The Kiss

by Linda Cullen

A sensuous story conveying the passion and the pain, the choices and dilemmas confronting two young women who fall deeply in love.
Joanna and Helen are in their twenties—confident, successful, at ease with themselves and their lives. Suddenly, inexplicably, their childhood friendship turns into an intense and sexually explosive passion, bringing turmoil in its wake…

Genres: LGBT, Queer, Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1990

Reviews

[fayetree · Rating 3 out of 5]

3/5–pls no one show Joanna ‘Casual’ or ‘Good Luck Babe’ by Chappell Roan, she wouldn’t survive them 💔

[Maddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 rounded up to a three.

i wanted to love this book, i really did! and while there’s something uniquely fascinating to see how sapphic women interpret and write about their relationships in the late 80s/early 90s - how their dynamics work, the way they navigate coming out and the fears around how they’d be perceived in public in comparison to my own experiences, i found this particular authors writing to be pretty… flat overall?

while there’s definitely some good moments and lines that stick out - and, and, and- i unfortunately found most of the prose to feel pretty lifeless and uninteresting, while the dialogue felt stiff and unnatural which made it hard to really connect with joanna and helen as characters, and to really care about their relationship and the tragedy that surrounds them.

i think linda cullen has vision, and the story she tells is a good one! im easily compelled by a story of a lesbian and a bisexual struggling to define love and navigate the ups and downs of an affair! but i don’t know if this medium was best suited to cullen? according to her bio she also works in television, and i’d be interested to see her works as a director. i think that might be a better outlet. im glad i found this book, and im glad i read it. i just wish i liked it more :(

[juli · Rating 5 out of 5]

oh my god. this was beautiful. *spoiler warning,* sort of. i feel it’s very tough for me to find books that talk about the how it is being a woman that loves women that do it as well as this one. i can relate to this, and its so appreciated. the way the author talks about the ‘bad’ side of it is heartbreaking and the writing for helen and joanna discovering themselves and this newfound passion is so perfect. i could feel all of it like i was joanna. truly just beautiful, i’m devastated that they didn’t get their happy ending

[Rachel Mersereau · Rating 3 out of 5]

definitely enjoyed while reading but UGH just left me feeling very annoyed after finishing