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For me, the worst part of these awkward sex scenes was all of the cringe-worthy stereotypes about bisexuality espoused by Levin. Being bisexual is not the same as being polyamorous. Being bisexual doesn't mean that you have to have both a male and a female lover to be satisfied. It doesn't mean you are attracted to everyone. It doesn't "not count as cheating" if you have sex with someone that is the same sex as you. Aside from the sex scenes being written as if an elderly medical doctor was narrating bad porn, it was just so ignorant and offensive. I'm not opposed to polyamory in a story or open relationships, but the idea that everyone in the whole novel is polyamorous and wants to have sex with Jennifer was just over the top.

Manali_DC wrote: ↑03 Dec 2017, 11:03 Not all the relationships or explicit scenes in the book were necessary or relevant. But even the one relationship that was important- the one with Marty was not handled well. The scenes were not written well-- there was a lack of emotion somehow. I think the scenes were an unnecessary distraction from the main plot.

I agree. The science fiction aspect became buried, and the original plot idea got lost as well

Every time one of these scenes began I felt like it was separate from the actual plot. Only a few times in the book did it make sense for those explicit scenes to occur but Jennifer's character in my eyes was seriously diminished every encounter. I agree with the others on this forum that the only explanation for this was for selling books.

I felt the explicit scenes were to on the nose. They totally detracted from the book in my opinion, and I wished they had never been included.

I found the explicit scenes unnecessary in this book and did not make much of a difference. The book would still be interesting without them.

I felt that Jennifer's initial encounter with Marty fit, and the erotic prose wasn't so bad (7 out of 10). However, I felt that the scenes got more and more gratuitous as the book went on. Jennifer's attraction towards Alice suddenly appeared out of nowhere! Whether the scenes were necessary or not depends on what genre the book is supposed to be - if it's meant to be erotica, fair enough. I wasn't that into them and thought "not again" with increasing frequency.

ButterscotchCherrie wrote: ↑05 Dec 2017, 05:52 I felt that Jennifer's initial encounter with Marty fit, and the erotic prose wasn't so bad (7 out of 10). However, I felt that the scenes got more and more gratuitous as the book went on. Jennifer's attraction towards Alice suddenly appeared out of nowhere! Whether the scenes were necessary or not depends on what genre the book is supposed to be - if it's meant to be erotica, fair enough. I wasn't that into them and thought "not again" with increasing frequency.

I agree. The inclusion of the first scene was okay. After that it was just too much, and I found myself rolling my eyes at yet another unnecessary scene.

Yolimari wrote: ↑02 Nov 2017, 16:45 I think the point of the explicit scenes was to develop the theme of polyamory relationships, which oddly enough was mostly discussed in the second half of the book. However, I did think the author over did it. My conclusion was that the book discussed several scientific concepts, and as a result, the author included the over the top erotic part to make the story exciting.

These type of scenes can become redundant if overdone-especially when it doesn't add to the plot. Erotica can make a story more exciting, however if not done tastefully or interjected into the story in the right manner it can come off looking tacky.

I felt like the explicit scenes contributed to the development of the book... But anyway great too for boys like me

Explicit scenes make the book vulnerable and rating of the book gets limited. People just read for fun.

While I personally do not really like explicit scenes, I agree with many people posting here that in this particular book it helped to further the plot. It did not feel like it was out of place or only for shock factor but rather to set an understanding of what was appropriate or accepted.

I think that having a couple of these explicit scenes would do the job more effectively. Any substance that could be derived from these scenes would be sufficiently exposed with only a couple scenes. Anything over that is just excessive and, as some have pointed out, actually detracts from it because it just seems too comical and unrealistic.

I feel that one scene may have been enough to get the point across, instead of having multiple ones. To me, they didn't really contribute to the storyline; neither were they in line with the book's description. It was the last thing I expected to see in this book.

I think some of the scenes added to the plot, but it was overdone and didn't require that many.

I am gonna say that explicit scenes are essence killers of a book and same is the case in that