I Shudder at Your Touch

I originally got this book for the Stephen King story. Then I started looking over the cover some more, and thought "Tales of sex and horror...sounds good." I was kind of disappointed though. The stories are good, but not really what I expected. None of them scared me, and the sex...is very very subtle. It was worth it to get the Stephen King story, and I enjoyed several others. The title is a bit misleading, that's all.

I read this title when it was originally published and have kept it in the bedside table whenever I need a good horror-erotic fix. This chock full of good stuff but my favorites include Psychopomp, Festival, The Master Builder, and Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament.

A fantastic and enlivening respite from long, lengthy novels, this is a great book to travel with you or to keep beside your bed for a nice short story before bedtime; fully packed with stories that are sure to give your dreams a writhing twist of delectation. Some of the best horror writer's work can be found between the pages of this anthology, spanning from early works written in the 20's to more modern tales. Don't let the title scare you away, none of the stories are very explicit in either the sex or the horror area, it is more an imaginative collection geared towards the strange, and relationships, and often strange relationships, coupled with a bit of gore and sex.Stephen King has a lovely piece in this compilation, written back in 1986 before he contracted diarrhea of the mouth and pen, called "The Revelations of Becka Paulson" about a woman who is cleaning out her husbands things, and his .22 gun goes off and shoots her in the head. She wakes up on the floor, and has no idea how she got the hole in her forehead, but strange things begin to happen when the picture of Jesus sitting atop their TV begins talking to her. Robert Aickman, master of the ethereal glimpse through the horror mirror, has a strange tale of "boy meets girl", inside a sideshow tent in a traveling carnival. Patrick McGrath has a lovely little piece that ponders whether people who see vampires are mad. Thomas Disch writes of a despondent girl's appointment with Death himself; Stephen Donaldson's The Conqueror Worm involves a marital spat interrupted by the odd appearance of a malevolent centipede, and Clive Barker has included a masterpiece called Jaqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament.Other notable mentions are Carolyn Banks "Salon Satin", Angela Carter's "Master", Christopher Fowler's "The Master Builder", and May Sinclair's "The Villa Desiree". Unlike a lot of anthologies where you need to pick through the bad stories to get to the good ones, there was only one story in this entire collection that I mildly disliked. Truly a great effort by Michele Slung in her obvious pickiness at gathering the shorts, this is an all around great book to own and pack around with you. Enjoy!

Michele Slung is an editor who knows a good story when she sees one. In this anthology, she mixes classical pieces with modern ones, popular authors with lesser-knowns, and eventually ends up with a collection of short stories that offers many frights, many chills, and a whole lot of fun.The anthology opens with Stephen King's pieces The Revelation of Becka Paulson and closes with a piece by Clive Barker. It's no coincidence that the two biggest names featured in this anthology open and closes the book. Both stories concentrate on women suffering from dementia. They are both unnerving in their own strange little ways. The two masters of horror are at their very best with these stories. Other stories that are worthy of reading in this anthology are Patrick McGrath's Cleave The Vampire, a strange little tale of dementia, Christopher Fowler's The Master Builder, Jonathan Carroll's A Quarter Past You, Robert Hichens's How Love Came to Professor Guildea and Eric McCormack's The Festival.Unfortunately, like all anothologies, this one has its share of stinkers, though this anthology has less than usual. Valerie Martin's Sea Lovers is a story that has no real point of view and it never really ends up anywhere. And Ruth Rendell's A Glowing Future shows promise, but it never really reaches its full potential. And you can see that ending coming from miles away! There are also a few more stories that are slightly unmemorable.I also have to mention that Robert Aickman's story The Swords is very shocking, disturbing and a great tale of horror. They just don't right 'em like that anymore!All in all, I Shudder At Your Touch is a good anthology that offers many stories that crosses genres and that are often very distubring and terrifying in their own little ways. This anthology made me discover many new authors that I cannot wait to read again, and I'm sure it'll do the same to you.

I bought this book in the early 90's and have read it with glee ever since then, dipping in every year or so when I've run out of anything else to to read. The stories within both scare and delight, my favourite being the delicious story by Christopher Fowler 'The Master Builder'