Product Description

Sarah Clark's life is irrevocably changed at the age of fourteen when her English teacher, Mr Carr, seduces her after class. Their affair is illegal, erotic, passionate and dangerous - a vicious meeting of minds and bodies. But when Mr Carr's wife discovers the affair he has to choose between them and moves to another city with his family. Sarah is devastated and from that day on her life is defined by a series of meaningless, self-abasing sexual encounters, hoping with each man that she will experience the same delicious feelings she had with Mr Carr. Seven years later Daniel Carr walks back into Sarah's life and she is drawn once again into the destructive relationship. Is Sarah strong enough to 'tame the beast'?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70775 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-08
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Independent
Maguire's very readable prose treads a fine line between porn-lite and a more serious exploration of young desire

Independent, December 2, 2005
I was very impressed by Taming the Beast Maguire heads into extraordinarily dark psychosexual territory, withholding any easy answers

Observer Magazine, March 5 2006
'It's a bleak, uneasy book, albeit powerfully written. It is also shockingly compelling'

Customer Reviews

Fabulous, heart racing and intimate
this book is a total one off! i cant say ive read much like it in the past and i was imersed in the content. it has a fabulous story and i really jad feeling for each chariture. the intimacy of the book is outstanding and it made my heart race which i feel is a great acheivment for a book! its i must read x

Disturbing, necessary reading
This is highly disturbing. About a woman that was neglected as a child and latched on to the first "love" that she found. She evolved in to a person who was in such need that she could only feel a connection with those that cheapened her to the extent that she felt her identity awakened. There is hope at the end, but this blatant lack of self esteem and the cruelty therein is only too prevalent in todays society where sexuality is cheapened and the female identity is caught up in that all too easily. I loved this book. Rare to find such insight at all, let alone in a first novel.

Disturbing, compelling, uncomfortable, un-putdownable
This book really got to me. It tells the story of Sarah, a very intelligent but emotionally neglected 14 year old girl who is seduced by her sadistic teacher. Sarah's grows up along best friend Jamie who has to watch her downward spiral of obvious self destruction.

It is not the graphic sex that really shocks but the dispair of the main characters - Jamie in particular who is the only normaility that Sarah has ever known that holds you hostage to this book. I literally could not put it down. I spent most of the time furious, sad and confused by the characters. It gets under your skin. A beautiful, haunting, well written exercise in breaking your heart. Maguire has true talent.

Read it.