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The Safety of Unknown Cities
"One of the most impressive debut novels . . . centered around relationship-driven fiction catalyzed by horrific events, mostly realistic, sometimes supernatural. . . . Indeed it's sexual, it's graphically written, but it's also . . . an affecting and powerful novel about heartbreak and the untimely destruction of childhood." --Edward Bryant, Locus
277 pages, Paperback
First published November 19, 1999
About the author
Lucy Taylor
109 books131 followersLUCY TAYLOR was born in Richmond, VA, and never really got the South out of her system, as evidenced by the flavor of Southern Gothic in many of her works. She’s the author of seven novels, including Dancing with Demons, Spree, Nailed, Saving Souls, Eternal Hearts, and the Stoker-award winning The Safety of Unknown Cities. Her stories have appeared in over a hundred magazines and anthologies, including The Mammoth Book of Historical Erotica, The Best of Cemetery Dance, Twentieth Century Gothic, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and the Century’s Best Horror Fiction.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
May 11, 2024
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THE SAFETY OF UNKNOWN CITIES was recommended in this erotic horror thread I sometimes hang out in. The comparisons to Clive Barker both intrigued and terrified me because Barker is a fantastic author, but his stuff definitely pushes the limits of what I can handle. This book is a lot like the Hellraiser series, especially with the hedonistic sex addict heroine, Val, who fucks the way other people do hits of morphine; she needs greater and greater extremes to get the same highs, but it's never enough.
That's why she's searching for this place called The City. It's a place so terrifying that some people would rather blind themselves than see it-- unless you're a pervy weirdo, and then it's heaven on earth, where no sex act, no matter how depraved, is disallowed. Val goes all the way to the middle east with an intersex man who is also her lover, who holds the secret to The City over her head to toy with her.
But Val isn't the only one looking for The City. Breen, Val's ex lover and a serial killer-slash-sadist, is now looking for it, too.
I knew this book was going to be hardcore because it literally opens up with a graphic eye-gouging scene. It only goes downhill from there. I felt really uncomfortable reading this book and as with other readers, it made me feel a little physically ill. I found myself comparing it to THE HELLBOUND HEART, which was also about pleasure taken to wildly horrific extremes, but in that book, Barker left a lot of the horror to the reader's imagination. Here, Taylor feels the need to lay it all out, and the end result of that is that all of the body horror just gets stacked up on top of each other, until by the end of the book, you're asking yourself both what the point of it all was, and when it would end.
I skimmed to the end because I wanted to see if the characters made it out okay. None of them were particularly likable but with a book like this, it's kind of nice to know who-- if anyone-- makes it out alive. One of my favorite characters in the book got a pretty raw deal, so that was a bit of a bummer. Not sure I'd recommend this to anyone but readers of the extreme horror genre.
2 to 2.5 stars
May 21, 2015
Reminiscent of the early works of Clive Barker, Taylor weaves a stunningly graphic horror tale about a sex-addicted young woman, Val, who travels the world, sampling the cuisine of the flesh, but never truly finding what she's searching for. Then she hears of a mythical City where every desire and perversion of the flesh is welcomed, and becomes obsessed with finding it.
Pursued by a psychotic and spurned lover, Breen, Val finds the City, but the pleasures, and horrors, of the flesh may be too much for her mind and body, and soul, to take.
Unsurprisingly, Taylor's debut novel won the Bram Stoker for Best First Novel.
Highly recommended.
Pursued by a psychotic and spurned lover, Breen, Val finds the City, but the pleasures, and horrors, of the flesh may be too much for her mind and body, and soul, to take.
Unsurprisingly, Taylor's debut novel won the Bram Stoker for Best First Novel.
Highly recommended.
June 18, 2024
Horrifying, disgusting, no-good, boundary-crossing all around YUCK.
This is body-horror or, I guess, sex horror. Not erotica.
Although the novel does state: "Torture is just pleasure you lack the aptitude for."
So I guess this vile piece of nuclear waste is just erotica with kinks I hate, deplore, and find violating even to think about? This is a rhetorical question - the author clearly wrote this, unlike de Sade, not to titillate but to horrify and disgust the readers, and it works.
I think this novel is very niche, because most readers will probably not make it through to the end. It's a bit like the SAW movie franchise, with all the involuntary (self-)mutilation, except there is also rape! And consensual sex with mutilation, which also horrified me.
Why do I think this novel deserves praise? Because it wants to horrify and disgust, and the point is for readers to really question sex in society and sexual liberation and self-expression, especially in women and intersex persons. It did what it came to do and while the journey was brutal and yucky, I'm glad I was here to see it.
I found it transgressive in a way that made me think and rethink.
However, I will now be reading fluff for a while.
This is body-horror or, I guess, sex horror. Not erotica.
Although the novel does state: "Torture is just pleasure you lack the aptitude for."
So I guess this vile piece of nuclear waste is just erotica with kinks I hate, deplore, and find violating even to think about? This is a rhetorical question - the author clearly wrote this, unlike de Sade, not to titillate but to horrify and disgust the readers, and it works.
I think this novel is very niche, because most readers will probably not make it through to the end. It's a bit like the SAW movie franchise, with all the involuntary (self-)mutilation, except there is also rape! And consensual sex with mutilation, which also horrified me.
Why do I think this novel deserves praise? Because it wants to horrify and disgust, and the point is for readers to really question sex in society and sexual liberation and self-expression, especially in women and intersex persons. It did what it came to do and while the journey was brutal and yucky, I'm glad I was here to see it.
I found it transgressive in a way that made me think and rethink.
However, I will now be reading fluff for a while.
April 13, 2017
This is a crazy-ass book but I think I read it in one sitting. I was completely enthralled by Val's journey into strange lands, which were expertly detailed by Lucy Taylor. A rich blend of horror, erotica and a bizarre journey, this is the one that pegged Taylor as one of the true masters of the genre.
August 1, 2015
My god! I really wish I hadn't read this book.
I knew before I started on this one that it wasn't going to be a light read, but even knowing that, I certainly didn't expect it to be quite so intense. It starts out with our protagonist, Val, travelling around from country to country and city to city as she always does. Being wealthy she can do as she pleases and so seems to have dedicated her life to the pursuit of pleasure, but even pleasure gets a little tedious after a while and she begins to think about a place known only as 'The City', a place her mother spoke of when she was little. By all accounts it's a place of such great pleasures and perversions that you'll never experience anything like it, ever, no matter what.
So, off she goes in search of a man she knows who she thinks may be able to direct her to this wonderous place. She finds him of course and here it begins to get a little stranger, with a more fantastical feel to the story. Surfice to say there's an incense burner and a lot of green flame and hey-presto you're in another place, yep, you're in 'The City'.
Up until now the story is much as I'd been led to believe, a bit of sex here and there and perversions noticed in passing and taken part in too, but once our, now two, protagonists enter 'The City' everything really turns perverted in the most extreme fashion you can imagine. The next god-knows-how-many-pages take you on a ride through just about every torturous, perverted, sick and depraved sexual activity that you'll ever have the displeasure to endure. I use the word endure because that's what it was for me. It truly was a test of endurance. I passed the test by reaching the end of this awful ride when Val manages to escape the sick perversions of 'The City' along with a young girl she brings with her back to the mundane world(who's mother incidently turns out to be her friend, Majeed, who she initially thought was a man only to find out quite early on is actually a hermaphradite). Majeed decides to stay on in 'The City' for reasons of his own, which I found to be a little odd, but then after forcing myself on through this sick-fest of a story, nothing really surprises me for long anymore.
Anyway, what can I say about a book like this?
Well, I can say in all honesty that I hope I never meet the author. I'm sure she's a very pleasant, well adjusted young lady, but am I willing to take the chance that she may be otherwise? No. No I'm really, seriously not. You could say that everything I've said here could be taken as a huge compliment, and you'd be right. It could. Or you could say that this story lingers on the sick and perverted acts with just that little bit too much gusto and zeal, and you'd be right there too. You could also say that the characters are well written as is the story as a whole, and you'd also be right there too. But when all's said and done I'm looking for books to take me out of a world I find to be quite dull and a little lacking at the best of times, a book whose story and characters I care about and want to either get behind or rail against or at least feel some sort of affinity with. Unfortunately, where this book fails for me is in the fact that I not only can't relate at all to any of the very unlikable characters, but the story itself goes where only a very sick mind would want to follow. This is a strange thing to say considering I love a good horror story and can usually take pretty much anything a novel, or in fact a movie can throw at me. I think what makes the difference here is the very fact that there really isn't any redeeming factor at all. It's characters are depressingly self-centred and intensly unlikable, while their goals in life amount to nothing more than the persuit of greater and greater perversions and more and more invented tortures. The sole thing of note that this novel left me with was a very deep and very unwelcome feeling of depression. And I mean that in a very real sense. I felt depressed. For hours and hours afterwards.
I'm entirely at a loss to find one single thing to recommend about this book to anyone. So why am I giving it 4 stars then? That doesn't make sense, right? Well, as much as this book left me with a lot of feelings I'd rather have not had, it is well written(even given the unlikable characters) and there is a story of sorts(if you're an unashamed sado-masochist at the most severe torture-porn end of the scale)
So. Not my cup of tea at all. I couldn't wait to finish it. I'm so glad I am finished it!
...and yet, I still feel it deserves 4 stars.
God, I'm soo depressed!
I knew before I started on this one that it wasn't going to be a light read, but even knowing that, I certainly didn't expect it to be quite so intense. It starts out with our protagonist, Val, travelling around from country to country and city to city as she always does. Being wealthy she can do as she pleases and so seems to have dedicated her life to the pursuit of pleasure, but even pleasure gets a little tedious after a while and she begins to think about a place known only as 'The City', a place her mother spoke of when she was little. By all accounts it's a place of such great pleasures and perversions that you'll never experience anything like it, ever, no matter what.
So, off she goes in search of a man she knows who she thinks may be able to direct her to this wonderous place. She finds him of course and here it begins to get a little stranger, with a more fantastical feel to the story. Surfice to say there's an incense burner and a lot of green flame and hey-presto you're in another place, yep, you're in 'The City'.
Up until now the story is much as I'd been led to believe, a bit of sex here and there and perversions noticed in passing and taken part in too, but once our, now two, protagonists enter 'The City' everything really turns perverted in the most extreme fashion you can imagine. The next god-knows-how-many-pages take you on a ride through just about every torturous, perverted, sick and depraved sexual activity that you'll ever have the displeasure to endure. I use the word endure because that's what it was for me. It truly was a test of endurance. I passed the test by reaching the end of this awful ride when Val manages to escape the sick perversions of 'The City' along with a young girl she brings with her back to the mundane world(who's mother incidently turns out to be her friend, Majeed, who she initially thought was a man only to find out quite early on is actually a hermaphradite). Majeed decides to stay on in 'The City' for reasons of his own, which I found to be a little odd, but then after forcing myself on through this sick-fest of a story, nothing really surprises me for long anymore.
Anyway, what can I say about a book like this?
Well, I can say in all honesty that I hope I never meet the author. I'm sure she's a very pleasant, well adjusted young lady, but am I willing to take the chance that she may be otherwise? No. No I'm really, seriously not. You could say that everything I've said here could be taken as a huge compliment, and you'd be right. It could. Or you could say that this story lingers on the sick and perverted acts with just that little bit too much gusto and zeal, and you'd be right there too. You could also say that the characters are well written as is the story as a whole, and you'd also be right there too. But when all's said and done I'm looking for books to take me out of a world I find to be quite dull and a little lacking at the best of times, a book whose story and characters I care about and want to either get behind or rail against or at least feel some sort of affinity with. Unfortunately, where this book fails for me is in the fact that I not only can't relate at all to any of the very unlikable characters, but the story itself goes where only a very sick mind would want to follow. This is a strange thing to say considering I love a good horror story and can usually take pretty much anything a novel, or in fact a movie can throw at me. I think what makes the difference here is the very fact that there really isn't any redeeming factor at all. It's characters are depressingly self-centred and intensly unlikable, while their goals in life amount to nothing more than the persuit of greater and greater perversions and more and more invented tortures. The sole thing of note that this novel left me with was a very deep and very unwelcome feeling of depression. And I mean that in a very real sense. I felt depressed. For hours and hours afterwards.
I'm entirely at a loss to find one single thing to recommend about this book to anyone. So why am I giving it 4 stars then? That doesn't make sense, right? Well, as much as this book left me with a lot of feelings I'd rather have not had, it is well written(even given the unlikable characters) and there is a story of sorts(if you're an unashamed sado-masochist at the most severe torture-porn end of the scale)
So. Not my cup of tea at all. I couldn't wait to finish it. I'm so glad I am finished it!
...and yet, I still feel it deserves 4 stars.
God, I'm soo depressed!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 21, 2021
Lust (a deadly sin) taken to the most extreme ends of the imagination. A lust addiction horror story if you will. It’s debauchery/smut but it’s in my particular niche (unapologetic whore protagonists/anti-heros), so I enjoyed it! 💯. This is what I wished ‘Talia’ was, somehow the violence (even though extreme) was more palatable; and the magical realism was also more easy for me to accept into the story. I would not suggest starting here if you haven’t read anything similar prior 😅 like “the city” this book is somewhere you should go to only when your usual vices no longer satisfy.
March 2, 2021
A grotesque carnival of human perversion. A cautionary tale about the price of endless desire.
July 19, 2012
I blundered across Lucy through a Facebook/Smashwords 'free read' of her newest book "Unspeakable and other Stories." She's the kind of blistering, overwhelming talent that makes you want to throw your word-processor out the window, listen to what your Momma told you, and go flip burgers.
This stuff is like moonshine - unapologetically raw, earthy and profane but with an intellectual wallop equivalent to the Borax 20 mule team or a brontosaurus or an mad elephant or something. I dunno. I'm still reeling. She calls her work "erotic horror," although I for one don't find it arousing. Perhaps I'm just intimidated by the intellectual firepower bulging beneath the surface like a Smith and Wesson under a tight sweater. Ah man, don't read ME. Read HER. Rush out and grab a copy of "Unspeakable." Every story is a gem. Some are masterpieces -- raunchy, not for the squeamish, but masterpieces.
"Safety of Unknown Cities" was her first novel and as a product of the '90s, the influence of Clive Barker is unmistakably present - but she doesn't imitate. She takes Barker's theme of the unfettered sensualist, reports it from the female perspective and forces you reexamine people and archetypes you may have dismissed too casually. Oh yes, "Safety of Unknown Cities," also contains the most mind-bogglingly perverse, twisted and just downright scary villain I have encountered. Arthur Breen will give you nightmares for a month.
Gather ‘round students (and we’re all still students, right?)
This is how it’s done.
This stuff is like moonshine - unapologetically raw, earthy and profane but with an intellectual wallop equivalent to the Borax 20 mule team or a brontosaurus or an mad elephant or something. I dunno. I'm still reeling. She calls her work "erotic horror," although I for one don't find it arousing. Perhaps I'm just intimidated by the intellectual firepower bulging beneath the surface like a Smith and Wesson under a tight sweater. Ah man, don't read ME. Read HER. Rush out and grab a copy of "Unspeakable." Every story is a gem. Some are masterpieces -- raunchy, not for the squeamish, but masterpieces.
"Safety of Unknown Cities" was her first novel and as a product of the '90s, the influence of Clive Barker is unmistakably present - but she doesn't imitate. She takes Barker's theme of the unfettered sensualist, reports it from the female perspective and forces you reexamine people and archetypes you may have dismissed too casually. Oh yes, "Safety of Unknown Cities," also contains the most mind-bogglingly perverse, twisted and just downright scary villain I have encountered. Arthur Breen will give you nightmares for a month.
Gather ‘round students (and we’re all still students, right?)
This is how it’s done.
June 23, 2024
"Torture is only pleasure toward which one lacks the proper attitude."
The Safety of Unknown Cities by Lucy Taylor was originally published in 1995 and follows Val who travels the world in search of hedonistic pleasures. She hears about a place known as The City where excess and desire are paramount and she will do anything to get there. Unbeknownst to her, ex-boyfriend and serial killer Breen is hot on her tail and seeking revenge.
This novel features graphic gore and sexual content and a lot of incredibly messed up scenarios! There is also an interesting story and characters who do actually have more than just sex in the brain. And it's got that 90s grunginess that I personally really enjoy.
If you like the work of Clive Barker, Kathe Koja, Poppy Z. Brite and/or Charlee Jacob then id recommend checking this one out!
The Safety of Unknown Cities by Lucy Taylor was originally published in 1995 and follows Val who travels the world in search of hedonistic pleasures. She hears about a place known as The City where excess and desire are paramount and she will do anything to get there. Unbeknownst to her, ex-boyfriend and serial killer Breen is hot on her tail and seeking revenge.
This novel features graphic gore and sexual content and a lot of incredibly messed up scenarios! There is also an interesting story and characters who do actually have more than just sex in the brain. And it's got that 90s grunginess that I personally really enjoy.
If you like the work of Clive Barker, Kathe Koja, Poppy Z. Brite and/or Charlee Jacob then id recommend checking this one out!
November 6, 2022
Like most books I read, I bought this and went into it blind other than hearing that this was someone's absolute favorite horror novel and that it won a Stoker award for Best First Novel the year it was published. Based on the cover art, I was expecting some version of erotic horror (which I admittedly had no experience reading) but the emphasis in this was definitely on the horror and it was pretty extreme - especially body horror and just sheer gross out horror, so casual readers be warned. That said, I was impressed with her writing especially that this was her first novel written in her twenties, she definitely has literary skills. I was enjoying this at a 4 or 5 star level for the first half but I found myself getting bored during the second half which is why I'm giving it 3 stars. Nevertheless, it had a decent ending and I'll give Ms. Taylor credit for imagining a pretty original story. Recommended for fans of extreme horror.
September 28, 2018
Sin City
Taylor quickly provides the reader with a backroom of sex and mythical worlds. Once she takes on this task she develops the characters in a way that who ever reads this book will walk away with a knowledge of underground no others will ever know. Do you dare go to the forbidden city for simple pleasures? I say YES!!!
Taylor quickly provides the reader with a backroom of sex and mythical worlds. Once she takes on this task she develops the characters in a way that who ever reads this book will walk away with a knowledge of underground no others will ever know. Do you dare go to the forbidden city for simple pleasures? I say YES!!!
September 11, 2018
It’s just too gory. It stops being fun very, very fast. This book takes too long to come to the point. Hides too much crucial information. And honestly made me physically sick at times. For some it might be a preferred genre but I will not be returning.
October 29, 2023
I read the short story of this novel. I'm so glad that story got a full length book. So original, and lots of sex, violence, and drugs. The world building in this is similar to Clive Barker's worlds. This is my 5th book by Taylor, and they have all been great reads.
May 31, 2024
Val is a nymph who goes from city to city for sex with a variety of men. Her main goal is to find The City, a place that has the most intense sex scene on the planet. The only problem is she doesn’t know if it exists. She also is unaware that a man she had a short relationship with is stalking her so he can have more sex with her and murder her. This is the gist of the story. I won’t spoil anything here but there is a supernatural element to this for the entire 2nd of of the book and I wasn’t crazy about it. Interesting enough to hold my attention, but overall it was just okay. 3 stars for this one.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2018
The Safety Of Unknown Cities by Lucy Taylor is a dark ride into a region where sexual desires have no limits. A warped personal conquest quickly becomes a Clive Barker classification where violence and sexuality become a character in itself. Lucy Taylor introduces the reader to a fictional location that may actually exist where distorted cravings cross the line from fantasy to reality. The invitation to the city has been offered...will you accept?
March 14, 2023
TL;DR: Somewhere between a three and a four--this book was pretty good but it wore me out by the end.
Lucy Taylor's work of extreme erotic horror is populated by the type of people who actually seek to open the puzzle box from the Hellraiser series, knowing full well what that box will reveal. The book focuses on Val, a damaged woman with a horrific childhood who spends her life on the run from erotic adventure to erotic adventure as she trots around the globe. She's never satisfied and is always looking for a more extreme and more intense experience. Along the way, she begins to hear about a magical place called "The City," where nothing is off limits. She knows this is where she wants to end up, warnings be damned. So she takes an intersex lover who has been there before, hoping they can show her the way.
When she does cross over, however, the land she enters is not quite what she expects. It's full of pleasures, yes, but the flip side of erotic obsession is self-destruction, fanatical greed, obsession, cruelty, sadism, and more. An entire city with no limits and populated by those who just want "more" rapidly comes to resemble more of a Sadeian hellscape than heaven on earth. As she tries to free herself from this place, she's hunted by an ex-lover, now turned into a gruesome cannibalistic monster, as well as the omnipresent "Turk"--the magician who rules this land and inflicts cruelty on those who disobey him.
All in all, this is a great work of horror fiction obviously influenced by Barker and Burroughs but going further than both. The book is filled with graphic, kinky sex as well as escalating levels of extreme violence, including cannibalism, rape, and omnipresent torture. It is an extreme read that shows just how far past conventional limits horror fiction had come by the time this book was published. However, the book is also very well-written, with a great paperback "feel." Despite the subject matter, it's a pretty quick and easy read.
Honestly, this could be a 4. But, towards the end, I got tired. Taylor has to continually one-up herself as the book moves toward the climax, so we get increasingly more and more extreme content. At some point, it just became a little tiring. Your mileage may vary. But, overall, a worthy addition to the modern horror canon and an interesting read for those willing to go way outside their comfort zone.
Lucy Taylor's work of extreme erotic horror is populated by the type of people who actually seek to open the puzzle box from the Hellraiser series, knowing full well what that box will reveal. The book focuses on Val, a damaged woman with a horrific childhood who spends her life on the run from erotic adventure to erotic adventure as she trots around the globe. She's never satisfied and is always looking for a more extreme and more intense experience. Along the way, she begins to hear about a magical place called "The City," where nothing is off limits. She knows this is where she wants to end up, warnings be damned. So she takes an intersex lover who has been there before, hoping they can show her the way.
When she does cross over, however, the land she enters is not quite what she expects. It's full of pleasures, yes, but the flip side of erotic obsession is self-destruction, fanatical greed, obsession, cruelty, sadism, and more. An entire city with no limits and populated by those who just want "more" rapidly comes to resemble more of a Sadeian hellscape than heaven on earth. As she tries to free herself from this place, she's hunted by an ex-lover, now turned into a gruesome cannibalistic monster, as well as the omnipresent "Turk"--the magician who rules this land and inflicts cruelty on those who disobey him.
All in all, this is a great work of horror fiction obviously influenced by Barker and Burroughs but going further than both. The book is filled with graphic, kinky sex as well as escalating levels of extreme violence, including cannibalism, rape, and omnipresent torture. It is an extreme read that shows just how far past conventional limits horror fiction had come by the time this book was published. However, the book is also very well-written, with a great paperback "feel." Despite the subject matter, it's a pretty quick and easy read.
Honestly, this could be a 4. But, towards the end, I got tired. Taylor has to continually one-up herself as the book moves toward the climax, so we get increasingly more and more extreme content. At some point, it just became a little tiring. Your mileage may vary. But, overall, a worthy addition to the modern horror canon and an interesting read for those willing to go way outside their comfort zone.
September 3, 2018
This was my first book of this genre. The story line was pretty decent. The “erotica” seemed a bit lacking however. There was tons of unnecessary vulgarity that really did nothing to support the plot. Basically, it seemed at times the author would throw in a dirty word simply to keep it X rated. Yet when the scene called for adult descriptions, the author blew through it (pun intended) rather than slowing down to give details.
December 27, 2021
I read this again this December, since I read it for the first time last year. One of the most underrated horror novels in popular memory (or forgotten about) from an exceptional horror writer who paved the way for many women horror writers today. Upon recommendation from Brian Keene, I tried this one out and couldn't put it down. It's brutal, deep, and the characters feel real. It's a dark and perilous ride, but shed some light for me.
May 7, 2024
Ghastly. And rough. By “rough” I mean whole paragraphs are so erroneous that it makes it difficult to read.
But it’s a goddamn sexual trainwreck one can’t look away from.
”And sometimes what the City offers is painful, too, maybe worse than whatever you were running away from, but it doesn’t matter. You’re here now. You don’t get to choose what happens to you, and neither does he.”
Can confirm. The City is much worse than whatever you are running away from.
But it’s a goddamn sexual trainwreck one can’t look away from.
”And sometimes what the City offers is painful, too, maybe worse than whatever you were running away from, but it doesn’t matter. You’re here now. You don’t get to choose what happens to you, and neither does he.”
Can confirm. The City is much worse than whatever you are running away from.
June 24, 2024
Wauw!What a great book.She has a fantastic writing styling and is fearless in writung on the edges of erotic horror fiction.Reminded me a bit of PoppyZ.Brite or Clive Barker in subject matter.Not quite Charlee Jacob but close.Hope she will write more novels which i wil devour equally fast.4Stars because i almost never give 5.Read this;you will not bes orry.A fever³dream of lust and violence,
April 17, 2023
If you like a Hellraiser (the movies not the book) vibe then I suggest this book
October 19, 2023
Dropped at 20%
May 27, 2024
very uncomfortable read
April 17, 2013
Recently I was read the Horror Writers Association's On Writing Horror. One of the latter chapters dealt with writing erotic horror and therein Nancy Kilpatrick writes that the "story needs to perform on both levels equally." That is, it must succeed as both erotica and horror. The problem is that after finishing this I'm not sure it succeeds at either; the erotic parts cover every lurid deviation to the point of either indifference or repugnance and the horror is ground almost entirely in revulsion.
Ignoring that perhaps rather limiting definition for one moment, the book is not without merit. There's a certain haunting quality to the protagonist's nihilistic wanderlust, it just never quite pays off.
Ignoring that perhaps rather limiting definition for one moment, the book is not without merit. There's a certain haunting quality to the protagonist's nihilistic wanderlust, it just never quite pays off.
August 19, 2014
Reread it on a whim and I'm giving it one more star. Of course I disliked the ending, but then again I'm an epilogue-elitist, so there you go. The Safety of Unknown Cities is a story of fevered lust, depravity and hopelessness, one that's written to upset and possibly disgust you. Is it horror? Is is erotica? It's a mix of many things and mostly this vagueness does not work in its favour. Still, the writing is good and won't disappoint you (also, evident Clive Barker influences, which can only be a good thing in my book). I'm not giving away anything related to the plot because I believe it's better to read it without knowing what you're up for.
May 21, 2012
Disturbing but pointless.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews