Fine Slices*: The "Sexually Frustrated Male" Edition

The sexually frustrated male is a staple in horror fiction. Frustration leads to unwise acts, unwise acts to fear or violence, and a bit of titillation along the way doesn't hurt readership, I guess.
Here's a couple of examples; one by a relative newcomer on the scene, Christopher Ransom, and one by a veteran of sex-saturated horror, Edward Lee.

The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom
(Sphere, 2008, 407 pages)

 I really love a good haunted house story, and on the face of it this book had a lot of potential. An old birthing house is almost guaranteed to have a tragic history: dead babies, dead (or at least emotionally damaged) mothers, the echoes of childbirth gone wrong, and the associated creepy hauntings.

And there are hauntings: mainly jerkily animated figures with long dark hair, seemingly lifted from certain popular horror movies. So far, so derivative, except that he gets to have sex with them. Yes, you read that right. Still, there are some effectively creepy moments, and one particularly scary bit around half way (Chapter 20). But mostly there is massive frustration and annoyance, especially for the reader.

I found it hard to empathise with Conrad, the sexually frustated male main character. He's meant to be trying to make amends with his wife, but ends up boffing the vulnerable pregnant girl next door. He has a bizarre obsession with some sexual experiences in his past, and when related, these are more embarassingly cringe-worthy than erotic.

His credulity is all over the place. One moment he's jumping straight to the conclusion that oh my god oh my god it's the house, the house that's doing it, it wants more... thus robbing the story of a well paced build-up; the next he's doubting what he's experienced.
The plot and pacing is a goddamn mess.

It's not very often that I take notice of ratings on Amazon, they seemed to be "gamed" so often, but in this case they're deserved. It currently stands at two stars, and that seems about right. It's a pity, because there's some potential here.

2.5 out of 5 scalpels



The Black Train by Edward Lee
(Leisure Books, 2009, 340 pages)

As mentioned above, Lee is no stranger to sexual elements, and this book has it in spades. It's amazing to think that Gast, the book that this is a mass-market version of, actually has more pornographic and gross-out content.

Lee's sexually frustrated male protagonist, Justin Collier, is a much more convincing character than the main protagonist of The Birthing House, despite this book's lack of literary pretensions. The star of his own Food Network show, he's a minor celebrity that starts off a little unlikeable, but by book's end I found I had warmed to him.

Interspersed with his ghostly erotic experiences in the town of Gast are sections about Harwood Gast, a Civil War railway mogul and the town's namesake. These are the parts where the book really shines (if that's the right word). Harwood Gast is a truly evil man, and the details of his exploits make for compelling, if disgusting, reading. They could easily have been extracted and expanded upon in their own novel-length tale.

If there is one major flaw in this book (other than one piece of very clumsy foreshadowing near the end) it is that the climax is very much a fizzer. There's some really good build-up, the scene is set up for an almighty sex-infused bloodbath, and... nothing much happens. Still, the journey was a disturbing, compellingly freaky one up to that point.

Definitely worth reading if you don't mind indulging in something a little more low brow every once in a while.

3.5 out of 5 scalpels

(*this mini-review title brought to you by "Jando")