Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
Some of these are decent. Some are terrible. The rest are just underwhelming. I’m not sure all the authors understood the assignment. There’s such an elitist snobbery in a bunch of literary authors deciding to titillate the world with this collection. Do they think this is erotica? Have any of them read good contemporary erotica (or a steamy scene in a romance novel)? It doesn’t seem like most have, and as a result their stories are not remotely sexy. Also, why do they have to be anonymous? Are
Since this is essentially a short story collection, I didn’t read it straight through, but rather dipped into it to read one or two stories at a time, over the course of about a week. And as with any short story collection, the quality of the stories, and my enjoyment of them, varied a lot. The premise of this collection of erotic stories is very clever: 27 stories written by 27 writers, but you don’t know who wrote which story. My favorites were probably the adult retelling of the Rapunzel stor...
A book about all kinds of sex! A short story collection! A book with 27 authors writing stories anonymously! Bring it on!Except...no. I don't remember being so disappointed by any short story collection as this one. In all anthologies, there is at least one great story and a couple of good ones. But this one was an exception.Most of the stories didn't even make sense. I am all for open endings given that they are thought-provoking. There is nothing of that sort in this book. The endings of many
I was super looking forward to this one with Jordan as an editor along with the concept of authors submitting their super sexy stories but without attribution within the short story collection. There were some heavy-hitters in the lineup. However I got the feeling when I had just started it that I was going to be disappointed as a whole with the anthology. And it didn't get better as I moved through a few more, unfortunately. The book had the overall vibe that I didn't feel. Now again, title, co...
Anonymous Sex has an intriguing hook: This collection of 27 erotic stories was written anonymously by highly-regarded and much-awarded literary authors. I'd actually only previously read a few of these authors (who are attributed alphabetically at the beginning of the book), but I love a good sexy story and was eager to see what all of these writers would come up with -- especially writing under the no-holds-barred condition of anonymity. I read the first story, "History Lesson," about a yearly
First off, in concept, this book is great. However, the execution ... well, the execution was terrible! This book is touted as a collection of short stories that are "erotic" and that the concept was to allow the authors the freedom to write anything their heart desired, under the guise of anonymity. I'm not certain that the authors understood the assignment. I didn't find any of the short stories to be particularly "erotic". The first one was interesting ... then they all went downhill fast fro...
I agree with other reviewers that some of these stories are meh. But wow, some of them are great. I wish I knew who wrote which chapter, because I'd love to follow up with other stories/books by the same authors. The first story, History Lesson, had me hooked. The main character gives herself permission to have kinky sex once a year with a certain someone at an annual conference. Love it. One Day in the Life of Josephine Bellanote Munro is now possibly one of my favorite short stories of all tim...
A promising idea, sadly less than brilliantly executed. The anonymity afforded to the authors seems to have freed very few from any constraints. A couple of the stories were interesting, but more were forgettable and simply prove once more the point that nothing is more difficult to write than sex - even without the fear of being scrutinised.
When award winning authors come together to write highly sophisticated "trashy" stories, botch of a book like this emerges from the wreckage. : ")
Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for providing the arc of Anonymous Sex by approximately 27 authors, in exchange for my honest review.What caught my attention with this book was the fact that they are short stories written anonymously. The authors could write whatever they wanted without putting their name on it. The stories range from sweet, innocent sex to hardcore BDSM, young love to elderly love, and everything in between, cheating, kink, revenge, unrequited, funny, and so on. There’s a l...
First, thank you so much to NetGalley for this advance copy of Anonymous Sex.What a fantastic idea, so credibly and trickily executed: The book is titled Anonymous Sex, and it's a compilation of stories/essays/musings by various authors. Those authors are listed alphabetically, their stories are not. You read the stories not knowing who wrote them. No point of reference. Whether you think the story is based on truth, whether the author wrote the story more freely knowing that the reader didn't q...
Real Rating: 3.5* of five, rounded down for the unbearable straightness of it allI RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU (SORT OF).My Review: Point one: I'm queer as the proverbial three-dollar bill. Point two: I'm old. Sex, while it still entertains and even once in a while delights me (given that the party of the second part is far away ATM that's not the most common occurrence), I'm not as, um, invested in the subject as I once was. Point three: I've internalized a lot mo...
These are short erotic stories, compiled into one book, all from active authors, but the catch is you don’t know who wrote which story. The authors are listed alphabetically at the beginning of the book, but no one is listed with the story.Some of these stories were great and some… well weren’t. But the good thing is that they are all quick reads, and if you’re not into one you can move along to the next. I think in your interesting in the read, and don’t mind story that contain sex, you can fin...
Title: Anonymous SexAuthor: Hillary JordanPublisher: ScribnerReviewed By: Arlena DeanRating: FourReview:"Anonymous Sex' by Hillary JordanMy Assessment:'Anonymous Sex' was quite a read of twenty-seven erotic stories. Now, if this is your kind of read, then you have come to the right place because these authors give it all to you as they present their anonymous short and sweet stories. You may not enjoy all of these stories; however, there will be something just for you because many topics will be...
I thought this book was going to be great spicy stories. Anonymous erotica seems like the authors could really go for it. In actuality it was a pretty depressing read for the most part. A couple of the stories I would have loved to know more, but mostly this book just left me sad. I had expectations of secret fantasies. This one made me feel like I was the lover looking at their watch to see how long it's taking for it to be over.Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.
In brief - If this is your sort of thing and you have an open mind some of these stories are very good. In fullI really did like the concept of this book of short stories. Known authors get to write short stories about sex anonymously. I'd heard of or read a handful of the authors involved and felt this might make an interesting change of reading. I see that the blurb says that there are 27 stories. My copy is a pre publication one but I appear to have read 31.These stories do cover a fairly wid...
It's been a hot minute since I've read any erotica. But give me 27 authors with 27 erotic stories and you have no idea who wrote what? Well, don't you threaten me with a good time!!Alas, meep. I was thoroughly intrigued - especially with this large cast of amazing authors. And I'm sure, like with most anthologies there is something for everyone. Unfortunately, for the most part these were a miss for me. The very first story had me intrigued - so much that if I knew who the author was, I'd write
There are many different ways one could write a story about sex — erotic, arousing, sensual, romantic, comfortable, familiar, edgy, transgressive, subversive, whimsical, humorous, embarrassing, descriptive, clinical, anticipatory, a remembrance, etc. The theory behind “Anonymous Sex” was that by keeping the stories anonymous, the authors would feel uninhibited and produce more expressive and higher quality stories. In my opinion, the editors and authors failed in this goal. I started the book an...
I was intrigued and excited to read this book. The premise of an anthology with 27 authors writing stories about sex in different facets of life anonymously really pulled me in. However, now that I've finished it, I'm disappointed. The majority of the short stories were uncomfortable and awkward to read. I didn't find any of the stories sexy and out of 27 stories, I only really liked 3. The 3 stories I enjoyed were "Find Me," "Vis a Vis 1953" and "Partita." Maybe I didn't enjoy this because I ca...
“She claws his buttocks more deeply into the clenched slop of her sex” is a line from the story “LVIII Times a Year.” This is, all by itself, a excruciating line, but it just one of many examples in this collection of an author using “sex” instead of more specific words to describe genitalia. The phrase “her sex” occurs four times and “his sex” appears twice. This might not seem like a lot spread over twenty-seven stories, but as the examples accumulated it occurred to me that this decorous, ant...