DANCING WITH DEMONS.

by Lucy Taylor

Jessie Tauber wrestles with the twin demons of sex and alcohol addiction. Jessie's adolescence was shattered by her mother's grisly suicide, an episode that precipitated her entry into a sordid, dangerous world of booze, drugs and empty sex. Now a young woman in her twenties, she looks and feels much older. Attempting to reassert control over her sorry existence, Jessie joins Alcoholics Anonymous and finds a steady job as a dance instructor. Jessie realizes that this is only the beginning--she knows she must conquer all her demons, including her sex addiction, if she's ever going to lead a normal life and regain custody of Henry from her father. This is easier said than done, as Jessie's addictions begin to feed off each other. As she struggles to remain alcohol free, her sex addiction reasserts itself. At a particularly vulnerable moment, Jessie meets Simon Lauren, one of the scariest fictional characters I've ever encountered. Simon is, simply put, a sadistic, amoral bastard, capable of horrendous acts of violence. Jessie receives ample evidence of this volatility, but ignores it out of her need. Ignoring the problem makes it worse--the violence escalates to the point where Jessie finds herself a virtual prisoner, an unwilling accomplice to the methodical murders of her former lovers. The stakes mount until Simon threatens the lives of Joe and Henry. Jessie, who has somehow managed to survive prior bad choices, may finally have made the fateful decision that will end her pain permanently.

Genres: Horror, Erotic Horror

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

LUCY TAY­LOR was born in Rich­mond, VA, and never really got the South out of her sys­tem, as evi­denced by the fla­vor of South­ern Gothic in many of her works. She’s the author of seven nov­els, includ­ing Danc­ing with Demons, Spree, Nailed, Sav­ing Souls, Eter­nal Hearts, and the Stoker-​award win­ning The Safety of Unknown Cities. Her sto­ries have appeared in over a hun­dred mag­a­zines and antholo­gies, includ­ing The Mam­moth Book of His­tor­i­cal Erot­ica, The Best of Ceme­tery Dance, Twen­ti­eth Cen­tury Gothic, The Year’s Best Fan­tasy and Hor­ror, and the Century’s Best Hor­ror Fiction.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of Lucy Taylor. This book deals with addictions and is intense. Very graphic in parts. Well worth a read.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely horrific and gut wrenching. I was uncomfortable and anxious the entire time. Which is exactly what I wanted. Don’t read this unless you truly want to be disturbed.

[Ana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come!!

[Rachel Kolar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not enough psychological complexity or insight into human nature to make the constant ugliness edifying or interesting. I liked the stuff about Jessie's alcoholism almost enough to raise this to two stars, but not quite.