I Shudder at Your Touch [Hardcover]

Various (Author), Michele Slung (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 1991

A sensational anthology of sex, horror, and the supernatural from 21 bestselling authors such as Stephen King, Clive Barker, Ruth Rendell, Stephen J. Donaldson, Patrick McGrath, and more.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The high-voltage combination of sex and horror delivers its promised thrills in several of these stories, although some masters of the genre are seen at less than their best. Standouts include the lively and funny "Death and the Single Girl," in which Thomas Disch tells what happens to a temp secretary who has given up on life and decides to call Death at the phone number she has acquired on a bus trip to a World Fellowship camp in the Catskills. Clive Barker enthralls with his eerie and powerful tale of a housewife in the depths of despair, who discovers supernatural powers in both her rage and sexuality. On the other hand, Stephen King's "The Revelations of 'Becka Paulson" is a relatively tame account of another housewife's loosening hold on sanity after she accidentally shoots herself. Ruth Rendell also disappoints with a predictable and unsuspenseful last meeting of lovers. Other contributors include Valerie Martin and Patrick McGrath. Slung ( Momilies: As My Mother Used to Say ) places the stories in context in brief introductions and provides short author bios. Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Roc Hardcover (June 4, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451450795
• ISBN-13: 978-0451450791
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,417,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Tales Of Horror, July 22, 2002

By 

Sebastien Pharand (Orléans, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: I Shudder at Your Touch (Paperback)

Michele Slung is an editor who knows a good story when she sees one. In this anthology, she mixes classical pieces with modern ones, popular authors with lesser-knowns, and eventually ends up with a collection of short stories that offers many frights, many chills, and a whole lot of fun.

The anthology opens with Stephen King's pieces The Revelation of Becka Paulson and closes with a piece by Clive Barker. It's no coincidence that the two biggest names featured in this anthology open and closes the book. Both stories concentrate on women suffering from dementia. They are both unnerving in their own strange little ways. The two masters of horror are at their very best with these stories.

Other stories that are worthy of reading in this anthology are Patrick McGrath's Cleave The Vampire, a strange little tale of dementia, Christopher Fowler's The Master Builder, Jonathan Carroll's A Quarter Past You, Robert Hichens's How Love Came to Professor Guildea and Eric McCormack's The Festival.

Unfortunately, like all anothologies, this one has its share of stinkers, though this anthology has less than usual. Valerie Martin's Sea Lovers is a story that has no real point of view and it never really ends up anywhere. And Ruth Rendell's A Glowing Future shows promise, but it never really reaches its full potential. And you can see that ending coming from miles away! There are also a few more stories that are slightly unmemorable.

I also have to mention that Robert Aickman's story The Swords is very shocking, disturbing and a great tale of horror. They just don't right 'em like that anymore!

All in all, I Shudder At Your Touch is a good anthology that offers many stories that crosses genres and that are often very distubring and terrifying in their own little ways. This anthology made me discover many new authors that I cannot wait to read again, and I'm sure it'll do the same to you.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I shudder at your touch, May 29, 2002

By 

Diane Toft (Somerset England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Shudder at Your Touch (Hardcover)

I bought this book in the early 90's and have read it with glee ever since then, dipping in every year or so when I've run out of anything else to to read. The stories within both scare and delight, my favourite being the delicious story by Christopher Fowler 'The Master Builder'

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I shuddered when it was finished..., March 18, 2004

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: I Shudder at Your Touch (Paperback)

A fantastic and enlivening respite from long, lengthy novels, this is a great book to travel with you or to keep beside your bed for a nice short story before bedtime; fully packed with stories that are sure to give your dreams a writhing twist of delectation. Some of the best horror writer's work can be found between the pages of this anthology, spanning from early works written in the 20's to more modern tales.

Don't let the title scare you away, none of the stories are very explicit in either the sex or the horror area, it is more an imaginative collection geared towards the strange, and relationships, and often strange relationships, coupled with a bit of gore and sex.

Stephen King has a lovely piece in this compilation, written back in 1986 before he contracted diarrhea of the mouth and pen, called "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" about a woman who is cleaning out her husbands things, and his .22 gun goes off and shoots her in the head. She wakes up on the floor, and has no idea how she got the hole in her forehead, but strange things begin to happen when the picture of Jesus sitting atop their TV begins talking to her.
Robert Aickman, master of the ethereal glimpse through the horror mirror, has a strange tale of "boy meets girl", inside a sideshow tent in a traveling carnival. Patrick McGrath has a lovely little piece that ponders whether people who see vampires are mad.
Thomas Disch writes of a despondent girl's appointment with Death himself; Stephen Donaldson's The Conqueror Worm involves a marital spat interrupted by the odd appearance of a malevolent centipede, and Clive Barker has included a masterpiece called Jaqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament.

Other notable mentions are Carolyn Banks "Salon Satin", Angela Carter's "Master", Christopher Fowler's "The Master Builder", and May Sinclair's "The Villa Desiree".

Unlike a lot of anthologies where you need to pick through the bad stories to get to the good ones, there was only one story in this entire collection that I mildly disliked. Truly a great effort by Michele Slung in her obvious pickiness at gathering the shorts, this is an all around great book to own and pack around with you. Enjoy!