This book uses examples from the animal kingdom to demonstrate that diverse intimate behaviors are not a recent or uniquely human phenomenon, but a product of billions of years of evolution, challenging the notion that such diversity is unnatural.

This entertaining book is eye-opening, well-researched, and a pleasure to read. Its perspective on gender and reproduction is revolutionary. Highly recommended!

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Out of all the books about non-human animals that I read (as many as possible), I find the ones about their sexual behavior the most fascinating. I’ve also enjoyed the author’s previous works, so I was really looking forward to this one. I was not disappointed. Much of the information here wasn’t new to me, but I still learned a lot about the subject. Written in an approachable way, it was easy to follow even the drier parts (especially genetics, which is something I don’t easily understand and usually find boring), and the many anecdotes were fun (and, sometimes, funny). The author adds a lot of footnotes, so that it’s easy to see the bibliography and the exhaustive research behind it. Whenever something is not known, he says so. The book includes information on many diverse species from all the animal kingdom, even including bacteria! Since I read these books to learn more about non-human animals, the last chapters, devoted to the ugliest ape, didn’t hold my attention as much, but readers looking for more insights into human sexuality will find them interesting. The author does his best to stay away from judging the behaviors described here and, since they sometimes involve children (animal and human), those parts were harder to read. Except for those sections, the rest of the book was catnip for me.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Mariner Books.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book!
This book contains many great examples, both in the greater animal kingdom and in humans of sexual differentiation and varying expressions/interactions among these individuals.
The presentation left a little lacking for me. When referencing some controversial or outdated studies, the author spoke in absolutes about the lack of value in these studies, often using language that felt very condescending (like “eye roll!”, among other sarcastic comments). It was unclear in these moments who the author’s audience was. The book started out sounding as if the purpose was to show the biological backing for non-heterosexual/non-monogamous relationships, but these comments seemed to judge or ostracize people who weren’t already fully onboard with the author. I would have preferred a stronger argument and less asides.
There are also a few times where a single example is provided, but sweeping generalizations are made. There is discussion about what “true monogamy” is, but only uses the example of the Roosevelts. While it’s possible the author looked at multiple scenarios to come to his definition of monogamy in humans, this is unclear and feels like a jump.
Overall, a decent read, but I was left wishing the author would defend his views a bit more solidly at times.

This book was incredibly informative and thought provoking. As someone drawn to animal behavior, Chapters 1-4 were full of intriguing facts, but I found Chapters 5-8 particularly inspiring and informative. I loved the message that "if you assume a bimodal model, you ignore all of the points in between" because it highlights a lot of the issues both with past research and with societal bias today. As it is a more scientific read, there are lot of examples/evidence which can make it seem slightly dense if that isn't what you're looking for, but all of his claims and theories are explained very clearly, and he tied together biology, sociology, psychology, and history together seamlessly, making this book accessible to just about anyone.

Definitely enlightening. This book was well thought out and research with minimum personal opinion. Give future college textbook vibes