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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
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence
Moderate: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape
adventurous
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
I absolutely loved some stories (specifically Alexander Chee, Callum Angus, Roxanne Gay, Carmen Maria Machado, Melissa Febos, and Kim Fu) and the others I absolutely did not like (basically all others I didn’t list). I simply do! not! care! about how a cishet man relates to kink!!! Also, someone needs to get Brandon Taylor to therapy!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Kink is an anthology and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I over its take on desire, sex, queer and trans love, and shameless sex. There were stories I wished were longer and stories I could’ve done without. I would preface this book with a couple trigger warnings: r*pe, s*xual assault, and transphobia. The stories get a little rocky at times and I don’t remember a single story ending on a happy note, which isn’t a bad thing for me, I tend to lean toward depressing reads. The compilation of writers for this novel was amazing and the styles of writing differed in the most interesting ways. Each story felt like it’s own but there felt like a common thread that grounded them all. I would reread a few of these stories in the future for sure! I’m interested in coming back to it later to examine how it ages and how I’ve changed with it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Death of parent
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book has fantastic representation of the LGBTIQ+ community. Unfortunately that’s where the positives end.
Although the stories were written by different authors, there was not one writing style I enjoyed. The title is “Kink” so I expected more… we’ll… kink. There’d be mentions of it and then we’d be moving on to a different time/place/person and nothing really got explored. There were also some dangerously misleading statements in multiple stories, and although it’s a work of fiction, it’s at times written in a way that implies you can take it to the real world.
Although the stories were written by different authors, there was not one writing style I enjoyed. The title is “Kink” so I expected more… we’ll… kink. There’d be mentions of it and then we’d be moving on to a different time/place/person and nothing really got explored. There were also some dangerously misleading statements in multiple stories, and although it’s a work of fiction, it’s at times written in a way that implies you can take it to the real world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence
Moderate: Violence
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
According to to the blurb 'Kink' is an anthology of literary short fiction based on love, desire, BDSM, and sexual kinks in all their glory with a bold new vision. This book is brimming with heavy hitting well known and accomplished authors so I was really excitied to read something fresh and enthralling. Unfortunately in this case the more well known authors sections were the ones that fell flat and lacked development. Yes, they look at various aspects within the kink world. However, disappointingly, do so at a very basic and dare I say it vanilla level.
There are some absolute gems there and I particularly enjoyed the pieces by Carmen Maria Machado, Brandon Taylor, Larissa Pham, Peter Mounford and R.O. Kwon. Overall this is a decent read, however I feel would have been much improved by showcasing perhaps lesser known authors who have a deeper understanding of the world and how to convey it rather than just going with the well known heavy hitters.
There are some absolute gems there and I particularly enjoyed the pieces by Carmen Maria Machado, Brandon Taylor, Larissa Pham, Peter Mounford and R.O. Kwon. Overall this is a decent read, however I feel would have been much improved by showcasing perhaps lesser known authors who have a deeper understanding of the world and how to convey it rather than just going with the well known heavy hitters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Blood
dark
emotional
relaxing
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Body shaming, Deadnaming, Incest, Infidelity, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Homophobia, Physical abuse