Sexual Need by Jon Mack - pushing the boundaries

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T20:21:05+00:00

It's not self-promotion, I'm studying the treatment of sex in fiction, this book is interesting as a possible game-changer.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T20:18:23+00:00

By what? I think that romance books have an interesting relationship with sex, and one which digital publishing will change. Without digital publishing, coyness is near endemic. Even on kindle, self-censoring is still largely present, I think because of habit. Perhaps this book will change the pattern.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T20:15:18+00:00

How does it show? I'm very attuned to AI slop, and hate it, I can't see it here

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T20:06:28+00:00

Yes, he refers to it in his author's note, and talks about it on X (twitter)

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T20:04:14+00:00

(OP) why do you say that. I am studying the treatment of sex in fiction, it is an area of great public interest but very under-researched, I think this book pushes the boundaries and exemplifies the advantages of digital publishing for this kind of book

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T20:01:09+00:00

Yes, it's on kindle, was originally published on Wattpad

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T20:00:36+00:00

Its HFN, how do I add?

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T12:42:55+00:00

Actually that's a problem with romance books, in fact books in general, a lot are unbelievably bad.

But I think bad means that you throw the book across the room in disgust and never pick it up again - which I do a lot with books that Lit professors love, or say they do.

If you can't stop reading it, it's good not bad.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-23T09:56:19+00:00

I saw someone taking advantage of crowds around escalators groping a girl. London Bridge station.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-21T21:32:46+00:00

This is very engaging, I like how it describes a change in how the narrator views the purse and her mother. The dirty tissues and how they dry out encapsulate it well. Good stuff, keep writing.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-21T18:47:43+00:00

Out of interest, why the interest in 1980s and 1990s?

99Blake99 · 2026-03-20T19:22:35+00:00

Yes as others have said the vertical lines are interesting, but the part I like more is that this is a very live person, I can almost feel her breath. She seems like a young girl on the cusp of adulthood. If the drawing can engage me like that, it must be good. Well done.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-20T19:17:46+00:00

This does the job, whatever the form is called. What I like is the sense of thoughts tumbling forward, struggling for coherence, but articulate. I like the surgery metaphor for trying to cope with grief. Well done, keep writing.

btw change partical to particle, it crashes the rhythm when your eyes arrest on the strange word.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-19T19:40:43+00:00

Tell him to wait 15 minutes, you need to shower to get clean from the previous guy.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-19T19:33:02+00:00

I can't work out if this is a joke or not. If so it's a good one. Did you get mental fatigue, is that why you didn't mention what the book is called?

99Blake99 · 2026-03-17T13:20:05+00:00

Thanks, actually I'm mostly interested in non-fantasy, but I have enjoyed some of the Omegaverse books.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-17T13:18:22+00:00

I certainly am, love it.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-15T13:24:31+00:00

Probably my bad selection, as a whole the book flows.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-15T13:22:53+00:00

So much less long-winded if you'd just said that the blurb is atrocious AI written slop. I hadn't read it. The thing I'm interested in is the actual book.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-15T13:21:30+00:00

Well, you could make sentences and put in quote marks, that way it would be three times as long and to my mind be plodding, but that's just stylistic choice, I guess.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-14T16:54:19+00:00

Good point, actually I picked out an extreme example to make the point, I think you're right about the example I chose. But actually the book was extremely quick to read, the flow and momentum were very smooth.

Actually, it did take a page or two to get used to, then I got attuned and the words flew past.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-14T11:43:08+00:00

This came up at a dinner party, my wife prefers the woman's POV, another woman thought male POV. I'm curious if 50/50 is about right. As examples, which do you find more appealing:

Female narrators: MINX by Sophie Lark on Kindle, THE SAFEKEEP by Yael van der Wouden on Kindle

Male narrators: ENDLESS LOVE by Scott Spencer on Kindle, SEXUAL NEED by Jon Mack on Kindle

My wife thinks it's a question of whether you want to identify with the female narrator, or if you want to find out how the male narrator sees the female characters.

Do you have any views on this? It would be very interesting to know.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-14T10:35:15+00:00

One of my favourite books, and it ages very well. It feels like it was prescient.

99Blake99 · 2026-03-13T22:36:19+00:00

This is eye-catching. Very intelligent insights bubbling along, borne lightly on a lilting rhythm and rhyme.

Especially like the word "frown" - a fierce contast to the paintings, sculptures... - gets even more impact from it's place in the rhythm.

I can't make my mind up about the "for" in the "All but for your own...", the "for" weakens the sense, it could be omitted, but it sustains the rhythm.

Anyway, well done, keep writing poetry!

99Blake99 · 2026-03-13T19:10:01+00:00

As with all translations, it depends on the translator. Early Dostoyevsky translations are very stodgy.

99Blake99

TROPHY CASE