Inspired
by real life events, Twisted
is a fascinating story of vulnerability, courage and the art of
making a living in the sex trade...
Back in the 90's, the corrupt post-Soviet Ukraine with its faltering economy, is thrown into a devastating depression. Times are hard. Opportunities are scarce. Three young and eager sisters - Natalia, Lena and Julia - dream of a better life and weigh their options: do they stay and struggle like their parents, or join scores of their compatriots in the sex trade in glittering western European cities, who earn in a night what they'd take several months to earn at home? Naive and tempted by the allure of 'quick' money, the girls set off on an adventure that changes their lives forever...
For sensible, resilient and calculating Lena and Natalia, the transition to the underworld of Luxembourg's deceptive champagne bars is eye-opening, but smooth. But for fragile, brittle Julia, haunted by a childhood assault, the change is more than just vocational. Struggling to adapt, she turns to alcohol and drugs, exposing herself to increasing danger and depravity; and, ultimately, betrayal, when a deceitful client, who claims to love her, drugs her and cleans her out.
Despite her sisters' best efforts to intervene, she finds herself in Istanbul - culturally a world apart - in an attempt to make back the money and self-respect she's lost. Vulnerable without the protection of Luxembourg's champagne bars, she descends into a hell of drugs and high-risk sex until, at the novel's terrible climax, a kidnapping, brutal assault and one-sided justice system lead to her imprisonment and a threat of deportation.
How will Natalia and Lena save Julia?
Back in the 90's, the corrupt post-Soviet Ukraine with its faltering economy, is thrown into a devastating depression. Times are hard. Opportunities are scarce. Three young and eager sisters - Natalia, Lena and Julia - dream of a better life and weigh their options: do they stay and struggle like their parents, or join scores of their compatriots in the sex trade in glittering western European cities, who earn in a night what they'd take several months to earn at home? Naive and tempted by the allure of 'quick' money, the girls set off on an adventure that changes their lives forever...
For sensible, resilient and calculating Lena and Natalia, the transition to the underworld of Luxembourg's deceptive champagne bars is eye-opening, but smooth. But for fragile, brittle Julia, haunted by a childhood assault, the change is more than just vocational. Struggling to adapt, she turns to alcohol and drugs, exposing herself to increasing danger and depravity; and, ultimately, betrayal, when a deceitful client, who claims to love her, drugs her and cleans her out.
Despite her sisters' best efforts to intervene, she finds herself in Istanbul - culturally a world apart - in an attempt to make back the money and self-respect she's lost. Vulnerable without the protection of Luxembourg's champagne bars, she descends into a hell of drugs and high-risk sex until, at the novel's terrible climax, a kidnapping, brutal assault and one-sided justice system lead to her imprisonment and a threat of deportation.
How will Natalia and Lena save Julia?
Aspiring
author from Ukraine, Lola Smirnova loves twisting a suspenseful tale
through the dark lens of realism around the sexual underworld, so
clocked in secrecy and shame. Lola’s work is inspired by real-life
events and is meant for the open-minded readers who are not afraid of
a little blood, sweat and semen.
Her
debut novel Twisted was released in 2014. The book placed as
Honorable Mention in General Fiction Category of The 2014 London Book
Festival’s Annual Competition.
Whether
you prefer to slide your finger across a touchscreen or turn a paper
page, Lola’s thrilling tales will surely shock and surprise you,
with both its storyline and its literary value.
Now
living in South Africa, Lola is about to release her second novel –
a sequel to Twisted – Craved,
which proves just how many fascinating stories she has to share about
the ordinary women in the global sex industry.
To
learn more, go to http://lolasmirnova.com/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/AuthorSmirnova
1
‘Sag
es!’ he screams at me.
The
heavy motorcycle helmet is so tightly strapped to my head that I can
hear the blood rushing through my ears. The smell of stale sweat
reeks from the worn padding inside it. I struggle to swallow. A drop
of spit runs down the ball gag that has been shoved into my mouth,
then down my chin, and drips onto the couch beneath my knees. My
shoulders are screaming from the pull of the handcuffs, which force
my hands together behind my back.
He
stands in the middle of the small and gloomy room and I can see the
outline of his large body. Two bloodshot eyes are firmly fixed on my
exposed nipples. A fleshy tongue slides backwards and forwards
through the gap in his teeth. He licks the sweat off his lips, moans,
and starts rubbing his groin, rocking his wide hips back and forth.
He increases the pace, while his moans get louder and louder. Next,
he stops abruptly, moving his eyes from my chest to my face, scowls,
and takes a few menacing steps towards me. I shrink instinctively,
tensing my body …
‘I know him. Don’t
be scared Jul. He’s a bit strange, but a harmless motherfucker.’
That is what my sister, Natalia, managed to whisper in my ear half an
hour ago, before I followed this freak, with the brain bucket in his
hand, upstairs.
Natalia
and I were sitting at the bar counter when he walked in. He didn’t
even have a drink; just stepped in the door, looked around, stopped
his stare at me, and mumbled, ‘I want you.
Let’s go.’
‘It’s
time to work!’ teased Natalia. Her naughty look followed us all the
way up the stairs.
‘Sag
es!’ the crack-head screams
again, which I think means ‘say it’ in Luxembourgish or German.
He
grunts, and with a wild thrust shoves his hips right into my face. He
doesn’t even bother to take his jeans off. A quick unzip and he
pulls out a flaccid penis, puts one foot up on the couch and starts
violently pumping it, so close that his clenched palm is punching the
helmet. Lucky for me the visor is shut.
I
sigh deeply and try to shift on the couch to get rid of the cramps,
which start crawling up my legs and back.
A
bit strange? Come on, Natalia! You could call him anything –
cracked, insane, alien on Earth – but hardly ‘a bit strange’!
I
glance at the half-empty bottle of champagne seductively chilling in
the ice bucket. If I’d known what Natalia had meant by ‘a bit
strange’, I would have finished it before he handcuffed me and
shoved the damn ball into my jaws.
‘Sag
es!’ brings me out of my
thoughts again.
I
peep at his red face … What the hell does this crack-head think he
is doing? I wouldn’t even call it masturbation! He tortures his
penis in a spasmodic exertion. The awful tongue tossing in his
distorted mouth, the dark brown hair stuck to the film of sweat on
his broad brow, and the whimpering noises coming out of his fat body
make a disgusting spectacle.
‘Sag
es!’
According
to the instructions he gave me before we started this session, I was
supposed to say ‘I love you, I forgive you’ through the gag.
I
wonder what my seventh-grade teacher would say if she walked in the
door right now? She always believed in me and encouraged: ‘You are
going to come out on top, Julia …’ Good shot, Anna Ivanovna. You
were pretty close!
He
shuts his eyes and wrinkles his forehead in concentration.
Frustrated, he drops his limp penis and squats next to the small
table in the centre of the room. He pauses only to wipe the trickle
of sweat from his forehead. Then he quickly snorts the line of blow
on the glass table, and doesn’t get up for a while, staring deadpan
at the wall.
Hey,
fat boy, get on with it so we can have some together after this. I
think I deserve a little pick-me-up for my efforts here.
I
wonder what could possibly have happened to turn his grey matter
inside out like this. A few hours later, when I kick my ‘labour
hour’ around with the girls, they will tell me some rumours about
him having had a motorbike accident. Apparently, he was riding ‘under
the influence’ with his fiancée in tow. She died there on the
street, in his arms, in a puddle of mud. With the last beats of her
heart, he stared at her wide-open eyes, full of terror, and at her
bleeding lips that breathed in agony: ‘Please, baby, I don’t want
to die.’
I
shudder. I don’t know if he was injured in the accident, but after
this short time we’ve spent together I can assure you that his
brain was nowhere to be found after that crash.
‘Sag
es!’
Yeah,
whatever …
He
finally comes back to the couch, pulling and beating his poor
half-dead cock in front of my plastic shield. I try to say what he
demands – anything to get this over and done with, and me out of
here – but ‘I love you’, that forms beautifully in my throat,
dissolves into an incoherent mumble as it hits the ball.
His
small eyes devour every inch of my naked body, which is truly just
skin and bone with boyish nipples where there are supposed to be
breasts. The only reason why any man would choose to fuck me (aside
from being a paedophile, of course) would be my big blue eyes and
long blonde hair.
‘Sag
es!’
His
whole face is scrunched up in an ugly leer and his bottom lip is
quivering as he makes a weird whining noise.
Oh
please! Don’t tell me you are going to cry now! Pathetic, sick,
even disturbing, but not just ‘a bit strange’, Natalia?!
He
keeps on yanking and jerking and thrusting like a maniac – harder
and harder. He’s going to pull that thing off if he doesn’t stop!
‘Sag
es! Sag es!’ he whines over
and over, then forcefully flips the visor up and pulls the bottom of
the helmet so close that his soft crotch hits my face. I shut my eyes
a second before the first squirt of semen hits them.
‘It’s
over’ slips with warmth and ease into my head, then streams down
through my body, echoing the semen on my face. My eyes are closed but
I can still hear him sobbing, sniffling and mumbling.
I
can’t believe this fucker just ruined my make-up!
All
I’ve got from this pathetic episode is an experience I will never
be able to share with my grandchildren and €60 with no promise of a
tip.
Praise
for Twisted:
"A
gripping and mature story deftly woven by Lola Smirnova, "Twisted"
is the kind of suspense novel that will linger in the mind and
imagination long after it is finished and set back upon the shelf...
"Twisted" introduces an extraordinarily gifted author to an
appreciative readership looking eagerly toward her next literary
effort." -
Midwest Book Review
"Charged with some disturbing sexual scenes (including rape), the book manages a steady, readable flow as it shines a light on the multifaceted world of the European sex trade." - Kirkus
"Smirnova takes us on a philosophical and pseudo-psychological pilgrimage through the sexual underworld as Julia, in first person narrative, describes her struggling introduction into a profession where she can ply the only skills currently marketable." - 5 star review from Readers' Favorite
"I highly recommend 'Twisted' to open-minded readers who aren't afraid of a little blood, sweat and semen. It's sure to shock and surprise you, with both its storyline and its literary value." - 5 star review from Red City Review
"In the meantime, Smirnova hopes that Twisted will raise awareness to the problems of the sex industry... Kudos to Smirnova for an outstanding job achieving that goal!" - 5 star review from Pacific Book Review
"While the subject matter does not make for a light read, a breezy writing style and Julia's willingness to fully and shamelessly lift the veil on her controversial lifestyle makes an irresistible combination."
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