You can trust that Rachel Kramer Bussel is going to put together a good anthology. Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 7 is thoughtful with a wide range of stories. I don’t expect to like every story in an anthology, and erotica is tougher because it taps into a place that can be rawly personal. When Kramer Bussel puts an anthology together, I know I will at least appreciate most of the stories.
My only complaint about the book is one I frequently have about e-arcs. The formatting was wonky (please, publishers, please make sure your e-arcs a formatted correctly). In this case, the text was broken up so that the whole book read as long form, modernist, deconstructed poetry. For example, from the introduction:
surprises, birthday parties where a roomful of guests shout the
fateful word at a startled celebrant would leap to mind. I wanted to offer readers different types of surprises. Inside this book
you’ll find a woman who sees color because she has synesthesia
I am generally pretty good at ignoring odd formatting, but in this case it kept my brain engaged on an intellectual level that distracts from descending into the primal brain. So, initially I thought that I hadn’t enjoyed this collection as much as I did last year’s. But every time I went back to look at a story as I was drafting this review, I would remember that I really did like the stories quite a lot.
The theme this year is Surprise. Everyone understood the assignment.
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Angelina M. Lopez’s “Hot Pockets” was one of the standouts. A married couple has to work to find pockets of time for passion. A number of the stories involve established couples doing something that alters their dynamic, whether that’s finding a new way to meet needs, adding a third, or reigniting passion after a long illness. In Corrina Lawson’s “Wicked Ride” a couple with psychic abilities experiments with using their mental powers to explore sex joyfully and safely.
In some stories relationships take a surprising turn, in others, there is no expectation of a relationship. I particularly enjoyed “Gravity” by Gwendolyn J. Bean, where the surprise is the world itself. I really appreciated the range of women who explored their sexual desires and were the objects of desire.
Reading anything that stretches the boundaries of polite cis het sex feels like a political act. Culturally, we seem to taking a turn back towards the puritanical. I am not in favor. I am feeling more comfortable in my relationship with erotica now that I better understand my relationship to attraction and desire (I identify as aro-ace). Though it might seem counter intuitive, reading the way a lot of different kinds of people imagine romantic and sexual relationships has allowed me to know myself.
I can’t guarantee that you will like all or any of the stories in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 7, but I can guarantee they were chosen thoughtfully.
I received this as an advance reader copy from NetGalley and Cleis Press. My opinions are my own.