Customer Reviews

Eros Interruptus

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P.D. Cacek is a master of the short story, usually within the horror genre. Add a twist of eroticism and you have 'Eros Interruptus'. She's won the Bram Stoker award and the World Fantasy award for her short works of fiction. She's written other collections and some novels as well.

Here is the Table Of Contents:

· Salt
· Manhandled
· By A Silken Thread
· Repeat Performance
· Devil With A Blue Dress
· In The Mean Time
· Metalica
· Seat Of Inspiration
· Second Chance
· Common Grounds
· Tattoos
· All Pucked Up
· The Adventures Of Threadwell The Tailor
· Fevered Dreams


A few of my favorites are 'Salt', starting off the collection. Salt Harvesters run across a dehydrated body of a woman in the dense salt. Only young Indian Joseph knows the woman is a witch and should be "tossed into the deep", but Jenkins decides to take her for himself, not realizing the consequences of his actions.
Next is 'Manhandled', the story of Abby, a mortician's assistant with a thing for hands, who's in the perfect position to harvest the goods that she craves.
In 'Devil With A Blue Dress', Vietnam war vet Gil Thornton flashes back to his early days in the war, and the young prostitute he murders.

'Seat Of Inspiration' is one of Cacek's humorous stories, the tale of an elderly romance novelist and the washing machine that serves as her "inspiration".
'All Pucked Up', another humorous tale, brings us to Puck, a wood sprite and Queen Titania's emissary to the World Of Men. Puck lusts after Peaseblossom the fairy, but Peaseblossom dances to a different beat. When Puck attempts to fix Peaseblossom up with her desired human companion, his spell backfires onto himself.
In 'The Adventures Of Threadwell The Tailor', is the story of an old tailor telling a story to a young monk about how, once upon a day, a tailor's apprentice and an old wizard single-handedly stopped the barbaric practice of feeding virgins to the dragons in order to protect the villages. You'll find lots of $exual humor in this.
Lastly is 'Fevered Dreams', a Surrealistic tale of delirium, as Molly chases Karl through a nightmarish dreamland. Or is it reality?

Cacek will take you wandering through perversions, fetishes, self-mutilation, necrophilia, and more. While the stories were all good, a major distraction was that the book is dotted with a large amount of misspellings, evidently not caught by an editor. Even so, if you're a fan of the erotic side of horror, pick up a copy of 'Eros Interrupted', even though its not as gross or explicit as Ed Lee can be with his blendings of $ex and horror. Enjoy!

PD Cacek is a writer's writer. She doesn't seem satisfied with a staid old ghost or a scary-yet-predictable werewolf. Instead, she stretches her imagination wide and lets out strange things and events that are incredibly fresh and unique. Eros Interruptus is a fine collection of sharp, well-written stories. All of them concern erotic love at some point, occasionally quite graphically, but these are not the sort of stories you are likely to find anywhere else. Cacek is best-known for her horror work, and that is represented here. "Salt" and her Stoker award-winning "Metalica" are decidedly, wonderfully creepy. And yet she also shows another side of her writing in this anthology, that of a consummate humorist. "All Pucked Up" is probably the most unique tribute to Shakespeare I have ever read, and the wickedly funny "Adventures of Threadwell the Tailor" is delicious fun. There is nothing rehashed or old about these stories, each one is a fresh and tasty delight.

Though such stories as "Metalica" in this collection have won big awards in fantasy and horror, it's the lesser known gems that are most rewarding!