Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Kink by Garth Greenwell, R.O. Kwon

8 reviews

ecn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

I absolutely loved some stories (specifically Alexander Chee, Callum Angus, Roxanne Gay, Carmen Maria Machado, Melissa Febos, and Kim Fu) and the others I absolutely did not like (basically all others I didn’t list). I simply do! not! care! about how a cishet man relates to kink!!! Also, someone needs to get Brandon Taylor to therapy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Sexual content, Body horror, Blood, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Racism, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Sexism, Rape, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

toffishay's review against another edition

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.

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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

azariamckay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.25

Kink is an anthology and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I over its take on desire, sex, queer and trans love, and shameless sex. There were stories I wished were longer and stories I could’ve done without. I would preface this book with a couple trigger warnings: r*pe, s*xual assault, and transphobia. The stories get a little rocky at times and I don’t remember a single story ending on a happy note, which isn’t a bad thing for me, I tend to lean toward depressing reads. The compilation of writers for this novel was amazing and the styles of writing differed in the most interesting ways. Each story felt like it’s own but there felt like a common thread that grounded them all. I would reread a few of these stories in the future for sure! I’m interested in coming back to it later to examine how it ages and how I’ve changed with it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Death of parent

booksforsarah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.0

This book has fantastic representation of the LGBTIQ+ community. Unfortunately that’s where the positives end. 

Although the stories were written by different authors, there was not one writing style I enjoyed. The title is “Kink” so I expected more… we’ll… kink. There’d be mentions of it and then we’d be moving on to a different time/place/person and nothing really got explored. There were also some dangerously misleading statements in multiple stories, and although it’s a work of fiction, it’s at times written in a way that implies you can take it to the real world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Violence

caffeinatedfae's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

CW: Mention of Rape, humiliation play, mention of blood play, mention of needle play, Knife play, Spitting, incest, cheating, Coercion, Gaslighting, Graphic Sexual Assault, Graphic Assault, Transphobia, consensual body shaming, Violating negotiated scenes.


Like all anthologies, there are good stories and not-so-good stories. Unfortunately, there were more "meh" stories than good ones. Most of the stories were well written with some interesting characters and plots. I enjoyed that there were a variety of bodies & sexualities, but the kink aspect was subpar.  

Maybe it's because I read romance and erotica, but this book didn't sit well with me. Some stories were good, but the majority of them were incredibly disappointing. It was as if most of the authors were against kink itself. Instead, they wanted to do the stereotypical "kink is dangerous" stories. They showed the raw, gritty dangerous side that the media often portrayed and skipped over anything that would be considered erotic or kink positive. It was just so disappointing to read. This is not a book I would recommend to anyone. No, kink is not always glamorous, but I wanted something more positive or something that didn't read like a scare campaign against kink.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Transphobia, Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Gore, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, and Body shaming

travelseatsreads's review against another edition

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.

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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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse

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

_lia_reads_'s review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia and Physical abuse