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hannscurlock's review against another edition
4.0
This short story collection was simultaneously relieving and also stiflingly painful. There is a good mix in here of stories that are not merely pleasurable, but also very painful. I think that is so important. Often, stories/novels/other books associated with transgressive or subversive life experiences or identities have a tendency to exist in a vacuum-- they either portray wholly good or wholly bad experience. I think often times, kink scholars or LGBT scholars (particularly of marginalized groups) tend to focus wholly on good, resisting any type of battleground to argue amongst one another because their lives are battlegrounds and they want to provide forms of safe spaces to exist in. For example, trans* folks are constantly defending our rights to even exist in this world, and so it can be exhausting to consider a "healthy" battleground to defend ideas with likeminded people. Safe spaces are important for survival. Contrary to this tendency, there are stories in this collective that are abusive and non-consensual or consensual and loving. That nuance is powerful and important. Some of theses stories were so intense and triggering that I could only read 1 a day. Anyways, would recommend, but this collection is not for the faint of heart. My favourite stories in here are definitely Carmen Maria Machado's and Chris Kraus'.
pizzaformunchlax's review against another edition
3.0
There were so many great writers in here, and lots of beautiful prose, but not many of the stories gripped or challenged me. It represented a range of different sexual experiences and people, and the content was expectedly explicit, but I wanted something more from this. There were a couple of stand outs and I loved the intent behind the collection, but overall I wasn’t in love with it.
boomingranny's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I'll read anything with Carmen Maria Machado's name on it
doubleyou's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
I didn’t really like it. I thought it wasn’t that good and at first the first few stories were intriguing but I got to one story where it had a SA and I didn’t know if this was part of the theme of the book since it’s about kinks. And I guess I wasn’t quite prepared for the brutality of the scene but it just turned me off for the rest of the book
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
franciwrites's review against another edition
4.0
A solid collection! I like some more than others, of course, but all were good in their own way. I appreciated the more explicit ones as well as those that touched on the kinky topic more laterally, as a starting point to explore all the complex human emotions that get entangled in the kinky practices. At the end of each story I wanted to start the next one, I wasn’t bothered by the change of pace or writing style which goes to show how well the collection is curated.
Would recommend.
Would recommend.
reubenlb's review against another edition
2.0
pedestrian - reminded me how boring straight people are
saarahrust's review against another edition
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
miskaa13's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
lizzietherebel's review against another edition
4.0
Because this is a collection, I have to rate it as a whole- overall, I throughly enjoyed it and many of the included pieces were brilliant and moving. The pieces by Melissa Febos, Roxane Gay, Zeyn Joukhadar, Vanessa Clark, and Brandon Taylor were amongst my favorites. This book is raw, unsurprisingly intimate- but in ways that may be surprising- and often profound. It speaks to the experience of being other, of being marginalized, of being queer and trans and the horrors and beauties that accompany it, and of the ways that kink can destroy us as well as make us whole. Not every story is “kinky” in the way you might expect; in fact, most are not. This is not a book of erotica, but a book of life and sex and the ways that sex changes us and defines us- and also does not define us. I did not love every story, and of course, the longest stories ended up being the ones that I found mostly a waste of my time. I did not particularly enjoy the pieces by Garth Greenwell or Carmen Maria Machado and found portions of them unnecessary and under-edited. That being said, I can understand their inclusion and enjoyment is not the sole purpose or even necessarily a purpose of reading these stories. I still found a worthwhile takeaway from these pieces though they were not my favorite. The piece I had a real issue with was Chris Kraus’, and I find it incredibly baffling that the editors chose to close the collection with this. Kraus’ writing is pretentious and uncomfortable; I had to force myself to finish her story and I truly wonder that it was included among the rest of these brilliant artists. Perhaps that’s why it was at the end, because if it had been at the beginning or even towards the middle, I might have stopped reading altogether, or at least stopped for a while. I cannot stand the way Kraus talks about queer people and “hets,” especially being of the latter category herself as far as I can tell (including using the words dyke and fag, which would be fine if she was queer but she’s not so it’s fucking weird and icky. Especially because the queer authors barely use those words in their own pieces.) A lot of the writing and terminology feels weirdly self-conscious, self-indulgent, grossly privileged, and outdated. She includes an afterword (the only author who does this) and mentions she wrote the piece 20 years ago- we can tell, and in a bad way. She switches between voices, presumably writing about herself both in first and third person, and then interspersing frequent random and unbearable word vomit about art and philosophy. The afterword was actually the only part of her story I enjoyed or connected to. I really wish this piece hadn’t been included and hadn’t been the conclusion of such an excellent collection because it left a bad taste in my mouth after I voraciously inhaled the rest of this book. Of course, you can always choose to skip it if you pick this up, which is part of the beauty of a short story collection, and which I would highly recommend that you do. Without this piece, Kink would have been a much stronger and near-perfect and representative collection.