As Kinky as You Wanna Be: Your Guide to Safe, Sane and Smart BDSM by Lee Harrington, Shanna Germain

3.6 AVERAGE

jacelevine's review against another edition

4.0
I'm not really a part of the kink community, but I do consider myself an open-minded and curious person, so I really appreciated Shanna Germain's work on this book. This is a considerate and intelligent guide to a world I did not already know, and by the time I finished the book, I really felt like I had learned some important details. The tone is friendly and compassionate, as if you were conversationally talking to a friend in the BDSM community, someone you could trust to answer some questions you might otherwise be too embarrassed to ask. Each chapter, which focused on a different aspect of advice for those new to a kinky lifestyle, also features one or more short pieces of erotic fiction, which were generally quite good. In addition, many of the chapters featured an interview with someone experienced in the BDSM community. I felt these interviews might have been the weakest part of the book, though they were not bad. They were just a bit too formulaic for me; I didn't get a great sense of the interview subject from them, though that did seem intentionally secondary to the advice they offered.

Overall, this book approaches a complicated subject with elegance and thoughtfulness, two strengths that are often apparent in Shanna's writing.