Exactly how steamy is this story?
PG-13
Since Other Voices, Other Rooms is a coming-of-age novel, it shouldn't surprise us too much that there's some raciness. Whether it's Idabel telling dirty jokes that she doesn't actually get (the silk handkerchief joke refers to using a handkerchief as a condom), or Joel suddenly being overcome with desire and kissing Idabel on the cheek, the friends experiment with their sexual awakenings.
Unfortunately, the more explicit sex scenes are not consensual and are pretty horrendous. Zoo, the cook, is raped by a group of men at gun point when she leaves to try to move to Washington, D.C., ironically to escape her murderous husband. And when Joel rides on the Ferris wheel he's groped by the adult Miss Wisteria, who always falls in love with boys who then grow up and leave her behind.
Sex is not presented as a natural, pleasurable activity in Other Voices, Other Rooms. It, like almost everything at Skully's Landing, is a perverse, coerced practice, which leaves Joel feeling hurt and mystified without really knowing why.