Momentary Aberrations

by Tom Cardamone

148 pages, Paperback

Published October 26, 2025

About the author

Tom Cardamone’s speculative short fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Spectrum award. His work has appeared in various magazines and anthologies like So Fey: Queer Fairy Fiction, Best Gay Fiction, Best Gay Erotica, Best Gay Romance, and Madder Love: Queer Men and the Precincts of Surrealism. He is the author of the erotic fantasy novel, The Werewolves of Central Park and editor of The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered.

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if Bram Stoker's Dracula enticed queer victims with a shot of semen instead of a dram of absinthe? The intoxicating result might be like Tom Cardamone's third short story collection -- unafraid of neither the graphically erotic nor the literarily Gothic: Vampires are outwitted via strategically timed blowjobs ("The Life Crimson"); "Ringu"-like VHS tapes release horrors first glimpsed via anime porn ("Night Market"). In a closing essay ("Recall the Creature"), Cardamone admits to the shaping influence of Saturday afternoon TV double-features. Movies like ""I Was a Teenage Werewolf" as well as novelizations of pulp flicks like "Funhouse" inform his kink esthetic whether he's crafting an amusing tale about a new sleeping medication that may have homosexual side-effects ("You Decide How Much Is Enough") or a modern-day fable ("Bent on Midnight Frolic") about a dryad whose nympho appetite gets redirected to precious metals. There's Poe-worthy shocks here too ("A Seppuku of Centerfolds," "Grey Salamanders"...). But with Cardamone, the chills are always accompanied by serious heat.