“Take Me There” Erotic Book Review
“Take Me There” is a Cleis Press erotica book edited by Tristan Taormino. It follows the same format as all Cleis Press erotica, and it includes black and white pages on the inside. The book has 291 pages with 29 stories, so this book is definitely longer than your average erotic anthology! The book’s tagline is: trans and genderqueer erotica.
The theme of this book is trans and genderqueer erotica. That is a broad term to most people, and in the book, it remains just as broad. You’ll find stories from people all along the trans and genderqueer spectrum, and it brings a nice taste of variety to it. Sometimes the person is the main character while sometimes both of the people are trans or genderqueer. Sometimes the main character is in an open relationship, and sometimes they’re single. It really depends on the story. The book does do a great job of providing a large variety of characters and settings though.
The stories are, as always in Cleis Press books, well-edited and erotic. Each one of the stories is a setting, plot, and characters to itself, and each one gives you a journey into another person’s viewpoint. All of the stories are easy to follow, and while a couple were much shorter than I would have preferred, the majority let you fall in love with the characters before and during the sexual experiences.
I will admit that one thing that annoyed me is that some of the stories is the language. I’m one of those people that really likes the way that the English language already is, so seeing words like “werqued”, “hir” “hiz”, and other items like that does bother me somewhat. It’s only in a couple of the stories, and I understand why the authors wrote it that way, but it still does turn me off of a story while I’m reading it.
It’s really interesting to read a collection that breaks out of the typical gender boundaries. Instead of “He said” or “She said”, sometimes you’re really left wondering what gender the person is. It’s not a bad thing, but it definitely is something that you never find in traditional erotica. It takes a little bit to get used to, but once you do, it doesn’t hinder the experience, and in fact, it enhances it.
Not only is this book erotic, but it does explore some of the emotions of being trans and genderqueer and how it can effect sexuality. Not all of the stories are happily ever after, but that’s a good thing. Tristan Taormino includes stories that explore all ranges of the sexuality spectrum – those who are unsure about their bodies, those who know what they want and get it, and so much more. The characters explore the emotions of being trans and genderqueer during sexuality while in the process of giving a good, erotic story.
Are all of the stories mind-blowingly erotic? No, not so much, but all of them were a good read. While not all of them are arousing, all of them captured my attention and brought me into the story. This is a personal preference as well. What I find arousing is not what you may find arousing, so I think that, by having some stories that weren’t arousing to me, I’m sure they’d probably appeal to another audience which makes the book very varied.
Overall, as one of the only books with trans and genderqueer erotica out there, I definitely do recommend it. The book deals with a lot of trans and genderqueer issues and is really realistic while still being erotic. Tristan Taormino did a great job of putting this book together, and it was a joy to read through. Thanks to Cleis Press for providing Take Me There.
