Stranger by Night (Hot Blood, #6) by Jeff Gelb

Stranger by Night (Hot Blood, #6) Reviews

• 
  Sarah

  several people on good rated this book few stars because they said they didn't know that it would be erotic horror rather than a straight horror anthology. I would think that the cover and the back of the book make it pretty clear exactly what you are getting when you pick this book up, so I'm a little bit mystified as to how they could've been surprised by its contents.
  
  This is the second book in the hot blood series that I have read, and I enjoyed it. Many of the stories got my blood boiling, and the combination of horror and erotica made the book original. It is definitely not a book for children or the sensitive. There are some very graphic sexual content here, and most of it is dark.
  
  Stories that I liked included "Jacking In" which was about a computerized sex toy that takes revenge on a violent man, "Just Sex" were two writers of erotica decide to have a relationship in order to further their literary ambitions, only to have violent and unexpected consequences, "Home Movies" were a womanconfides in her friend about sex and murder, and perhaps my favorite story in the collection by Graham Masterton which was about a rare beetle that enhances sexual pleasure between partners. There was also a suspenseful story about the struggle of a morbidly obese woman trapped in her house after her mother is murdered, a cyber sex connoisseur who stalks her partner, to twins in a game of strip poker that turns bad, an incident where a clerk tries to blackmail a man who runs pornographic tapes that also goes bad a sexual succubus with the powers of the communion, the story of two dead girls who take revenge on their murderer and the story of an old man who goes to the movies and hears a couple making out behind him, but with a twist.
  
  Overall, the collection was good.
• 
  Charles

  The Hot Blood series of horror stories with erotic elements was popular enough to spawn several additional books past the first three. This was one of those and it had quite a bit of good stuff in it.
• 
  Tome Trinket

  The Hot Blood series are tales of erotic horror, which is the best combination ever. When something as personal and sensitive as sex is mixed with horror, what could possible scare you shitless more? So I set out to explore them all, all 13 books of the series, thus Project Hot Blood.
  
  First, some info about my rating system. The level of paranormal of each story is one to five, one meaning it surely can happen in real life, five meaning it’s utterly something paranormal. The level of sex describes how graphic is the sex in each story, one to five, one being tame a bedtime story told by a nun, five being a detailed script for a hardcore porn movie. My rating’s from one to ten, it’s based on the balance of horror and erotic, so getting five in ‘level of sex’ doesn’t automatically mean an above average rating from me. It’s based on the wtf-ness of the ending, how freaked out I am, how nightmare-generating it is. One being rubbish, ten being masterpiece. It’s time to move on to the sixth book in my Project Hot Blood. Let's begin.
  
  Take It As It Comes
  Tom Piccirilli
  Book six started with a bang with this short story that again showcased what the ‘Hot Blood’ series is all about, horror and sex mixed together to create something extreme. It’s about a hostage situation in a diner, where the unfortunate customers, held at gunpoint, were made to perform despicable things. It’s definitely an exciting story with a nice twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. The sex was violent, with an added aspect that makes the reader really squirm and be uncomfortable and it’s definitely not politically correct in any shape or form. And the words used to describe the horrible things were extraordinarily detailed. I mean the saliva thing? Gave me goosebumps only a good thriller/horror can provide.
  Length: 12 pages
  Level of Sex: 4, for the graphic and violent aspect of the sex
  My rating: 8 out of 10
  
  
  The Body in the Window
  Ramsey Campbell
  So basically, this is a story of a rich business man looking for some action on his work trip, nothing special. Or is it? Well, 18 pages is not exactly short for a short story, it unraveled slooooowly. And was the reveal worth it in the end? Not really, not for me at least. It was too large of a build-up with nothing to show for it in the end.
  Length: 18 pages
  Level of Sex: 3, otherwise quite tame, but guess it was a tat kinky
  My rating: 5 out of 10
  
  Jacking In
  Brinke Stevens
  Ah, for a story that was in a book from over 20 years ago, we naughty people seem to have the same kind of fantasies, but ‘Jacking In’ seemed oddly timely because virtual reality is finally here. I got to try the Playstation’s VR and the very first thing I wanted to try was to watch porn with it. The fiction described in this story can well become our reality sooner than we expected. So it’s about the extremely realistic virtual reality designed for doing naughty things in the safe confinement of your own home. 😀 Count me in! And of course something goes wrong, otherwise, there won’t be a story. Although the ending wasn’t as satisfying as I would have hoped, but the journey was so entertaining.
  Length: 28 pages
  Level of Sex: 3, could actually be a lot more graphic considering the theme
  My rating: 8 out of 10
  
  End of the Road
  Edo van Belkom
  Here’s something short and sweet. 😀 Ah what men wouldn’t do for the promise of sex. It’s a cautionary tale more than anything. A story about a hitch-hiking young man getting a ride from a fella who made an offer the young man couldn’t refuse. And boys, when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The big reveal was great although they could have taken it farther.
  Length: 10 pages
  Level of Sex: 1, there was only the idea of sex
  My rating: 7 out of 10
  
  Just Sex
  Michael Garrett
  Hardly ever, sex is just sex. It’s more than that for both or at least one. And hardly ever both would want to stop at the same time. In the name of science, two book-writers get it on in the bedroom in order to write better erotica. I know, cheesy af. And the ending? Along the same lines.
  Length: 19 pages
  Level of Sex: 2, good old regular vanilla sex
  My rating: 5 out of 10
  
  Skin Deep
  Christa Faust
  Weird, mysterious and very very nasty. The kind of sex scenes, if you could even call them that, that would make your skin crawl and not in a positive way. It’s a story about working girls being used… and the ending is quite chilling to say the least. Really a story you have to read to believe.
  Length: 11 pages
  Level of Sex: 4, just because it kinda took the tentacle porn to the next level
  My rating: 7 out of 10
  
  Home Movies
  Bruce Jones
  So you are visiting your BFF and you found her incoherent telling you a story about sex and betrayal that steadily turns more and more disturbing. Potentially a very interesting story and I guess the style the story was written in was supposed to suck you in and make you feel like you are right there yourself. But that kind of story telling style takes skills and ‘Home Movies’ was just very annoying and boring to me. I did like the idea though.
  Length: 10 pages
  Level of Sex: 1, again, just stories of sex
  My rating: 5 out of 10
  
  The Jajouka Penis-Beetle
  Graham Masterton
  A very long that was worth every minute spent on reading. Well, you can probably guess what kind of tone this story was going to be in, if the title of the story is ‘The Jajouka Penis-Beetle’. It’s unfortunately not a story about an exotic sounding drink. It’s about bugs. Penis bugs, bugs in penises. Yup. But what took this story to the next level was that even though you saw what was coming miles away, you still had to admire the fact that they actually did take it that far and in a very very kinky way too. Gods I love erotic horror.
  Length: 34 pages
  Level of Sex: 5, well what did you expect from a story with that kind of title? 😀 Kinky, nasty and so messy. 😛
  My rating: 9 out of 10
  
  Beached
  Wendy Rathbone
  A very sad story. It’s about a morbidly obese, bed-bound young woman whose survival pretty much depended on her doting enabling mother. And then one day, the mother didn’t show up with breakfast. I know, doesn’t sound very sexy, right? Well, I guess as interesting of a story as ‘Beached’ was, the sex part was actually a tat bit clued on and out of place. I might’ve even liked it more without the forced erotica which is very tame anyways, at least in my eyes. I guess the truth that came out slowly did give the whole thing a chilling aspect. In the end, it’s still just a very sad story.
  Length: 19 pages
  Level of Sex: 1, forced and just a little
  My rating: 8 out of 10
  
  Hot Phosphor
  John B. Rosenman
  A story about online dating, stalking and cyber sex. 😛 And it’s also a story about the victim deciding to take the power back. A tat too long for my taste, like the part of a stalker from the mall was something that can be left out altogether to make the story tighter.
  Length: 22 pages
  Level of Sex: 2
  My rating: 7 out of 10
  
  
  Male-call
  Lucy Taylor
  A nice lady having take-outs, if you know what I mean. 😉 Not only men can enjoy the company and convenience of call-girls. From the beginning, the story made it clear that something is going to go wrong, it’s just the matter of when and what. I really enjoy the Dominatrix-feel to the story, even though the male prostitute has a rude attitude. After the various kinds of very kinky sex, I was pleasantly surprised about the ‘wrong’ thing in the end. And I was also thoroughly entertained.
  Length: 14 pages
  Level of Sex: 5 Kinky, lady in control
  My rating: 8 out of 10
  
  Five Card Stud
  Michael Newton
  A story following quite straightforwardly the pattern of horror stories in which they reveal things step by step in the form of dialogue. Not a bad pattern, it’s just a too safe of a choice for the Hot Blood series. Two girls, one guy, lots of booze and playing strip poker. Most of the action, both erotic and horrific, is left to the reader’s imagination. Not my favorite brand of horror, I like the blood and gore too much.
  Length: 10 pages
  Level of Sex: 1
  My rating: 5 out of 10
  
  Video Date
  Jeff Gelb
  I have no idea why I still get my hopes high whenever I see Jeff Gelb (aka the editor of the Hot Blood series) and his work in the said book series. They had long stopped being anything special, and ‘Video Date’ is just another mediocre story that just seemed a little lazy. It’s about the creepy kind of a man that sexually harass the cashier of a video renting place by constantly renting naughty dirty movies. Then a little lame twist in the end. Let’s move on.
  Length: 13 pages
  Level of Sex: 1
  My rating: 5 out of 10
  
  Impulse
  Yvonne Navarro
  A looong story with an equally long build-up, or what you think is a build-up but I wouldn’t call it a build-up cos it really built up into nothing ground-breaking. It’s one of those annoying stories that didn’t give you any answers and the ending is just very frustrating and felt a bit like it was a total waste of time. What would you do if a beautiful stranger jumps into your car while you are waiting for your partner of years in the train station to go on a weekend away trip? How miserable of a life do you have to have that a stranger can make you impulsively leave your partner of long time stranded and you go to the weekend trip with the said stranger? I simply can’t imagine myself putting myself in such a situation. Lucky me, I guess. 🙂
  Length: 24 pages
  Level of Sex: 1
  My rating: 5 out of 10
  
  Dead Girls In Love
  Edward Lee and Gary Bowen
  This is a fun one, a little immature but then again, what can you expect from dead teenage girls, right? It’s about two sisters who both died in a car accident. But then they found out that while they were pronounced dead and buried, they weren’t quite that dead after all. While trying to make peace with the fact that they might be stuck for all eternity being living dead trapped in their grave, with only each other for company… sounds quite terrible. But then they figured out that they actually dated the same guy before they met their unfortunate demise. Then the same guy actually came to visit their graves, but not to pay his respects. No, sir, oh no, quite the contrary. And this sparked some delightfully imaginative torture, with a twisted ending as the cherry on top, I loved this fun little story.
  Length: 14 pages
  Level of Sex: 2 but 5 for the horror 😀
  My rating: 8 out of 10
  
  Getting wet
  Alexa deMonterice
  It has potential, only if the big reveal in the end is bigger and grander and bloodier. I think I deserve such an ending as a reader, for suffering through a longish build-up like that. It’s basically about a nympho hunting men on a regular basis to feed her insatiable sexual hunger. I do understand the feeling of never getting quite enough, it’s like an itch that wouldn’t go away, that would always come back. I feel ya, sister. But her fetish is a little inconvenient for my taste. 😀 All that work for one orgasm. XD
  Length: 13 pages
  Level of Sex: 2
  My rating: 6 out of 10
  
  Back Row
  Brian Lumley
  Ah the good old movie theater back row sex. I appreciate the dedication of building a character thoroughly even in such a short story, but it is, after all, a book series about erotic horror. Which means I expect them to put an equal amount of time in the sex and horror too. This story about an elderly man sitting in front of a couple getting down to business right behind him. So because he couldn’t see anything they were doing, it’s all just sounds, smells and feel of movements. Pretty boring stuff. And the horror part comes in the end, but it was pretty unclear, at least to me, as what had happened. And I guess there is a tiny little twist in the end, but it was so half-heartedly made that I can’t help but be nonchalant about it.
  Length: 10 pages
  Level of Sex: 1
  My rating: 5 out of 10
  
  Godflesh
  Brian Hodge
  Mmm, the grand finale for the book. I liked that they started and ended the book with a really strong story. Godflesh is a story about one strong fetish that would rule one’s entire life. I know what some people say about kinky ones, that they would constantly seek kinkier and kinkier experience cos soon everything is going to feel like nothing. I tend to disagree with that. There might be thrill seekers and adrenaline chasers who would just need more and more among kinksters, but I think many of us are just seeking what we like, what make us tick. For many of us, kinky sex is just like regular sex for vanilla people, once we find what we like, we can never quite get enough of the same thing. While vanilla sex is a neat package of certain things to do, kink is so much of a bigger world to explore and to try, so it might take us longer to find our place. But ultimately, all of us just want to feel good. And I guess ‘Godflesh’ is about that journey of seeking and then finding and then not getting enough of that one thing. Well, I’m glad that my taste of kink is not quite as extreme as the fetish in this story. 🙂
  Length: 24 pages
  Level of Sex: 5
  My rating: 9 out of 10
  
  ***
  
  Review of the whole book
  
  Although ‘Seeds of Fear’ had many decent stories, its stories weren’t very ‘Hot Blood’. It’s a very specific tone and gives off a very specific vibe. So although book 5 is packed with great stories, it’s so far my least favorite Hot Blood book.
  
  18 stories
  Average rating: 6.7
  Stories with a rating below or is 6 out of 10: 8
  Stories with a rating 7-8 out of 10: 8
  Stories with a rating 9 out of 10: 2
  
  Best stories:
  The Jajouka Penis-Beetle
  Godflesh
  
  Most erotic story: The Jajouka Penis-Beetle, Male-call, Godflesh
  Most memorable story: Godflesh
• 
  Jordan

  This was not at all what it was advertised to be in my book club literature (it left out that it was an erotic series and made it seem like a straight up horror collection). I was expecting short horror stories and what I got was a mix of horror and sex. I like strange and weird books, but this was way out there (I don't mix horror and sex personally). The stories were well-written and the plots were creative, but unless your thing is erotic horror, I'd avoid it.
• 
  Ellen

  Didn't realize when I bought it that it was erotica/horror. Not my usual cuppa tea - erotica's fine, and horror can be too, but I prefer not to have them mixed and to the extreme. That said, this may have been good writing for the genre, but I just didn't enjoy it! It was disturbing to me, in a bad way.
• 
  Timothy Boyd

  A nice collection of short stories that are more erotic than horror. Recommended