in this chapter:

How the hell?

A millisecond after her proposal to apologize he would have said "I will" rather than just doing it... but I guess she didn't give him the time to think about it, which is good, because knowing he's unlikely to improve his position makes his apologies more sincere I guess (or at least that's how my mind works).

More seriously, I think I've written a few times how good you are at surprising us in a way that's just so OBVIOUS after you read it, so I won't repeat it here: my only criticism is that this one time it worked only 90% as good as usual, because it wasn't very clear that/how much he'd been a jerk to her from the rest of the series.

You know, I had to write that, because (again: seriously) you have no idea how difficult it is to find something to criticize in your stories ;p

Can't wait for episode 6, let's hope it will be in 2014!

If it were me, I'd probably be on the verge of insanity. Or suicide. Or something... if he had ever been thinking of changing his mind and going to jail, he's just lost that option -- and that's just one of many, many consequences that came into my mind (after just a couple of days!), picked basically at random.

Luckily for us, I'm not him :)

PS

I've probably already written this, but given that I feared that there wouldn't be a fifth installment, your reply to dudeduderson2000's comment is greaaaaaat news!

Huh, I guess that answers the bemused thought I had of "What If Judy had been Jack and Carly's mother and found him."

Just wanted to pop in and comment on how good your writing continues to be both in prose and character development, and that you continue to be my go-to source for a pit in my stomach.

Only one more chapter!?!  He hasn't nearly been underfoot enough yet, hope to see a part 6 someday.

Maggie keeps the tradition alive.

Author's Response:

She does indeed. Thanks for reviewing!

Love the new chapter. I love how Maggies gives Scott choices and when he doesn't act or care shes like fine and then he regrets not making a choice. Secondly I love how she is kind of blackmailing him with the instagram thing. Hope she does even more. I doubt that Maggie will stop at playing dolls. I hope she has a full exploration and a full lis of ideas coming up to humiliate and make Scott her "doll". I just king of wish she was more violent I guess.

His clothes would have looked larger if he had shrunken smaller :)

Calling her friends is worse than I expected, and about the clothes... well, I hope for Scott's sake she's not so devious to count it as "reasonable"...