Look at the cover...
You just know what you're in for when you curl up on your bed to read this one...and you'd be wrong.
This is not your standard erotic fare. Polly doesn't find new and unusual ways to describe the hardness of a man's equipment, or the soft velvety folds of a woman. She doesn't give the good bits a thousand different silly names, and she doesn't overdo the sex.
Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of sex, but it fits the theme of the anthology, and fits in with the dark nature of each short story. This isn't a book to read from cover to cover in a single sitting. You should read a single story at a time, enjoy the feelings, the sensations, the unease, and the wicked thoughts that will play through your mind--and other areas of your body.
If the time is taken to savor, this book will serve you well.
A nice mix of dark fiction and sci-fi; with an undeniable heart of lust.
The stories:-
The Threshold
A preppy school where all but one of the student's claim to have lost their virginity. This one special young lady would be the center of attention from every angle, boys, girls, creatures from another dimension!
I began reading this thinking it was going to be an interesting insight into teenage girls of today and got way more than I bargained for.
The Orifice
Piercings with a difference. I've heard that some find the act of metal passing through different parts of their bodies extremely erotic, but Polly finds a way to take it to a whole new level.
The Dominatrix Has a Career Crisis
This is funny. From the title, to the society it's set in, to the cult mentality of all the characters. Told from the dominatrix POV, it grinds and thrusts, packing a punch at every turn until the nipple clamps take affect and you piss yourself laughing as you shake your head in amazement.
The Pleasure Invaders
Without doubt my favorite in the whole book. It's the future, the not-too-distant future, and there's a new drug of choice. But it's highly addictive and once turned, you just can't get enough. Man or woman, straight or gay or anything in between, once you've had a bunch of these tentacles wrapped around your nether regions, there's no going back, even if you are the preeminent cop in the city. The ending was a little predictable here, but it was still a brilliantly told story.
Viagra Babies
Ever wonder what today's science will actually do to the children of the future, I'm guessing Polly did. Please--don't free base this stuff, it'll make you go off.
Imagine It
After covering sci-fi, fetishes, drugs and associated addictions, where else would any self respecting writer of erotica turn to but within. This chick, (the character in the story, but it could be equally directed at the author) has an imagination to make any teenage boy whacking off feel inept, regardless of how much he practices. `But it's not real' she's told by her therapist. If it wasn't real to begin with, her power of self has just given birth to a monster - oh wait, it is a monster, and she doesn't want to imagine anymore, she also doesn't want to do it by herself. She's found a new way to get herself to the pleasure zone.
Playing Karen Devere
Linking in nicely with the last tale, we move to Hollywood. The home of decadence, big dreams, and little scruples--and the home of the female serial killer.
Test Drive
Back to the future we see people struggling to find true sexual pleasure. It's all been done. The sex toy boom has died out by 2065, people are bored. Time to return to the basics. Time to reawaken the animal hiding in all men--and the women who really hold the reins. This was without doubt the best ending of all the stories. I was lead expertly through the story, building to what I thought an inevitable climax, when the tables were well-and-truly-turned back to the natural order of things.
Visions of Ecstasy
Back to the here-and-now. A sexual-psychic makes a misreading and is betrayed by her own sexual awakening. The past returns, but she's able to give in to her carnal desires to reach the lifeline that's offered to her. She just needs to be wary she doesn't choke on it.
Deep Inside
Where would a dark, deeply erotic anthology be without a tale of voodoo - oh, here we are, but this isn't just any voodoo. If you intend to go out with your significant other to try one of those mold your private bit kits - don't read this first. Or, if you really want to try something different, read this first.
