C
Genre: Audiobook, Erotica/Erotic Romance, Romance
Quinn Audio is a paid app that offers immersive erotic short stories that, IMO, are organized by trope and archetype in a way that will appeal to romance readers (enemy to lover, forbidden work relationship, etc). You can pay by month or by year.
One of the draws to Quinn is that some of the narrators are famous actors that listeners might be familiar with, like Jamie Campbell, Hudson Williams, and Connor Storrie.
I started with Yes, Chef narrated by Shawn Hatosy from The Pitt. It took a minute for me to get the hang of things because I’m used to listening to audio books. This is different: the narrator reads a story (in this case released in chapters) from their point of view. There’s no dialogue or voice from a second party. In the scenes where the narrator is supposed to be talking to another party we gauge what is said based on their responses.
For example, the narrator might say, “What do you mean I didn’t follow you back on instagram? (pause) Oh, I didn’t know I was supposed to do that.”
We never actually hear the other character say anything like “Hey why didn’t you follow me back on Instagram?” We inuit that from the response.
It’s kind of weird, listening to half the conversation and while I think some listeners will adapt like I did, others might hate it.
The story was also told as if the narrator, in this case Grant Reilly, is recounting the story of meeting “you,” a sous chef named Iris Adams. It’s kind of like a [Y/N] fanfic where the listener occupies the space of the second character.
This achieves a lot of intimacy in the narrative because it sounds like another person is speaking directly to you about events that have occurred. It’s an intimacy that could absolutely sell the app to some listeners, while turning off others completely.
This is not something I want to listen to in public spaces. I’m not comfortable listening to something this intimate while at work. I could absolutely see myself accidentally connecting to some bluetooth device while Jamie Campbell Bower purrs “Good girl” throughout the office forcing me to fake my own death and move to another country.
That said, it does work for me in cases where I want an immersive story, but I don’t have the attention span for more than a short story. Because the stories are brief and the plot is relatively simple, there isn’t a lot of room to get lost.
It’s also extremely immersive. Behind the narration is background noise appropriate to the scene. For example, a scene narrated by a chef working in a restaurant had all the appropriate kitchen sounds like clinking dishes. As the scene progressed to the restaurant being closed with the narrator cleaning up, you could hear the spritz of squirt bottles and the soft sound of sweeping. That background noise really pulled me into the audio and made me feel like I was present in the story.
This feeling of immersion can flip the opposite direction depending on how you feel about “moist” sounds. I don’t know if I have misophonia or what but the wet sounds of people kissing make me gaggy (see my Bachelor recaps) so I Did Not Like the kissing sounds that show up in the erotic scenes. There are other moist sounds, too, associated with thrusting or oral sex, so just beware. These stories are very explicit.
I listened to a couple of the multi chapter Quinn Originals. The Trials narrated by Jamie Campbell Bower is very Dramione coded.
The one-shot offerings were less my thing. It’s a single chapter offering that’s basically just a sex scene. There’s no real background or story to get into. The one I listened to was an aftercare and tender sex scene taking place after a rough sex session. You don’t need to know anything to jump into it, but it also felt less transportive because of that lack of background.
Overall, this app isn’t for me. There aren’t that many multi chapter originals, which is the offering I enjoy, and I can’t listen to it everywhere. That means I’m not really getting my money’s worth. I can see this working really well for other listeners though, so I’m giving it a middle of the road grade.
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Thanks!
THANK YOU. I was debating this but I wasn’t willing to Fork over the money yet because I’m not a big fan of audiobooks. I have a huge ick on food and related noises. I can’t even stand to listen to my husband chew sometimes. Seriously I want to take a pillow and smother him. The moist or kissing noises would completely gross me out and make me mad.
In case this would sway anyone: erotica voiced by Sam Heughan.
I appreciate this review! Something about the IG promos of this app has bothered me, definitely leaning on the draw of popular actors while being somewhat vague about what it is. If I can’t have a decent idea what something is without signing up and downloading an app, I am very unlikely to try it. Also it bothers me that there’s zero mention of the authors of these stories. Shouldn’t they be recognized? Are the scripts AI generated? Their website does solicit scripts but authors aren’t identified from what I can see. But ultimately, it’s the wet noises that make this a no-go for me!!
I tried this out all the way back when Andrew Scott did an Original then I dropped it and then I came back for a second try when JCB did his Original. Ultimately not for me, but it was worth looking at for a minute.
I will be the dissenting view here; I freaking love Quinn and everything about it. It depends on how much storyline you need and how romanterotica you need your romanterotica can be. There are so many creators who can whip up the sweetest romantic concoction. It depends on who you land on.
The most involved celeb audio plotwise is definitely The Trials, and – though I still have a bone to pick with how it ended, but I’m fannish enough for it to write about it, heh. Ember and ice is also good, for those who love Heated Rivalry and Romantasy. I’m also addicted to a number of the original creators the ap platforms.
@squee me: the authors are credited in the info of every story chapter and they’re all human beings /knows of Tyler, who wrote both halves of The Trials. The company is very anti-AI from what I understand.
@Lisa F I am glad to hear they are anti-AI and that they credit authors!
And I did not mean to yuck anyone’s yum! I had a sense from the promos that this wasn’t for me and this review confirmed it. But I can see how it could be appealing for many listeners.
@Lisa F, I actually liked Quinn (and certain creators) but it was hard to find the time to make it worth my while, if that makes sense.
@footiepjs – Hah, I get what you mean!
@squee me – Nah, different strokes for different folks!
I’ve been curious about Quinn, but this review talked me out of trying it. I subscribe to Dipsea and I love that the stories have two narrators through all the stories. there are also “[character] + you” but i get less out of those. So if that’s all Quinn is, I’m way less interested.