Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsTwo couples start playing a sexy game
Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2021
This is a cute premise. A couple hears about an adult party game called Just the Tip, to which they’re introduced by a more adventurous couple. The couple playing - not married to each other, what fun would that be? - fool around, and as long as he doesn’t put more than the tip of his penis inside her, they don’t lose and can continue and even play again. Because just-the-tip isn’t cheating, right?
Is this really a thing? Some parties must be a lot more exciting than those I go to.
I liked how the story was framed. Eva and Ford are church people, and meet Tim and Cat there. As the couples move forward they mull - what’s cheating? What’s adultery? The religious context? Which churches focus on the joy of God’s grace, as opposed to the sins of transgression?
It’s entertaining as the two swapped couples wonder just how far each can go, guided by Cat’s knowledge of the game and imperious sense of “the rules”.
I also liked its contemporary setting. Our couples are just emerging from the constrictions of lockdown, only now able to see others’ faces again. Our narrator Ford, as he navigates this sexy new marital passage, finds himself worried about dodging the rocks and pitfalls of PC.
It’s made his company a living hell, as employees freely accuse others of victimizing them, or get them fired with anonymous complaints, like Ford’s friend canned for the American flag on his desk.
Fear of offending others slops over into what’s supposed to be a fun adult party game. Particularly for the guys, fearing as all husbands should the infinite number of ways they might potentially offend their own wives.
Mithras poses the couple’s sexual rebellion here as done against a backdrop of fear and conformity, reducing life to an endless succession of tedious work days and joyless nights.
