Love Alters: Stories of Lesbian Love and Erotica

by Emma Donoghue (Editor)

Twenty-nine stories of lesbian love and erotica from writers both new and established, edited by the bestselling author of Room!

This exciting anthology features internationally renowned authors from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, South Africa, America, Canada, Jamaica, Trinidad, Australia, and New Zealand writing about a subject is seeing a rise in popularity as the public's appetite increases for erotica of all kinds. Compiled not because the authors identify as lesbian (or agree with labels at all), each of these stories deals with themes of love, lust, loss, or a combination of the three, by women writers of all persuasions. The result is a wild, exciting, and fresh collection of lesbian short stories -- perfect for reading aloud or enjoying alone.

With its focus on new writing as well as established writers the authors featured here include: Dorothy Allison, Patricia Dunker, Tanith Lee, Jennifer Levin, Anna Livia, Ingrid Macdonald, Sara Maitland, Shani Mootoo, Ali Smith, Elizabeth Taylor, Shay Youngblood, and many others.

Genres: Short Stories, LGBT, Queer, Lesbian, Fiction, Romance, Anthologies

624 pages, Paperback

First published May 16, 2013

About the author

Grew up in Ireland, 20s in England doing a PhD in eighteenth-century literature, since then in Canada. Best known for my novel, film and play ROOM, also other contemporary and historical novels and short stories, non-fiction, theatre and middle-grade novels.

Reviews

[Tzipora]

IMPORTANT- This book is retitled and second publication of the Emma Donoghue edited anthology known as The Mammoth Book of Lesbian Stories. This is the exact same collection of stories but under a new title and with a vastly different cover.

Just wanted to share that because I mistakenly bought this only to start reading and realize that I already had the original. So readers and collectors of lesbian short stories and anthologies- be aware.

[Emily Davies (libraryofcalliope) · Rating 3 out of 5]

“𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘰𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵, 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘮 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺.”
In this short story collection, Donoghue assembles stories from nearly 30 authors, including Ali Smith, Dale Gunthorp, Michelene Wandor and Shani Mootoo. The stories are set all over the world and contain a variety of genres, time periods and concepts, but they are all united by their lesbian themes. Like most short story collections, these were a mixed bag. The ones I liked I LOVED- some of them were really beautiful, gripping and well told- but others didn’t capture me in the same way. The ones I liked I will absolutely treasure though.

[Geertje · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm going to DNF this at page 172 for the simple reason I put it down a week ago and I've had no desire whatsover to pick it up again. I enjoyed some of the stories, but there were also a lot of stories I felt were just okay. Of course this is an anthology of different writers, so what you get is always a mixed bag, and I may be missing some great stories, but I also feel life is too short to pressure yourself to read books you feel underwhelmed by.

[Amberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started and finished date - 20.11.24 to 22.11.24.
My rating - Three Stars.
I liked this book but I didn't love it. The atmosphere was fine and the writing was okay. The paced of plot was bit slow and I would have this book to be shorter also I like some of stories but I didn't like other stories. the cover of book was stunning. The characters was okay but they needed be flash out bit more.

[Bryndís · Rating 2 out of 5]

With Self-Deliverance by Elise D'Haene as an oulier: ☆☆☆☆☆!! I love that story. It almost made me cry and I still think about it, weeks later.

(Honorable mention for The Tale of the Kiss by Emma Donoghue. ☆☆☆ liked that one quite a bit.)

[Simone · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this. So many wonderful stories!

[Bonnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good diverse collection of stories with an international flavour. Something for everyone.

[Ilse · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories - Some were great but as a collection I wanted more.

[Susan Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a quick recommendation of the Short Story Anthology: Love Alters: Lesbian Stories.

This is a really great varied collection (over 30 short stories), with an eclectic set of writers and styles. I felt like the collection was very well put together and grouped into subjects, it gave the stories a really great flow. It also kept me reading it in the intended order which I don't normally do when I'm reading short story collections.

It has also introduced me to a lot of writers that I hadn't previously heard of/read (Shay Youngblood, Shani Mootoo) as well as showing me another side of some famous writers work, (Ali Smith, Tanith Lee and Emma Donoghue).

[Mary Espaillat · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't read all of this book but I'm jumping around reading as much as possible. It's so refreshing to read stories that are just about straight people. And I get tired of looking for stories with characters who are non-monosexual(or behave in such a way) that aren't simply mixed gender love triangles or the non-mono character breaking up a relationship. This book has a wide variety of stories in which certain characters break plenty of taboos. I would absolutely suggest anyone looking for lesbian/non-mono romance give this book a shot.

[Ki-ri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely collection of short stories! Not all of them are great, but most were really good and there were some true gems. I enjoyed it a lot.

[Grace 🎻 · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok I guess it was something which I read I. small amounts the short stories were pretty realistic!