Published By: Borough Press
Pages: 400
Released On: 03/02/2022
Bestselling novelists Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan present an elegant, international anthology of erotica that explores the diverse spectrum of desire, written by winners of the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, PEN Awards, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Edgar Award, and more. There are stories of sexual obsession and sexual love, of domination and submission. There’s revenge sex, unrequited sex, funny sex, tortured sex, fairy tale sex, and even sex in the afterlife.
*****
Thanks to HarperCollins for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
Warning: this book is not safe for work (unless you work for an erotic literature publisher, in which case, hi).
Erotic books are often confined to “lesser” literature, of those with little or no value in the serious literary world, but I don’t agree. Erotic scenes, or novels as a whole, when done well, can make for thrilling and enjoyable reads, especially in classics such as Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Controversial and edge, but something experienced by most of us at some point in our life. Natural but unseen. This book brings the private into the public.
I’ve made my dislike of short stories very clear, but I feel these are the perfect length. Any longer and they become a bit too over the top, but any shorter and the plot and the characters would suffer.
There are some realistic stories, some abstract, some fantasy, some explicit, and some subtle, but they all have an honest primal human element that comes with intimacy.
Books By Your Bedside 