Unspeakable and Other Stories

by Lucy Taylor

A sex guru in the Nevada desert who may or may not be a vampire, a trio of women friends whose quest to find the 'perfect man' has deadly repercussions, an ex-rodeo rider whose woodcarving avocation conceals a gruesome secret -- these are some of the characters in erotic horror writer Lucy Taylor's newest collection of short stories. Not for the faint of heart or those who like their horror lite.

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 13, 2011

About the author

LUCY TAY­LOR was born in Rich­mond, VA, and never really got the South out of her sys­tem, as evi­denced by the fla­vor of South­ern Gothic in many of her works. She’s the author of seven nov­els, includ­ing Danc­ing with Demons, Spree, Nailed, Sav­ing Souls, Eter­nal Hearts, and the Stoker-​award win­ning The Safety of Unknown Cities. Her sto­ries have appeared in over a hun­dred mag­a­zines and antholo­gies, includ­ing The Mam­moth Book of His­tor­i­cal Erot­ica, The Best of Ceme­tery Dance, Twen­ti­eth Cen­tury Gothic, The Year’s Best Fan­tasy and Hor­ror, and the Century’s Best Hor­ror Fiction.

Reviews

[Soph Barker]

Lucy Taylor FTW

[Chuck Briggs]

I cannot recommend this highly enough. To my mind these stories are equivelent to the very best: Harlan Ellison, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury, Raymond Chandler, Stephan King ... It just doesn't GET any better. I'll try to do her justice with this review, but folks, I'm outta my leauge.

"Erotic Pleasure is the path to higher wisdom," claims the villain.
"He sounds like he's reading from a fortune cookie." Thinks the narrator of "Ceilings and Sky," one of the devastatingly brilliant stories in this collection. From that moment forward, every "erotic," domination cliché you've ever heard, whether lifted from the Maquis de Sade, Hustler or Cosmo is ruthlessly exposed for what it is - a cheap come-on. Need an antidote to the perverse, sado-masochistic ravings of "Outlaws of Gor" and "50 Shades of Gray?" Here's the ticket.

A word of caution. These stories are written for adults. However, if you are turned off by "erotica" and porno - like I am - I beg you to give this material a chance.

Although filled with kinky, obsessive sexual behavior and exposed male and female body parts, these stories are anything BUT erotic. These are nasty, low down, no quarter and, teeth-filed to pointy daggers,graphic psychological horror. Lucy Taylor delivers. Oh MAN does she deliver. This doesn't always mean the intrusion of the supernatural or graphic descriptions of flying internal organs. Sometimes the horror comes from self-realization. Lucy Taylor writes of ordinary, usually raunchy-minded (and believable) women obsessed with their demon lovers. She writes of the ugliest of intra-family relationships. She writes of the difference between real monsters and faux monsters. (Some times the faux monsters are worse.) She writes of.....

Oh, to heck with it. I'll just say that I haven't been cold cocked by a book this good, this powerful, this completely overwhelming since Harlan Ellison's original "Dangerous Visions."

Through some extremely powerful metaphors ("The Family Underwater") she explores and gives gorgeously written re-imaginings of the stories you would hear in a battered woman's shelter, just condensed... amplified.... translated into immediate, physical terms that readers have to FEEL as well as think about.

Not every story goes for the kick in the groin. I loved "Walled," the tale of a mental hospital inmate haunted by the ghost of a crying cat. It's a lovely, sweetly tender and heart-breaking gem that's just GOT to become a classic.

Don't let the sexual antics mislead you. This isn't porn.

This is genius.

[Baxter Clare Trautman]

I'm not an erotica fan, but I know the author so I bought the book on Smashwords. The stories are short and taut and I ended up reading all of them. They are disturbing, compelling, and downright creepy - akin to the scariest part of a horror flick - you look away then finding yourself peeking back through your fingers.

[Steffanie]

These stories are like real life Twilight Zone with just the right amount of spice. They make me wonder if truth really is stranger than fiction. Are there people who have these experiences or at least ones like them? Some sad, some horrifying, but all wonderfully twisted reading!