(eBook; 2014: erotic story anthology)
Overall review:
Dog Men is one of the best anthologies -- erotic and otherwise -- I have read in a long time. Its stories transcend the usual genre bullcrap and cut to the often dark, emotional core of its characters and their disturbing circumstances, while maintaining the necessary sexual heat that keep it erotic.
Own this in-your-face, cinema- and music-savvy collection, already. Dog Men can be purchased here.
Standout stories:
1.) "Dog Men": Two friends (Tally and Amber) head into the deep woods with two hot-looking brothers (Cannon and Justin) whose house holds secrets which may prove fatal to the young women.
This is an excellent, entertaining work, with its initially-sexy-now-dread-inducing foreshadowing, waste-no-words-effective pacing and its relatable, hope-they-get-out-okay lead characters (Tally and Amber).
2.) "Benediction": A gay teenager (Brent Johnson), in love with his heterosexual best friend (Ron McDermott), wrestles with his awkward desires, as well as the small town bigotry surrounding him. Relatable (for its 'wanting what you can't have' theme), vivid and otherwise superb tale.
3.) "Boxy Temples": A vain, beautiful and wealthy young man ( Hyacinth "Hancy" Jackson) gets a brutal comeuppance when he hooks up with Phillip Wheeler, a man who's more leech than lover. Emotionally raw, hard-hitting and moral piece.
4.) "My Name is Brighton": A date rape victim-turned-zombie seeks out one of the men (Paul) who used her - without being aware that he had done so.
Excellent, sympathetic and character-veracious horror-sex tale, this. (Brighton was also published in the erotic story anthology Coming Together: Hungry for Love, edited by Sommer Marsden.)
5.) "Marcelle": In Portland, Oregon, a young man (Ronan) with guilt issues and a bent for masochistic sex gets involved with a domme (Marcelle), who pushes him -- and herself -- toward dark, kinktastic salvation. Like the rest of this sometimes disturbing love story, the end-line is a stunner that not only sums up the BDSM lifestyle, but resonated with me on an emotional level. One of my favorite stories in this collection.
6.) "Resevoir B*tch": Two "trailer trash" teenagers -- Rand, and his ultra-tomboy friend, Spike (a.k.a. Marie) -- experience an afternoon where their bond deepens in a way that neither of them expect, a bonding that may violently cure at least one of their obsessions.
Voth imbues this plot-mini-twisty tale with a dark, erotic tension, sympathetic characters and an ending (specifically end-line) that's stunning. Great story, this -- another favorite in this anthology.
7.) "Genuflection": A half-Mexican, half-Caucasian porn clerk (Manny) in East Colfax falls for a beautiful, dangerous hustler (Carlos). When Manny and Carlos meet to hook up for a trick, it sets Manny down an unexpected and even darker path. Excellent, intense story.
(pb; 2012: erotica / zombie anthology. Foreword by Thomas Roche)
From the back cover:
"Why should the zombie apocalypse be the time to think about romance? Like flesh for zombies, romance is the stuff of life for the living. We shamble through life searching desperately for it, and nothing but love fills our need.
"In the pages of Hungry for Love, people find each other and love each other in a world of contagion, consumption and consumerism gone mad.
"Coming Together is about giving. . . and about sex (a powerful combination in any venue). Each book in the series benefits a different charity. Join us in doing good while being bad, and celebrate the diversity of life!"
Overall review:
Marsden has fashioned a solid, diverse collection of zombies-and-sex tales.
A few of the stories didn't grab me - two ran too long (Kiki Howell's "Zombie Factory" and t'Sade's "Love Never Dies") and one of the stories (Erzabet Bishop's "Dark Hunger") was too predictable.
Even these flawed pieces had something to recommend them, as rough-write works - they merely needed to be whittled down slightly, or the author could have thrown an unfamiliar mini-twist into her shambling lust mix, to help distinguish it from other seen-this-before stories.
Hungry for Love is worth owning - for its charitable aims, and its published delivery.
Standout stories:
1.) "My Name is Brighton" - Alana Noël Voth: A date rape victim-turned-zombie seeks out one of the men (Paul) who used her - without being aware that he had done so.
More horror story than plot-lite sex work, this excellent, sympathetic and character-veracious tale is one of the best stories in this anthology.
2.) "Meat" - Bobby Diabolus: A bite-infected man goes through various stages of evolving desire, while looking for his raw, sexy ex-lover (Honey).
"Meat" is an interesting story that ably balances the emotional and carnal aspects of its lead character, without tipping into unintentional pornoriffic parody, emotive abstraction or zombie clichés.
This original, first person-POV tale vaguely echoes David Cronenberg's "Venereal Horror" films (e.g., Rabid, 1977; The Brood, 1979; Videodrome, 1983; The Fly, 1986 remake; eXistenZ, 1999).
3.) "Annie Morgan" - Armand Rosamilia: Especially good piece about a mercurial, promiscuous woman confronting something more potent than undead attackers.
4.) "Queer Zombie Disco" - Kirsty Logan: Offbeat tune-based horror sex tale.
5.) "Screen Siren" - Annabeth Leong: Hollywood-skewering, imaginative piece about a Z-grade movie director (Sam) and an undead, sentient actress.
This is one of the best entries in this collection.
Other stories:
"You Make a Dead Man Come" - Sommer Marsden; "Last Man on Earth" - Blacksilk; "The Tenderest Meat" - Elise Hepner; "Zombie Goddess" - Sadey Quinn; "Zombie Apocalypse: First Responder" - Kissa Starling; "Head Full of Zombie" - Alison Tyler; "Dead in the Water"- Lynn Townsend; "Little Deaths" - Cora Zane; "You Look Better Dead" - Jeffrey L. Shipley
