MASTURBATION MONDAY is a book about one woman’s desire, including the desire to make herself shamelessly, openly vulnerable in an attempt to find herself, sexually and emotionally. Jupiter’s Slut is a math teacher and a mom, dealing with a frustrating divorce and a sexually repressive childhood. In order to explore her repression and free herself from it, she made a pact with herself to masturbate every Monday, on camera, for the Internet. In the process of exploring new fantasies, toys, kinks, and desires, she finds emotional needs, memories, and personal revelations she never knew she had.

It should be self-evident from the title and author’s pseudonym that this is not a book for prudes or those who don’t want to know about other people’s sex lives. On the other hand, though, this isn’t just another book about sex and sexuality, either. It is a raw, honest, and sometimes painful exploration of one woman’s psyche, even the bits that she’s initially, at least, afraid or ashamed to acknowledge. This book is a fierce act of courage – the sort of courage that comes from making yourself absolutely vulnerable and facing down what scares you most without backing away. It is also an act of compassionate love for her own inner self, for the history she has survived, and the strength she’s gained in finding her way to a healthier, more fulfilling future.

The first-person, present-tense writing style is by turns wryly funny, mischievous, frustrated, awkwardly nervous, self-confident, generous and introspective – but it is always relatable and very human. It’s a very personal journey for which we are directly present, as we watch her grow from a girl centered around pleasing others, who considers masturbation selfish and represses her emotions, to a woman who isn’t afraid to go on stage at a kink convention – or to talk publicly about her painful experiences with anger and self-hatred. Her writing is expressive, lively, and moving, precisely because it is vividly honest and immediate. Sexuality is a substantial part, after all, of what makes us human, and it’s difficult to be this open and vulnerable sexually without also sharing a great deal of one’s own self with the reader.

MASTURBATION MONDAY is a touching story – in more ways than one – of self-growth and self-love through sexual exploration and personal vulnerability.

~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader