Dirty Words - Provocative Gay Erotica

Lethe Press has just release Dirty Words: Provocative Gay Erotica by M. Christian. Billed on the cover as "the beautiful and the disturbing landscapes of desire," this collection leans more towards the disturbing than the beautiful.

One of the more memorable stories in this collection, "Echoes ," is the story of a man who, after killing one lover and unable to get over him, is violently ill at every sexual encounter until he murders another lover. "Chickenhawk" is the story of a 30-year old man who happens to look very young and who preys on pedophiles. "The Harley" is an exploration of leather, bondage and cigar smoking daddies who, in a contest over a Harley, try to see who can make the "bitch" yelp the most. "Wet" is possibly the most disturbing vampire story ever written, and "Counting" is a horror of post-apocalyptic sex.

Truthfully, this reader found nothing erotic in this volume. I was continually disturbed with each turn of the page, but not in the way that makes it engrossing. My advice is, if you meet someone who tells you that they think "Dirty Words" is a turn on, run the other way - they could be a serial killer. It's hard to imagine anyone finding this collection of stories even remotely arousing.

From a literary standpoint, I also found "Dirty Words" to be lacking. M. Christian's prose is unmemorable at best. A lot of the sexual escapades in the stories began to blur together as the descriptions tend to be all the same. If you're looking for something erotic to read, you might be better off browsing the Internet. It won't cost you fifteen dollars and it probably won't make you feel dirty afterwards.