review
Heleen van Royen’s man tester is a compelling, exciting, but also a surprising book. It is written with speed and has a wonderful turn. In this modern book, the protagonist earns her money by hooking up on men and getting them into bed to show that they are cheating on their wives. This thrilling book requires a review!
The data
- Title: The man tester
- Author: Heleen van Royen
- Performance: hardcover
- Number of pages: 304
- Genre: novel
The story
The 27-year-old Victoria Kramer has been a real male seducer from an early age. She is beautiful, smart and a real femme fatale. By combining her beautiful appearance and her somewhat cunning character, she practices a unique profession: male tester. Desperate or sometimes even vindictive women visit Victoria with a request to test their husbands. Of course, the main character asks a considerable amount for this service. With her quick talks and seductive looks she knows how to attract the attention of many men. With a well-thought-out plan, she manipulates the men so well that they eventually give in to her charms. Victoria does not hesitate for a moment to record conversations or bedroom scenes, both sound recordings and visual material. These recordings fall straight into the hands of the suspicious women. The images are the ultimate proof of their husbands’ deceit. Victoria does not hesitate to drug the men she managed to talk to after the act and punish them in bizarre ways. However, the punishments she issues are not communicated to the women, this is a personal settlement.
At a young age, Victoria lost her father in liquidation. Her mother suffers from this and becomes very depressed. Victoria and her grandmother take care of their mother and daughter. This, and her father’s murder, has a profound effect on Victoria’s life. There are no men in her life, which suits her, because she hates them more than she loves them. No man is good to her and punishing her ?? testers ?? is therefore no problem for her. Then she discovers a number of videos on the internet about a robot: Jules. In a bizarre way, she became fascinated with the robot and even tries to steal it. A life with a robot seems to her ideal, she has an incomprehensible love for Jules.
Suddenly, a man comes into her life, Fintan. He is a lion tamer and takes care of a small lion cub. The cub, and Fintan, are very popular among the zoo’s visitors and are famous in no time. Victoria is unsure about her feelings for Fintan, preferring to stick to her love for the robot Jules. Yet her feelings for Fintan seem to win over the robot, but there is one problem: her mentally retarded mother also appears to be in love with Fintan! This mix of events leads to an exciting and surprising ending in the book!
Review
The man tester is a book you must love. It is written smoothly and has a modern structure. The chapters are sometimes short, sometimes very long. Present and past alternate, which makes you want to read on. The story takes place in 2008 and therefore in our present time and that is attracting. Testing men seems like a bizarre, non-existent profession, but van Royen describes this work very well and you are immediately carried away by the character. Victoria is a modern, somewhat bitter person and perhaps represents the people of today. She generally only thinks about herself and is not interested in men. Still, she can passionately surrender herself to a man, but never loses control of herself. Sex scenes are therefore abundant and they are described in detail by van Royen.
The change in character takes place when Victoria begins to question herself and her feelings. Van Royen has described this turning point beautifully, with all the feelings and emotions that go with it. The bizarre fact that the main character falls on a robot is somewhat exaggerated. It’s hard to imagine a flesh-and-blood human falling in love with a robot made of metal. It is therefore a blow for the protagonist when she discovers that the robot does not speak by itself, but is pre-programmed. Fortunately, the author is working towards a surprising and fascinating ending. The question is, is Victoria getting what she deserves?
Other work by Heleen van Royen
- The Happy Housewife (2000)
- The Goddess of the Hunt (2001)
- You’ll Only Married It (2003)
- The Escape (2006)
- The Happy Housewife was made into a film in 2010