Story Review: Pay Any Price by T.M. Goode

Holy Crap. What a climax! The tension…I’m almost speechless. Give me just a moment to get a little better control and we’ll go ahead and analyze “Pay Any Price” by T.M. Goode, recently posted at the BDSM Library

Okay, I’m ready now. I had to take a breather. “Pay Any Price” is another incredible tale by T. M. Goode who takes us on a very short rollercoaster ride into sexual nirvana. Let me explain why.

Yeah, its kinda like this, but so much better.

Our tale begins with meeting Stephen Underwood, whose description in the story is rather non-existent, consistent with author T.M. Goode’s ability to use what I term “anti-descriptions” in order to invoke a sense of character or scene by describing everything else BUT them. In “Pay Any Price”, Mr. Goode uses a variety of descriptions about Underwood’s relationship with his step-daughter Morgan, his relatively well maintained residence, and even a home office, all of which paints a nice picture of average suburbanite normality without actually describing Underwood.

This might be Morgan, except for the part about being naked, at least before she is kidnapped.

Morgan it seems is the perfect step-child, beautiful, talented, bright, helpful, kind, and even cooks dinner every night. She is also an innocent. After a bit of convenience explanation about the mother dying of a brain aneurysm which is tied in nicely as a physical comparison between mother and daughter, Underwood finds no dinner prepared, Morgan missing, and a mysterious envelope on his kitchen table.

He opens the package to find a DVD, a rewritable one, and proceeds to discover that Morgan has been kidnapped and sexually abused. The video is without audio, a caveat that seemed a little contrived, but becomes clear at the end of the story. Morgan is excruciatingly bound to a chair sans seat, her private school clothes arranged purposefully for the video, which reveals that her nipples and clitoral hood have been pierced, her sex is being repeatedly and constantly penetrated by a large rubber dildo mounted to a motor, and that electrical wires have been attached to the piercings.

I could swing with electrifying this.

An unknown assailant who is also the cameraman demonstrates how Morgan reacts to the electrical torments, and then even cruelly stimulates the poor girl’s clit directly with a battery operated toothbrush, forcing her into a pain riddled orgasm. A few other additional accessories are inflicted upon Morgan followed by a video taped note on a piece of cardboard asking for a ransom of one hundred thousand.

The note also offers to provide a tape including audio, for an additional ten grand. Heh heh... wait... is there like a sequel offered too?

Through this whole process, Underwood has been rather quiet. He has watched the video in comparative silence, with little emotional response. The clinical but sexually tense descriptions of Morgan’s torment, along with very passionate descriptions of her emotional and physical state is the direct opposite of how the author relates Underwood’s reaction to what he is seeing. In fact, the whole original sense of Underwood carries through the entire story, giving you the impression that he would be shocked, horrified, and maybe even angry about what is happening for this girl that he has accepted, cared for, and loved like his own flesh and blood.

And then we are slammed with must be the largest sledgehammer ever used in the history of literature to disabuse a reader of a previously held notion. Underwood’s reaction to the ransom demand is not that of a normal average suburbanite step-father, but of a sexually repressed incest accepting sadist who wants to turn his sixteen year old daughter into a sex slave.

Huh? WTF? Wow. I didn’t see that coming.

To be honest, it was such a dramatic change from the previously painted character that it floored me and actually angered me. I was so on this guy’s side up to that point. If a child I was responsible for had been kidnapped and sexually abused, I’d be ready to go hunt someone down and put a bullet through their head. But to agree to pay the ransom (and probably the extra ten grand for the DVD special) just so that you can bring her back and then turn her into a sex slave for yourself? That just crosses so many boundaries that I have trouble dealing with it.

While this isn’t the only incongruity in the story, it is the most glaring, and possibly the one of the most damaging to the story as a whole. It means that there are no good guys, just bad guys and the victim. I would even have preferred the story to end without a resolution, so we would never know what Stephen Underwood does about his kidnapped daughter. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.

T.M. Goode makes it clear in an author’s note that he intends to serialize the story, producing another chapter at a later point. As much as I hate serials, this first installment does exactly what a serial is supposed to do. It is a self-contained story, with a sub-plot, story arc, climax, and even a cliff-hanger, all designed to get us to come back and read part two. In essence, if you’re going to write serial novels, then this is the way to do it. I still feel that this story could stand on its own even if the author never writes another word of it. And that’s the way a serial should be.

Everything else is top notch. The descriptions are vivid and alluring. The action is rapid, exciting, and intense. You feel as if you are right there, watching Morgan’s torment, yet sensing Underwood’s dismay at seeing his step-daughter in this predicament. It’s masterful. In fact, their is something magical that happens while we witness Morgan's video debut. A beautiful, perfect, sweet, wonderful, innocent girl on the cusp of womanhood is molested and exposed to the darkest side of humanity's perversions. This is fucking awesome.

Oddly enough, one of the other reviewers of this story complained about the believability factor, stating that it was unlikely a kidnapper would harm their victim until AFTER they got the money. I disagree, not with their assumption, but what constitutes harm in this story. Obviously Morgan is still alive and relatively undamaged (despite all the piercings, penetrations, and forced orgasms) and I can’t quite imagine a more potent motivator to encourage a parent, or even a step-parent, to respond as quickly as possible to the ransom demand. I suppose it could be considered unbelievable since kidnapping for money is such a bad idea in the United States. The FBI gets involved relatively quickly, and it’s hard to get your money without someone seeing you. Ransom kidnappers are generally caught. But I don’t think that’s what the other reviewer was referring too.

I almost hope that the author DOESN’T continue this story, because I have no desire to see Underwood become the villain, preferring the mysterious stranger who videotapes his ransom demands and mechanically rapes an innocent perfect sixteen year old girl. I really don’t want to read about the mental trauma that being rescued from her abductor, only to be subjected to similar treatment from her step-father, will do to her. I’d rather have Underwood decide to pay the ransom, rescue his daughter, but while he’s scrounging the money (who has a hundred thousand sitting around?) he receives another video of even more horribly awesome sexual torments being inflicted upon his little girl, and by proxy, him! It would be totally cool if the abductor was actually fucking with both Morgan AND Underwood. Maybe it’s a former employee Underwood fired, or a perverted neighbor whose hedges Underwood trimmed without permission. Who knows? But it just seems so WRONG for Underwood to turn on Morgan.

This should just go on for ever.

But despite the way it ended, and the apparent way any sequel will head down, “Pay Any Price” was basically a fantastic, fun filled, little dip into the perverted psyche of the corruption of innocence. Wait. Did I say corruption? This isn't corruption. It's the RAPE of innocence, of taking something pure and defiling it. So in the end, I recommend reading "Pay Any Price". As for Morgan? Well, I hope that she remains a captive for as long as possible, constantly bound, tormented, assaulted, electrified, hurt, and forced to cum as many times as humanly possible.