Melissa P. tells the story of a teenage girl's search for love through diary entries. She begins her journey as a virgin, and there are many sexual escapades along the way. I will warn you now that this is not for the faint of heart. There are entries of group sex, sadomasochism and other rough sexual encounters. However the way the story is written, the prose itself, is quite beautiful, poetic even. While the content makes the book erotic, you will not likely find the book arousing. Instead, this tale is much more melancholy.

I was immediately drawn into Melissa's world on the first diary entry. The format makes for quick and easy reading with each entry only a few pages long providing convenient stopping points. A controversial book, for sure. While this is a fictionalized memoir, the author has made comments that suggest this story is quite similar to her own. She was only 17 when this book was published, which I find amazing.

Would I recommend this book? Yes but as I said before, it's definitely not for everyone.

Book Description:
An instant blockbuster in Italy where it has sold over 700,000 copies, and now an international literary phenomenon, 100 Strokes of the Brush Before Bed is the fictionalized memoir of Melissa P., a Sicilian teenager whose quest for love rapidly devolves into a shocking journey of sexual discovery.

Melissa begins her diary a virgin, but a stormy affair at the age of fourteen leads her to regard sex as a means of self-discovery, and for the next two years she plunges into a succession of encounters with various partners, male and female, her age and much older, some met through schoolmates, others through newspaper ads and Internet chat rooms. In graphic detail she describes her entry into a Dante-esque underworld of eroticism, where she willingly participates in group sex and sadomasochism, as well as casual pickups. Melissa's secret life is concealed from family and friends, revealed only in her diary entries.

Told with disarming candor, Melissa P.'s bittersweet tour of extreme desires is as poignant as it is titillating. One Hundred Strokes of the Brush Before Bed is a stunning erotic debut, a Story of O for our times.


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