Just, like, way too much sex.

I liked the format of each chapter being named after a significant partner in her life and the interconnectedness of each part was really enjoyable. It had a lot of sex scenes for a lit fic novel, but without being particularly erotic. I don't fully know what I'm saying here, aside from there was enough sex for it to be an erotica except it was a lit fic, which sort of made it feel weird to read about, especially since it was very clinical. Straddling the line between "anatomy" and "sexy", falling firmly on the side of "mildly uncomfortable".

The author successfully captured New York, though. I love it when the author can turn the setting into a character of its own.

Published originally in 1984, one of the last books to be edited by Toni Morrison before focusing on her own work, Fish Tails is a sexually-charged character study set between 1970s Detroit and New York. Unshamably hedonistic and chaotic, this book is delightfully messy. We're thrown into orgies, drugs, street life, and endless parties as Lewis Jones, our unhinged female protagonist, is often exploited and abused as she explores her own boundaries and desires. And while it is raunchy and boundary-pushing, it's incredibly tender whilst we bear witness to the undoing of Lewis.

After slipping into obscurity, hopefully, this reissue gets Fish Tails the attention it deserves. It's an excellent piece of work capturing something of a particular lifestyle during the 1970s that isn't really explored elsewhere.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Fish Tales was an excellent read. I loved the character development and the writing was propulsive. I do wish the older man relationship was handled more like the abuse it was

A bold, lost classic back on shelves!

Fish Tales by Nettie Jones is a provocative and audacious novel that delves into the hedonistic world of 1970s New York and Detroit. Originally published in 1983 and now reissued, the book follows Lewis Jones, a charismatic and troubled woman navigating a life filled with excess, desire, and self-destruction.​

Lewis Jones is a party girl who moves between the bohemian scenes of New York City and the affluent Black community of Detroit. Supported by her husband, Woody, and accompanied by her friend Kitty-Kat, a gay hustler with impeccable style, Lewis indulges in champagne, cocaine, and a variety of lovers. Her pursuit of freedom and pleasure, however, leads her into a tumultuous relationship with Brook, a handsome but cruel quadriplegic who seeks to tame her at any cost.

Fish Tales is a fearless exploration of sexuality, race, agency, and self-destruction. It’s a bold exploration of the blurred line between love and control, pleasure and addiction, and offers a provocative and moving portrayal of a woman's pursuit of freedom.

If you're interested in a raw and unflinching exploration of identity and desire, Fish Tales offers a compelling and thought-provoking read.

'Fish Tales' caught my eye out of nowhere, just like that and not unlike luscious and loud Lewis, the novel's protagonist: bold but uncomplicated cover, an alluring wordplay of a title and the promise of an author unknown to me yet acclaimed by the great Toni Morrison. My curiosity was piqued and 'Fish Tales' was added to my reading queue. What I didn't know then was that the trap had been set and I'd walked into it, voluntarily, thinking I was in control. I was wrong and my experience of Fish Tales would prove it: this is not a novel for the faint of heart or those looking for an easy story. What started as the retelling of sexual encounters ended up being one of my most obsessive reads of these past few years. This should come with a warning because, Buttercup, you better buckle up.

Nettie Jones is a name the masses - and most readers - are unfamiliar with. Yet this is the author who the great Toni Morrison pushed to have published at Random House in one of her final acts of editing in 1983 before focusing on her own writing instead. This is the author who was anticipated to become the next big thing. Yet here we are, 30-or-so years after 'Fish Tales' was first published, with a name unknown to most and only now, in 2025, a reprint of this flamboyant, hedonistic story of a liberated and libertine Black woman in 1970s NYC and Detroit.

'Fish Tales' is divided into two distinct parts: the first is written in the short chapter format, each adopting the name of one of the protagonist's lovers, and concentrating on how the character entered and impacted Lewis's life. These individual stories intersect and flow together, creating a dense and thick fabric of lust, longing, intertwined bodies and blurred boundaries. Orgies - and "orgyettes", as noted in the book and other sexual acts are written in an oddly detailed yet detached fashion. The many side characters are bold, bright and brash. There's Woody, the allergist doctor husband - and then ex-husband. There's Kitty, the gay best friend and frequent partaker in Lewis's orgies. Sex is dealt with matter-of-factly and Jones never pushes on the pathos button even when sexual assault, statury rape and gang rape are brought up. In Fish Tales, there is no space for pity, whether it's in the writing or the emotions of our main character.

The second part changes course distinctly and is devoted to Lewis's unusual new lover, a quadriplegic man. This fracture in the narration is characterised by a change in scenery, taking us from New York City to Detroit, Michigan. The latter half of 'Fish Tales' takes Lewis's meandering ways from unsatisfied lust to love. Here's a man who can't physically satisfy her and who, despite his infirmity, claims multiple lady "friends". Here's a man she simply can't have and whom she devotes herself to, growing increasingly jealous as she shackles herself to him be becoming his caretaker. Jones gives this increasingly toxic entanglement the same factual treatment as she did for the first, sex-heavy part of the novel. Yet here, the reader becomes increasingly aware of the protagonist's mental suffering: the hallucinatory voice (a character one could, at first and earlier in the novel, have declared a separate entity, a real person), the unrequited obsessional love, the change in behaviour and consideration of her partner on the main character's behalf, all told in the first person to accentuate Lewis's spiralling thoughts. Something is amiss and the reader grows worried - with good reason.

Ultimately, 'Fish Tales is not quite what one would expect. From the title, a wordplay darker than imagined at first (referring to the scent of the vulva as explained through the anecdote of the drag queen who rubs sardine oil on their private parts to smell like an "authentic girl") to the outcome. This is the story of oppression and trying to break through all of it: the injustice of patriarchy and womanhood, particularly Black womanhood in America. This is the story of trauma and its lingering effects without focusing on the underlying pain. This is the story of perceived freedom being mistaken for the prison in our own head, one in which Eros and Thanatos battle daily for survival of the fittest. No, 'Fish Tales' is not for the faint of heart or those looking for an easy story but those who'll tackle this short yet dense novel will come away from it altered in some way, never quite the same they were before delving into it. Nettie Jones, where have been hiding all these years?

| "I can look tired, I'm a man," he whispered. "Weariness makes a man seem hard-working, serious about life. It gives character to him and his face. It makes a woman look like a stale loaf of unpreserved bread instead of a fresh cookie." |

<u>Fish Tales</u>
Nettie Jones

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

First printed in 1983, Fish Tales was one of the last novels edited by Toni Morrison when she was at Random House. This reissue is much anticipated.

Sex, drugs and alcohol - this is a novel of the sexual revolution of the 70’s. It follows the exploits of Lewis Jones and her friend, Kitty Kat in the 1970’s New York and Detroit party scene. The writing is blistering and leaps off the page, shock value retained despite the last four decades. I am glad this jewel is back to be enjoyed by a new generation of readers.

I wanted to love this and I might have if I'd gone in with different expectations. Based on the cover copy, I was expecting the story to be frothy, sparkling, and empowering. Perhaps it got there, but for me as a reader the fact that her first sexual experience was being molested by her teacher at age 12 made this a very different book from what I was expecting. I'm not taking issue with this as a plot point as it is the story Nettie Jones set out to tell. But the marketing copy left me feeling conflicted! Was I supposed to find Lewis' escapes empowering or a sign of trauma? How much agency did her character have? As mentioned, I wish I'd gone in with a different understanding of this story so I could have been better able to wrestle with the questions it brought up.

FISH TALES is hilarious, and distinctly contemporary (prescient!). I gobbled it up. Nettie Jones was way ahead of her time.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

Very rarely does a book captivate me the way this book has! OMG! This book almost feels like a fever dream. Lewis and her rendezvous definitely kept me entertained. i will say, that some of the sexual experience did make me feel uneasy, but what facet of life isn't?

I found "Fish Tales" to be a lively and fast-paced book, but it thrusts you into the action without providing a clear narrative or plot. Instead, the book presents scenes about sex--not always consenual and relationships, which left me feeling uneasy, uncomfortable, and unpleasant. Although the prose is well-written, I missed a plot connecting the stories and found it difficult to care about any of the protagonists. Overall, my reading experience evoked a visceral reaction, but not one that I enjoyed, and I would not recommend it to most readers.

This book was gross. Too much sex and infidelity, cheating, disgusting life choices. nasty book, not recomending this to anyone



Thank you to NetGalley, to the author, and to the publisher for this complementary ARC in exchange for my honest review!!!