Dirty

by Megan Hart

[Angie]

Dirty was not what I was expecting at all, in both a good and a bad way. It's not so much about Elle's relationship with Dan as it is about Elle's relationship with herself. Elle does not let herself get close to people, especially not men. She use to have a lot of anonymous sex, but it's been three years when she meets Dan. She's inexplicably drawn to him and they begin their relationship. Elle tells him that she doesn't date nor want the attachment, just sex, but slowly things start to change. Dan makes her laugh, they hang out, and of course, have mind blowing sex, but there's something lurking in Elle's past that keeps her from getting too close.

At first Dirty appeared to be heading toward BDSM territory. Elle's mind is always running and she counts everything to take her mind off of whatever it is she's thinking about. Then she meets Dan, and likes the way he tells her what to do. He's not demanding or commanding, more making suggestions, and it's always something she does want to do but doesn't want to say aloud. She likes not having to think or make decisions, so I figured that their relationship would continuously drift into a kind of Dom/sub relationship if not full on BDSM. That could not even be further from what happened. In fact, Elle's wanting to shut her mind off by doing what Dan says just ends somewhere in the middle while a new plot thread was developing.

Like I said, Dirty is more about Elle's relationship with herself, and to an extent, her mother. It's obvious early on that something has happened to Elle that caused her to be wary of relationships. There's mentions of an ex-boyfriend who hurt her, but it goes way beyond that. I did figure out what that something was far before it was revealed, but the details are shocking and disturbing. I think I would have liked this more if that had been the focus of the story.

Dirty has a lot going on, like it doesn't know what kind of story it is. We've got Dan and Elle's borderline Dom/sub relationship that nothing comes of. There's also Elle's aversion to any kind of close relationship as she tries to maintain distance from Dan while still sleeping with him regularly. Instead, Dan represents Elle finally opening up to people and allowing herself to have a romantic relationship with someone. There's her awful relationship with her mother which stems from the horrific past event. On top of that, there's a side plot involving Elle's teenage neighbor, which I suppose was to suppose parallel Elle's teenage life to a degree, but to me, it only made the story drag and feel needlessly long. All of this made it harder to see the direction the story was going until it got there. It's way too much.

I really liked parts of Dirty, but I wish it had been more focused. There's just too many separate plot threads that never fully connect. Elle was also a hard character to like. She's very closed off to the other characters, but also to the reader, which made it difficult to get to know her. In the end though, I do think it was a great story when you discard the excess.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.