Shiny is an invitation to surrender—to the senses, to the body, to curiosity, to strangeness. A book to lose yourself in, swept into a kaleidoscope of intoxicating sensations.
Like the fragments of a shattered mirror, each story in Shiny reflects different realities and perspectives; from the dreamlike to the crudest reality, from enjoyment to fear, from initiation to maturity. Eroticism is hidden in everything: in a play, a film, a diary, a journey, a party, a tattoo, a story, a memory, a dream, even a book’s cover.
Marta R. Gustems presents a series of stories that explore the depths of desire and the lives that unfold in the most uncertain situations. Entering Shiny we accept a pact with the author, and with ourselves, to shed the self we perform for others and uncover the self that burns beneath. The book’s true aim is daring yet irresistible—to descend into our own abysses, and to savor what we discover there.
The boys watched with intense curiosity and tension at the zipper. She only thought about being in a blue lake and a blue sky and being all blue herself, calm and tranquil blue, leaning towards turquoise, sliding into the water and letting herself go.
The girl took a deep breath, trying not to think about atomic zippers, snake tongues, card games, or slippery hands. She looked at the round, pale face in the pool, not hers, mine. She positioned herself at the very tip of the edge and dove in headfirst with all the agility and strength she could muster. […]
I am the moon, the same one that reflects in the water of the pool, the one that watched everything from above the garden, and I tell you this in the most objective way possible, although I confess: my silver heart, accustomed to the cold, softened with that girl still figuring things out.