Customer Reviews

Wet: More Aqua Erotica

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

A poor attempt at a follow-up to a mediocre book - you'd think the editors would learn and raise their standards some. Sloppy hack kind of stories by well-known writers, goofy "theme" stories by others, but, hey, the art work is nicely done. Look at the pictures in the store and you'll have seen the best of this book!

Coasting on waterproofing, it appears. Not much to it - avoid. There's nothing worse than bad erotica books, unless it's bad mysteries.

Good photos, not very good stories. Mary Gaitskill's reads like she's on something, and isn't sexy at all(and she's the reason I bought the book), and Mary Mohanaj's reads like a mish-mash of what someone thinks a lesbian story should be. In the rest there's not a star among them, although the lead story, "Salt" has a good poetic voice.

Hard to read, pretty dull, and a bit of an insult to erotica to use such a gimmick to sell it.

A waterproof erotica book, sequel to Aqua Erotica, with the shared theme of "water". So, in every story, water in its different forms are used as a catalyst for the stories.

This wasn't a bad erotica anthology as far as anthologies go. It was hit and miss as with any anthology, but for the most part, I did enjoy the stories. Some of them left me feeling cold, but there were quite a few that made up for some of the lackadaisical stories in the anthology. I think my favorite story in the whole collection was "Sakura". I did much care for the heroine who I found whiny and very childish, but I did enjoy the tone used in the story by the author.

I'll definitely keep this one around. It was entertaining at the most basic of levels, and it was much better than some other themed erotica books I have read.

I had to read it when I saw it, just to see how it could be as bad as everyone says. Themed anthologies are always a iffy proposition, since they tend to force writers into places they don't belong, and to compile one takes a highly-skilled editor to pull it off. Unfortunately this editor doesn't come near to any of that kind of talent. If it didn't have heavy marketing behind it this book would surely die the quiet death of dumb books, but instead it (and its predecessor, which was forgiven for a cute attempt at a bad idea) create a public embarassment for literary erotica as it is intended to be and the poor writers who had faith in the project.

Wet is a wonderful collection of soft erotica. Short stories with water as a theme. It's a waterproof book so you can enjoy it in the tub or at the lake or seashore.

Though I thoroughly enjoyed "Aqua Erotica", I felt that some of the stories were a let down. Either poorly written or imagined, not all of them worked for me. The ones that did work I felt made the book easily worth getting because when the stories were good, they were very good, but it wasn't one of the rare anthologies where I liked every single story.

"Wet" *is* one of those rare anthologies.

When I started compiling a list of only what I considered the best stories, I quickly realized that well over half were "favorites" and what remained was still good enough to stand out in another book. The only other anthology I've read with similarly consistent quality is "Blood is Not Enough"; a collection of vampire stories edited by Ellen Datlow.

Like the book of vampire stories, "Wet" covers its chosen territory well. Some stories are obviously thematic, others only obliquely, but they all tie together to make a book which is better than the sum of its parts. Obviously any book of erotica is going to be hit or miss at eliciting desire from the reader (I personally would have liked to have seen more diversity of sexual orientations -- the stories are nearly exclusively heterosexual), but if you like literary merit to go along with your titillation, you're very likely to enjoy this book.

Lastly, if you haven't held a Durabook (the process that makes them waterproof), you're in for a pleasant surprise. These books have a sensuous weight and feel which is extremely well suited to collections of erotica.

I have both of these books on my shelf and carry them with me wherever I go, on International postings, as great examples of the kind of erotica I like. I reread Wet often and have given it to several of my friends as gifts. I don't read a lot of erotica, but this collection I really like. Some of the stories have a bit of edge, others conjure up blurred images and leave something to the imagination. Tastey.

A bit of shallow water, some nice art work, but not much to read. I got bored and had to make myself finish, never a good sign for erotica!