Libidinous Zombie: An Erotic Horror Collection by Rose Caraway

Libidinous Zombie: An Erotic Horror Collection Reviews

• 
  Stephanie

  I have to admit, I wasn’t anxious to read this book even though I enjoy the writing of several of the authors. I hate zombies. And it’s not the gore, it’s the unrelenting, suffocating pursuit. Zombies are one of my irrational fears.
  
  I faced my fear and read the book anyway. And I’m glad I did. Only one of the stories is about zombies. Tamsin Flowers’ zombie tale did give me the panicky feeling any story about zombies gives me because she tapped into that suffocating pursuit rather than the gore. But her tale turned out to be one of my favorites in the book.
  
  The entire collection is full of horror and sex, and it’s a lot of fun. I’m a whimp about horror and there are a few stories I started at night and had to put down until daylight – most notably Malin James’s journey into an asylum. I also particularly liked Janine Ashbless’s erotic take on The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the way Rose Caraway gave me second thoughts about how much I enjoy the Santa Ana winds.
  
  These stories will keep you warm on a cold winter night and will make you pause to think about whether you want to turn the light off or not.
• 
  Emmanuelle Maupassant

  
  
  This innovative anthology features authors varying greatly in style and in their approach, exploring the nature of our erotic drive, relentless and destructive: the 'libidinous zombie' within.
  
  From the dystopian setting of a post-apocolyptic world (Tamsin Flowers' poignant and well-drawn tale) to the confines of an early 20th century mental asylum (Malin James' compelling depiction of descent into the 'madness' of sexual obsession) we are taken on a shadow journey, where nothing is quite as it seems.
  
  The charm of these stories lies in the unexpected, the twists in the tale.
  They arouse and horrify, provoking both disgust and a compulsion to continue.
  
  They are more than they appear, offering not just entertainment but a deeper commentary on the desires we hide and those we choose to reveal.
  
  They offer insight into our darker side, into the thoughts we rarely admit to.
  And, they offer warning: be careful of what you wish for, and how you behave.
  
  A true feast in which each dish has its own flavour: rich and spicy; gruesome and violent; heart-breaking and bittersweet.
  
  I devoured these diverse tales course by course, without rushing, wishing to savour them to the full.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Cate Ellink

  I'm not a big horror fan, but I won a copy of this book. I was pleasantly surprised by the stories in it because they didn't keep me awake at night, didn't scare my socks off, but were horrifying, chilling, sexy tales.
  
  There's a great diversity of writing and story types. And they're all fabulous, so no way I could pick a favourite. A really good mix. Thoroughly enjoyed this.
• 
  Terrance Shaw

  What a treat! And what a great trick, too; bringing together eight of some of the best—and best known— authors in the business for an anthology of erotic horror that is just simply freakin’ brilliant; highly imaginative, consistently well-crafted, diversely colorful, scary, entertaining, sexy—oh so sexy!— and just plain fun. I suspect that ‘Libidinous Zombie’ will become part of many readers’ annual Halloween tradition alongside Jack-o-lanterns, candy apples, recitations of Edgar Allen Poe, and a tour through the local haunted house.
  
  Horror and erotica are sisters under the skin. At root, both forms are transgressive, setting out to elicit strong visceral responses by stepping outside the boundaries of acceptable, ‘polite’ behavior. As W.J. Renehan suggests in ‘The Art of Darkness’, “. . . horror fiction effectively lifts the constraints of social, sexual, and moral codes for our entertainment." Few paranormal entities so effectively lift those constraints than the zombie, which has captured the collective imagination in the early years of the new centure like little else. The mythos plays on our most fundamental apprehensions, fears and phobias; vast armies of dead things that don’t know they’re dead, corpses that won’t stay buried; a contagion from which no one among the quick is immune, no matter how watchful or cautious, normal or righteous, well-prepared or healthily paranoid. The undead evoke our reflexive disgust, forcing us to confront some of our most deep-rooted taboos; cannibalism, ghoulism, necrophilia, pure animal appetite without consciousness or conscience; social decay and anarchy.
  
  But what if a spark of self-awareness remained? A hunger for more than meat? A desire to consume human flesh in a very different way? Heightened senses, telepathy, even acute emotional awareness—albeit often confused by instinct? For that matter, what would happen if a zombie girl—perhaps a little more than halfway through the change— walked into a butcher’s shop and applied for a job? (Rose Caraway’s claustrophobic, moody ‘Devil Winds’ in which the hot late-August Santa Anna winds of southern California become a virtual character in the drama.) What if the last two survivors of a zombie apocalypse and a subsequent tsunami found themselves drifting out to sea on an improvised boat, only to discover that one of them might have been bitten before casting off? (Tamsin Flowers’ harrowing, darkly sensual ‘The Only Girl in the World’)
  
  Of course, more things other than zombies populate these pages. There are succubae and serial killers, werewolves, demons and vampiric wraiths, all brought to vivid, terrifying, luridly undead life by this hyper-creative cadre of writers. Jade A. Waters’ ‘The Lucky One’ figuratively borrows a page from Todd Browning’s ‘Freaks’, with its portrayal of a paranormal sideshow complete with werecarnies, a thigh-dampeningly charismatic ringmaster, and audience volunteers for a live sex exhibition like no other. Something wicked and very sexy this way comes when a handsome doctor finds himself locked up with the inmates of an early-20th-century mental asylum in Mallin James’ shatteringly twisty, highly satisfying ‘Alice in the Attic’. Allen Dusk’s neo-gothic ‘Damaged Melody’ conjures a storm of dark images while leaving a fair amount of mystery beyond the margins—enough to keep readers guessing long after the final paragraph. Raziel Moore’s ‘Spell Failure’ plumbs the occult with an intense, vividly-imagined, extended scene of demonic ravishment and a frightening cautionary tale of misinterpreted desire and good intentions gone horribly awry. Remittance Girl’s ‘The Night That Frank Scored’ is a delicious, macabre-ly tongue-in-cheek reimagining of the demonic-sex mythos, with a somewhat cynical, mind-reading succubus who picks up an apparent loser in a bar, only to change his life in the most unexpected and amusing of ways. Janine Ashbless’ ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ closes out the collection with an equally-scintillating story about a succubus; this one held captive by a well-heeled occultist. Needless to say, all kinds of horrifyingly orgasmic wackiness ensues when the master foolishly leaves his horny young assistant in charge for a week.
  
  Enthusiastically recommended!
  
• 
  Amanda

  A solid collection of erotic horror short stories, with only 1 that left me scratching my head as to what was going on—Damaged Melody.
  
  My favorites of the bunch were:
  ✏︎ The Lucky One by Jade A. Waters, involving a risqué night circus with one helluva closing act that left me wondering if she ever tries to track him down.
  
  ✏︎The Only Girl in the World by Tasmin Flowers, an interesting take on zombies in post-apocalyptic LA.
  
  And the one I suspect people hated most...
  
  ✏︎Spell Failure by Raziel Moore, featuring a very green acolyte witch who learns a very hard lesson about the importance of proper pronunciation and performing her due diligence in research before summoning. Those teenagers, always looking before they leap.
  
  
  
  While all stories contain supernatural/monstrous elements, it's the commentary on and study of human nature that is most chilling in them.
• 
  Taryn Moreau

  An excellent anthology of wonderfully written stories that do a great job of towing the line between erotica and horror.
  
  As erotica and horror are both highly subjective genres, it took a while before I found a story that hit the right notes on both counts, but they were well worth reading the entire anthology to find.
  
  I’m more into the dub/non-con and power exchange side of dark erotica, and I got lots of that from Spell Failure and The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
  
  I thoroughly enjoyed many of these stories, though, which stand on their own as good stories regardless of genre. Would highly recommend this anthology to anyone who enjoys smart, well-written erotic horror.
• 
  Wes

  Is "better than I thought it was going to be" an adequate review?
  
  I mean, this was actually pretty great, although three thumbs down for the demon rape story. I get that it's also a horror collection, but that was gross. That being said, I really loved some of these!
• 
  Myth_schelle

  Read for the B.A.N.G. Book Club 2022 Challenge - Anthology
  
  Yeah. Title says it all, really... It was fun.