To be completely honest there were times when I didn't even know if I could or wanted to finish reading Taming the Beast for fear of finding something even more crass than what I had already read. But I wanted to see how Sarah's story would play out, because honestly I didn't really see any kind of good outcome in her future that wouldn't eventually end up with her or someone dead. All of Sarah's problems began when, Mr. Carr, her English teacher, seduced her into an illicit affair that would damage her beyond repair. 
 I've seen some student-teacher affair portrayals on tv, movies, and books (not that they were alright), but never have I seen such a sick and twisted perverted human being (if you can even call him human) like Mr.Carr or as he is later better known,Daniel. He transforms Sarah into a pathetic thing of a teenage girl, so desperate for his affection that she doesn't even care when he even slaps her around. Then to leave her, when things get complicated for him, damaging her even more. 
 Throughout most of the book, I had a mix of emotions. At times I would feel sorry for Sarah seeing how broken she was and seeing how her best-friend, Jamie,(view spoiler)[who is totally in love with her and pays the price for that nig time (hide spoiler)] tried and tried to pick-up the pieces. But, other times I would just feel so enraged, seeing how she degraded herself and treated others, especially Jamie. That would just want to make me slap her and see if that would smack some serious sense into her. It was really awful to see how Sarah kept and kept hurting Jamie, and he would just suck it up thinking that if he stayed their long enough she would finally love him the way he loved her.(view spoiler)[he was willing to dump his wife , who he only married off of obligation b/c he knocked her up, to marry her (hide spoiler)] 
 I won't go into what a psychotic monster Daniel Carr is because, I literally want to puke whenever I think of that monster because he was so f**** evil and twisted. 
 For all the loathing this book has made me feel I have to say that Emily Maguire is an excellent writer. I don't know how she could have written about such an intense taboo topic, because I sure as hell wouldn't be able to. But I thank her because books like that show you that life is not black and white, lots of it is shades of grey and we shouldn't delude ourselves of that. I admit taboo subjects as these (e.g. Forbidden) interest me. I guess I like controversy and see how individuals react to such things. I am thankful to authors like Emily Maguire to have the balls to write about subjects as these.