A review by objectlesson
The Sins of the Cities of the Plain: or, The Recollections of a Mary-Ann, with Short Essays on Sodomy and Tribadism by Jack Saul

dark funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Well this was absolutely fascinating. A series of essays and collected recollections of a Mary Ann, or young male Prostitute in Victorian London. Very very valuable piece of gay history, which was what I read it for, but it was also extremely and surprisingly sexy? There were moments of it I found genuinely erotic (hello Cow Udder girl!!) despite the absurdity. There were also parts of it that are dated/racist and others that weren’t my cup of tea—coercion for example—(pedastry, however…), but the entire thing was well Written and titillating and informative even if I wasn’t INTO it into it. I’ve been writing a lot of Victorian erotica so I wanted to see the language gay men were using at the time and I was not dissapointed on that front in the least. Incredibly informative, and also a brilliant insight into what criminalized sex looked like in a deeply repressed society. Goes to show that sometimes control and censorship lead to even more dramatic backswings in reaction, and by repressing sexuality publicaly, truly boundary-obliterating sex cultures flourish privately. Not for the faint of heart,  there’s every possible topic your average kid with pronouns on twitter would dox someone for in here. Pedophilia, bestiality, rape, caning, cross dressing, you name it. (Except scat and water sports! Curiously absent).