Scan barcode
elenajohansen's review
4.0
A collection of polished but eclectic stories about sex. How much you "like" these may vary wildly based on what kinks you enjoy reading about, but even when the story's Thing was not necessarily my Thing, I appreciated that these were well-constructed and vivid little pieces of fiction--I'm tired of reading short "stories" that are really just overblown scenes that have no point, no direction, no closure.
As a collection, though, I feel that a few of them felt out of place with the others, aberrations of tone or genre--in particular, the tale of a dream "machine" that had a Victorian fantasy vibe that was unique among all the stories. Maybe I'm biased because I didn't like that one nearly as much as some of the others, but I did question why it was included.
Since I just came to this from one of Stein's novellas, I'm actually impressed by the difference in the quality of the writing--everything felt smoother and more purposeful. Maybe I just had a slightly lackluster title as my first, or maybe she's just better at crafting short stories than novels or novellas. I have another novel of hers on my TBR from ages ago, based on a recommendation, so I'm definitely interested in reading more.
As a collection, though, I feel that a few of them felt out of place with the others, aberrations of tone or genre--in particular, the tale of a dream "machine" that had a Victorian fantasy vibe that was unique among all the stories. Maybe I'm biased because I didn't like that one nearly as much as some of the others, but I did question why it was included.
Since I just came to this from one of Stein's novellas, I'm actually impressed by the difference in the quality of the writing--everything felt smoother and more purposeful. Maybe I just had a slightly lackluster title as my first, or maybe she's just better at crafting short stories than novels or novellas. I have another novel of hers on my TBR from ages ago, based on a recommendation, so I'm definitely interested in reading more.
More...