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A review by tometrinket
Crimes of Passion by Michael Garrett, Brian Lumley, Greg Kihn, Stephen Solomita, Joyce Carol Oates, Brian Hodge, Ramsey Campbell, Lawrence Block, John Edward Ames, Jeff Gelb, Mike W. Barr, Robert J. Randisi, Marthayn Pelegrimas, Tom Piccirilli, Melanie Tem
3.0
The Hot Blood series are tales of erotic horror, which is the best combination ever. When something as personal and sensitive as sex is mixed with horror, what could possible scare you shitless more? So I set out to explore them all, all 13 books of the series, thus Project Hot Blood.
First, some info about my rating system. The level of paranormal of each story is one to five, one meaning it surely can happen in real life, five meaning it’s utterly something paranormal. The level of sex describes how graphic is the sex in each story, one to five, one being tame a bedtime story told by a nun, five being a detailed script for a hardcore porn movie. My rating’s from one to ten, it’s based on the balance of horror and erotic, so getting five in ‘level of sex’ doesn’t automatically mean an above average rating from me. It’s based on the wtf-ness of the ending, how freaked out I am, how nightmare-generating it is. One being rubbish, ten being masterpiece. It’s time to move on to the ninth book in my Project Hot Blood. Let's begin.
The Limits of Fantasy
Ramsey Campbell
To be honest, not the strongest beginning to the book. ‘The Limits of Fantasy’ is long and boring, and I am not even sure what it was about after reading it. Something to do with a mysterious fog and some spanking sprinkled with elements of supernatural. And since there wasn’t anything remotely resembling sex in the story, I am not sure what is this story doing in a Hot Blood book.
Length: 17 pages
Level of Sex: 0/5 (there wasn’t any exactly)
My rating: 5 out of 10
Threshold
John Edward Ames
The scenario this story presents is pretty scary indeed. It goes into depth about why orgasms are called little deaths, the way the story describes them is quite beautiful really. But just as everything powerful can also be addicting and that’s exactly what happened to the lead character in the story. If you have a way to get powerful orgasms, almost out of body experience, but there is a risk of no turning back, would you still try them?
Length: 19 pages
Level of Sex: 2/5
My rating: 6 out of 10
The Great White Light
Greg Kihn
The devil got his ways with ripping souls, one of them being offering LSD from hell to horny people. Sex while tripping must be quite an experience, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it so much during the ’60s, right? I expected some wilder sex scenes though, otherwise, the quality of the story is getting better.
Length: 26 pages
Level of Sex: 2/5
My rating: 7 out of 10
Hot Eyes, Cold Eyes
Lawrence Block
I really enjoy this one, it kinda kept you guessing the whole time but fortunately, it was short and sweet. The sex was actually quite sensual, until the end. It kept some nice sexual tension building up all the time, and the story definitely leads the reader to believe it’s going one way but in the end, the predator becomes the prey.
Length: 10 pages
Level of Sex: 3/5
My rating: 7 out of 10
A Real Woman
Mike W. Barr
Another one of those supernatural ones. Started out quite normal, you know, a mysterious woman and a cheating man. Then it turned, and it got a little unclear, but if I understood it correctly, there was some intense unwilling gender-switching happening here. In a quite literal sense, I might add.
First, some info about my rating system. The level of paranormal of each story is one to five, one meaning it surely can happen in real life, five meaning it’s utterly something paranormal. The level of sex describes how graphic is the sex in each story, one to five, one being tame a bedtime story told by a nun, five being a detailed script for a hardcore porn movie. My rating’s from one to ten, it’s based on the balance of horror and erotic, so getting five in ‘level of sex’ doesn’t automatically mean an above average rating from me. It’s based on the wtf-ness of the ending, how freaked out I am, how nightmare-generating it is. One being rubbish, ten being masterpiece. It’s time to move on to the ninth book in my Project Hot Blood. Let's begin.
The Limits of Fantasy
Ramsey Campbell
To be honest, not the strongest beginning to the book. ‘The Limits of Fantasy’ is long and boring, and I am not even sure what it was about after reading it. Something to do with a mysterious fog and some spanking sprinkled with elements of supernatural. And since there wasn’t anything remotely resembling sex in the story, I am not sure what is this story doing in a Hot Blood book.
Length: 17 pages
Level of Sex: 0/5 (there wasn’t any exactly)
My rating: 5 out of 10
Threshold
John Edward Ames
The scenario this story presents is pretty scary indeed. It goes into depth about why orgasms are called little deaths, the way the story describes them is quite beautiful really. But just as everything powerful can also be addicting and that’s exactly what happened to the lead character in the story. If you have a way to get powerful orgasms, almost out of body experience, but there is a risk of no turning back, would you still try them?
Length: 19 pages
Level of Sex: 2/5
My rating: 6 out of 10
The Great White Light
Greg Kihn
The devil got his ways with ripping souls, one of them being offering LSD from hell to horny people. Sex while tripping must be quite an experience, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it so much during the ’60s, right? I expected some wilder sex scenes though, otherwise, the quality of the story is getting better.
Length: 26 pages
Level of Sex: 2/5
My rating: 7 out of 10
Hot Eyes, Cold Eyes
Lawrence Block
I really enjoy this one, it kinda kept you guessing the whole time but fortunately, it was short and sweet. The sex was actually quite sensual, until the end. It kept some nice sexual tension building up all the time, and the story definitely leads the reader to believe it’s going one way but in the end, the predator becomes the prey.
Length: 10 pages
Level of Sex: 3/5
My rating: 7 out of 10
A Real Woman
Mike W. Barr
Another one of those supernatural ones. Started out quite normal, you know, a mysterious woman and a cheating man. Then it turned, and it got a little unclear, but if I understood it correctly, there was some intense unwilling gender-switching happening here. In a quite literal sense, I might add.