If there is a subgenre called Ligottian erotica, well, this is it. Llewellyn's brand of erotica will make you squirm before it gives you a stiffy though. Some worked and some seemed overworked but overall there was one mostly effective grim vision of sex, death, and oblivion here.

Panopticon: a somewhat pointless tone poem that seemed about average to me.

Stabilimentum: I'm not personally particularly creeped out by arachnids but this did work for me more in the vein of the hopelessness than raw horror. I liked it.

Wasp & Snake: Well I forgot what it was about right after I finished it. That tells you something.

Cinereous: Now we're talkin'. French Revolution, zombies, plague. They really did look into the faces of decapitated heads to see if there were signs of post guillotine lividity. I liked this one a lot.

Yours is the Right to Begin: I have no idea what is going on here even after reading it twice. It has something to do with Dracula, or Vlad Tepes, or Mina Harker. One of the problems I had is it plays fast and loose with Stoker's Dracula. It changes to rules to make the crosses and garlic ineffective. It's alright to play fast and loose with vampires (who hasn't these days?), but not name check Stoker and then change all the Stoker rules. That makes it not work, see? Make up your own stuff from the start.

Lord of the Hunt: I liked it. The eroticism that characterizes a lot of Ms. Llewellen's tawdry little recountings works here and I liked this story.

In the Court of the Cupressaceae, 1982: Bad erotica, even with a cowl thrown over it, is still bad erotica. I always wonder about men who write this sort of thing but I really wonder about women who do. Do they still feel like feminists?

There is a monolithic paragraph of all caps "New Wave" (god I hate that particular genre badge) bands that I suppose is the "flier" of the story. Presumably this formed some sort of inspiration. Somehow Elvis Costello, Generation X, and The Vapors don't seem to fit into the same goth inspiration as say Bauhaus or Joy Division.

Anyway, someone ends up bondage raped by something that is going to appear as picnic furniture in Home Depot tomorrow. In the end my rising gorge wouldn't let me swallow the Ligottian knot the author tried to jam down my throat as it seemed almost an afterthought.

It Feels Better Biting Down: Super weird tale of twin "sisters" that I suspect are misunderstood (and feared) by their parents. Same for the neighbor lady.

and Love Shall have no Dominion: I have no idea what this one is about. It spends a lot of time trying to be social media cool but it was lost on me.

The Last, Clean, Bright, Summer - Thomas Ligotti's Family Vacation. Brilliant.

The Unattainable - Nice turnaround story - the old switcheroo. ( )

dark and sensual stories. Horror, the strange, and the erotic blend together and weave though one another throughout this bold, evocative, and haunting collection, which is marked by sumptuous prose and unsettling dream logic. Highly recommended. ( )