Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)It is said that those who relocate to San Francisco start off with a blank slate, and are free to explore their dreams and desires, from the practical to fetishes. The latter is more likely to be explored in an area of the city known as SoMa, for South-of-Market, which is the setting for this novel.
SoMa follows a small group of gay and straight characters through their explorations into the sexual carnival of that area's sex clubs, hookups, underworld connections, personal ads and creative cruising options. Raphe is a young gay man, a would-be writer who lost his job in the dot-com bust, is working under-the-table at a sleazy mail-drop storefront, and is disturbed by his unexpected attractions to other men. Lauren is a spoiled yuppie from an East Bay suburb, who drags her best friend Jessica out to explore SoMa clubs with names like "Bondage a Go Go", looking for excitement and memorable sexual experiences, but getting more than she bargained for. Mark is an Asian-American gay boy who is the head of a successful video game empire, which he has danger of losing if he doesn't rein in his wild sexual compulsions. Their paths intersect at various points, usually in the context of a sexual escapade or two, but the author is skilled at making them more than one-dimensional party boys or girls, and delivers vivid characterizations that tunes into their underlying insecurities and needs.
Not for the squeemish, SoMa is definitely explicit in its depictions of S&M and similar fetishes, but doesn't detract from the underlying development of the progress of the characters. A noteable first novel from an author I will choose again. Four stars out of five.
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Welcome To The NeighborhoodTo outsiders, San Francisco is all one big city. But to those in the know, there is SoMa, South of Market, where sleek eateries are squeezed between bail bonds storefronts and high-priced lofts look out over still rough edges. It's home to a generation of hipsters disillusioned by the dotcom bust, restless and searching for the next thrill, the next high, the next step too far. Sex, drugs, kink--you can find it anywhere in SoMa, if you know where to look. But first, you'll need your tour guides. There's Raphe, a writer torn between two worlds, belonging to neither. Lauren, the poor little rich girl living on the edge and pushing farther out. Mark, beautiful and cruel, who lives for games, the more extreme, the better. Baptiste, hot, smooth, and maybe as real as it gets. And Julie, both an object of desire and a pretty pawn to be played. In a glittering, surreal subculture of private sex clubs and kept boys, identity theft and betrayal, nihilism, redemption, and sometimes love, they're spinning out of control and into each other's orbits, desperately looking for something real--something that will show them who they really are. In this provocative, intense novel, Kemble Scott puts a new neighborhood on the literary map for good, in a tale that is disturbing, gritty, wholly original, and utterly unforgettable.
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