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riversnowdrop's review against another edition
Oof. Okay. As with any short story collection with multiple authors, it’s hard to rate this. Some were dull, some were written well, but my overall feeling is this book kind of was a let down and not very kinky at all? Kink here only seems to mean bdsm and also a (personally for me) gross obsession with spitting.
There is one story I have a massive issue with though, which was ‘Impact Play’. I wrote a whole rant about that immediately after reading, which I will now include (it’s long):
Fuck the story ‘Impact Play’ and the lack of trigger warning for ~actual~ incest: yeah, no, children engaging in sexual acts, veering into child on child sexual abuse*, is not kink - idfc how you frame it! This story is not told in a responsible way at all: having the incest be a “surprise twist” reveal moment. Fucking gross and, like I said, wildly irresponsible. There is a way to talk about incest alongside kink but god that is not it. I guess the real sin is, as well as being offensive, it’s not even hot! Like, write a kinky adult incest story, sure! Or, write a story of someone experiencing this as a child who then goes on to roleplay the abuse in adult life with partners! The key thing is the sexualising happens to the adults, not the kids. It’s made me so angry how wrong they’ve got this; not just as a victim myself, but as a sex-positive person who embraces the overlaps between trauma and kink and fetish! It’s maddening! Furthermore, the framing of this story further entrenches shame and secrecy, it does not free the main character from it.
*correcting myself: it’s not veering, it literally is. According to sex educators who discuss guidelines on what is/isn’t appropriate sexual behaviour for children at different stages, the acts that were depicted in this book fall under the category of ‘red behaviours’, and even though they are “consenting” (a word that loses all meaning in this context), this is concerning, as in real life this would probably indicate outside, wider abuse is happening that has led the children to these particular sex acts. It is harmful that the author implies that this is part of natural curiosity, or ‘green behaviour’, when all educational resources would label it otherwise.
There is one story I have a massive issue with though, which was ‘Impact Play’. I wrote a whole rant about that immediately after reading, which I will now include (it’s long):
Fuck the story ‘Impact Play’ and the lack of trigger warning for ~actual~ incest: yeah, no, children engaging in sexual acts, veering into child on child sexual abuse*, is not kink - idfc how you frame it! This story is not told in a responsible way at all: having the incest be a “surprise twist” reveal moment. Fucking gross and, like I said, wildly irresponsible. There is a way to talk about incest alongside kink but god that is not it. I guess the real sin is, as well as being offensive, it’s not even hot! Like, write a kinky adult incest story, sure! Or, write a story of someone experiencing this as a child who then goes on to roleplay the abuse in adult life with partners! The key thing is the sexualising happens to the adults, not the kids. It’s made me so angry how wrong they’ve got this; not just as a victim myself, but as a sex-positive person who embraces the overlaps between trauma and kink and fetish! It’s maddening! Furthermore, the framing of this story further entrenches shame and secrecy, it does not free the main character from it.
*correcting myself: it’s not veering, it literally is. According to sex educators who discuss guidelines on what is/isn’t appropriate sexual behaviour for children at different stages, the acts that were depicted in this book fall under the category of ‘red behaviours’, and even though they are “consenting” (a word that loses all meaning in this context), this is concerning, as in real life this would probably indicate outside, wider abuse is happening that has led the children to these particular sex acts. It is harmful that the author implies that this is part of natural curiosity, or ‘green behaviour’, when all educational resources would label it otherwise.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Incest
dil's review against another edition
2.0
I was drawn to this book because Garth Greenwell was one of the co-editors, but I was disappointed with the stories. Although ethnicities, races, gender identities and sexualities of all types are represented, nearly all stories take kink to mean BDSM, which was a letdown and, frankly, quite boring after a while. And there is only so much spitting in mouths that I can take.
The standouts for me were "Oh Youth" by Brandon Taylor, "The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of The Temple of Horror” by Carmen Maria Machado, and "The Voyeurs" by Zeyn Joukhadar. "Gospodar" by Garth Greenwell is amazing, but I already knew it from "Cleanness".
The standouts for me were "Oh Youth" by Brandon Taylor, "The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of The Temple of Horror” by Carmen Maria Machado, and "The Voyeurs" by Zeyn Joukhadar. "Gospodar" by Garth Greenwell is amazing, but I already knew it from "Cleanness".
cowgirlcrybaby's review against another edition
3.0
2.75⭐️? very mixed bag as expected for multiple authors and short stories in general but the misses in this were pretty major….. started off pretty strong imo, enjoyed the cathartic meditations on sex-centric slices of life but after the first half the expected underlying themes of shame and dissatisfaction grew really tiresome — was hoping for a broader range/perspective on the subject perhaps. did really enjoy “oh youth” by brandon taylor and “scissors” by kim fu. overall, kinda disappointing but did have its moments
martyrcore's review against another edition
2.0
i felt like most of this was just badly written porn, but i Loved these two stories: 1) oh, youth by brandon taylor was amazing, made me feel so many things 2) canada by callum angus – beautiful language, interestingly constructed.