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Skeleton Dancer
Twins Beck and John Ridgely have a rather ordinary teenage life in Austin, Texas, until John is kidnapped by cannibalistic, supernatural ghouls who need fresh blood to continue their existence
- GenresHorrorFictionParanormal
Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 1989
91 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 23, 2020
One of the most bizarre and homoerotic books I’ve read. There are more mentions of dicks, boners, testicles, wet dreams, skeleton hand jobs, orgasms, dude on zombie dude, and ancient all dude love customs than you can possibly imagine. The plot is super out there and every now again there will be a mention of “that aids thing” to show you that this was written in the peak of the misunderstanding on that crisis. Overall it’s not poorly written other than the premise just being half baked and weird. The book is one of those instances of peering into a writer’s mind and finding something weird, so weird you want to see where it’s going.
March 20, 2012
I just remembered this book... I read it in 8th grade. I have to track it down to see what the hell it was about. Something with kids messing around on ancient Indian burial grounds, I think. Ha ha. I used to love reading mass-market, cheap horror novels back in the day! Good times. In doing this, I also fried my brain at a formative age. What a damn shame.
April 10, 2018
Although I can't say I'd recommend Skeleton Dancer, I'm glad I read it.
Skeleton Dancer is one of a slew of cheap, lurid horror novels that were pumped out in the 70s and 80s, and were often found in drugstores or in supermarket check-out lines. Not content to stay in that lane, author Alan Erwin makes Dancer stand out by filling it with more homoeroticism than "Tango & Cash" and "Top Gun" combined into one film and produced by David DeCoteau.
The protagonists are dreamy, twin teenage boys who are fit, athletic, and, for some reason, suddenly telepathic. Beck and John use this ability to win football games they probably would have won anyway and to arrange hookups with a girl who was already throwing herself at them, so Village-of-the-Damned-style operators the brothers are not. The boys are pursued by the undead remnants of a long-dead Apache tribe, who have arisen after a hundred years for some reason I couldn't quite figure out. What makes these foes particularly noteworthy is that they feed on the blood of males whom they can force to ejaculate at the moment of death. If that isn't enough to make the subtext into hyper-text, they plan to induct Beck and John into their ranks via a ritual that involves both cannibalism and outright fellatio, in equal measure. Don't ask.
Erwin dusts a bit of heterosexuality over things with the introduction of a sexually ravenous girl who pursues the boys, but I got the feeling she was there just to ensure that the novel theoretically contained no gay characters and was thus acceptable to a mass audience in 1989. Whether or not he succeeded I cannot say, but since Skeleton Dancer made it from the slush pile to the shelf, he was on to something.
In all seriousness, I found the transgressive (for the time) elements of this novel entertaining in a giggly way, and was impressed that all of the female characters are self-motivated and often successful. Beck and John's mother is an accomplished real estate broker who out-earns their father, the wife of a victim a noted banking executive, and the doctor who is at the right place at the right time is a woman, and a neurologist to boot. Erwin was pushing back against gender norms, even if in a silly context, and that deserves recognition.
So if you're looking for an evening's entertainment and don't object to the absurd, take Skeleton Dancer for a twirl.
Skeleton Dancer is one of a slew of cheap, lurid horror novels that were pumped out in the 70s and 80s, and were often found in drugstores or in supermarket check-out lines. Not content to stay in that lane, author Alan Erwin makes Dancer stand out by filling it with more homoeroticism than "Tango & Cash" and "Top Gun" combined into one film and produced by David DeCoteau.
The protagonists are dreamy, twin teenage boys who are fit, athletic, and, for some reason, suddenly telepathic. Beck and John use this ability to win football games they probably would have won anyway and to arrange hookups with a girl who was already throwing herself at them, so Village-of-the-Damned-style operators the brothers are not. The boys are pursued by the undead remnants of a long-dead Apache tribe, who have arisen after a hundred years for some reason I couldn't quite figure out. What makes these foes particularly noteworthy is that they feed on the blood of males whom they can force to ejaculate at the moment of death. If that isn't enough to make the subtext into hyper-text, they plan to induct Beck and John into their ranks via a ritual that involves both cannibalism and outright fellatio, in equal measure. Don't ask.
Erwin dusts a bit of heterosexuality over things with the introduction of a sexually ravenous girl who pursues the boys, but I got the feeling she was there just to ensure that the novel theoretically contained no gay characters and was thus acceptable to a mass audience in 1989. Whether or not he succeeded I cannot say, but since Skeleton Dancer made it from the slush pile to the shelf, he was on to something.
In all seriousness, I found the transgressive (for the time) elements of this novel entertaining in a giggly way, and was impressed that all of the female characters are self-motivated and often successful. Beck and John's mother is an accomplished real estate broker who out-earns their father, the wife of a victim a noted banking executive, and the doctor who is at the right place at the right time is a woman, and a neurologist to boot. Erwin was pushing back against gender norms, even if in a silly context, and that deserves recognition.
So if you're looking for an evening's entertainment and don't object to the absurd, take Skeleton Dancer for a twirl.
July 15, 2022
It's Whitey versus Gay Indian Zombies in Alan Erwin's Skeleton Dancer, a truly seminal entry in the pulp horror genre. The plot revolves around two preppy twin brothers, blessed with good looks, athletic skills, near-genius IQs, the ability to generate a "record-breaking erection" with a single touch and, of course, telepathic powers. It's the latter that lands them in trouble, as they somehow summon a horde of undead Apaches (dubbed the "Brave Men-Boys") whose bloodthirsty attacks cause orgasm in their unwitting victims. Erwin, in what appears to be his only novel, takes the tired "Indian spirits seek revenge on the White Man" plot and filters it through a bizarre gay panic narrative. The book features more homoerotic weirdness than Chuck Tingle and more fluids than early Philip Roth (at one point, even a squirrel gets into the act), with the requisite teen characters (the dreamboat protagonists look like "a blonde Michael J. Fox") and token authority figures ("sounds like gays to me," a crusty Sheriff opines after hearing about the skeleton's rampage) an afterthought. Yet Erwin desperately tries to slam his book into the closet: the boys cavort with girlfriends early on (one unsuccessfully tries to suppress his lust by imagining Ronald Reagan and his mother), while the Brave Men-Boys insist that they aren't homosexual...they just happen to exclusively target men, cause them to climax and afterwards induct them into their underground society. Their denial isn't very convincing, especially when the Lead Skeleton corners the boys in his lair and offers them his Spirit Bone. Fortunately, a SWAT team led by the homophobic Sheriff and the twins' horny gal pal arrives in the nick of time, blasting the Bone Heads to bits. Heteronormativity is restored, and the boys are welcomed back to straight society; one makes sure to sexually harass the nurse treating him in his final scene, with promise of socially approved nookie in the future. In the epilogue though, we learn that there are more Men-Boys lurking in the Earth, waiting perhaps for a society more tolerant of their unorthodox lifestyle.
August 24, 2022
Fifteen-year-old Perching Hawk was chosen for the honor of eternal life and must leave his tribe - for even though he doesn't want to leave his family, especially his twin brother, knowing he will never see him again, even in the afterlife, refusing this "gift" would bring dishonor to his mother.
Perching Hawk starts his journey to the mountains and finally reaches the top, seeing the men he will be sharing eternity with, but to his horror... and pleasure, they begin eating him. His old self dies and the next day he will reawaken as one of them. A "brave man-boy living forever."
Present day: Fifteen-year-old twins John and Beck Ridgley have just discovered their ability to read minds - not just their own, but those around them too. John immediately embraces this, but Beck is hesitant and fears it could be dangerous. One day, John hears a voice in his head that is not Beck's and over time, they both hear this interfering voice over and over.
Soon after, horrible things begin happening around town, and the witnesses claim a decaying, skeletal being is responsible. With every life it takes, human or animal, the skeletal Native American from centuries ago, Perching Hawk, becomes more and more human and life-like once again, because as it turns out, the twins calling out to themselves mentally has woken him up. He thinks it's his own twin that he's hearing, and although he wonders how he can possibly be alive, he'll stop at nothing to get back to his brother.
The twins soon realize the mysterious voice in their head wants John and intends to claim him as his brother. Sure enough, during a nighttime soccer game, John goes missing. Beck knows with every fiber of his being that John is still alive, even though he can no longer reach him mentally, and he knows it's up to him to rescue his brother.
Beck, the detective on John's case, along with John's new girlfriend, will do everything in their power to bring John back alive - but will they make it on time before Perching Hawk brings him into his undead tribe?
-------------------
This book was super crazy but honestly I kinda loved it. I can definitely say I've never seen the whole "blood-thirsty, undead, homoerotic Native American skeleton" trope done before. The one thing that really drove me up the wall was the name of the undead tribe. I mean really, the author couldn't think of ANYTHING better? Whatever. This story was a lot to unpack and you have lots of questions, but for the most part, they do all get answered as the book goes on. It definitely requires a certain level of suspended disbelief, but I'd recommend it if you're into old-school horror and you're looking for something fun and different.
Perching Hawk starts his journey to the mountains and finally reaches the top, seeing the men he will be sharing eternity with, but to his horror... and pleasure, they begin eating him. His old self dies and the next day he will reawaken as one of them. A "brave man-boy living forever."
Present day: Fifteen-year-old twins John and Beck Ridgley have just discovered their ability to read minds - not just their own, but those around them too. John immediately embraces this, but Beck is hesitant and fears it could be dangerous. One day, John hears a voice in his head that is not Beck's and over time, they both hear this interfering voice over and over.
Soon after, horrible things begin happening around town, and the witnesses claim a decaying, skeletal being is responsible. With every life it takes, human or animal, the skeletal Native American from centuries ago, Perching Hawk, becomes more and more human and life-like once again, because as it turns out, the twins calling out to themselves mentally has woken him up. He thinks it's his own twin that he's hearing, and although he wonders how he can possibly be alive, he'll stop at nothing to get back to his brother.
The twins soon realize the mysterious voice in their head wants John and intends to claim him as his brother. Sure enough, during a nighttime soccer game, John goes missing. Beck knows with every fiber of his being that John is still alive, even though he can no longer reach him mentally, and he knows it's up to him to rescue his brother.
Beck, the detective on John's case, along with John's new girlfriend, will do everything in their power to bring John back alive - but will they make it on time before Perching Hawk brings him into his undead tribe?
-------------------
This book was super crazy but honestly I kinda loved it. I can definitely say I've never seen the whole "blood-thirsty, undead, homoerotic Native American skeleton" trope done before. The one thing that really drove me up the wall was the name of the undead tribe. I mean really, the author couldn't think of ANYTHING better? Whatever. This story was a lot to unpack and you have lots of questions, but for the most part, they do all get answered as the book goes on. It definitely requires a certain level of suspended disbelief, but I'd recommend it if you're into old-school horror and you're looking for something fun and different.
October 19, 2025
Horny teens, undead skeletons thirsty for both blood and semen, and so many orgasms and semen stained pants.
“I don’t want anyone to know about the semen yet, but the killer, whatever it is, can somehow bring the victim to climax just before he kills.”
“His last living thought was that his body would be found with semen stains on his pants and he would be disgraced.”
I thought the writing was decent and very easy to read. The content is questionable and not politically correct but I was very entertained
“I don’t want anyone to know about the semen yet, but the killer, whatever it is, can somehow bring the victim to climax just before he kills.”
“His last living thought was that his body would be found with semen stains on his pants and he would be disgraced.”
I thought the writing was decent and very easy to read. The content is questionable and not politically correct but I was very entertained
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 21, 2025
what a weird book.
October 6, 2024
3.8 / 5
One of the most odd and interesting books I’ve stumbled across, Skeleton Dancer skids the line between actually good literature and the authors odd and deprived fetish work with lots of very racist and outdated charecatures but overall I found it a very enjoyable ride with lots of fun characters and hilarious 18+ plot lines, if your coming into this story for serious horror, your not gonna get it. Though some of the plot lines do include horror elements, I wouldn’t say it’s scary.
One of the most odd and interesting books I’ve stumbled across, Skeleton Dancer skids the line between actually good literature and the authors odd and deprived fetish work with lots of very racist and outdated charecatures but overall I found it a very enjoyable ride with lots of fun characters and hilarious 18+ plot lines, if your coming into this story for serious horror, your not gonna get it. Though some of the plot lines do include horror elements, I wouldn’t say it’s scary.
February 3, 2024
Oh dear. This book was super weird. Literally every chapter referenced sex or a sex act or a thought of a sex act. The plot was paper thin and the dialogue did not age well. I finished it, but not because I loved it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews