peejon's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
kxlevesque's review against another edition
1.0
Answer to “are the straights okay?” is no.
Definitely not as diverse as it claims to be. This collection is just different variations of the same “married heterosexual hates their domestic life and wants to cheat on their spouse” stories. Incredibly disappointing and painfully boring.
Good: How I Learned Prayer and Vis a Vis 1953
Okay: Odi et Amo
Awful: Love Doll (seriously, wtf?)
Definitely not as diverse as it claims to be. This collection is just different variations of the same “married heterosexual hates their domestic life and wants to cheat on their spouse” stories. Incredibly disappointing and painfully boring.
Good: How I Learned Prayer and Vis a Vis 1953
Okay: Odi et Amo
Awful: Love Doll (seriously, wtf?)
laurxberg's review against another edition
3.0
Some of the shorts were good but there were also several that were cringe-worthy.
machinations's review against another edition
mixed bag in quality, became a chore to keep going back to
ashjenjen's review against another edition
Just wasn't loving it. Some stories were great. Others were just trying too hard.
randi_jo's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.5
Trying to figure out how to articulate my feelings on this collection. The first words that come to mind are: "deceiving", "underwhelming", and "people were right about it being overwhelmingly heterosexual".
To extrapolate a bit on each...
"Deceiving" because the blurb for this book and the introduction by the editors made it sound like this book was going to have erotic stories. They really talked up sex, sexuality, and desire as well as how the stories included so many kinds of sex! Gay sex, fictional sex, elder sex!! Wow! That's not what we got in this book. Very few stories actually had erotica in them, maybe 4 or 5 max. Despite having the advertised collection theme as "Sex & Desire" there was almost no cohesion to the collection? I'm unsure how this is possible but Anonymous Sex managed it by, I guess, accepting every story that mentioned a penis. The story themes vary from actual erotica, thoughts on sexuality, sexual empowerment, stream-of-consciousness pieces that briefly mention sex positions, all the way to children hitting puberty.
"Underwhelming" because a large number of these stories were either obviously rushed or they ruined themselves by being plain. Were there kinks in this book? I can think of 2 stories in the entire book that featured some kind of kink, and only 1 of the stories made me go 'oh shit what the fuck' and that was Holo Boy with its. Making an anonymous collection made it sound like people would write about their most fucked up sexual encounters, or maybe kinks they want to explore without people being @ing them and calling them perverts or something. Instead we just got a bunch of pretentious highbrow 'literature' that sometimes involved a penis being mentioned (no there was not a single story, even the lesbian ones, that did not have a penis involved - sorry).
"Heterosexual" because there are 27 stories, only 2 of them feature at least 1 lesbian (neither actually feature gay sex), 1 features a gay boy (there is no sex in this one), and 1 is fantasy-themed where MC becomes a hermaphrodite. These aren't really good odds and I don't know why it was boasted about in the introduction that these stories were so sexuality varied. It's like bragging about having the token gay friend, or something.
Despite all that, I do wanna give points to the stories I liked, which were "One Day in the Life of Josephine Bellanote Munro", which seems to be in consensus with other readers, "The Next Eleven Minutes", "What the Hands Remember", "I Don't Miss You", and "Pearl River". Is this book worth buying for the 4-6 decent stories? No.
"Love Doll" and "The Great Artist" are currently in a no-holds barred match on which is more disgusting and pissed me off lol.
TLDR; authors go anonymous and the majority decide they wanna be as pretentious as possible about sex/sex adjacent topics and the editors apparently thought that was a great idea then lied about the stories all being sexy and erotic.
To extrapolate a bit on each...
"Deceiving" because the blurb for this book and the introduction by the editors made it sound like this book was going to have erotic stories. They really talked up sex, sexuality, and desire as well as how the stories included so many kinds of sex! Gay sex, fictional sex, elder sex!! Wow! That's not what we got in this book. Very few stories actually had erotica in them, maybe 4 or 5 max. Despite having the advertised collection theme as "Sex & Desire" there was almost no cohesion to the collection? I'm unsure how this is possible but Anonymous Sex managed it by, I guess, accepting every story that mentioned a penis. The story themes vary from actual erotica, thoughts on sexuality, sexual empowerment, stream-of-consciousness pieces that briefly mention sex positions, all the way to children hitting puberty.
"Underwhelming" because a large number of these stories were either obviously rushed or they ruined themselves by being plain. Were there kinks in this book? I can think of 2 stories in the entire book that featured some kind of kink, and only 1 of the stories made me go 'oh shit what the fuck' and that was Holo Boy with its
Spoiler
armpit licking"Heterosexual" because there are 27 stories, only 2 of them feature at least 1 lesbian (neither actually feature gay sex), 1 features a gay boy (there is no sex in this one), and 1 is fantasy-themed where MC becomes a hermaphrodite. These aren't really good odds and I don't know why it was boasted about in the introduction that these stories were so sexuality varied. It's like bragging about having the token gay friend, or something.
Despite all that, I do wanna give points to the stories I liked, which were "One Day in the Life of Josephine Bellanote Munro", which seems to be in consensus with other readers, "The Next Eleven Minutes", "What the Hands Remember", "I Don't Miss You", and "Pearl River". Is this book worth buying for the 4-6 decent stories? No.
"Love Doll" and "The Great Artist" are currently in a no-holds barred match on which is more disgusting and pissed me off lol.
TLDR; authors go anonymous and the majority decide they wanna be as pretentious as possible about sex/sex adjacent topics and the editors apparently thought that was a great idea then lied about the stories all being sexy and erotic.
rc_cola's review against another edition
5.0
From chaste and restrained to down right filthy, these short stories offer period pieces, COVID-relevant reads, and sci-fi world-benders with a little something for everyone. Well-written smut by our best contemporary writers, without us knowing whose story is whose. Short, sometimes sweet and sometimes spicy, let this book be a steamy escape.
aubriebythepage's review against another edition
I was expecting a compilation of people anonymously sharing their real life sexual experiences, but what I got was a literary clusterfuck of boring, mind-dumbing, and fictional "erotica". I say "erotica" because these stories definitely do not even remotely read like erotica.
Also, what's up with the intro?
Also, what's up with the intro?
Stories by D. H. Lawrence or Anäis Nin can be more arousing than erotica that’s just meant to turn you on—though as anyone with a pulse who’s read those writers knows, it does that, too.
HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM, anyone with a pulse? Broad assumption and generalization there, but go off, I guess.
Yes, I suppose I'm just angry that I didn't get to read about random people's ridiculous sexual encounters. But what else was I supposed to expect from a book literally titled, ANONYMOUS SEX???
I'm upsetti spaghetti and I want a refund even though spent no money on this since it was a loan from the library.
mj_almquist's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5