Best Fetish Erotica - erotic fiction by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Red

This book. Oh. This book.

How can one even conceive of reviewing this book? How could any one person ever truly appreciate the array of stories told is this book, the plethora of fetishes offered up in some sort of outrageous smorgasbord? How could one person's opinion about this orgy of eroticism and sensuality ever really capture its impact in a way that makes another think - "perhaps I should read this book."

The truth is, it's impossible. To anyone, including myself, this books stories will take a reader down the rabbit hole and back again, past destinations unimagined and strange, stories enjoyed and relished, and then of course places not so much enjoyed as simply appreciated. This is the nature of fetishes - some strike a deep chord within, others arouse curiosity, and some just don't really capture interest. It varies from individual to individual; what peaks a serious interest in one person may leave another feeling nothing.

Fortunately, however, the writing in this collection is consistently top quality - the writers all know how to weave their words well. But without being too reductionist, it seemed as if some writers were describing a fetish that was not theirs, and some were describing THEIR fetish (or one perhaps held by a close lover). Without fail, the stories that really captured the essence of the fetish were spot on, brilliant and erotic....while the others that read as more an explanation of the fetish felt a little more...clinical, 'human interest', and non-erotic. Perhaps I read too much into the stories, but those that read as an exploration of the 'why' of the fetish consistently left me numb when compared to those that simply reveled in the fetish itself. And by numb, I don't mean in the brain (as I said, the writing is top notch across the board). What I mean is numb between my legs - unengaged and unaroused.

But backing up for one moment - what is a fetish, anyways? The word is casually tossed around to mean many things - but in this book, undoubtedly, the fetishized items are integral to the sexual arousal described in each story. Connecting the fetish object to sexual arousal is the aim - these are erotic stories, after all. Many of the stories do an excellent job of taking the reader's hand and leading into lush descriptions that awaken the senses and spur the imagination. Some take unfortunate side jaunts into the psychology behind the fetish, forgetting - perhaps - that erotica is about eroticism, not philosophizing. But most of the stories cannot help but turn into riveting accounts of the sexuality woven into the fetish in question, describing inanimate objects lovingly and carefully and in a way that only a fetishist really could. The reader is not told *why* the narrator likes to fuck rubber balls, the reader is just told about how mind-blisteringly hot it is. And it is. Hot as anything you could ever imagine.

What's your fetish? What gets you going? Whatever it is, there's a story about it - or something awfully similar - in this book. These stories are not boring, they are not common, and they are most certainly not routine or dull. For an erotica consumer looking for something engaging - something that will really reach inside and tweak lesser tweaked areas of arousal, this book will most assuredly satisfy.

This book is one of the hottest erotica books I have had the pleasure of reading. As an indicator of how good it was, I actually reread some of these stories and still found them surprising and arousing. I never reread erotica, despite my best intentions, so this is really a highly unusual occurrence. I highly recommend this collection