Customer Reviews

Lust: Bisexual Erotica

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

 

 

I was very excited for this to come in the mail. I was under the impression, as it states, that it was primarily a book of bisexual erotica for women. Perhaps it's only me, but I thought this would leave out any male-male scenes. I would have liked to know that prior to purchase. And it doesn't necessarily bother me they exist-- it's just not something geared towards my interest or something that turns me on.

To be perfectly honest, there is an awful lot about this book that is a major turn-off. I'm about half way through the stories, and I think I may have to stop altogether, primarily because I haven't met a single character I liked or could see myself wanting to engage with. Many of the characters are just unlikable and downright shady. I don't have a problem with prostitution or the sex industry as a whole. But why are so many of the characters involved in it? Especially, perhaps only in my opinion, when it serves so little purpose. Many of the character's personalities were so wholly unlikable. It made each unfavorable circumstance seem even shadier.I would have much preferred something less circumstantially "dirty" and more sexually so.

Many of the author's stylistic choices made absolutely no sense to me. I can understand rape fantasies. They are a little triggering for me, but I understand them. What I do not understand is why it would be prudent to any sort of story line that one of the women to be involved in a particular scene was previously raped three times in succession. Nothing to completely turn me off like rape.

And perhaps if the book's main intention was not erotica, that would work in a storyline. Maybe. I say "maybe" because even the writing is sub-par. The plots are not geared towards erotica, and yet they would be lost if made to stand without that distinguishing characteristic. They are poorly designed and poorly executed. Oh, and heavily anti-climactic in every sense.

I just finished reading Marilyn Jaye Lewis's new book Lust, a collection of her eclectic and wonderful short stories. My overall impression ... Marilyn is a seriously good writer! These stories are erotic, nasty (in the very best sense of the word), witty, charming, and affecting, occasionally all at the same time. No easy trick. Some of the stories I'd read previously in other publications. And of course I had a number of favorites, for example, Daddy's Girl, I Like Boys, and Anal, to mention just a few.

I certainly hope Marilyn gives us more erotica in the future. But I don't want to imply that her stories succeed only as erotica. It's good fiction that works on many levels. Read it. You'll be glad you did.

I've been a fan of Marilyn Jaye Lewis since reading a story of hers in an old book called The Unmade Bed. I was thrilled to see a whole collection dedicated to her talent. Lust is an excellent collection -- one of the sexiest books I've ever read!

I'm afraid I'm not impressed. To say any of this functions as good fiction is a real stretch of kindness. OK, so there's a plotline here and there. But most of these stories are smut that's aspiring to be literary. Good try. But not successful. There are other books out there that can manage the blend of the erotic and the literary. This definitely ain't one of them.

Though I've enjoyed Marilyn Jaye Lewis's stories in anthologies, I'd never bought one of her books until now. I find her to be a wonderful alternative to some of the stuff that's in bookstores now -- her writing is unpretentious but colorful, direct yet artful. There's authenticity in these stories but I don't feel like I'm looking through a forbidden peephole to get a glimpse of her life. Her writing might even be too good for the erotica genre but I'm glad she's writing because it restores my faith in what *can* be accomplished in sex writing. She reminds me a little of M. Christian in that her stories are more than sex. They have depth and meaning, making the sex merely a bonus (and not all the stories actually have sex, which I think is another cool thing). Anyway, had to share.