With each new medium, there comes new content tailored for it. One such form that has cropped up in the last few years is “twitfic,” or Twitter fiction, and one early adopter is the mysteriously named Made in DNA, whose e-book, Bukkake Brawl, collects four stories originally published serially on Twitter between 2006 and 2010. The original Twitter format, in which fully-fledged ideas had to be presented in fewer than 140 characters, guarantees a quick pace and a tight plot without irrelevant filler.
The eponymous novella is set in a future plausibly extrapolated from our own present. The lead character, Mei, is a professional fighter in the island city-state of Yue Fong, where anything goes. But she is not a typical fighter; she is a Jizzabel, indentured and trained to fight in the Bukkake Brawl, “the fiendishly genius marriage of extreme sports and porn.” Her opponents are the Jackals, men from all walks of life who purchase spots in the brawl pits and band together to make up “a mob of howling contestants ready to hump anything….” Trained to fight from an early age, Mei has accepted her lot in life, hoping one day that she just might earn enough to buy her freedom. But when a brawl claims the life of a friend and fellow Jizzabel—and almost kills Mei herself—she bucks the system and goes underground, seeking revenge against the man responsible.
Hardcore, fast-paced, full of sex, violence, and violent sex, Bukkake Brawl is sexpunk at its best. Many modern writers feel the need to load their novels with gratuitous sex and gore, but the author has managed to craft a piece driven by such content. Take away the sex and violence, and the story collapses. The same can be said about each of the tales in the book. Moreover, the protagonists of these stories are all strong female leads who either fight to overcome degrading sexual situations or utilize sexuality to their own advantage.
Although I was initially wary about reading this book, it exceeded my expectations, and I’m glad I decided to give it a chance. The stories are well written, the words deftly crafted, the plots and characters strong and memorable. I feel confident that I will seek out more work by this author in the future.
This e-book and others by Made in DNA, as well as further information about the author, can be found at Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads, and Twitter
