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.

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.

I will be honest, this is not at all what I was expecting. I was anticipating more nonfiction, memoir-style writing and not short stories/essays from fiction writers. I should also be honest and say that I only recognized a few names of the contributing authors, which is why I assumed that they would be more "real-life" stories and experiences from people who are actually kinky. All of that being said, the stories were okay. Some are better than others, which is to be expected in something like this, but a few were just boring. I do have clients who are exploring and thought this might be a good recommendation for them to find different practices, but this is just not it.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

I received a digital copy of this book from NetGalley for an honest review. I enjoyed this book pretty well. There are several stories that stand out amongst the others, but none that are awful. I find reading about others proclivities is an interesting way to view the psychology of what may drive people sexually and otherwise. I would definitely recommend Oh, Youth and The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of horror. Thanks for allowing me to read and review this title!

I was highly anticipating this anthology, but unfortunately it fell really flat for me. I went into this hoping for some depictions of how sexuality and eroticism (wrt kink specifically) can be affirming and even cathartic, but a lot of the elements of all of these stories felt very basic and typical and oversimplified. My favorite from the collection was definitely Kwon's own contribution, and I really wish more of the stories had gone in a similar direction with depicting some of the nuances of kink. There were smaller aspects of some of these stories that I quite liked, but overall I was just really expecting more from this anthology.

This might be more interesting if you haven't read anything about kink before, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend this if you're looking for something a bit deeper than just a collection of surface-level kinky premises.

The title for this book is very apt, and it is a mind-opening exploration to those who are interested in learning more! Some sections were very well-written, while I struggled to get through others, but overall it was a pretty good collection.

I was able to get a early copy of this anthology from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I agree with many of the reviewers and some of these stories rose above others. But worth a look & the joy of a short story collection, if you don't connect with one, simply move on to the next!

This was a lovely anthology of stories exploring kink: power-play, BDSM, cross-dressing, exhibitionism, etc. In addition to kink, they explored relationships and communication between people. Not all were strictly erotica, but all were sensual and beautiful to read.

There were of course some stories that were stronger than others, but I enjoyed the overall collection very much. Each gave a glimpse into the characters' lives and gave their kinks context, which in my opinion made the stories that much stronger. I definitely discovered some authors that I will want to check out later!

I loved the diversity of stories, essays, and voices in this collection. It was not what I expected but was a great read regardless. Every story speaks to an experience that everyone can relate to, whether kinky or not. It helps destigmatize sex and sexuality so well, and it was a delight to see familiar names write essays and stories on topics outside of their normal genre.

Pretty fascinating and definitely not something I would have picked up on my own. Helping to destigmatize sexuality, this book talks about a lot most people wouldn’t. The writers all bring something different to the table end a different style of writing. It’s written in a classy manner, too.