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dummehure's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Self harm, Lesbophobia, Transphobia, Sexual violence, and Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Death of parent
Minor: Vomit and Violence
I've decided to rate each short story by itself, so minor spoilers ahead! But I'd like to say a few words about this book in general. While I love the idea of a collection of short stories about Kink or BDSM in general, I feel like this book didn't satisfy the curiosity that idea sparked at all. A lot of these stories are very loosly baised on BDSM, and sometimes BDSM isn't even an important part within the story. Sometimes I couldn't even find the kinky parts of the story and was forced to think to myself "Is the queerness of the characters the kinky part?" which I truly hope isn't the case because that idea made me violently uncomfortable. I think the best comparison I could come up with is: This book is about kink the way that the Netflix show "Love, Death and Robots" is about love, death and robots. It's not NOT about those things but they aren't the focus of the stories every time. But even though I disliked quite a few aspects and stories in this book I'm still glad a read it and felt like my horizon was widened a bit. Plus it's always a wonderful thing to feel understood by other queer people no matter the circumstances. So here are the reviews of the stories itself, rated on a scale of 1-10 (because I forgot that I can only rate books in a scale of 1-5 on this app): The Cure 7/10 Best Friendster Date Ever 8,5/10 - lighthearted hot fun liked it Trust 5/10 Canada 8/10 - that's literally just a queer slice of life what about that was kinky, am I being sexualized? Oh, youth 7/10 Impact Play 7/10 Mirror, Mirror 9/10 Reach 8,75/10 Gospodar 6/10 Scissors 9/10 The Temple of Horror 8/10 - rollercoaster of a story, beautifully written, it felt both foreign and horrifying and comforting and familiar, it's truly giving the horror of your first queer situationship The Voyeurs 8/10 - it was good but for the second time reading this book i find myself thinking "Where is the kink?" and having to come to the conclusion that it's only in here bc the story is about trans people which is absolutely confusing to me. We aren't a kink?? bro come on. Good story tho, painful and raw and true i can very much relate Emotional Technologies 7/10 - nice readdoubleyou'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
motnaty's review against another edition
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Homophobia, Sexual violence, and Violence
rosalind's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Emotional abuse, and Cursing
starwitness's review against another edition
Started off steamy but then it was like three or four cis hetero stories in a row that left me feeling uninspired and bored :( I wanted this to be more gender expansive inclusive - maybe try to pick it up again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Drug use, Rape, Sexual content, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, and Cursing
sakisreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
I really wanted to like this short story collection more than I did 🥲 Unfortunately I wasn’t gripped. However, I have highlighted the ones I did like below:
‘Oh, Youth’ got me in my feelings 🥺 I can imagine it’s hard to navigate a three person relationship, especially when with one of the members it’s meant to be strictly transactional…
‘Mirror, Mirror’ was quite fun. There was a lot of excitement from the get go, which I really got into ✨
‘The Voyeurs’ was probably my favourite. Although harrowing in some aspects, what with Mr. Harris being a transphobic prick 😫, I felt real intimacy and love between Belèn and Omar ❤️ I wanted to give them both big hugs!
2.5 out of 5 stars for me on this one ✨ Content warnings also posted below.
Thank you 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Blood
archiveofrasa's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Honestly, this read was to see how explicit content differs from fanfiction and original work. Only really liked 4 stories, (by Larissa Pham, R. O. Kwon, Brandon Taylor and Carmen Maria Machado, but Kim Fu's Scissors was nice too.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Incest
wngwendy's review against another edition
2.5
some stories are amazing, and some of them fell very flat.
Read the tw's before starting this books!
Read the tw's before starting this books!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Rape
Moderate: Blood
tbagherlee's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
I wanted more from this book - maybe a collection of short stories isn’t for me because it’s such a mixed bag. There were a few I liked - The Cure, Reach, Voyeurs - but overall I was getting the feeling that some nuance was missing, and the literary elements of some of the stories made it difficult to understand what was going on. I did like how queer it was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Transphobia, Rape, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
violetends's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Check Content Warnings before reading this review or this book!
I have a full bag of mixed feelings about this, ufff. First of all, I have been active in kink and kink communities for a while now and consider many of the people I have met in these contexts or ventured into them with, as my found family. Therefore, I do consider myself to have some knowledge and experience on the overall topic of kink, even though it is obviously a very very broad field in which many experiences can be made that are vastly different.
There were some stories I enjoyed a lot. "The Voyeurs" for instance, was a great albeit painful narrative about being othered as a trans person and craving the care and closeness of loved ones. And the reocurring use of 'being looked at' at a theme, chef's kiss!
However, a majority of stories shows kink as something that lacks consent and consideration, care and empathy and just general kindness for the people engaging with each other. Foundational kink practices like aftercare, safewords or negotiation talks were pretty much missing from all of the stories. Several of the stories even contained scenes in which a dominant partner intentionally crossed boundaries to play with their partner or 'challenge' them. Characters were oftentimes rude, inconsiderate or outright violent to each other and I got the feeling that the authors mostly perceived kink as something that goes along with bad communication and boundaries as well as a heightened possibility for interpersonal violence.
Naturally, there will be people who practice kink in these ways. And in my opinion its important to also portray characters whose struggles transfer to the way they show up to kinky situations with their partners. However, I find it to be insensitive (at best) to show kink in this continously unfriendly light. People who have not had contact with kinky communities and individuals who value communication, the well-being and joy of everyone involved and consent, might just find a whole lot of stereotypes reinforced. And that makes me so so angry and so so sad.
Lastly, one story made me so angry that I briefly wanted to throw the book against a wall. (CW for r*pe going forward.)
I have a full bag of mixed feelings about this, ufff. First of all, I have been active in kink and kink communities for a while now and consider many of the people I have met in these contexts or ventured into them with, as my found family. Therefore, I do consider myself to have some knowledge and experience on the overall topic of kink, even though it is obviously a very very broad field in which many experiences can be made that are vastly different.
There were some stories I enjoyed a lot. "The Voyeurs" for instance, was a great albeit painful narrative about being othered as a trans person and craving the care and closeness of loved ones. And the reocurring use of 'being looked at' at a theme, chef's kiss!
However, a majority of stories shows kink as something that lacks consent and consideration, care and empathy and just general kindness for the people engaging with each other. Foundational kink practices like aftercare, safewords or negotiation talks were pretty much missing from all of the stories. Several of the stories even contained scenes in which a dominant partner intentionally crossed boundaries to play with their partner or 'challenge' them. Characters were oftentimes rude, inconsiderate or outright violent to each other and I got the feeling that the authors mostly perceived kink as something that goes along with bad communication and boundaries as well as a heightened possibility for interpersonal violence.
Naturally, there will be people who practice kink in these ways. And in my opinion its important to also portray characters whose struggles transfer to the way they show up to kinky situations with their partners. However, I find it to be insensitive (at best) to show kink in this continously unfriendly light. People who have not had contact with kinky communities and individuals who value communication, the well-being and joy of everyone involved and consent, might just find a whole lot of stereotypes reinforced. And that makes me so so angry and so so sad.
Lastly, one story made me so angry that I briefly wanted to throw the book against a wall. (CW for r*pe going forward.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racism, Sexual content, Rape, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Body horror