The Briars by Stephanie Parent
Cemetery Gates Press, 2023
This novel is a horror story in several senses of the word, playing on social prejudices, yet transcending them. Set in a commercial BDSM Dungeon from which it derives its title, The Briars follows Claire and dominatrix Ruby in their everyday, as their workplace slowly but assuredly becomes haunted. Is it the spirit that supposedly has been haunting the dungeon for a decade that is now manifesting its rage? Or is it the regular clients, whose passions have turned into a routine over the last ten years, rendering them zombies? Or is it that Claire, receiving an oddly familiar and unpleasant client, is finally haunted by a past incident she hardly speaks about?
With The Briars, Stephanie Parent proves herself an innovative writer, able to play on the conceits of sex work as well as the horrors sex workers can encounter in the line of work she depicts through an incredibly nuanced narrative. Her protagonists may have suffered traumas, but they are never stereotypical victims. Ruby and Claire stand out as characters precisely for their humanity, their line of work merely being an occupation, not a limit to their personality. Transcending the typical stereotypes of this work, Parent succeeds in telling us a story about a friendship between two women who are like mirrors to each other in their differences. Although Claire is more passive in confrontations than the assertive Ruby, these characters are complementary to each other. They act on what they feel and in accordance to what is important to them. Far from helpless and one-note, these characters enchant the reader precisely because they are fleshed out and real.
Holding up a mirror to the patriarchal structures of society, The Briars succeeds in giving expression to the rage women feel in the face of misogynistic violence. The dungeon no longer is a place where pain is turned into pleasure, but where the women working redefine their pleasure in the face of pain. Fully in charge of their lives, the protagonists show solidarity to each other and to their colleagues, illustrating to the reader how women build community in the face of adversity. As a consequence, the novel confronts us with this question: is what really haunts The Briars the spirit of a deceased woman or the sadistic spirit of men who know no boundaries? Simple as these juxtapositions seem, the build of the story remains complex, intriguing. This is a debut that shows us the potential of literature to break boundaries and show us the humanity of people we marginalize, allowing us to recognize ourselves in a text that is more than just fiction.
–
Daniel Schulz (he/him) is a U.S.-German writer known for his work on Kathy Acker and his publications in journals such as Gender Forum, Fragmented Voices, and The Milton Review, and the catalog Get Rid of Meaning. His chapbooks are Welfare State and No Change to Abuse.