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A review by jackiehorne
Lingus by Mariana Zapata
1.0
I was intrigued by this book's premise: a male porn star developing a friendship with a woman outside the industry, a relationship that gradually moves from friendship to romance. But the story had both a lot of head-scratching logic holes as well as major dollops of misogyny and sex-shaming. Not to mention its hypocritical attitude towards pornography...
The usual Zapata slow-burn romance could have been really interesting, given Tristan's work in the porn industry—perhaps he has trouble being sexual outside of that setting? Perhaps he wanted affection out of a girlfriend more than he wanted sex? Perhaps he was tired of being thought of ONLY as a sexual being? But we never get any real exploration of why Tristan delays moving from kissing to intercourse once he and Kat move from friends-only to romantic partners.
We also never get a sense of why Tristan took on porn work in the first place. He seems well-off financially (with an inheritance from his grandmother), owns a house, and is attending law school, so money doesn't seem to be the reason—or were the mentions of going to, then abandoning, medical school and choosing law instead supposed to suggest to readers that Tristan was in debt? We don't get a sense of whether Tristan liked or enjoyed the work, found it demeaning, or was pretty indifferent to it, either. He always shys away from the topic whenever Kat brings it up, and Kat, who has decidedly mixed feelings about the industry (despite her own personal enjoyment of porn, and her best friend's participation in the industry itself), never pushes him on it. Kat's ambivalence might have been interesting to explore, too, but there's no character art for Kat in this regard (or in any other regard, either). Unfortunately, the narrative seems to share Kat's half-fascination/half-disgust with porn, and is not interested in or willing to really explore the implications of either.
I would not recommend this story.
The usual Zapata slow-burn romance could have been really interesting, given Tristan's work in the porn industry—perhaps he has trouble being sexual outside of that setting? Perhaps he wanted affection out of a girlfriend more than he wanted sex? Perhaps he was tired of being thought of ONLY as a sexual being? But we never get any real exploration of why Tristan delays moving from kissing to intercourse once he and Kat move from friends-only to romantic partners.
We also never get a sense of why Tristan took on porn work in the first place. He seems well-off financially (with an inheritance from his grandmother), owns a house, and is attending law school, so money doesn't seem to be the reason—or were the mentions of going to, then abandoning, medical school and choosing law instead supposed to suggest to readers that Tristan was in debt? We don't get a sense of whether Tristan liked or enjoyed the work, found it demeaning, or was pretty indifferent to it, either. He always shys away from the topic whenever Kat brings it up, and Kat, who has decidedly mixed feelings about the industry (despite her own personal enjoyment of porn, and her best friend's participation in the industry itself), never pushes him on it. Kat's ambivalence might have been interesting to explore, too, but there's no character art for Kat in this regard (or in any other regard, either). Unfortunately, the narrative seems to share Kat's half-fascination/half-disgust with porn, and is not interested in or willing to really explore the implications of either.
I would not recommend this story.