If you’re Jane Austen, then receiving a blurb from porn star Ron Jeremy proclaiming, “I found this book difficult to read, because the blood kept leaving my brain and entering my penis,” is no ringing endorsement.
But if you’re renowned erotica writer Polly Frost, then Jeremy has said a mouthful. (Pun not intended, but entirely inescapable.)
Jeremy’s one-appendage-up salute is for DEEP INSIDE: EXTREME EROTIC FANTASIES, an anthology of 10 of Frost’s sexiest stories. If they were just about sex, they’d be kinda boring. But since they all carry an element of the supernatural, they’re pretty fun in spurts. (Okay, that one was intended.)
You know what you’re in from the start, as “The Threshold” concerns teenagers forced to hump their way to saving their lives, in order to escape a demon who preys upon the souls of virgins. The premise is completely outrageous, and therein lies its appeal. But if phrases like “my needy hole” offend you, you’ll find DEEP INSIDE rather shallow.
Venturing into horror, “The Orifice” is a disturbing his-and-her tête-à-tête of body modification, while “The Pleasure Invaders” is an even more disturbing, sci-fi-tinged tale about an alien race named the Serzan. Sex with a Serzan is so damned good that you instantly and permanently become addicted to it; the downside is that you lose your libido for humans forever and can only do one of the tentacled creatures six times before their carnal voodoo evaporates.
Although I’m partial just to the title of “The Dominatrix Has a Career Crisis,” the best overall story is “Viagra Babies,” a future-set number in which those children conceived of little-blue-pill-induced fornication are born with “supercharged genitals” and a sex drive to match, and thus are alienated by their peers. It’s like George Orwell and Margaret Atwood writing letters to Penthouse Forum.
“Imagine It” focuses on a female author of masturbation books, while the lesbian lovers of “Playing Karen Devere” discuss Hollywood career moves while engaging in Sapphic congress. “Test Drive” takes futuristic sex toys on just that, and “Visions of Ecstasy” concerns a fortune teller of a different kind: one who can tell your sexual future. All signs point to yes, yes, yes.
The most extravagant concept of them all arrives last, with the title story. And that idea is? Here, let Frost’s narrator tell you: “Because the fact is that magical dildos do exist. I know.”
I expected very little out of DEEP INSIDE, but beneath all the graphic descriptions and the dirty talk – and it’s blunt, there’s no way around that – it’s evident that Frost can write. Her dialogue is strong, her tone is refreshing and touched with good humor, and her mind is imaginative. If she didn’t have that, there’d be little point to these stories.
You may hate yourself in the morning, but your night will carry its share of big, dumb smiles. –Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• HEAD #14 by Polly Frost
• PRIVATE ACCESS by Tawny Roberts
Related posts:
- The End of the Story: The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith, Volume 1
- Flights: Extreme Visions of Fantasy
- Profoundly Erotic: Sexy Movies That Changed History
- Deep Storm
- Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion
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Did you really intend to follow a review of Deep Inside with a review of A Dog with a Bone?
LOL!
Troy
Yep! And I was wondering if anyone would clue in on today’s theme! Congratulations, Troy — you win a free book. E-mail me at editor@bookgasm.com for details.
This is the best book-review site ever created.
This reminds me of the “sex skin” imagined by William S. Burroughs for his weird sci-fi trilogy: “an organism that surrounds its victims with a second skin that gives its victims intense sexual pleasure while dissolving and ingesting them.”
Thank you so much! I love Bookgasm, so it’s especially great to get reviewed by you guys. I love your idea of Margaret Atwood and George Orwell writing letters to Penthouse! I’m going to insist that my publisher put that line on the cover of my next book. And what a kick that someone was reminded of William S. Burroughs, whose writing I also love. Btw, a film director and I are planning to make a movie of the Serzan story. We see it as a cross between Barbarella and The Bad Lieutenant!