If you are looking for erotica this is NOT it. There are a couple of stories that might tick the box but most won't.

What I did like about this collection of stories was the diversity of relationships and the exploration of trans bodies in some of the stories but as a collection it mostly left me cold.

Of the 15 stories there are about 4 that are good. 2 of them excellent. The rest I can't even remember in any detail and some of them are actively terrible. They are boring and nothing really happens. Also I actually think this book should come with a content warning and one of the stories involves a fairly unpleasant rape. In a day when consent is such an important topic writing a story with dubious consent that turns into rape and wrapping it up as some sort of kink is not OK in my opinion.

I have been writing erotica for over 10 years now and am published in a number of anthologies. All of which in my opinion are better than this collection of pretentious high brow fluff that is mostly dull beyond belief.

I was provided with a free ebook copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for a review. Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the authors.

This book is a collection of short stories centres around kink. The aim is to highlight kink as something that is a part of someone's life that is an intrinsic and complex part of who they are, rather than something weird that is to be mocked.

Overall, I enjoyed this and would rate it as a three-star read because some of the stories were great and some of them really didn't do it for me. The ones that I did enjoy were really captivating and eloquent. The authors do a great job of building suspense, there were several stories that had me holding my breath. For the stories that I didn't enjoy, I was mostly just confused.

Also worth mentioning that one of these short stories contains a rape with no trigger warning. It may be naive of me, but I thought in a book discussing kinks, everything would be consensual. You may wish to skip Gareth Greenwell's story if that is something you would rather avoid reading about.

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.

I have read a lot of literary erotic fiction and I’m also a big fan of several authors in this collection, so I couldn’t wait to delve into this. Short story collections are always relatively uneven but I found Kink to be a stronger collection than most. As other reviewers have commented, not all of the stories were ‘kinky’ (although the term is of course subjective) and not all of them were sexually explicit. If you’re picturing the Mammoth Book of Kinky Stories etc then this is probably not the collection for you!

However, I greatly enjoyed the stories by authors I was familiar with (The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror by Carmen Maria Machado, Oh, Youth by Brandon Taylor) as well as quite a few by authors I was previously unfamiliar with (Safeword by RO Kwon, Scissors by Kim Fu, The Voyeurs by Zeyn Joukhadar). Overall this diverse collection is well worth your time.

As with all anthologies Kink provides a mixed bag of short stories.

For me the inclusivity and normalisation of queer stories and bodies was a highlight of the collection, but did find the lean towards BDSM to become a little predictable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I unfortunately dnfed this book at around 50%.
This was my first experience reading an anthology and whilst I enjoyed several elements of this book, there were others that I really didn't enjoy... and I was expecting that.

What I did love about this book, was the discussion of kink and desire and how these things are empowering and often shamed. I also really loved the diversity between the characters and the LGBTQ+ element! Sexual empowerment is something I am extremely passionate about, so I was really expecting to adore this anthology however it just wasn't for me at the time that I read it. I do definitely recommend it for those that are intrigued!

I was intrigued by the idea this but it left me cold.

I've tried to write a proper review and it's stumped me. Apologies.

This is a provocative and racy look at the topic of Kink. I found all the expressions of kink and the spectrum of characters and their relationships to kink so refreshing and liberating. This is a bold collection with contributions from some world class writers such as Roxane Gay, Carmen Maria Machado and Brandon Taylor as well as the editors themselves. My only caveat is that there was too much spit play in some of the stories. But that is my personal preference as I have a very low squeamish tolerance for anything to do with spit!

But really this collection was so powerful. It was creative and uninhibited and really explored kink and it’s misconceptions and it’s cultural and social and psychological roots and it’s many expressions some ugly, some passionate in such cutting edge, compelling short stories. I would recommend this to everyone. This is a collection that needs to be shared. We are living in 2021, we need to see this part of people’s sense of self and identity represented in our literature.

Thank you to the editors R. O Kwon and Garth Greenwell, Simon & Schuster UK and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

I like Garth Greenwell, and the Roxane Gay story was also a big draw to this book for me. There's a real diversity in this book in terms of gender and sexuality, the majority of the stories are queer and the inclusion of trans and intersex stories in a non-sensationalist manner was great. I'm not sure it's as diverse in its exploration of kink, the vast majority featured sub-dom pairs and I think our understanding goes beyond that today. There was a good balance of literary and erotic elements in most cases, the Chris Kraus is a rare failure in becoming too experimental to make for enjoyable reading. The Garth Greenwell story is great. I don't mind that many of the stories had been published elsewhere previously, but some might.

Whoa..was this a collection of stories!
I am quite speechless after reading this, but I must say a magnificent discovery to sexual desire and many forms of kink - from BDSM to extreme submissive-dominant relationships. Besides this I discovered many new authors, who I will be definitely following in the future and also many I have really enjoyed reading in the past. Of course in a collection there are some stories that resonate with the reader more and some less (I was a fan of Brandon Taylor's story), however in this one most of them were amazing reads! I think this is such a great collection, I am so glad it is out in the world and sexual desire is put on the forefront!

Intelligent and intriguing, this collection of short stories really attracted me from the get go. There are lots of different tones in the book as is with most collections of stories. There were some I enjoyed more than others and different levels of sexual vocabulary and kink throughout. A great read for anyone who enjoys BDSM and other kinks or is just curious to read what it entails within a story setting

"But then there’s no fathoming pleasure, the forms it takes or their sources, nothing we can imagine is beyond it; however far beyond the pale of our own desires, for someone it is the intensest desire, the key to the latch of the self, or the promised key, a key that perhaps never turns". This quote from Garth Greenwell's story Gospodar, I think really gets to the gist of this brilliant collection.
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Kink is an extraordinary anthology of literary short fiction that explores love and desire, BDSM and other sexual manifestations. I think the choice of title is brilliant and extremely suitable, and although the focus is on sex, the core of the stories deals with relationships and personal journeys of discovery. This is all to say that although a few of the stories go into graphic details, nothing ever feels vulgar. Rather, I got invested in the characters and digging deep to understand what's triggered their particular desire in the way that is being shown, as the writing clearly demonstrates a preoccupation with the underlying psychology of desire. ⁠
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Quite a few stories deal with BDSM and the power play behind it, but the feeling I extracted from all the stories is one of vulnerability. Which makes total sense, since our sexuality is inevitably linked to vulnerability. We're both weak and sometimes prey to irrepressible attractions. ⁠
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There's a good array of representation of gender and sexual orientation, time and location. Carmen Maria Machado's story which is a tour de force is set in Paris, probably in the 1920s or so, and I'm told will appear in her forthcoming short story collection. Garth Greenwell's story Gospodar, one of my favourites, is set in Bulgaria and it's contained in his novel Cleanness, which I'm currently reading. ⁠
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Chris Krauss's story Emotional Technologies was a perfect choice to close the anthology. Written 20 years ago, it's an autobiographical piece that mixes in fiction with theory in classic Chris Krauss style, which I know is not everybody's cup of tea, but I personally loved it. ⁠

Other favourites from the collection and authors I'd like to explore further include: The Voyeurs by Zeyn Joukhadar, Oh Youth by Brandon Taylor, Safeword by R.O. Kwon, and Scissors by Kim Fu⁠.

I can't recommend this anthology enough, both for the important themes it tackles and the impeccable writing it contains.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for my advanced digital copy.

Kink is an exceptional short story collection that explores kinks and sexuality in many different ways.
From the more "hardcore" types of Kink, to the softer kinds of kink, this book covers it all.
I don't usually read short story collections, so this is something very new to me, but I did love it all the same.
Some of the stories I enjoyed more than the others, as they really stuck with me.
The ones I consider unmissable, and make this book worth exploring are:
"The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror" by Carmen Maria Machado
"Trust" by Larissa Pham
"Safeword" by R.O. Kwon
"Reach" by Roxane Gay
"Canada" by Callum Angus
"Impact Play" by Peter Mounford
"Oh, Youth" by Brandon Taylor

Overall I really recommend picking this book up, even if short stories aren't your thing!

Kink is an anthology of stories that are rich in imagery. They are erotic, dark and delve into the deepest realms of the human psyche. They are written with intelligence and will give a sense of connection - to the open minded at least. As one of the stories states, 'we are never as solitary as we think'. There is no doubt this is not a book that will appeal to everyone, but for those who long for a more complex form of erotica, Kink will satisfy.

Kink is a short story collection that explores love, desire and all of the diversities that come within it. It explores sadomasochism, bondage, power play and anything else you might be able to think of.

As with all anthologies I have read in the past, it was a mixed bag for me, there were some I didn't like, which felt rushed and straight to the point without really delving into the characters. They missed the mark on the literary side for me, but others were so well written and engaging. The stories I tended to enjoy more were the ones that normalized the kinks without it having to be coupled with a negativity around it.

The stories I enjoyed most were Oh, Youth by Brandon Taylor, Safeword by R.O.Kwon, and Impact Play by Peter Mountford, they were the stars of the show for me.

It isn't an anthology for the faint of heart, but will give you an opportunity to learn about the lives and intricacies of some of the kink community, if it is something you have an interest in gaining insight into.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me a copy of this book in exchange of an honest review.

Despite the long list of impressive authors contributing to this book and the provocative subject matter, I was left disappointed. Unfortunately this wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted to be shocked and intrigued and maybe even disgusted but I just wasn't.
As always some stories were better than others and I think my favourite was a:Chris Kraus’s and :Carmen Maria Machado was definitely interesting. The others didn't stand out to me and almost blended together.

As it usually happens with short story collections "Kink" is too mixed; some felt redudant and some absolutely intiguing.

I was originally drawn to this for the list of incredible authors – Roxane Gay, Alexander Chee, Carmen Maria Machado and more all in one collection? I couldn't resist and it didn't disappoint.

Of course, as with any collection I preferred some stories over others but the standard is high throughout. It also does a great job of showing some of the variety of what 'kink' can mean. That it's not just one homogeneous thing but a thing that people experience and practice in a vast range of different ways. Not only that, but it's also deeply personal and incites different responses and feelings in people.

This collection won't be for everyone but I'm certain it holds words for many and I hope people won't be turned off the title. It's awash with great storytelling, refreshingly diverse, and changes in tone from piece to piece meaning a lot of people will find one that lands with them. Definitely would recommend to anyone who's interested in sexual/relationship dynamics, not just people who would explicitly say they're into kink. As this collection shows, there's no one way to be into it anyway.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster UK for the ARC.

Very open, an honest book containing stories from people from around the world in all different areas and situations. A perfect read with a glass of wine, one to share with your girl/guy friends on a Friday night wine/cocktail night.

4 stars rounded up! [3.66 if you want to be exact]

I loved reading this anthology. Yes, some stories were less successful for me, but I was genuinely bummed when I got to the Acknowledgements section. At under 300 pages, Kink is just long enough to explore how bottomless the subject is and how it transforms depending on who’s looking and where they’re standing.

My all-around favourites were Brandon Taylor’s ‘Oh, Youth’, Carmen Maria Machado’s ‘The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror’ and Chris Kraus’ ‘Emotional Technologies’. The first two weren’t really a surprise as they seem to be a lot of people’s favourites. Taylor does the aesthetics of loneliness so well, it’s painfully lovely. He writes desire and WASPs like no other and every one of his scenes could be a painting.

Machado’s story is exactly what it says it is: over the top, dramatic and Fun. The writing is lush and endlessly quotable and the set building of interbellum Paris overwhelms in a good way. If Machado explores the theatricality of eroticism through an actual theatre [Kim Fu’s ‘Scissors’ is another perspective on this], Kraus comes out and point-blank compares BDSM to commedia dell’arte. Her story looks more like a piece of cultural criticism and that really worked for me. I’ve never read anything of hers before and I’m glad I have a bunch of stuff to discover.

Related, another new to me author is Callum Angus. His story ‘Canada’ was the only one that actually made me cry. His prose is poetic and very light. I want to read everything he’s ever written or going to write. Melissa Febos takes you by the throat and shakes you in ‘The Cure’. Having it be the opening story was a very clever editorial choice.

‘Trust’ by Larissa Pham, ‘The Voyeurs’ by Zeyn Joukhadar and ‘Mirror, Mirror’ by Vanessa Clark were also up there for me. The rest, I found either to be a bit emotionless or that I needed something more from them.

I hope that R. O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell team up again for future projects because I really enjoyed myself.