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Description
Finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards, Bisexual Fiction Category.
Two sex addicts meet and fall in love. A woman catches her husband cheating on her with their dog and escapes to her sister's horse farm. Four friends—fellow pervs—grow up and drift apart, pining for each other in silence until one of them is murdered.
In Jess Taylor's sophomore story collection, contemporary views of female sexuality are subverted, and women are given agency over their desires and bodies. Through these characters, sex is revealed to be many things at once: gross, shameful, exhilarating, hidden or open—and always complicated. Reminiscent of the works of Maggie Nelson, Mary Gaitskill and Chris Kraus, the stories in Just Pervs explore the strange oppression and illumination created by desire, the bewilderment of adolescence, and the barriers to intimacy both discovered within and imposed upon ourselves.
Contributor Notes
Jess Taylor is a Toronto writer and poet. She founded The Emerging Writers Reading Series in 2012. Pauls, her first collection of stories, was published by Book*hug Press in 2015. The title story from the collection, “Paul,” received the 2013 Gold Fiction National Magazine Award. Jess is currently at work on a novel and continuation of her life poem, “Never Stop.” She lives in Toronto.
Awards
- Short-listed, Lambda Literary Awards, Bisexual Fiction Category
Editorial Reviews
“Taylor’s prose is beautiful and cutting… These stories are cruel and unflinching about everything: characters, events, even the recurring Toronto scenery. Taylor touches on some really lucid relationship dynamics – particularly the grittier, more regrettable short-term kind.” —Quill & Quire
“Jess Taylor’s stories are a lot of fun, but more importantly they push up against misconceptions about what it means to be a sexual woman.” —49th Shelf
"It's an exciting thing to behold; one gets the sense of discovering in her authentic, compelling voice a master-in-waiting, like a young Alice Munro." —National Post
"Taylor is adept at capturing the anxiety-ridden tenor of the current zeitgeist." —The Globe and Mail
"Taylor exhibits remarkable insights into matters of the fickle heart." —Toronto Star
“The characters in Just Pervs, through their puppet-master, Taylor, unflinchingly share pretty much anything with us, eroding the idea that any of the stuff being shared should be taboo or hidden away.” —Shameless
