Keeping It Under Wraps

Blurb:

Society tells us what is right and what is wrong based on unrealistic expectations. In the end, though, no matter how unique our experiences seem, they aren’t wrong: they simply are.

The Keeping It Under Wraps anthology series provides a safe space to change the narrative, to speak openly about individual experiences, and in the end to understand that while each experience is different, we are not so different from each other.

Let’s start the conversation.

What better place to start than with sex?

Sexual health, sexual preferences, and sexual experiences: no stigma, no shame, no more keeping it under wraps.

Review:

Keeping it under wraps is a collection of short stories and essays that run the gamut in the human experience with sex and sexuality. It may be helpful to take a look at trigger warnings before diving in as some of the topics explored may be triggering to some. Having said that, this is probably the easiest read I have had all year. I read this all in one sitting. Funnily enough, I hadn’t intended to, however, I found myself flipping to the next story and the next once the previous one was done. Some of the essays are longer than others, but all are beautifully and richly written. This is definitely an uncensored piece as it says on the cover, and it shows in how raw, honest and unbridled the stories in this anthology are. The essays feature tales from people all around the world with diverse experiences, a lot of which society has forced us to be silent about. There is something incredibly inspirational, uplifting and powerful about having these topics that have been deemed “abnormal” or “taboo” presented in a way that is so ordinary and mundane that it made me not feel the usual rush of embarrassment I feel when reading about sex. Some of the stories will make you laugh, others are immediate tearjerkers and one in particular filled me with so much rage. Whatever you enjoy as someone who consumes literature, you are sure to find something that appeals to you or something that you can relate to in the pages of this powerful yet charming anthology. Books like this are a must-read as they go a long way in breaking the stigma that comes with talking about sex and how we feel about it individually. As a line in the introduction says “very quickly we saw that the stories were unique and yet the themes were universal”