A review by poultrymunitions
Games Boys Play by Zoe X. Rider

2.0

incidental incendiaries.



it went like this:

the first 75 percent or so was top-drawer erotica concerned with kinks that do not even appeal to me but which were, nonetheless, unbelievably hot to read about.

the last 25 percent? an escandalo.



with the how-could-you and the slamming door and the truly unfortunate decision to

put someone in a hospital due to a motor vehicle accident for dramatic effect

.



i'm all, wheeeee!!! i'm having so much fun! i am horny, i am happy—



but then it all went to hell.



...quickly.



so i got really mad. but it wasn't until i began to write this review that i realized exactly why.

if it's just a poor editorial choice that has me so toasty right now, why am i the only one so upset out here?



well, it's like this:

that whole hullabaloo at the end was extremely unhelpful from a queer dude's perspective.

fuck what you heard, but

you can go straight to hell if you think anyone who grows up in a world where they can lose everything from their family to their life for finding beauty in the wrong genitals has to fucking apologize to you for keeping that a secret.

i'm not havin' it, friends.



at all.



and, but, so—the stuff before all that?

incinerated my junk.



so the experience of reading this book was a little confusing, y'see.

luckily—i'm a gay man! i have loads of practice navigating impossible binarie for which i am expected to apologize as if it were me who created them in the first place!



so this? the first 75-80 percent of it? it was terrific erotica.



a daring dance of balanced and exciting moves—but a dance that ends on the wrong foot.



you should stop reading after they have sex.



you should stop reading. after they have sex.



stop reading.



after they have sex.