Hot Lesbian Erotica - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by cp henrie

Erotica is not generally my preferred method of foreplay. Still, I do enjoy erotic literature on occasion and have indulged in the past, so I was happy to review Hot Lesbian Erotica edited by Tristan Taormino.  Let me start by saying that I found it difficult to review a collection because it does not offer you the opportunity to review each story individually. By this I mean that though I found some of the stories in this collection enjoyable, as a whole I am not impressed with the book.

On the positive side, I found that this collection of stories, as a whole, portrayed a pretty good portion of the queer female-bodied community.  In it you will find butches, femmes, bois, people with various body types, a wide assortment of ages, various races, genders, and everything from rodeo sex to sex on the subway (the germ-a-phobe in me winced at that one).

However, perhaps this critique falls under personal preference, but with stories such as “Porta-Potty Passion” and “She, Daddy,” Taormino’s “Hot” Lesbian Erotica did little more for me than make me laugh and it certainly didn’t get me off.

I’m far from sexually shy but I found that some of the butch/femme role-playing accounts bordered on rape fantasy and made me uncomfortable during certain stories. I am in no way criticizing role-playing between consenting adults, and often partake in it, but if the majority of the stories in a collection are going to follow the same theme, the collection should be marketed as such. Clearly somebody was misguided in the marketing of the book as it is. In my opinion, marketing the book as Hot Lesbian Erotica was nothing short of false advertising. Perhaps the collection should have been titled Political Lesbian Erotica, or Erotic Stories You Can Read at Your Next Party So You & All of Your Friends Can Make Fun of It.

I would rate this product 2 out of 5 stars for being queer and political; those are really its only appealing qualities.

Pros: Political, queer, wide selection of stories

Cons: Generally not hot (which is, in my opinion, the point of erotica)