Shannon 's Reviews > Please, Sir

This is the companion anthology to a book I previously reviewed, Yes, Sir , also edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. Please, Sir is similar but there is a notable difference in the style of stories, and I found I liked it less than Yes, Sir.

A woman makes a bad joke about her husband at a party and must pay the price. Another discovers the power of her lover's choking hold on her neck. A woman's lust for her martial arts instructor leads to an exciting battle of power. Foreplay in public, at the opera. All kinds of sex and sexual play are on the table, and while some of the stories have great tension and interplay, some were more lacklustre.

These stories aren't porn: they aren't sex for the sake of sex. They all explore women and men's minds (but especially the former) and what makes us tick. They explore our darkest fantasies and liberate our desires. As Bussel puts it in her introduction:

If you ask me, submission is an art form. It requires dedication, focus, commitment and desire - and there’s no single way of doing it. It’s about unlocking something within yourself so you can reach beyond your normal limits, exposing your body and soul in order to go somewhere you cannot get to alone.

That's what I love about erotica, that psychological aspect, but I'm less keen when the writing gets too artsy-farty, as a couple of these stories did. I don't think of erotica as the kind of genre in which you want to play with experimental prose styles. It's just too distracting, detracting.

Of the 22 stories in this collection, the majority are nicely kinky, fun and thrilling. Some of them stand out, like the one about the woman who's fitted with a dog collar and leash - and nothing else - and taken for a walk in the park. Exhibitionism makes me cringe, but the story was fun despite it. There's great variety here, but not too many stand out in my memory, and they seemed somehow less than the first volume, Yes, Sir. A good read, but a bit forgettable.