Exactly how steamy is this story?
R
Disclaimer: we're giving this rating to Breath, Eyes, Memory not for sex, but for sexual violence. There's nothing "steamy" happening here—this isn't full of the hot n' heavy stuff you like to read about in Lady Chatterley's Lover or Tropic of Cancer. What's here is rape and the legacy of rape… and nothing's less steamy than that.
But it is there, and young kiddos should probably stay away.
While there aren't any explicitly graphic moments in the work, we hear a general recounting of Martine's rape and learn of her violent nightmares (which include self-harming behavior). There is also Sophie's successful attempt to destroy her hymen herself—which causes a whole lot of physical devastation.
Sophie also belongs to a sexual phobia support group that also includes two women who are the victims of sexual abuse. Moments of actual consensual sex or sexual pleasure are few and very much glossed over or described in figurative language.