Review by Garrett Peck

SIX INCH SPIKES By Edo van Belkom DarkTales Publications TPB $17.99 ISBN: 1-930997-08-6

Edo van Belkom writes horror. In fact, he even wrote a book called Writing Horror. Edo also writes erotica, and - you guessed it - wrote a book called Writing Erotica. So what happens when he combines his favorite genres together and writes erotic horror? The sex and the scares come all at once.

Here are some of the titillating terrors that await you in SIX INCH SPIKES.

"Yours Truly, Jackie the Stripper," whose title is an affectionate homage to Robert Bloch's classic "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," is the opening novella. Not technically a horror tale, this one is more of a dark revenge story that will have you rooting for its take-no-nonsense heroine. The cover charge at the door allows you to look at Jackie, but not to touch. Break that rule and she's got a pair six-inch spikes that will teach you some manners.

"Pattern Baldness" explores an unusual fetish. Our protagonist has a thing for women with no hair on their bodies, including their heads. Jeff Webster discovers the girl of his dreams on the subway and she turns out to be everything he could dream of… and a whole lot more. The protagonist of "Gummy Worm" has an even stranger fetish: women with real bad teeth.

"Sex Starved" features an obese man who marries a gorgeous Mexican woman, who refuses to have sex with him until he loses 150 pounds. "Bust" is about a woman who gets more than she bargained for from breast enhancement surgery. How many horror and porno movies begin with the pickup of a hitchhiker? "End of the Road" starts that way, but ends up decided more horrific than pornographic. A young actress about to hit it big has to worry about some nude photographs she posed for when she was down on her luck that might ruin her burgeoning career in "The Starlet." A groupie gets the chance to boff her favorite rock star, but discovers he is capable of filling anybody with a "Strange Attraction" for himself. A man discovers there is "Sex After Life," when the spirit of his wife returns to him in women of every kind. Oh, if only he could have stayed faithful to her when she was dying of breast cancer. Another disembodied woman finds a different way to get revenge on her cheating husband in "The Terminatrix." Still another woman marries a rich old man for his money, then tries to kill him with more sex than he can handle in "Deathbed."

"Teeth" introduces us to a creature that would come to be the subject of his novel of the same name from Meisha Merlin Publishing. The incident relayed in this story is not part of that novel, though, so no duplication.

Though there are a couple of other stories that aren't quite as effective as these, none of them flat out stink. None commit the cardinal sin of being boring. As with sex, the stories can be somewhat addictive. When SIX INCH SPIKES is finished, you're still hungry for more. Fortunately the novel Teeth was released at about the same time, so there's more readily available. And if that's not enough, check out his new erotic horror story "Bum Rap" in Michael Laimo's BLOODTYPE anthology.

Even normal sex can be scary, but in Edo van Belkom's world, it's flat out terrifying. He might just convince you to throw away your Viagra prescription.

Three Book Wyrms

This review copyright 2001 E.C.McMullen Jr.

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