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The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Erotica: New Edition
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512 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 31, 2015
I feel like I have way too much to say about this, and very little of it is good. So to be nice, especially to the writers who made the effort to submit to this anthology, there are a few good stories in here. There are a few more that had the potential, if they had been carefully edited or gone through a couple of more rewrites. There are some that are somewhat skillfully executed, but just not to my taste.
There. Apart from that, this is total and utter shite. I don't know who this Barbara Cardy is (apart from the blurb about her living with her husband, children and a host of animals on the English countryside), but shame on you! You had a job, and it should have entailed a little more than writing a blurb about yourself and putting your name on the cover. If you have any wits about you at all, you know exactly what I mean. And shame on Robinson Publishing. I would seriously consider giving people back their money for paying for this cynically put-together 500 pages worth of crap. I feel bad for the writers whose stories were actually not bad, even if they were scarce. But the editing! And the poor judgment. A mentally retarded chipmunk would have done a better job selecting the stories to include in this book. And MS Word would have done a better job proof-reading it.
There. Apart from that, this is total and utter shite. I don't know who this Barbara Cardy is (apart from the blurb about her living with her husband, children and a host of animals on the English countryside), but shame on you! You had a job, and it should have entailed a little more than writing a blurb about yourself and putting your name on the cover. If you have any wits about you at all, you know exactly what I mean. And shame on Robinson Publishing. I would seriously consider giving people back their money for paying for this cynically put-together 500 pages worth of crap. I feel bad for the writers whose stories were actually not bad, even if they were scarce. But the editing! And the poor judgment. A mentally retarded chipmunk would have done a better job selecting the stories to include in this book. And MS Word would have done a better job proof-reading it.
April 24, 2015
The worst "stories", most of them read as though they have been written by any and everybody other than a lesbian woman.
December 13, 2020
Quite nice, as these things go.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 15, 2014
I’m writing this review 193 pages in. I’m not sure when I’ll finish this book (although I am marking it as read), there’s too much triggering content and I’m not enjoying reading it (and I don’t mean that in the sexual way).
I have to say that I am quite disappointed by this book. I have a mixed relationship with erotica, I can say that it is the only genre I don’t like reading. I bought and tried to read this book mainly because I wanted to read about lesbians and this book was advertised as being “sensual” and a really good read. Not really though. The writing is crappy (with only one story so far that was well written in the literary sense). I’ve read 500 word Destiel fics that are better written. In fact, even though I’ve read a lot of crappy fandom fics that were clearly written by 13 year old girls who are total virgins and learnt everything they know about sex from other 13 year old girls who are also total virgins, I could compile an extensive (and much better) book of erotica (yeah t would mostly be M/M but so what).
Warning: TMI ahead
I have never really read any F/F erotica before, I’m used to the M/M stuff that the fandoms dominate. I had really high hopes, sadly I was let down.
My first issue was the majority of the storied in this book do not read like stories by women about men, all I could think about while reading it was how much like “lesbian” porn (you know, girl on girl action solely aimed at men) it was. Very little sensuality – maybe that’s just me as sex in my mind is never just about “fucking” (in the detached clinical sense), sex is tied up in my mind with love and romance and emotion and all that. Most of the stories use the work “fucking” in the most heterosexual sense (one person fucking (dominating, penetrating forcefully etc) another more submissive person, with the pleasure being focussed entirely on what one partner wants). Not to mention all the shitty euphemisms for female genitalia (although they did make me laugh).
Second issue is too many dildos. Why. Why. I’m a lesbian, I don’t like dick, or dick-shaped objects, penetrative sexual acts are just plain disturbing, the total opposite of sexy
Third was a lot of the stories had significant consent issues. I understand that there are women out there who like that kind of thing, but I don’t, it’s majorly triggering! I’d expect the dubcon and the BDSM in the mammoth book of kinky lesbian sex. I skip read most of the stories when it became obvious that consent was not navigated realistically. I can tell you, if I put my hand on the boob of a distraught friend and started groping her I’m pretty sure she’d consider that sexual assault. It really frustrates me that people write these stories without portraying sex how it actually is. In a TV show I love, two women questioning their sexuality get together, and they have the consent talk without being all unsexy. So it is possible to do that, people who say “well of course real life isn’t like that, this is just a fantasy” piss me off. Give your “fantasies” trigger warning please!
Fourthly I understand the difficulties of writing short stories, a task I fail at (I’ve never written anything under 20,000 words), but honestly the characterisation was terrible. So many times in this book a woman walks past a mirror and we get an in-depth breakdown of her appearance. Which is not how it works, when I walk past a mirror I don’t think “I saw an attractive face with bright blue eyes, short tussled hair, slightly chubby figure in a loose grey tee and my favourite deep green jeans”. No one I know thinks that about themselves, EVER. Unless I’m getting dressed. I can’t actually remember if I read an essay on this or I plan to write one but honestly that’s not how you characterise, it’s too cliché and it makes me cringe.
This book represents a lot of things that I have about average writers who want to be good but just aren’t. I’m very, very frustrated right now and am going to go read Dante to make myself feel better about books.
I have to say that I am quite disappointed by this book. I have a mixed relationship with erotica, I can say that it is the only genre I don’t like reading. I bought and tried to read this book mainly because I wanted to read about lesbians and this book was advertised as being “sensual” and a really good read. Not really though. The writing is crappy (with only one story so far that was well written in the literary sense). I’ve read 500 word Destiel fics that are better written. In fact, even though I’ve read a lot of crappy fandom fics that were clearly written by 13 year old girls who are total virgins and learnt everything they know about sex from other 13 year old girls who are also total virgins, I could compile an extensive (and much better) book of erotica (yeah t would mostly be M/M but so what).
Warning: TMI ahead
I have never really read any F/F erotica before, I’m used to the M/M stuff that the fandoms dominate. I had really high hopes, sadly I was let down.
My first issue was the majority of the storied in this book do not read like stories by women about men, all I could think about while reading it was how much like “lesbian” porn (you know, girl on girl action solely aimed at men) it was. Very little sensuality – maybe that’s just me as sex in my mind is never just about “fucking” (in the detached clinical sense), sex is tied up in my mind with love and romance and emotion and all that. Most of the stories use the work “fucking” in the most heterosexual sense (one person fucking (dominating, penetrating forcefully etc) another more submissive person, with the pleasure being focussed entirely on what one partner wants). Not to mention all the shitty euphemisms for female genitalia (although they did make me laugh).
Second issue is too many dildos. Why. Why. I’m a lesbian, I don’t like dick, or dick-shaped objects, penetrative sexual acts are just plain disturbing, the total opposite of sexy
Third was a lot of the stories had significant consent issues. I understand that there are women out there who like that kind of thing, but I don’t, it’s majorly triggering! I’d expect the dubcon and the BDSM in the mammoth book of kinky lesbian sex. I skip read most of the stories when it became obvious that consent was not navigated realistically. I can tell you, if I put my hand on the boob of a distraught friend and started groping her I’m pretty sure she’d consider that sexual assault. It really frustrates me that people write these stories without portraying sex how it actually is. In a TV show I love, two women questioning their sexuality get together, and they have the consent talk without being all unsexy. So it is possible to do that, people who say “well of course real life isn’t like that, this is just a fantasy” piss me off. Give your “fantasies” trigger warning please!
Fourthly I understand the difficulties of writing short stories, a task I fail at (I’ve never written anything under 20,000 words), but honestly the characterisation was terrible. So many times in this book a woman walks past a mirror and we get an in-depth breakdown of her appearance. Which is not how it works, when I walk past a mirror I don’t think “I saw an attractive face with bright blue eyes, short tussled hair, slightly chubby figure in a loose grey tee and my favourite deep green jeans”. No one I know thinks that about themselves, EVER. Unless I’m getting dressed. I can’t actually remember if I read an essay on this or I plan to write one but honestly that’s not how you characterise, it’s too cliché and it makes me cringe.
This book represents a lot of things that I have about average writers who want to be good but just aren’t. I’m very, very frustrated right now and am going to go read Dante to make myself feel better about books.
June 27, 2010
My short story "Hanging In Suspense" is featured in this book!! :D
February 26, 2024
Absolutely dreadful because the dynamics between the partners were all highly unhealthy. In those stories which I read it was all.about one female being in a position of authority and abusing that power in order to seduce often times another female who was not interested in a sexual encounter of any kind. Basically this is work sexual harrassment and rape.but it's all fun and sexy, right?, when eventually the one being raped gives in, becomes around and of course... has that final orgasm which is described as mindblowing. I was hoping for something a bit more enlightened than male porn but redone with female characters. While it is true that we might sometimes want to.be dominated and taken by surprise, maybe even a little coerced... what is absolutely true is that this is not the only dynamic that can lead to sex. Why all the authors I have read focused on this just gives me a mindfuck.
July 1, 2023
Only got to the end of the story “little women” and had to stop. The few stories I read were badly edited and used the same adjectives over and over (I swear the one story used the word moist about 20 times). The author of the story “little women” in this anthology seriously needs to attend a safe sex seminar since the things she describes could easily lead to a bacterial infection or trip to the ER for foreign body extraction.
August 22, 2021
SOO... LEWD (!!!) AND PREDICTABLY LESBIAN, THIS BOOK TOOK US TO A LEVEL OF WOMANLY NEEDS NEVER BEFORE CAPABLE!!!
Barbara Cardy has here written stories of LESBIAN ACTIVITIES SOO... DELICIOUS AND SORTED TO BE ON THE LEVEL OF EROTICISM SOO... PERVERTED AND DELIBERATE THAT IT WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY!!!
NO MORE TO SAY!!! READ AND ENJOY!!!
Barbara Cardy has here written stories of LESBIAN ACTIVITIES SOO... DELICIOUS AND SORTED TO BE ON THE LEVEL OF EROTICISM SOO... PERVERTED AND DELIBERATE THAT IT WILL TAKE YOUR BREATH AWAY!!!
NO MORE TO SAY!!! READ AND ENJOY!!!
March 22, 2021
dnf, but some of the stories were really hot!
February 6, 2023
Sweet and spicy
July 5, 2025
Another one I just couldn't finish, and life is just too short for badly written literature...
March 10, 2017
that matryoshka story was so weird i'll remember it for the rest of my life.
August 5, 2024
I'm wet, horny, and in need of a bottle of wine to loosen up (if you know what I mean). The scenes were so creative and beat every stereotypical lesbian sex scene. It's really well-written. Some scenes I wished there was a book about.
Re-reading and coming back to my few favorite chapters that turn me on made me wonder why I ever rated this book two-stars to begin with. This is the best ever Lesbian Erotic Anthology in my library. I promise, I've read quite a few.
Re-reading and coming back to my few favorite chapters that turn me on made me wonder why I ever rated this book two-stars to begin with. This is the best ever Lesbian Erotic Anthology in my library. I promise, I've read quite a few.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews