Scan barcode
A review by ckcombsdotcom
Show Yourself To Me: Queer Kink Erotica by Annabeth Leong, Xan West
5.0
I’m not even going to pretend to be unbiased — I love Xan West‘s writing. I have been a fan since discovering Xan’s work ages ago. My fandom is mainly based on Xan’s ability to write hot, nuanced sex scenes involving characters with complex gender and sexual identities. After getting partway in, I already knew that this collection was going to be one of my favorites. My standard bearer for how to do kinky erotica right has been Macho Sluts by Patrick Califia. Show Yourself To Me gets to sit right next that classic on my ‘must haves’ list.
West has written some of my favorite BDSM scenes and has a special knack for Daddy/boy scenes. Diversity isn’t thrown in as an afterthought or as something to gawk at. The characters in these stories represent a broad spectrum of the real people involved in kink and BDSM — this isn’t an amplifier for mainstream media representations of what is attractive, this is a mirror on reality with a healthy serving of non-cisgender characters of color, size and varying abilities, all rendered lovingly and fully by this writer. These are hot stories involving consent and respect for real, complex identities. Queer erotica indeed.
West has written some of my favorite BDSM scenes and has a special knack for Daddy/boy scenes. Diversity isn’t thrown in as an afterthought or as something to gawk at. The characters in these stories represent a broad spectrum of the real people involved in kink and BDSM — this isn’t an amplifier for mainstream media representations of what is attractive, this is a mirror on reality with a healthy serving of non-cisgender characters of color, size and varying abilities, all rendered lovingly and fully by this writer. These are hot stories involving consent and respect for real, complex identities. Queer erotica indeed.