“Twisted: Tales of Obsession and Terror”– scary reading

Reed, Rick R., “Twisted: Tales of Obsession and Horror”. LPB Press, 2006.

Scary Reading

Amos Lassen

I am quickly becoming a fan of Rick Reed. I just finished reading his newest book. “Twisted: Tales of Obsession and Horror” and although this is not a genre that I usually read, but it looks like tat may change now. Sure, I went through my Stephen King phase but I got bored with that and switched to Jackie Collins (trashy as she is, she does tell a good story-even if it is the same story over and over). But then I got involved in gay literature and philosophical texts. Now Rick Reed may not have the philosophies I like to read but he is one good gay story teller and he seems to have found a niche by writing horror stories. “Twisted” literally had me biting my nails as I sat on the edge of my easy chair. Rarely do books scare me but I will admit that this one did.

I had not read a book of horror stories in a long time but I discovered what I was missing when I read Rick’s book and I can’t thank him enough for sending me a copy to review. What astounded me the most is his ability to relay to the reader what the intensity of love is all about and to do so while using vampires is no easy feat (with apologies to Anne Rice—but since she has found Jesus, I doubt we will have her vampiric homoeroticism anymore).

Surely we are all aware of the complexities of love but this is something that is very hard to put down on paper. But to find out about the nature of love in the most horrific of relationships is indeed a revelation. What Reed writes about is nowhere near ordinary, Some of the stories are based on historical fact and historic personages such as Lizzie Borden and Jeffrey Dahmer but Reed manages to embellish the stories and make then all the more frightful.

Some of the stories have their own sense of sick humor. There is the story of an overweight vampire who in his search to lose weight finds love and there is a woman that manages to find herself in a vampire chat room. The humor is momentary but the fright lasts and lasts.

Reed’s writing is crystal clear and it is very easy to lose yourself in the pages of his stories. Additionally the characters he presents can be your next door neighbors—that is now real they appear to be. Reed’s voice is evident throughout but I suspect that Reed the person is nothing like Reed the writer. Those of us in Arkansas will have the opportunity to find that out for ourselves as He is going to be with us this year at the Arkansas Literary Festival and we will have the chance to meet him ourselves’ Until then I will have to scout the bookstores to see if I can find copies of some of the things that he has written that I have not yet read.