Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

I enjoyed your review, Sarah, and now I’m seriously tempted. Gay—no; voyeur—yes.

One question. What is a luxurious outing? On the cover of GQ, perhaps? If someone ever outs me, it had damn well better NOT be in the Weekly World News.

Lol Sarah, why do you think I love good slash fanfics. Gay sex is HOT.

Probably the reason why some gay characters sneaked into one of my NiPs and demanded some sex scenes ... and don’t you close the door. Not that I would. ;)

I just finished reading Spare Parts and am looking forward to hearing what you have to say about it. And yes, gay sex, is definitely hot, fan worthy, and well, uhm…quite the horizon expander.

I may have to pick up Hot Sauce now. I’m a little curious about who the intended audience for the Romentics line is, though. There are a lot of women who do truly love a gay romance (the success of Queer as Folk should have clued people in earlier). I’m sure there are men who will also like this line, but as Gabriele stated, the slash phenom is primarily a woman’s genre and this line of books doesn’t quite have that same feel (Or not as far as I can tell from one novel) but it’s darn close.

Okay Sarah.  I’m going out to get me that book.  I was intrigued and interested to begin with.  Then you got to the hot gay sex part.  Now I have to have it.  Ur…um…for research, of course.

PC
Lucky Cover Bitch

Damn, Sarah, that was one great review. Your honest response to a book, put into context. Thoughtful, brilliant and informative - and one of the best book reviews I’ve read in ages.

If ever I get published, I’m sending you a review copy. Even if you hate the book, I’ll know why it doesn’t work for you.

Okay, that’s my grovel for the day ;-)

Wow. I am SO getting this book.

I’ve done some nonfiction research into gay sex for one of the novels I’m working on, but oddly enough, I’ve never actually read any gay romances—an omission I intend to correct at my first opportunity. I’ve already written the gay and MMF scenes for the story, but I could very well be missing some key aspects of what goes on, particularly from the guy’s perspective.

And I totally believe you about the hotness. :-)

Stupid short input: I have a friend whose surname is Shakespeare.

*...*

That’s it, really. :)

Excellent review.  You’ve done just what a reviewer should do, highlight why this book is readable and interesting, where the flaws are, and how the author deals with the flaws.  Keep up the good work!

I’m so glad to hear it’s a good story. What with the last new episode of Queer as Folk last week, where is a girl supposed to get her fix of beautiful, mostly naked, men talking about relationships and love and feelings?

Woo hoo!

I hate to reveal my ignorance here, but what is “slash” fanfic?

Angela H.; slash fiction is at its base

“Slash is…amateur fiction containing a sexually-*charged* relationship between two same-sex media characters, usually men.”

It’s intresting to note though that slash is written in the vast majority by straight women.

The “slash” monkiner comes fromt ehuse of the [/] mark to delineate the characters, i.e. Kirk/Spock.

Thanks for the info, a.a.johnston.  That definition is much tamer than I was expecting.  I was kinda going along the lines of what Sarah was probably thinking.  Dirty, dirty girl.

Well, if your brains went to the dark and violent, or even to the “slasher” subset of the horror/thriller genre, that certainly exisits in fan fiction as well, both in and out of the slash genre (and given the subject matter of some of the source material, it’s not that surprizing.)

But no, in fanfiction terms, it refers to the use of homoerotic subtext, however overtly or covertly.

It doesn’t even have to be particualrly graphic sex. UST (unresolved sexual tension) is as much a part of slash fan fiction as first time stories.

—Alta

Words I learned from this Web site today:

Twincest
Slash Fiction

Used in a sentence (to prove that I understand my new vocabulary words:

“I wrote some slash fiction today in which the Coulter’s Sherbrooke Twins engage in Twincest.”

And now, back on topic: Good job. This was an emotionally honest and intellectually honest review. And yeah, it makes me want to read the book.

Hot Sauce sounds delicious! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I’ll have to add it to my wish list.

Troy does not use words to describe his feelings; he does much better with the gesture or the gift than he does with the verbal account of his ardor. He is smooth and sophisticated at all turns, except when describing his feelings verbally. Brad, however, desperately wants to hear Troy say The Words, and Troy manages to avoid these verbal exchanges.

I had to read it again ‘cause it was so fun, but this caught my eye.

One of the problems for women who like homoerotic romances is that there is definitely a dividing line between what women want out of a romance and what traditionally produced homoerotic (or even gay) fiction has to offer. I totally get that Romentics line strives to be different (and bless their happily comitted souls for giving it to us!)

In the aforementioned “slash” fiction, amateur fiction, there’s often a complaint that the guys are well, too much like women—that they talk too much about how they feel, because men (not all but in general)  don’t talk aobut how they feel and other guys don’t expect them to. Women want them too (and perhaps no where as commonly as in a traditional romance) but as a gentleman named Minotaur once told a room full of female writers, you know how hard it is to get a guy, your boyfriend or husband to communicate? Two guys together—it’s twice as difficult. [paraphrased]

I just found that particular plot point to be interesting. I’m not saying good or bad, just that it’s a reversal of much of what I’ve heard gay men say about homoerotic fiction written by women.

Hee! I may have to write Scott & Scott a fan letter.

I read the interview with Scott & Scott in The New York Times, and they definitely seem to have a more “traditional”, if that’s the correct word to use, view of Romance (with the capital R) than you’d find in most books written by men for men.  Brad certainly is not alone in his need to hear “I love you” (assuming those are the words you men).  There have been any number of threads on the AAR website about how unsatisfying a romance novel is if the hero doesn’t actually say this.  Until I read these posts, I’d never even noticed if the hero said ILY or not—and I still don’t particularly care as long as his actions speak loudly enough, but clearly there are others who do notice and whose enjoyment is lessened if the hero doesn’t articulate his feelings.  I enjoyed your review for all sorts of literary reasons but have to admit that learning about hot gay sex is what will induce me to buy the book.

P.S.  At least we now know that sexism isn’t the reason so many romance novels for women have bad covers—the men’s books have the same problem.

After reading your reviews of the novel covers, I actually laughed out loud. I had to share them with one of my ex boyfriends and my best friend. Wanting to eventually get into novel art, myself, I find it highly amusing the type of stuff some artists can get away with that I would never DARE to do. And I’m a boy who’s comfortable with ‘raunchier’ things.

Well done and well thought out. I really appreciate the effort taken not to stereotype gay romance in the ‘which one’s the male’ format, as things are never so cut and dried (even in real heterosexual relationships, there’s a give and take of masculine and feminine. Unless you’re married to the Brawney Paper Towel guy. Now there’s a dream come true!) If I wore a hat, I would definitely tip it to you lovely ladies for your hard work.

Regrading descriptive gay sex, if I remember correctly, James Baldwin had some pretty explicit homosexual sex scenes in at least one of his books.

As I was in high school when I read James Baldwin it may be much less explicit than I remember, but in my memory at least it was pretty descriptive.

No, insecurity certainly isn’t one gender only! Regarding the ‘imprint’, I frequently find that authors themselves do this. Even professional ones. You’ll find that one member of a same sex couple is almost always the more aggressive, sexual one, while the other is more meek and ‘proper lady’ish.

This is, unfortunately, most common in Slashfic, and more specifically in the anime slashfic subgrouping known collectively as yaoi or shonen ai.

As to the Brawney guy… Nah. They replaced him recently with a younger, softer, less rugged looking guy, which was kinda sad, in a way.

EEK! The new Brawney Guy! The one with the cake and the puppy? I’d chase him out ofthe house. And the guy that does the voice over? It’s like a bad horror story.

I agree about the yaoi/shonen ai fic, but quite honestly, that’s a whole other aesthetic than one we’re familiar with in western literature. The whole semi/uke dynamic doesn’t really have a analogy here that isn’t forced (i.e. making one character smaller and thus more feminine)

I’d happily reccommend Mel Keegan’s work if it wasn’t so damn expensive (And Mel seriously needs a better editor at times) but overall the stories and plats and characters hold up as being more realistic men rather than romanticized ones…

But still, The Romentics imprint comes closer to what I want than most novels.

Great review.  I read this book right about the time of the whole RWA survey hullabaloo.  For a few minutes there was a surreal sense, a, “Hey, I’m reading a book about a relationship, but they’re both gay!” Then I got caught up in the relationship and I just read it.  It was an excellent book to read in the afternoons at the wading pool. 

Now I’m just looking forward to the day when RWA has a subcategory titled, “Best gay romance.”  Heh.