As a super obsessed and proud smut/romance reader, I never sought out controversial books. However, a few months ago my online readers group engaged in a long discussion/debate about books such as Tampa and Bryn Greenwood's All The Ugly & Beautiful Things. So of course, I had to read BOTH. My review for Bryn's book is on Goodreads as well.

I'm sure you are wondering WHY am I talking about THAT book in a review for Tampa. It's because that book gave me a false sense of readiness for the topic at hand. For the dark, twisted, sickening, level of disturbing that was presented by the antagonist in Tampa.

Bryn's book offer's multiple POV's, the story leaves you conflicted, unsettled, frustrated, sad, and confused but it is in fact beautiful. After reading it I felt that I was prepared for and had the stomach for such dark topics.

Yeah... No, I mean yes, I can handle it but NO I was not prepared.

Tampa is a shit show that will leave you outraged and in need of a shower. Celeste is a true predator. She is delusional, selfish, manipulative, methodical, and dangerous.

Celeste's character is based off of Deba Lafave a Florida school teacher who is a repeat offender. After the first 6 pages I had to take a break. I was so put off by the level of perversion and crazy that was Celeste. I had to remind myself that there is a double standard, and that media and society has prepared almost conditioned us to accept that pedophiles are dirty old men jacking off in the shadows which is why I was so caught off guard by this woman's actions and fantasies.

The author did a fantastic job providing facts as far as what predators look for in victims. Poor home lives, inactive parents, low self-esteem, anti-social, these are all traits that real life predators watch for. Easy targets, kids who will keep secrets. That's what Celeste wanted and that is what any social worker and child advocate will tell you is what predators want.

There was also a huge focus on the fact that male victims are not taken with the same sensitivity as female. It's almost an accomplishment to score with an older woman. Some males don't' see themselves as victims because it didn't hurt, they actively participated, they enjoyed themselves. I appreciated that the author gave us two victims. One who was emotionally affected, whose entire world was shifted if not destroyed by Celeste while the other not so much.

It's the casual dismission of actual damage being done to male victims that allows female predators to get away with so much more than men. A large portion of sex crimes in general are rarely reported. But I'm not here to turn this into a social discussion.

Fact is this book was well written, the subject matter was disturbing but addressed with earnest, if you can stomach the lewd behavior and complete this book, you will be left with renewed sense of knowledge and advocacy.