Rigor Amortis by Jaym Gates

Rigor Amortis Reviews

• 
  R.B. Wood

  Rigor Amortis
   
  Anthology edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt
   
  4 out of 5 stars.
   
  I’ve never been a fan of horror erotica--it’s a genre that’s just never appealed to me.
   
  Until now.
   
  Having interviewed Jaym Gates for my podcast, I know how quickly this book came together. Jaym and Erika did an outstanding job selecting submissions for this anthology.
   
  Disturbingly fun and in some cases shocking, I found the stories contained in Rigor Amortis a perfect blend of horror and erotica--something I would never have said before picking up this tome.
   
  Normally I read an anthology one, or two, stories at a time.  As I flipped through Rigor Amortis, I was overtaken with the macabre inability to put the book down.
   
  I finished it in one sitting.  You will too.
   
  If you have never tried horror-erotica before, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Rigor Amortis, especially during this Halloween season.  I guarantee the tales between the covers will stay with you long after finish.
   
  Sleep tight.
• 
  Haralambi Markov

  I incredibly enjoyed it. Review will come up later, promise.
• 
  Jennifer Provost

  Check out my review:
  http://www.fangirltastic.com/content/...
• 
  Nick

  
  See my review at
  http://www.shocktotem.com/05/14/2011/...
  
• 
  Angela Spencer

  (Review originally written for
  Rise Reviews.)
  
  When I first mention to people Rigor Amortis, the anthology of flash zombie erotica edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt, it elicits laughter and looks of disbelief. Until they realize I’m serious. As I understand it, the concept was born as a joke but grew as people realized there was material to be mined. And rest assured that this anthology is not one done for laughs.
  
  There are humorous pieces among the 30+ shorts: black humor, slapstick and grossfests can be found in these pages. But more often the tales are more serious, questioning what remains of love and sex once a body dies but the flesh continues to move?
  
  The stories cover a broad range of undead options that could fall under the mantle of “zombie.” George Romero’s mindless flesh-eating risen dead are a common approach but not the only one. Thrown into the mix are animated corpses, bodies that have come back to fulfill a task and even technological creations. Some are more mindless than others. Above all else, the stories are often macabre in their tone. There are few stories that don’t touch upon the grotesque nature of death.
  
  The book is put together with an eye towards establishing tone. The cover art, which I would dare to call beautiful, tells you exactly what the books is going to be like. Each section of the anthology has interstitial art and most of the stories have a black and white piece tied to its content. After the opening messages from the editors, Gates and Holt kick things off with a sweet and dark poem by Lance Schonberg entitled “And Yet in Death.” It is a beautiful and short piece filled with love lost and love returned with a hunger for human flesh.
  
  From there the editors break the stories up into four thematic sections. With so many flash pieces crammed into this collection, I hope you will forgive my brevity in not highlighting each one.
  
  The first part, Romance, presents the sentimental and tender hearted tales of love beyond death. A few authors use the theme of a dead spouse coming back from the dead due to occult influences. My favorite among those was J.R. Campbell’s “Returned,” the final piece in that section. The sweet, almost fairy tale, structure of this story really captivated my heart. Another standout for me in this group was Nathan Crowder’s “Dancing Tonight! Live Music!” Evoking memories of the mall in Dawn of the Dead, his zombies carry out the same rituals they did in life, in this case the rituals of courtship they once went through. Through death I thought the story said much about life.
  
  The next section, Revenge, told tales of love going wrong. Lucia Starkey’s “Erzuli’s Chosen Few,” for example, was a moving tale about a woman using voodoo to gentle an abusive lover. It was a painful and beautiful story of the complicated nature of love. “Swallow It All,” by Jennifer Brozek, is a dark and twisted story of a man who has his wife made into a zombie to make her more submissive. “Traveling a Corpse Over a Thousand Li” was an amazing tale of star-crossed lovers set in China. Many stories in this section focused on revenge between the lovers, but this was one of the few that focused on revenge on behalf of the lovers. “Syd’s Turn,” by R.E. VanNewkirk, was an engaging dark tale of recreational zombie drugs and mutually abusive lovers, a sort of erotic zombie Trainspotting. My love of Revolutionary France made the Wendy N. Wagner’s “Head” a delight to read, though I don’t know that a fellating severed head will be everyone’s cup of tea.
  
  Risk, the third section, revels in the undead condition. Some of the stories are about undead lovers, others are about those who delight in the undead nature of their companions. Sarah Goslee’s “My Summer Romance” is a touching story of zombie-curious lesbian romance. A sharp contrast to this is Steven James Scearce’s “Second Sunday in September,” a campy lampoon of a high society wedding that will not let undeath stop the proceedings. Kay T. Holt presents one of the few sci-fi pieces in this anthology, “Obligate Cannibal.” Holt presents a near future world of cybernetic implants that provides a symbiotic relationship between the living and the undead.
  
  The final section, Raunch, is a grab bag of pieces that wouldn’t fit into the other parts. This proved to be my least favorite section, though “Mitch’s Girl,” by Carrie Cuinn, was a gem that stood out amongst the other stories. It was one of the other sci-fi pieces, focused on a coin-op brothel that uses the lower half of women’s corpses for their customer’s pleasure.
  
  I found this to be an excellent anthology of zombie stories, but it didn’t satisfy my interest in erotica. Beyond the necrotic undertones of the stories, the sexual content is often minimal. More often the stories focus on the romance, with sex either implied or entirely absent. In some stories, sex and romance are all but absent from the tale. The parts I loved the most were the thoughtful pieces that explored the human condition through the lens of undeath, but there are also fine pieces that are just about zombies and sex. If you enjoy zombie horror, this could be a fine piece to include in your collection.
• 
  Jon FK

  "Interesting" is the most polite thing I can say of this collection. Although some of the stories had some creative value the quality of writing was consistently poor.
• 
  Kevin Jacob

  Excellent excellent excellent. I had no idea that zombie erotica was a thing until I read this way back when.
• 
  T.M.

  First off, full disclosure: I know the editors through Twitter and was lucky enough to get an advance copy of this book for review. My comments below are based on that reading.
  
  I imagine it wasn't an easy task to assemble this collection. From an editorial standpoint, I think they did an admirable job ordering and organizing the pieces so that they fit together well. From the reader's standpoint, that's easy to overlook but it would definitely make or break an anthology like this. Fortunately for us, Gates and Holt successfully rose to the challenge.
  
  I am not a hardcore horror reader or writer, nor do I spend a lot of time in the world of erotica. I read both from time to time, but I don't consider myself a connoisseur of either. And although I would not have thought I was susceptible to prudery or squeamishness, more than once I found myself challenged by the subject matter.
  
  This isn't a criticism at all. In fact, I see it as a virtue. I'd say the collection works very well at providing entertaining and provocative stories for the well-seasoned readers, as well as offering the curious newcomer with the same. Not an easy thing to do, but the collection pulls it off quite well.
  
  I found that I enjoyed the stories more as I went along. I honestly don't know if that's a by-product of the nice editorial organization or if I just became more seasoned as I read, but the depth and resonance of them seemed to increase further into the collection.
  
  Often anthologies can be a quick read, almost a tourist trip through a genre without any real lasting impression. In this case, however, there were a number of stories that will stay with me for a long time to come. Not always the most horrifying or erotic, I was surprised by how deeply the emotions ran in some of these, by the intrigue and mystery behind what had been written. And then there were a few, of course, that couldn't help but make a strong impression for their sheer outlandishness. I can't say I loved every single one, but I sure enjoyed a bunch of them a whole hell of a lot.
  
  Looking forward to getting to know some of these authors and more of their work, and also to see what Gates and Holt bring us in their next project.
• 
  Philip

  Given the media’s current obsession with all things zombie, I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone went ‘there.’
  
  I am of course talking about zombie erotica.
  
  This isn’t as gross as it sounds (or at least some of it isn’t), as most of the writers in this anthology have their tongue planted firmly in their decaying cheek. What I loved about this book was the amount of original approaches there were to this subject. I had half-expected to find 20-odd different sex scenes with the undead, but this book is much cleverer than that and the stories cover a wide variety of different encounters with the living-impaired.
  
  With each story only lasting a couple of pages, this is well worth a read, because if you didn’t like that one, there’ll be another along in a minute, and with this book there is definitely more hits than misses.
  
  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll gag - a great selection.
  
• 
  April Wood

  Romantic Zombies, horror and erotica; this book was REALLY weird... Not that I am complaining, I like weird! :)
  This isn't your typical romance book, but the writers of this book certainly have a TALENT to weave the dark and macabre into 34 tales of love and erotica, divided by four categories; romance,revenge, risk,and raunch.
  I would read this before I went to sleep at night and let me tell you, I had some pretty interesting dreams. This book certainly isn't for everyone, but a select few could certainly enjoy it.
  
  
  
• 
  Christopher Munroe

  A book of zombie erotica that doesn't manage to be either sexy or, in many places, particularly scary. Nonetheless, four stars, and here's why: If you've read my reviews of previous works of zombie fiction from this year you've heard me comment that, in 2013, there's nothing to do with zombies that I haven't seen before.
  
  I have never seen this before. This is, from my perspective, an entirely new take on the genre, and a fascinating one that kept me turning pages late into the night. The stories are dark in places, grotesque in others, gore is applied to sexuality in a manner which is frequently off-putting in the extreme, lost love is a theme examined more than once, and every story has something interesting and fresh to offer. Scary? Not always, or even often. Sexy? Never. But say whatever else you will, Rigor Amortis is compelling from beginning to end.
• 
  Kate Jonez

  What's better than zombies? Well sex of course. Put the two together and you have Rigor Amortis, a collection of erotic zombie stories.
  
  This collection of talented writers provide more than enough shocking and disgusting material to satisfied the most jaded horror reader.
  
  The erotica is probably not what fans of erotica would normally look for.
  
  The gruesomeness, often unexpected erotic elements, and occasional humor made this collection a lot of fun to read.
• 
  Kaolin Fire

  A lot of fun. Thrilled to be in it, and seriously impressed by a good swathe of what else is included. =)
• 
  Julia

  [It's on the kitchen table. Sometimes I read it.]
• 
  Kimmyh

  There were a few enjoyable moments, and even a few laughs, but, over-all I wasn't all that impressed; were it not for those few stories I enjoyed I'd be giving this a rating of 2.
• 
  Laurel

  There were some stories that creeped me to the core, and others that were so heart wrenchingly touching, I couldn't believe it was about zombies! A great little read.
• 
  Gypsykat

  It's been a while since i read this (bought at VCON 2010.. Vancouver Sci-Fi Convention). I seem to recall it was kind of cute. I will have to read it again and update this review...