jmc_bks

'Tis Monday, thus it is time to SBD.

Last week one of the polls over at Dear Author was what readers thought about were-creature sex. Okay? Gross? Which reminded me that I had never posted about Jules Jones' Mx3 ebook Dolphin Dreams.

Martin's a sexual submissive, but he's nobody's doormat. So when he discovered that his boyfriend was already married, he told him to go. When it still hurt weeks later, a seaside break house-sitting for a friend seemed just the thing to help him heal. When he made friends with two dolphins, he was simply grateful for the pleasant company. He didn't expect to need their help when his small boat was caught in a storm. And he never expected them to ask for payment--or what shape they'd be in when they did so... "

The romance in this novel was both sweet and hot. Jones did a fabulous job of showing the characters in their own lives, in terms of Martin's profession, his friends, Patrick & George's life in the water and on land. I appreciated that she devoted time to the logistics of a hidden life -- how/where do they shift? how do they explain their paperless status? on what, where and how do they live out of water?

All in all, it was a good book, probably a B for me, until I hit a scene close to the end of the book: a love scene between Martin and George...with George in dolphin form. The three men had loads of on-the-page sex in human form. The two shifters had sex in their dolphin shape off the page. The dolphin/human sex, though, just squicked me. I can tell myself that there is a sentient being in the animal form, that the personality is still there, that there was consent on both sides. But my mind kept flashing to bestiality and zoophilia.

Is it speciesist of me? I don't know. I mean, I've read love scenes between humans and aliens before, albeit humanoid aliens, without being too squicked to continue. But then again, Lora Leigh's Breed books put me off because of the animal characteristics that the genitals display. So it must be all about the animal for me, rather than the difference generally. I'm reminded of a line in Ann Aguirre's Grimspace - I can't remember it exactly, but it was something about placing a higher premium on the value of human skin. And I guess that's what I'm doing, making a value judgment based on the genetic makeup of these characters. The shifters share characteristics with creatures I recognize, so shifted-sex with them carries baggage and taboos, while aliens have less baggage.

:shrugs: I dunno. Opinions?

Unrelated: I would make a very bad 1930s housewife. Via SarahF.