The stories were interesting but I didn't find any of the characters likeable & it was too disjointed. I couldn't get lost or invested in any of the stories.

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

Kink is an interesting anthology of stories highlighting the differing spectrum of sex and the myriad of peccadillos on that spectrum. Each story in this collection is interesting and quirky and hopefully through these stories the spectrum of sex will be understood a little bit better.

Kink is a filler book, one to be dipped in and out of between books

Kink by R. O. Kwan is available now.

For more information regarding Simon & Schuster (@SimonBooks) please visit www.simonandschuster.com.

I loved this collection - Carmen Maria Macho's piece was a particular standout, but it was great to see such a diverse selection of contributors. Brilliant.

YAS to sex-positive books on my bookshelves. R.O Kwon is an icon and her bringing the bloody amazing voices together in this collection just proves it.

I requested this just so I could read the stories by Carmen Maria Machado and Brandon Taylor.

All of Taylor’s work feels of a piece, such that his various characters might be rubbing shoulders at a party – which is appropriate because the centrepiece of Real Life is an excruciating dinner party, Filthy Animals opens at a potluck, and “Oh, Youth” is set at a dinner party. Grisha is here with Enid and Victor, his latest summer couple. He’s been a boytoy for hire since his architecture professor, Nate, surprised him by inviting him into his open marriage with Brigid. “His life at the time was a series of minor discomforts that accumulated like grit in a socket until rotation was no longer possible.” The liaisons are a way to fund a more luxurious lifestyle and keep himself in cigarettes. While Real Life brought to mind Virginia Woolf, Taylor’s stories recall E.M. Forster or Thomas Mann. In other words, he’s the real deal: a blazing talent, here to stay.

Carmen Maria Machado’s “The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror” opens “I would never forget the night I saw Maxa decompose before me.” A seamstress, obsessed with an actress, becomes her dresser. Set in the 19th-century Parisian theatre world, this pairs queer desire and early special effects and is over-the-top sensual in the vein of Angela Carter, with hints of the sadomasochism that got it a place here.

What’s one person’s kink it’s another person's nightmare. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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A collection of short stories that set out to use literature to explore a wide variety of kink and to remove shame and ludicrous depictions, to empower and explore consent and breaking of consent… that was the mission the editors of this book set themselves and I don’t think it was successful overall. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Don’t get me wrong, some of the stories in there were brilliant, such are anthologies, you have some brilliant stories and some stories that won’t work for you as the reader. However, I am not quite sure of the editors achieved their own ambition really, at least to me, I don’t think all of the stories meet their own requirements. But maybe I am just missing something. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Also be warned, as the nature of this book implies: the narratives go dark. So if you have any triggers, don’t even go near it.

I enjoyed this book, but I dont think its one I will be recommending as I think its a very niche topic.

Don’t let the title of this book put you off. It’s not jut a collection of smut or another popular book about 50 that shall remain unnamed… This is short stories that delve into the intricacy of the sexual mind

This was a good, varied read. An interesting collection of stories all centred around sex, desire, identity, and relationships.

As with all collections, some stories left more of an impression than others. Standouts for me were ‘Trust’ by Larissa Pham, ‘Safeword’ by R.O. Kwon, ‘Oh, youth’ by Brandon Taylor, ‘Reach’ by Roxane Gay, and ‘Scissors’ by Kim Fu.

***Thanks to Simon and Schuster UK for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review

**spoiler alert** Disclaimer- I have only read 60% of this book. That was enough.
I received this book from Netgalley but hadn’t read it until an article by one of the editors appeared in The Guardian on 9th February 2021. I am saddened and honestly disturbed by how much it fails to deliver on the editors’ promises. The book is advertised as an antidote to romance novels and/or erotic novels that portray characters with kinks as mentally ill and unsafe, but more than one story features clear boundary-breaking and decidedly unsafe, non-consensual acts. I’m not talking about consensual non-consent, I’m talking about a man begging and struggling while his hookup tries to force him to have unwanted unprotected sex. In another story, a woman with unexplained physical scars tenses up and doesn’t speak to her partner for days after they perform oral sex on her- the partner knows she “hates” it, but continues because the woman “didn’t use her safeword”. That’s still not ok! Other stories are just...bleak. A guy spends his summer living with an older couple and having sex in exchange for money and career advancement; the wife throws him out when she thinks her husband is falling in love with him. A couple go away for a weekend, argue over food, and will probably break up when they get home. The story where a weedy white guy worships a Black trans woman felt like something R Crumb would draw on a cum-stained napkin. The editor claims that they wanted to represent kink beyond the 50 Shades billionaire/virgin dynamic. One story features the line “I proposed to her after a free jazz concert”, proving you don’t need to be a billionaire to be a pretentious piece of shit. There are queer couples in this book, but the only kinks that are represented are standard Dom/sub. There’s a lot of spitting directly into someone else’s mouth- it happens in 6 or 7 of the stories I read, so if that’s your kink, you might be happy here.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled by kink anthologies like
Smut Peddler, queer anthologies like All Out, queer, kinky comics like Sunstone and queer, kinky novels like A Seditious Affair. But this book reads like a token attempt by a literary publisher to appeal to people who say they hate stereotypes but are turned on by the same. The plots are depressing, the prose is sparse, the kink is minimal. Avoid.

A great collection of stories from
Some magnificent authors all about love, couples, relationships and sex and I enjoyed very much!

This isn't really what I thought it would be, but it is good all the same. It is definitely more literary fiction than erotica. The stories are all honest and unabashedly focused around kinks, but are presented in a more matter of fact fashion than the sensationalised manner of erotica. Sadly for me I found that made this whole book a bit lacking. It feels very 'grown up', and I love what this collection of stories is trying to do. BUT I didn't really enjoy them, I think I will stick to keeping my nitty gritty literature in a different realm to erotica in future.

five star read, loved loved loved it.

'Kink is a groundbreaking anthology of literary short fiction exploring love and desire, BDSM, and interests across the sexual spectrum, edited by lauded writers R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, and featuring a roster of all-star contributors including Alexander Chee, Roxane Gay, Carmen Maria Machado, and more.'

I was intrigued by the premise of this book, but for the most part, I had a hard time getting into the book and just didn’t connect with many of the stories and so haven't finished it. They're not badly written, it just wasn't for me.

Very mixed feelings on this one. The quality of the stories varies from good to extremely mediocre and it’s hard to provide an average piece of feedback that encompasses this collection. Some stories are captivating, well-written, interesting and deep. Some others sound arrogant, bland, petulant... overall the book is... fine. It did make me discover some good authors and for this I am thankful!

An interesting collection of stories. As with all anthologies, I think some are always going to be more or less to the readers' tastes (and perhaps even more so in an anthology about a subject so varied).
Personally, I enjoyed the majority of the stories here, though particularly those by Brandon Taylor (achingly sad and lovely), Carmen Maria Machado (brilliant) and Melissa Febos, whose narrator gains lyricism as she finds her confidence and satisfaction:
"She didn’t care. Her not caring was voluptuous, sensual. It was a most substantial absence. It filled her like a good meal. She had had enough."

An enjoyable and interesting compilation.

Some stories are excellent and some fall a bit flat for me but I suppose that’s the thing about Kink, different ideas work for different people.

Read if you want an easy insight in to Kink and not necessarily erotica.

Kink: Stories (edited by. R. O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell) aiming to explore the anatomy of desire, love and BDSM got me lured in. In the blurb it was presented as a ‘groundbreaking anthology’, featuring short stories by such brilliant authors as Roxane Gay, Brandon Taylor, Carmen Maria Machado, and more. While some stories were really great, in the end I didn’t find anything groundbreaking in this anthology – its vibes bring the collection closer to the good old erotica genre (hence, nothing new under the sun), so my expectations to read the profound analyses of the shadow aspects of the people who get allured by kink and the stigma around kink were not met. There were a few stories that captivated me though – Greenwell’s story Gospodar, challenging boundaries between BDSM and abuse gave me chills, while tumultuous Machado’s story The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror made me realize that no matter which subject Machado tackles, I would end up enamored by her writings. However, these standout stories couldn’t dispel my disappointment after finishing the anthology.

Kink is an avant-garde collection of short stories by various authors. The book is a quick, easy read, chronicling various ways in which kink plays a role in people's lives. The diversity of the relationships detailed and the inclusion of trans characters was a wonderful highlight of the book.

It is difficult to leave a detailed review about Kink because only a couple of the short stories left me feeling captivated and intrigued. Overall, the majority of the stories were not memorable and I did not feel much of a sense of interest to keep reading as I made my way through the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner UK for the ARC.