Best Gay Paranormal / Horror: Words to Die By by William Holden

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Big warning, this is a very dark anthology, no surprise that it won second place in the Paranormal/Horror category of the Rainbow Awards, highlight on the horror. But it has also another shade of dark other than horror, a dark humor, like right in the first story, The Other Man, where a sex doll becomes jealous of his owner. Despite the humor though, I wouldn't advice readers to embark in this anthology right before sleeping, at least not if you want to have sweet dreams.

The advice is mostly given since these stories centers around different types of fear, from the most evident one to the psychological; it's that type of fear represented by the boogie man of your childhood nightmare, the one your parents told it was not true... Only to discover in these stories that it was more than true, it was always there waiting for you. It's the horror of unexpected, that comes when you are feeling safe, and so you are not ready to fight it.

The fact that there is the erotica in the mix is not diluiting the horror making it less fearsome, on the contrary it's accentuating it, sex and fear, letting go and living your basic instincts, there is a feeble line between comfort and danger, and the eroticism is helping reader to open their barriers, only to have the horror striking with even more intensity.

Amazon: Words to Die By
Amazon Kindle: Words to Die By
Publisher Bold Strokes Books (March 13, 2012)
Language English
ISBN-10 1602826536
ISBN-13 978-1602826533



Reading List: http://www.librarything.com/catalog_bottom.php?tag=reading list&view=elisa.rolle

Comments

[annabirmingham.livejournal.com]

I do like a bit of horror, so this will have to go on my 'to read' list. I like your warning about not reading before bed. Reminds of when I read Stephen King's "Salom's Lot" as I would only read it on the train going to work - when it was daylight and I was surrounded by many other people!!

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

I did that mistake with a ghost story anthology and still have nightmare sometime...