Kamikaze Lust

by Lauren Sanders

Kamikaze Lust by first-time novelist Lauren Sanders takes the reader on an electrifying ride through the spectacle of life and death in millennial America. Smart, hardboiled and humorous, the novel taps our obsession with sex and death, sex and popular culture, sex and the written word, sex and pornography, sex and green M&Ms, and, of course, the perennial sex and love.

"Great courage must account for such complete disregard of political correctness, and great sensitivity for such sadness."
—Amanda Filipacchi, author of Vapor and Nude Men

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[erica ࣪ ִֶָ☾. · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5★
”Sentimental fools lapping up these last stolen moments of summer. I wanted someone to get hit by a bus.”

A struggling journalist accepts a job ghostwriting an autobiography on a porn star, and she begins to step outside of her comfort zone.
So different from what I normally read, but I haven’t read in over a month so that’s fitting! I read this because of a Pinterest review and it honestly felt like I was interrupting something the entire time I read, but I loved the writing style.

[Nairne Holtz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading a Lauren Sanders novel is like walking into a certain kind of bar: it’s fucked up but it’s interesting and you really don’t know what’s going to happen next, so you stick around. Consider that your trigger warning for this weird, dark, unsettling, sometimes funny, sometimes sexy novel. Ostensibly, Kamikaze Lust is a coming out novel, but it covers broader terrain, namely sex and death. The book stars Rachel Silver, a 31-year-old Jewish girl from Brooklyn who wishes she was Italian. She’s bad at relationships, has never had an orgasm in the presence of anyone besides her cat, and her life is full of turmoil. The newspaper where she works as a reporter is on strike. Her beloved aunt is dying of cancer and wants to be euthanized. Rachel wants to make out with her best friend but is scared to be a lesbian. She’s scared of a lot of things, thanks to her almost farcically fucked up family. When she leaves the picket line to work as a ghost writer for a feminist pornographer, she starts to cross other lines as well. In what feels like an elaborate and surreal exercise in exposure therapy, she pursues both her best friend and a male porn star and starts to tell people what she really thinks. Ultimately, this allows her to both let in love and let it go.

[Tiara · Rating 2 out of 5]

This mightve been not for me solely because I enjoy books w more plot than character study, but I gave it a try and I found Rachel to be a bit dull and it wasn't the riveting and insightful read I thought it would be, though it did try.

[Adara Storms · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was like sour candy, or chocolate with a weird aftertaste. I loved this with all of my heart. I will miss these characters like I knew them personally.

[jamie ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i will preface by saying that just because i have rated this low does not at all mean it's a bad book. i thought the writing was brilliant and unlike anything else i've read. the characters were incredibly well developed and contributed to a brilliant portrayal of sex in all its forms. the way that sex impacted each character in a different way, both subtle and in-your-face, was very interesting to follow. however, it was SO slow. this is no one's fault but my own. in character-driven stories i prefer the plot to be a little more solid and the chapters to be more diverse. the characters were also too insufferable to attach to despite the pity i felt for them. i got through the first half really quickly, but the last half in particular was a trek. therefore, not bad but not my cup of tea.

[Isabella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh- a bit all over the place and weak character development. Felt like loose ends weren’t tied up nicely. Definitely a fast read and interesting enough to drill through but left me feeling neither here nor there.

[Gimena Sanchez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not for me. Could not get through it.

[Angella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book it was sexual and interesting.
She had sex with a porn star! let him dominate her to a certain point that was interesting. It's hard to explain what was so good about it.
In the very begining of the book she had no physical sexual sensations with a partner. She stated "my pu--y's on novocain". The main character was deep and full of self insight. All of her mini journeys started off with her being in an uncomfortable place sometimes, location some times sexual. She always ended up learning something new about her self and healing it. For example: growing up she remembered her brother as being a peeping tom. But when she ended up at his house she realized it was something else and healed her idea of him. To make her all the life-like all of these things chaotic healing event swirled around and manifested themselves as pms symptoms. That I can relate to.

[J.M. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read a book by this author already and enjoyed it so I thought I'd like this one. The writing was crisp and tight, but I really couldn't focus on the characters or the story, so I finally decided to put it down after about a quarter of the way into it.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that deals wonderfully on how hard it is to change and the drastic measures some go through to make that change happen...even if the person wasn't aware she wanted to change. Sometimes all it takes to find yourself is your inner porn star.

[Punk]

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