Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Kink: Stories, by Garth Greenwell, R.O. Kwon

10 reviews

toffishay's review

challenging emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I really appreciated what this book was seeking to accomplish; even if I didn't love all of the stories individually, I appreciate this as a body of work that can help us better understand what kink is telling us when we are too busy to listen. My favorite stories were "Trust" by Larissa Pham, "Best Friendster Date Ever" by Alexander Chee, "The Lost Performance of the High Priestess of the Temple of Horror" by Carmen Maria Machado, and "The Voyeurs" by Zeyn Joukhadar.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Violence, Transphobia, Blood, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Body horror

Moderate: Incest, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Alcohol, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Stalking, Torture, Racism, Injury/injury detail, and Infidelity

mxbenjaminrose's review

emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Dysphoria, Grief, Transphobia, and Acephobia/Arophobia

readwithasherreid's review

3.0

CONTENT WARNING FOR REVIEW: Discussions of rape.

The introduction of this novel states that this collection was created to get rid of the stigma that surrounds kink. It talks about people into kink being painted as horrible abusive people in movies and shows. However, there is a story in this collection that does just that. There is a horrible and very triggering story by Garth Greenwell that makes people into kink seem like we are all rapisits who have no idea how to listen to our sexual partners. Breaking the trust of your readers was not necessary at all. This trainwreck of a story aside, the rest of the collection is okay. The stories by R.O. Kwan, Roxanne Gay, and Carmen Maria Machado were my absolute favorites!! The rest of the stories were alright. Although, many of them had problematic themes such as biphobia, acephobia, fatphobia, etc. I recommend reading R.O. Kwan, Roxanne Gay, and Carmen Maria Machado’s stories and then skipping the rest of the collection. 

CW: Cutting someone, all other CWs are listed below.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual content

Moderate: Biphobia, Acephobia/Arophobia, Grief, and Blood

amergens's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I LOVED some of these stories and some I was just not that into and skipped through. I did find some writers I need to check out more from and of course learned about some kinks. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who wants to read about diverse sexual experiences.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, and Transphobia

travelseatsreads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

According to to the blurb 'Kink' is an anthology of literary short fiction based on love, desire, BDSM, and sexual kinks in all their glory with a bold new vision. This book is brimming with heavy hitting well known and accomplished authors so I was really excitied to read something fresh and enthralling. Unfortunately in this case the more well known authors sections were the ones that fell flat and lacked development. Yes, they look at various aspects within the kink world. However, disappointingly, do so at a very basic and dare I say it vanilla level. 

There are some absolute gems there and I particularly enjoyed the pieces by Carmen Maria Machado, Brandon Taylor, Larissa Pham, Peter Mounford and R.O. Kwon. Overall this is a decent read, however I feel would have been much improved by showcasing perhaps lesser known authors who have a deeper understanding of the world and how to convey it rather than just going with the well known heavy hitters.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, and Violence

psi_fi's review against another edition

dark emotional relaxing medium-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Blood, Body shaming, Deadnaming, Infidelity, Incest, Racism, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence

invaderlinz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

3.5

I enjoyed almost every story but the last, some more than others - as is the way with a lot of short story collections. I think it’s a solid collection, but not as out there as I had expected from all of its hype. I did really love reading these stories from authors I’ve found over the past few years, and seeing them write in a totally different way. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Deadnaming and Incest

naturemamareads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.0

Whoa Im vanilla! amazing writing

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Excrement, and Sexual content

bookmarkedbya's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Blood and Incest

caseythereader's review

dark emotional reflective tense slow-paced

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Deadnaming, Drug use, Gore, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Sexual assault, Self harm, and Incest