A review by couldbestephen
Shiver by Crea Reitan

1.0

               “Men Writing Women” is well documented and discussed online. Now let’s discuss “Women Writing Men.” Particularly, “Women Writing Gay Men.” Because wow, if I read another line about how a penis was sentient and apparently thought for itself, I was going to throw my Kindle. As a gay man, Crea Reitan’s first venture into MM “romance” makes me incredibly uncomfortable due to the clear fetishization of an entire marginalized community and the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes and tropes. I do not recommend this book and would encourage readers to stay away from this author. Spoilers below. 

                This book isn’t poorly written per se, but it doesn’t stand out as anything special. It follows the “rules” of the genre to deliver a run-of-the-mill story. It’s erotic fiction with hockey. You have all the standard tropes, toxic romance, and “satisfying” endings you could want. But as a queer book? It’s evident the author only sees gay men as vehicles for her sexual fantasies and is writing for other straight women who also don’t think of us as more than masturbation material. In today’s climate, writing like this and then getting mad at queer men for calling you out is a bold choice. 

Even though the author follows several gay (at least queer presenting) OnlyFans models on Twitter, it’s clear she doesn’t interact with the gay community in any significant way, because any gay AMAB person could tell you that we can’t just have spontaneous sex for hours, days, weeks at a time, especially after eating meals that can mess up the gut. Unless one partner is a trans individual with an AFAB body, it’s just not happening. I don’t care if it breaks romantic/sexual immersion to have a character run to the bathroom for a half hour before engaging in sex, it’s gotta happen. There’s a lot more problems with the “representation” of queer people that we will get to soon. 

Rakesh is a gay man of color who preys on straight men for sex. In the first few pages, we learn how he is a rampant misogynist (he spends time judging women’s bodies to determine if they are conventionally attractive) and a predator of men he finds attractive (mostly straight men). “I want to corrupt the world, one straight man at a time…” (pg 103). He doesn’t like sleeping with other gay men because they are “too easy” and he likes a challenge. The only other gay man in the story is a guy who also likes to sleep around. There is no other mention of queer culture or people. Enter Egon, a college hockey player who needs a tutor to help him pass his classes to stay on the hockey team. Rakesh reluctantly helps and starts to fall for the grey-eyed, innocent Egon. Yes, this story is about a gay man of color preying on a straight, white man. 

Egon’s girlfriend is constantly cheating on him and when Egon finds out, he is driven into Rakesh’s arms and the story rushes forward from there. Reitan uses incredibly misogynistic writing to describe most of the women in this work, particularly this girlfriend. She is an aggressive person with no boundaries who likes to grope men (much like Reitan herself when she decided to step into MM romance). The first time Egon and Rakesh have penetrative sex, there is no prep, Rakesh basically fists him, and then they have sex. Reitan writes these sex scenes like Rakesh was a straight man and Egon is a straight cis woman. This isn’t gay, this is a straight person’s interpretation of gay sex, and it’s bad. As the story progresses, the two become incredibly codependent on each other. We get to witness a toxic relationship that will eventually be rewarded. Rakesh realizes he’s fallen for Egon and cuts him off. Egon falls into a deep depression and needs to be hospitalized. The two do end up together again and by the end of the book, elope. Tada. 

Most mm romance (i.e. erotic fiction) is written by and for straight, cis women. That is a problem. Queer stories and themes are being poorly represented by these authors and other women who read this will internalize it. It also leads to women fetishizing gay men. We have a problem with straight women going to gay bars, invading gay spaces and assaulting us. Reitan wrote a work where you could substitute Egon with a woman, and it would still work. I don’t care if tropes and generalization are what makes this genre work. If you are going to write outside your experience, you fucking do it right. Works like this, works that perpetuate harmful stereotypes and don’t accurately address the queer experience? We don’t appreciate them. Our lives are not for your consumption. 

This author clearly doesn’t care about input from queer men, as seen by her behavior on TikTok and how in her acknowledgments, only women, no men, are thanked. Stay away from Crea Reitan.