NAKED DELIRIUM, REVIEW

When the post lady drops a book with the title “Naked Delirium” through your letterbox, you know that you are in for…well…an interesting read. So, I was prepared for some fairly explicit erotica, even some heavy sex -- what I wasn’t prepared for was writing of such quality that made this anthology pure pleasure to read.  These stories are all from the very best of creative minds -- five writers who understand how to tell a story and who know all about atmosphere, tension and pace -- and, of course erotica. They all take up the theme of sex in altered states, and draw the reader inexorably into the darker side of desire. Giorgio Verona’s superb erotic illustrations will delight and enhance the reader’s experience.

In “Sugarshuttle Express,”  Sommer Marsden  opens the anthology. We read of a journey through nature, punctuated by sex in all its glorious aspects. It’s a celebration of sex and sexuality; a twosome, a threesome, sex while watching others have sex -- the real sense of being a voyeur, you join in the action, but in secret. Danny can’t take his eyes off Wren and Wren has taken a drug. An hallucinogen, with the mythical, mind expanding properties of the Mandrake. Vision is enhanced, so is hearing, so is the effect of another’s touch…skin on skin.

Vanessa de Sade’s contribution to the anthology is “Gilinda and the Wicked Witch.” The sex in this story is immediate and relentless. The sultry Gilinda’s eyes are as green as the aquatic world she inhabits -- a world where the water, steeped in ancient, magical minerals from times long ago, soothes, stimulates, intoxicates, seduces. The women wait, in a sexually heightened prayer, for Gilinda’s touch at their door. Only Gilinda can bring them the release they crave. Then Gilinda meets Laura…

Kristina Wright takes up a tale from the dawn of time. In “Lilith Returns” Adam, the first man, confronts his wife Lilith. She has come to claim him once again. Adam knows he shouldn’t, but Lilith does not deal with rejection generously. And Adam can’t help himself; her seduction is powerful and inevitable. It has always been so from the very beginning. Lilith is both adversary and lover. With the power that can only come from God, Lilith, Adam and Eve, through various body hosts, have made it through to the twenty first century and their ancient story of lust, love and need has repeated itself over and over again. But this time it is different. Eve, the passive woman, whom ever since her first disobedience and the subsequent expulsion from the garden, orchestrates a high voltage threesome that heralds a spiritual awakening and brings their agonizing struggle to a resolution.

Velvet Tripp tells a haunting, frightening story of sex and death. In “A Woman Possessed,” Velvet writes about pleasure and pain. Pain and pleasure; an enticing story, luring the reader into a world of extreme bondage and sadomasochism. There is possession by a powerful spirit who must be vanquished for the sake of sanity and sanctity. And there is an invasion and trespass. Stella wakes the afternoon of the night before. She’s sore and aching in all the places that tell her she’s had a wild and ravaging night. Her friends tell her of her bestial behaviour; but Stella cannot remember a thing. Stella and her friends are followers of Pagan rites and rituals; they are healers too and it is during one of their ceremonies that Adolpha has slipped, unbidden through a crack in time. Adolpha must leave Stella and move on to the place where her spirit can rest; but can she be compelled to leave Stella’s ravaged body?

And lastly Fulani gives us “Smoking Hot,” an intriguing story of the after effects of hypnosis. Hannah wants to quit her forty a day smoking habit. She wants to be released from the control of addiction. After her session with the hypnotist, we see that Hannah has relinquished one type of control for another; the suppressed desires of her subconscious. We cling to our illusion of control, we cling to it tightly. If we relinquish control will we be spinning helplessly in a vortex? Not if someone is there to give the order. Hannah submits, thankfully, greedily to her primal urges; lips stretched, jaw hinged achingly open, she accepts what is given, willingly. Bondage and exquisite pain are the initiation rites that now dominate Hannah’s entire existence.

As a lover of words and language, even to the point of being picky about how those words are organised on the page,  I was delighted with everything the anthology had to offer. Five wonderful writers, experienced in the genre. Five stories; not for the faint hearted. Erotica that teeters on the edge of classic pornography. This will be an anthology that lovers of erotica will talk about in years to come. A catalyst that will force other writers of erotica to aim ever higher. And Giorgio Verona’s beautiful erotic illustrations will make this anthology into a real collector’s item.

Kojo Black has done a superb job of compiling and editing this anthology for Sweetmeats Press from his intuitive selection of these exquisite stories to placing them in a compelling order. You cannot help yourself, you have to keep reading.