The stories told in this book are all uniquely their own. I enjoyed each one as it open up discussion that I did not know I needed to have with myself. I think this is a good place to start for people exploring their kinks and the erase the stigma and the giggles we might hide behind when we bring vanilla sex. There are some stories that were stronger than others and stories that kept characters nameless to help the reader understand that kink can be for anyone to explore. The work did let me meet new authors that I will be stalking goodreads to find skim through their backlist which is always a plus, Needless to say when we can start safely dating this book will be required reading material for date night (jk but not really)

***eArc provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review.***

It's not wrong to say that Kink: Stories is dynamic and interesting. The types of sexuality, and sensuality, explored across its pages is vast. Some of them fun and sexy, some heartbreaking, and some as fantastical as they are sexual.

However, I feel as though Kink: Stories suffers from the unevenness that I feel like I expect going into an anthology. There are a few stories that completely floored me, and I'm excited to read more from those authors, but there are some that just didn't work for me. Certainly, they might work for somebody, it just wasn't me.

And that's something I think is great about this anthology. Whatever level of kink you're comfortable reading about, there's at least one story in this for you. If not a few. You're sure to find a new favorite author. I know I did!

This collection did an excellent job of honestly exploring sexuality. Kink states that it sets out to move away from pathologizing kink/sex and instead looking at it as a form of communication. I hadn't realized I how refreshing reading stories like this would be. While all of the stories in the book displayed varying levels of comfort with their characters' sexualities, they shared a similar goal of delving beyond what is happening on the surface and into how sex/kink was a part of the larger world. By letting go of the puritanical ideas about sex that set boundaries around the socially acceptable ways to talk about sex, the stories embrace the messiness of it all and all of the ways that that messiness impacts the characters' lives long after the "scene" has ended. I mostly decided to read this because I saw Roxane Gay contributed, but after reading this collection I found myself wanting to find other books that take this sort of approach. By accepting kink as an everyday part of life, it really opens up the opportunities to see humanity and sexuality in a new light. Not all of the stories connected with me personally, but I still feel I gained a lot from bouncing around to the different worlds.

The short stories that stood out to me were "The Lost Performance of the Priestess of the Temple of Horror" and "Emotional Technologies". I really liked the last one for taking a slightly academic approach. I'm sure it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I found the combination of narrative and theory offered interesting context for each other.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

KINK is an anthology of short stories that aims to show that erotica has a place in literary fiction.This excerpt from the introduction really showcases the point that all of these stories are trying to get across to the reader:

“Kink in the stories is a way of processing trauma, and also of processing joy, of expressing tenderness and cruelty and affection and play. The emotional dynamics of kink are as varied as those of any other human experience, and the stories here explore the whole gamut of human feeling, from exuberance to anguish. Rejecting reductive ideas of normalcy and aberrance, these stories allow for investigations richer than etiology, treating kink as one of the tools we use to make sense of our lives.”

What initially drew me into this short story collection was some of the authors included. From Roxane Gay to Carmen Maria Machado, I knew I had to pick this up. However, like every short story collection, there are hits and misses. In this case, for me, more misses than hits. There are a couple of stories that stood out for me, including Machado’s “The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror.” This story left me feeling like what the fuck did I just read but in a good way. It had a lot of depth that some of the stories were missing, in my opinion.

If you are already planning on reading this, there is no harm in doing so. If you are still unsure, it’s worth checking out but do not have your expectations too high.

Big thanks to @netgalley and @simonbooks for gifting me this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to like this book more, but to me it was okay. There were some notable stories and there were some I kinda glazed over and skipped altogether. I appreciate this book for what it is, a collection of short, erotic, stories for everyone, but for me, it did not deliver in the ways I hoped.

I enjoyed this anthology of short stories! As the title suggest, most of the stories focus on sex, sexuality, fetishes and human behavior. The human behavior and human spirit in each of the story were what I most connected with throughout the stories. I think the stories help to uncover that sex is just a piece of a human life. Emotion and empathy are both a big part of the way we experience sex and sexual experiences. I am excited to "reread" this one after publication audiobook!

Series of short stories. Not all of them made sense. Could not finish the book to be honest. Not what I was expecting.

Kink is an anthology of literary fiction that treats kink "as a complex, psychologically rich act of communication." It aims to challenge the societal belief that there is something wrong with kink and people who enjoy it.

In some of the stories, Kink succeeds in its mission. But it suffers from a mix of intention. Some of the stories align with Kwon and Greenwell's goal, while some lack the literary element. These stories were what I would expect of erotica: no story, just sex.

There are some disturbing and triggering elements in some of the stories. I found these in particular to be the most worthwhile, but each story does stand on its own, so readers can skip around without missing an overall plot.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

The cover of this book is simple but eye-catching. The black and red contrast so well together.
This book definitely is not for those who aren't open-minded. But it is a great book for those wanting to learn more about the world of kink / bdsm or in the world themselves.
I really enjoyed this book, some stories more than others, but wow...


I'd definitely purchase a copy and check out other books by the author.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC of KInk in exchange for a honest review.

Kink edited by R.O Kwon and Garth Greenwell is an anthology of shore literary fiction that explores love, desire, BDSM, and interest across the sexual spectrum. This anthology has something for everyone taste. Some pieces are well written with great characters and exploration of sexual experiences or tastes. If you are looking for something erotic give this a try.

💬 ❝I want to know the stories of all her scars, but I’m not sure I’m willing to pay the price for that knowledge.❞
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📖 A steamy anthology about our deepest desires, our best kept secrets, and the power in expressing what you want. It is queer. It is feminist. It is emotional and challenging. It is everything you want from some of the best voices in literary fiction writing sexy short stories.
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👍 This was steamy. My first attempt to read this was while I was slacking off at work and I absolutely had to make the very adult decision save some stories for later. I went into this expecting to see some of my favorite authors let loose and write some real, hardcore, hold nothing back smut. And not only did this deliver that, but it also gives so much more. These stories are an exploration of love, autonomy, and reclaiming (or claiming for the first time) your own pleasure. It also explores what it means to be in charge of someone else’s pleasure. So, not only was this steamy as hell, it was also deeply poignant. Roxane Gay and RO Kwon provided my two favorite stories for the anthology.
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👎 Like almost any anthology you pick up, there are going to be some hits and misses. And while this one had more hits, there were a few stories that felt weaker than others. I also don’t know that the marketing of this book does enough to prepare the reader for some of the heavier topics addressed. If you’re familiar with the authors, you’ll have an idea going in that some of these stories are going to be pretty heavy. But the focus on exclusively the fun bondage sex makes this seem a lot lighter than it actually is.
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⚠️ NSFW! Sexual assault, body horror, deadnaming, drug use, gore, incest, self harm, transphobia xenophobia, blood.
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📚Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, Difficult Women by Roxane Gay, Things My Mother and I Don’t Talk About edited by Michele Filgate.

This book was meant to be a sort of litmus test for my inner prude. I mean, I don’t think of myself as prudish actually, but also I don’t especially like sex scenes in literature unless they are done well, in good taste and further the plot. But just reading a sex scene for the sake of sex, such as presumably any erotica genre…no, thanks. It seems too much like porn. And sex to me is one of those things that those who can, do and those who can’t…well, resort to porn and erotica. This may look like a judgmental generalization, but it’s really just a personal opinion…(some)people just can’t seem to tell the difference these days.
So this seemed like a good test, a collection of erotica done as literature, kink as perceived through a lens of psychological fiction. At least, that was the grand idea. In execution it varied, some authors seemingly took the assignment as an excuse to, indeed, write pornography (including the coeditor Greenwell). Some…as a permission to wave the freak flag around. And some actually stuck with the theme. Like Machado (an author whose work has looked interesting for a while now) and who has contributed the longest (in word count and title) and by far the best story to this collection. A grand tale of kinked up love and rejection set against the stunning backscene of Grand Guignol and amid the first few decades of 1900s in Europe.
So the thing is, as suspected, this isn’t my scene. Even literary erotica (kinky or otherwise) is still not a thing to make for enjoyable reading. It seems the stories I liked best all featured and favored character and dramatic development over the actual sex. I mean, there was sex, in every story, plenty of it, gay, straight, lots of BDSM…but did it spank me right out of my reading convictions and preferences? No. Definitely not.
So ok, then, test concluded. For pure reading enjoyment purposes this collection didn’t really wow, except for the Machado’s excellent story and maybe a few others (including the last one) that didn’t make the memory list. Interesting experiment, overall, and read quickly enough. Suppose it’s one of those books other readers might get more out of. Thanks Netgalley.

Oh-la the Kink within these pages were...really good. I am not a erotica or smut reader (at least not a regular reader), but I was super interested in this one because I heard so much about it being good and “light” at the same time. I thought KINK might be a good starter erotica for me and it had a little bit of everything including diverse characters and authors which I also definitely appreciated! :-)

The deal: It’s an anthology of short literary stories revolving around the central theme of love and desire, BDSM, and sex from writers like Alexander Chee, Roxane Gay, and Carmen Maria Machado. (Sidenote: I received an ARC from Netgalley.)

Is it worth it?: If that premise has you intrigued, absolutely. If you’re hesitant, probably not (although it’s worth noting that these are not merely erotica — kink isn’t only about sex, but rather trust, power, and consent, among other things). I really enjoyed this, but it’s definitely not for everyone. The stories are a bit uneven, but I actually think that’s a good thing in this case in that it offers a natural ebb and flow.

Pairs well with: I read this at the same time that I was watching S2 of Netflix’s “Bonding,” which was excellent. The showrunners brought on consultants in response to S1 criticism from the BDSM community, and it absolutely shows!

B

This is a collection of short stories so I figured there'd be a few I didn't like but instead sadly I didn't find a single one I did like. There was one with insect and inappropriate ages....one with rape.....one with some dude calling a girl fat. I'm confused about why those would be kinky or attractive. I disliked all 504 pages of this book.....That's so rare. They were well written but I'm unsure of why they were written.

I read about half of the stories and skimmed the others. Everyone has their own approach to short stories, but I think I would have liked fewer stories that were maybe a little longer.

Overall, the writing in this book is excellent. I really appreciated the way the stories in this book talked about intimacy and satisfaction, how people express themselves in relationships that aren't often talked about and the words used to have these conversations. I also thought there was a fair amount of diversity in the types of relationships and the needs of the individuals in those relationships.

This collection was just "okay" to me. The only stories that really stood out were Alexander Chee's and Garth Greenwell's. That being said, none of the stories were bad. Not even close. The more I look into it, the more I see this is an exceptional group of writers. AND it is an exceptionally diverse group of writers. I love, love that the diversity in race, gender, orientation, etc. was all over the map in both the authors and characters. We've got Black, Asian, Trans, Lesbian, Nonbinary to name a few in just 3 seconds.

So, despite this not being anything special for me, I'm not going to say it isn't special. I think for someone just breaking into kink, this might be the very book they need to tell them their desires are okay. These are voices that need to be heard and appreciated. And these are desires, sexual yes, but often just human, that are on their way to being normalized, as they should be. In that way, this collection is an important step to bringing sex and kink out of the shadows. Nothing represented in these pages was wrong or dark or gross or ugly, and I'm so glad to live in a world where there's space for that to be said and understood!

I do wish there had been a tad more variety in the kinks represented. There was a disproportionate amount of BDSM, which, though still often looked down upon, IS the most known and accepted of the kink communities. I'd have liked to see a few more kinks of the many there are among these stories. But one book can only do so much! Like I said, the variety in other regards was simply off the charts. I won't be hesitating to recommend this once it hits the shelves.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy! Always a pleasure to be part of affirming literature!

Beautiful thing about anthologies is its like an assortment of tasty cakes, where the reader gets a piece of all the good parts of a cake! Kink is one such book. Collection of stories from renowned authors in the industry, it truly is one of a kind book!

The introduction mentions “these stories bring the full power of literature to bear on depicting love, desire, sadomasochism and sexual kink in their considerable glory”. (Quote taken from the arc is subjected to change in finished copy) The stories stands by it. Kink delivers something deeper than erotic stories; feelings and thoughts that lead to the moment, how beautiful! I just loved everything about this book. Kudos to authors for editing!!

Thank you Simon & Schuster for this arc in exchange for an honest opinion. Check out my Instagram page @monikas.bookblog for more delightful reviews.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the eARC of this interesting concept that unfortunately does not hold together as a collection of stories.
Edited by R. O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, Kink collects 15 stories by contemporary authors, all dealing with some aspect of desire and the mind, pain, power, and in many cases, displeasure. Greenwell’s Gospodar, consisting entirely of a S/M encounter between an English teacher in Bulgaria and his dom-for-the-night. Convincingly conveying the range of feelings and thoughts of the narrator, from uneasiness and shame to doubt to fear and fulfillment, and a harder to define gratitude, which Greenwell manages brilliantly - “…I felt the gratitude I nearly always feel in such moments, not so much to him as to whatever arrangement of things had allowed me what as a child I thought I would always be denied.”
Most of the problem with Kink, the book, is that none of the other stories come remotely close to Gospodar for literary fulfillment. It is a mountain peak, set near the middle of the book.
Larissa Pham’s story, Trust, makes clear and understandable use of her narrator’s emotional state and wants, and she, as Greenwell does, outlines how much of what one doesn’t want or desire to happen often comes along through these “kinky” encounters.
Overall, this collection was disappointing, but I was pleased to be introduced to Pham, and for the opportunity to read Gospodar again. 3 1/2 stars

This just was a case of 'not working for me.' I typically find it hard to delve into short stories and I was not connecting with most of the stories. Some I really enjoyed and others were just not working. I am excited that there is an anthology of erotica/BDSM literature that celebrates kinks and differences and does not pathologize them. I love how queer and diverse the collection.