Unspeakable Horror!

There’s something to be said about a work that begins with oral sex and ends with analingus. And in this trio of shorts that make up the new novella-length collection by Keith Gouveia and Garrett Peck, there’s quite a bit that can be said about the pages in between the opening fellatio and the closing oral-anal contact.

The three erotic horror stories that comprise Grave Cravings all share the rather broad theme of sex and death, the alpha and omega of life, and the fact that our mortality makes both inescapable. Gouveia and Peck take the reader on an oft discomfiting trip through the darkest places where the forces that create life and those that take it away crisscross in bloody mayhem. Each of the tales features male protagonists, each from a different Florida town. Grave Cravings is structured to give us glimpses of each writer’s individual voice, as well as a collaborative effort wedged in between.

In Gouveia’s opener, Delusions of Love, we are introduced to collegiate lothario Scott Locke who discards the women in his life like most of us discard soiled tissues. His womanizing ways come to an abrupt halt when he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Rachel, and Scott is left reeling when she dumps him in a case of mistaken infidelity at the manipulation of Lisa, Rachel’s best friend who has romantic designs of her own. When the mysterious Cynthia unconventionally enters the picture, Scott learns of an equally unconventional way to exact revenge on Lisa and win back his beloved Rachel. But old habits die hard, and it isn’t long before Scott learns (literally) that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. It’s The Cell meets Fatal Attraction.

Delusions is an enjoyable tale, albeit the weakest of the three stories in terms of narrative with too much ground covered in its few pages. The set-ups and characterizations (particularly in the case of Cynthia) seem rushed in spots, some of the logic sketchy. The out-of-body sequences are imaginative once the reader accepts the idea that Scott is able to successfully master an advanced form of astral projection on his first attempt. The twists are solid however, and ultimately leave the reader with an appropriately stomach-tightening sense of dread in the end.

When Gouveia and Peck collaborate on Latent Killer, the novella really kicks into gear. The authors demonstrate an ability to shock and outrage here, and the effect is reminiscent of that first Jack Ketchum book one picks up as a teenager. Fraught with unsettling gore, sexual explicitness, and a borderline political incorrectness, Latent paints a picture of how virulent sexual repression and internalized homophobia can be. Set against the backdrop of the annual Gay Days celebration in Orlando, Latent tells the story of harried hotel manager Jonathan Pierce who is trying to juggle too many check-ins with too few employees as the story opens. When a flamboyant S&M couple arrives, Pierce finds his tolerance sorely tested. Aside from a misstep with the bellboy character of Mason who never rings quite true, this is one stomach-churning tale.

Guaranteed to offend someone, Latent Killer is both deliciously retro in its approach to the maladjusted closeted gay killer (think the 1980 Al Pacino serial killer opus Cruising) and dated in its delivery of gay stereotypes. Although some may initially balk at the reinforced idea of homosexuals as promiscuous predators, Gouveia and Peck wisely sketch the leather daddy and his slave as so over-the-top as to be almost cartoon-like; on the downside, this approach detracts from the reader’s ability to sympathize with the victims. While purveyors of the PC may well be screaming homophobia over this one, a closer read reveals a brutal story of mainstream culture colliding with a fringe subculture as the authors juxtapose the family-friendly innocuousness of Disney World against the sexually aggressive subculture of gay fetishism. As harrowing and uncomfortable a read as one is likely to encounter this year, Latent Killer earns its horror classification in its ability to simultaneously disturb and repulse.

Peck closes the collection with Blood Betrayals, the longest story in the anthology. The story concerns Count Francois Trias, a French vampire of the debonair variety who relocates his ancestral castle, brick-by-brick, from France to the unlikely venue of a northeastern Florida beachfront. The cultured count has manners to spare and, apparently, a penchant for buff surfer dudes as he befriends best buds Thad and Chad (insert groan). It seems that the good count has a propensity to fall fast and hard for these Abercrombie boys, and the task of keeping cover over their clandestine existence falls squarely on the shoulders of his loyal manservant, Jean-Claude, who himself has otherworldly tastes (fresh testicles, anyone?). As the title implies, betrayals of all shapes and sizes populate and drive this at times engaging and at times maddening vampire tale.

It’s not clear whether Peck purposefully eschews necessary semblances of logic in favor of crafting a purely fantastical gay vampire yarn here, but whatever the author’s intent, the result nevertheless detracts from an otherwise engaging story. From the aforementioned illogical and improbable relocation venue to the fact that Jean-Claude spends so much time worrying about his master’s cover being blown despite having constructed an ostentatious 18^th century castle in the middle of the beach and then offering tours to the general public (!), it’s hard to take a story seriously when it seemingly tosses this degree of plausibility aside. Even when the reader can reasonably be expected to suspend their disbelief when one after another of the tale’s reluctant straight boys raise their legs quicker than a railroad-crossing gate (OK, the count is a vampire after all – we can at least buy into his powers of seduction), we’re left dumbfounded when the characters open their mouths. Consider this line, uttered by one of the male characters during an argument with his fiancé:

“It’s pretty typical behavior for a woman scorned to attack her lover’s cockmanship.”

Forgetting the fact that this is recent high school grad speaking, what adult speaks like this? The rest of the dialogue ranges from condescendingly trite…

“Wow,” Thad said when Trias broke off the kiss. “That was the best. To think, I used to make fun of gay guys. I had no idea what I was missing.”

…to gay porn clichéd:

“If it takes a small prick to make your prick big, then I’m willing. Do what you have to.”

This plethora of descriptive and dialogue distractions is a shame because Peck’s narrative is actually quite strong, and there is a genuinely touching romantic story of heartache and longing that should be easy for the reader to get caught up in. But literary disruptions ultimately overpower – from a nearly offensive misogynic mention of one character’s “fishy-smelling” vagina to some shockingly adolescent gay porn jargon like “battered bunghole”, “joy juice”, and “trouser snake”.

Fans of gay/bisexual erotica will find some genuinely titillating moments here; fans of horror may find more in the way of concept than execution. Sexually charged, thematically cohesive, and bold at times, Grave Cravings ultimately scores a passing grade on the strength and audacity of its center square. Like an Oreo cookie, it’s all about the cream center.

Purchase an autographed copy of Grave Cravings at Shocklines.