Thank you to the publisher for my copy, all opinions are my own.

This is certainly an interesting, and thought/discussion provoking collection of essays. Raw, and brutally honest at times, this one is not for the weak of heart. Some essays are more powerful than others, but there are some terrific pieces in here to enjoy.

So I finally got to this book well after the release date unfortunately. The premise is great and the intent was there but the delivery of this book just felt a little too forced. While it's cool to see popular authors try new genres, I personally believe that it's not always possible and in this case the book was a bit dull for my liking. Some of the subject matter is just not shocking not interesting to many fans of these autors.

As with most short story collections, there were some stories I was intrigued by and others that didn't work for me. I appreciated the theme of this collection and this it could lead to some important conversations, but the main thing I took away is that I need to read full length novels from so many of these authors!

Wow this was a fun and engaging read. I hadn't really read anything like this before. But it broke a refreshing and accepting view to the more taboo natures of this subject. I felt it broadened by views and gave appreciation for the different tastes and lifestyles. Just because it is different than me, doesn't make it bad.

I enjoyed this book but I wish it had been more educational around consent and negotiation. I am glad that a mainstream publisher published Kink Stories but I wish it had been more from a different perspective.

Kink is a collection of fictional short stories featuring the works of famous authors in their own right.

The stories run the gamut from pornographic to almost poetic. Some are rough & brutal, some tender. Everybody at one point or another has a desire that someone else may consider “kinky” and chances are fairly high that whatever “kink” that is, it’s touched on here.

I was happy to discover some same-sex work within these pages. It would be quite easy for the editors to have pandered to the masses and collected stories of hetero kink, of which I’m sure there are many. However, if a reader decides to crack open this book, it should be understood that their mind is open and they hopefully welcome in the thought of a man pleasing a man just as they do that of the pleasure discovered by man & woman.

It stands out to me that many of the stories spotlight non-white characters and feature that of Asian or mixed-Asian heritage. On the surface it seems an easy-route taken given the belief that many Asians can be submissive when it comes to sex but quite honestly each of the stories are so well written that it becomes an afterthought. Another often used theme in a few of the stories is choking, slapping, and restraining. Again, a common tie to the world of kink and a great reason to pick up this book if you enjoy this rabbit hole.

This collection never jars, but instead shines a light behind the bedroom door in an ebbs and flows style of stories that, upon completion, is really a love story to the darker corners of our desires.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing a copy for review.

Kink is a short story collection edited by R.O Kwon and Garth Greenwell publishing today. Thank you @simonschusterca and @netgalley for a copy for review, all opinions are my own.

Kink features short stories written by notable authors like Roxanne Gay, R.O. Kwon, Brandon Taylor and many more. They all revolved some sort of kink but were very different from each other. I went into this book thinking it would be more like an erotic collection, and there was graphic scenes, but there was also a lot of discussion around the shame people can feel for having one. Some stories also featured one partner who didn’t share the same kink, as well as many other topics.
As with all short story collections, some were more to my taste than others but I thought they were all well done and I appreciated a look into something I have little personal experience with.

Content warnings include mention of past incest, graphic sex, and drug use. DM for more information if you would like to know more.

This e-galley was sent to me by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

I’m going to keep my review on this extremely vague because I think it’s best to go into this not knowing much. But just know this does feature lots and lots of kinky s**t.

Anyways, this was unlike any anthology I’ve ever read. It was a super interesting read that tackled plenty on the inner workings of the kink, fetish and BDSM community. However, if you go into this thinking this is gonna be steamy, I’m sorry to say that most of the stories were pretty light on the hot and heavy. But the steamier ones were great as well.

Although I enjoyed the majority of the short stories, I thought a few of them were quite boring. For example, one particular story was longer than it needed to be. And the last one almost felt like I was reading an essay instead of a fictional story. Despite me saying that, I do believe all the stories had a purpose for being there and none of them felt out of place.

As for the authors, I’ve only heard of Roxanne Gay, but it was nice to read from the others also. I like reading anthologies because I’m able to get an idea for an author’s writing style and this one was no exception. All the stories were well written and I’ll be reading more from these authors in the future.

Overall, I would recommend this if you want to add something different, yet refreshing to your TBRs.

Well written, with an exceptional list of contributors, but overall not my cup of tea. I can definitely see how others love it.

I didn't like all of the stories, but I found most of them interesting.
I could only handsell this on order at my store 'cause it's a specific audience.

What an interesting collection of stories. I loved that there was a wide variety of perspectives in this collection with overlap on kinks. I enjoyed exploring kink's through the many voices in the book. Some of the stories I couldn't put down until they were finished and then I would have to take a short break from the book before side-eyeing it and wanting to pick it up again hoping for another face-paced, intense story.

While I found some of the stories in the collection quite compelling, there were definitely some that I I found to be slower paced or not to my taste as a reader. I like to think I am a fairly open-minded individual but I find it a bit frustrating when I can't identify what the story is trying to tell me. Maybe some of them weren't trying to tell me anything at all. Maybe that was the point.

I was so excited to read this but it fell a bit short for me. Mostly because the writing style of most of the anthologies were like English literature class level with lots of metaphors and more artistic writing. There were 4 stories out of 14 that really resonated with me and that I actually understood. These were: The Cure, Safeword, Impact Play, and Scissors. I also enjoyed reading the story by Carmen Maria Machado. There is a lot of variety of content within the anthology stories, so most people can find a story that they relate to. There should probably also be some content warnings though because there are some bits about incest and rape. Overall this was an interesting anthology to read but I only liked about half of the stories in it.

It's 2021 and after the year we've all finished, it's about time we stop being uncomfortable by reading a book called Kink. While it does feature sex, it's more about the psychology of sexuality taking into account culture, confidence, power and identity. This collection of literary fiction challenges you to look beyond the sex. I found a lot of the stories and characters quite sad actually.

I got this book from Netgalley and publisher in exchange for an honest review. I don't love short story collections and chose this format for a reading challenge. It didn't change my feelings on short stories, but I am glad that it led me to Kink, something I would never have picked up normally.

I probably wouldn't recommend this book to most people just because it fell flat. The stories got slow and a bit repetitive about halfway through.

KINK: Stories edited by R. O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell is a collection of short stories that explores sexuality including BDSM. The writing was good but none of the stories evoked any emotion to me. Maybe I’m the wrong audience for this book. I found it hard to connect with any of the characters and I found in a couple of stories they just jumped all over the place and were hard to follow. The stories I liked the best in this anthology are The Cure by Melissa Febos and Trust by Larissa Pham.

I found it hard to get into this book. The story line was just not for me. I found it hard to get through.

From the list of authors in this book, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, for an anthology called “Kink”, I found most of these stories really bland and boring. There isn’t a single story that stands out to me as a highlight of the books.

This collection is beautifully written, well-arranged, and extremely hot. It bounces back and forth between more literary stories whose subject matter is sex and full-on erotica in a really pleasing way. Greenwell and Machado are the standouts for me here, as I expected they would be, and I hadn't previously read any Vanessa Clark but am definitely now a fan.

I would like to see the individual authors perhaps work on individual collections exploring the theme. As it is, they all have interesting ideas that are in some ways, too cohesive, and in others, too disparate to really hit the sweet spot of a satisfying reading experience for me. Which is just a long way of saying, hit and miss, but only to be expected given the fact it's an anthology.

Covering a hugely diverse and oft underrepresented cast of preferences, experiences and kinks, this anthology is ambitious in it's scope and brutally honest in the humanity it captures.

While jumping between writing styles is a bit challenging, the snapshots are worthy.