Whip Smart: The True Story of a Secret Life by Melissa Febos (St. Martin’s, 2011)

Sara Korash-Schiff Click to read more...

Sara Korash-Schiff is a senior English and journalism and mass communications major at Washington and Lee.  She has served as  an intern for Hachette Book Group in Nashville and a reporting intern for The Springfield Republican.  After graduation, she plans to travel throughout Europe and attend a graduate creative writing program in fiction.

whipThese days it feels like anyone and almost everyone has read E.L. James’ novel Fifty Shades of Grey or the entire Fifty Shades series. With the recent release of the movie adaptation the media is full of coverage of what is good, bad, and somewhere in between about the series. But instead of turning to what everyone else is reading and analyzing, I recommend to you another tantalizing novel that will both please the little devil on your shoulder and the literature lover within you; I give you Melissa Febos’ novel Whip Smart: The True Story of A Secret Life.

I first came across this novel while doing research for my English honors thesis on White erotic fiction formulaic patterns and archetypes, and was happy to find a refreshing depiction of the BDSM community written by an author who does not hold back and writes with much more precision than the average erotic fiction author. Whip Smart is an honest, fictionalized version of Febos’ real life experiences working as a dominatrix at a midtown New York City BDSM dungeon. Though Febos alters names and some details, the novel still offers a rare look into the fascinating subculture that has captivated many recently.

While many erotic fiction authors, like James, do limited research and then write about the BDSM community as if they know what they are talking about, Febos actually lived through the various experiences in her book. Because of this, she writes about the lifestyle with both natural understanding and beautiful detail. Febos does not merely tiptoe into the BDSM community by writing basic kink scenes with a little spanking or rope play. Instead, she dives in full heartedly and describes her experiences performing acts on men including everything from nipple play, to enemas, to suspension, to golden, brown, and even ruby, showers. These various dungeon scenes reveal a glimpse into a misunderstood world, but also entertain the reader by depicting situations that even Febos and her fellow coworkers could not suppress a giggle about.

These various dungeon scenes are not all that the novel has to offer, however. Though the novel does depict how Febos evolved as a dominatrix, it is also a tale of how she balanced her job as a dominatrix with her writing at The New School, her complicated relationship with her mother, her lesbian love interests, and her addictions to cocaine and heroin. Describing her emotions after using water torture on a client, Febor writes, “for someone so bent on mastering her given conditions, on inventing herself and her world in opposition to convention, it was an act of supreme defiance…I experiences a kind of transcendence. It was that utter alienation from self, a loosening of the glue that made my reality whole. It felt both horrific and triumphant.” Febos does not just open up about her career in this novel, she pours her soul on the page, writing about everything from her apprehensions, fears, sexuality, family life, and desires. But most importantly, while opening up on the page, she does not abandon all creativity and technique. This novel is skillfully crafted making reading it enlightening and stimulating.

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