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challenging
dark
fast-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Sexual harassment
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Blood, Lesbophobia, Abandonment
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent
Minor: Violence, Vomit
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 read
I have such conflicting feelings on this one. Many of the stories seemed to frame kink in a negative light or were straight up disturbing, but there was a handful that I found really beautiful. Quite a few of the stories left me thinking about them for quite some time. I was hoping for more joy and celebration of kink and sexuality in this collection—there is some, absolutely, but that felt more like the exception than the guiding theme. Having such different expectations and hopes of what my reading experience with this would be made this a bit of a disappointing read, but I’m still glad for having read it. Highly recommend looking at the content warnings for this one though, a few of them really caught me off guard.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest, Rape
Moderate: Death, Transphobia
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
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: Body horror, Death, Homophobia, Incest, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Blood, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail