Customer Reviews

Best Gay Erotica 2008

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A collection of seventeen short stories from seventeen different writers. They are varied and cover a wide range of preferences, ages and types, but all are of a good standard of writing and live up to the title description.

They include stories about: a young student who likes being tied up; foot and tickle fetish; the guy who gets more than just leather goods from a member of the leather store staff; a guy getting carried away posing for Polaroids; a student who pays his way by hustling; recollections of growing up and the writer's various encounters and more; a guy who likes to be hurt; the young guy who meets a student ornithologist - can they make a go of it? -; a guy who likes to keep his cowboy tied and gagged all day; a guy who is picked up and enjoys a session of bondage and abuse involving three slaves and two masters - with an interesting twist at the end; the man on a business trip to Paris, he's not over the anger of the loss of his lover, he's not looking for another, but when the restaurant owner invites him home . . . ; a very short story about a guy who dices with danger and a condom; and a hot encounter in a dark corner of a New York underground station that starts as a twosome, becomes a threesome - but then there are just two again . . .

Dear Cougar,

As one of the contributing writers to Best Gay Erotica 2008, I am humored by your puritanical stance on what is known as the best gay erotica collection in contemporary gay men's lit--and for a reason--its EDGE. If candlelight suppers and boxes of chocolate are what you seek in sexual writing, I suggest you check out one of the numerous "gay romance" titles that are sweeping the market these days. I read the entire aforementioned collection--and as a reader--was not put off by these loaded criteria you listed. Things that are not permissible in "real life" have the opportunity to exist in literature for a reason--it's only writing. You strike me as a grudging assimilationist type and if you--as you mentioned--refuse to check out anything from these editors in the future, your exposure to renegade gay literary culture will suffer. I suspect, however, that you are trying to tango in a mosh pit and should keep your incendiary, clean-butt, evangelical criticism where it belongs--with you. Meanwhile, the rest of us will revel in our artistic freedom as unapologetic queers.

Charlie Vazquez, NYC

Most of the stories I have read so far are weird. Like, too weird to turn me on weird. A couple centered around bondage, one started out talking about craigslist hookups. And most of them haven't had actual sex scenes yet--just memories or projections into the future. It's kinda lame. I'll update when I finish reading the whole thing--IF I finish reading the whole thing...

I ordered this and recieved it before expected! I was pleasantly surprised by the contents, as I have never really read erotica before.

This collection proves that erotica is better than porn. It's all the sluttiness you love about porn with a mixture of the human element that porn simply can't convey. Because it's divided into short stories rather than a long, drawn-out story, it's a quick read that keeps the reader's interest with changing storylines and sexual experiences. For example, one of the stories involves a foot fetish, which is good for foot fetishists. I'm not a foot fetishist but I found the story interesting anyway, and it's only a few pages long so if feet are a major turn-off, you've still got the rest of the book to enjoy.

Four stars because it's a great collection and I hope to read more in the series.