Bare Souls

by Marcelle Perks

Book Review by Ashley Lister

Literary Erotica is an insidious term.  Sometimes it means ‘I got horny, but I didn’t understand why.’  Sometimes it means, ‘I was trying to crack one off, but I had to keep stopping to look in the dictionary.’ In the introduction to Bare Souls, Marcelle Perks explains her take on Literary Erotica:

“It’s tended to be that if you write fiction that turns people on it’ erotica, and if your characters fail to have an orgasm and feel bad afterwards, then it’s literary. Well, we’re not having any of that. My writing is intrinsically sensuous, and as a former dancer and performer I’m concerned about conveying the physicality of an experience, expressing how everything goddamn feels. So even the most cynical of stories, like ‘The Scarless’, is ultimately uplifting because Katje, in her own way enjoys what she does.”

This collection certainly merits the description of literary erotica, and not because of the crass reasons I mentioned in the opening paragraph to this review. Perks writes with an emphasis on the physicality of the relationship between her characters and the sensuous world they inhabit. Moreover, Perks conveys every nuance of the characters’ experiences to the reader. 

Ordinarily this would make for a compelling reason to buy this collection.  Good writers are always worth reading.  But Perks takes this collection one step further. The subtitle for Bare Souls is ‘Tales of love, sex and death.’ I mention this because, as a reader you can never be 100% sure of where Perks is going to take a story. 

Two thirds of these stories have been previously published in anthologies as highly respected as Alison Tyler’s Threeway, Rachel Kramer Bussel’s The A-Z of Naughty Spanking Stories, and multiple editions of Maxim Jakubowski’s The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica.  I mention this because it’s known that these three respected anthologists are renowned for working with talented artists who deliver compelling, well-written narratives. This collection offers a chance to read Perks’s collected works, along with original, previously unpublished material.

The stories in this volume aren’t going to satisfy every reader.  There is a dark edge to some tales that conveys a harsh realism that is usually verboten within the sanitised confines of erotica as a genre.  However, it is that potential for darkness that makes each of these stories all the more compelling and convincing.

As Perks explains in the introduction:

“Bare Souls is a collection that reflects the diversity of modern erotica, from the modern mores of dating (with no sex) to fetish club exploits. At times dark and haunting, there is also tenderness and plain, old-fashioned desire. Some of these stories might turn you on, others will fascinate or repulse. This is sex in all its guises, with the mask off: the best and the worst of things. There’s desire, vulnerability and pain and the chance to be aroused and intrigued.”

Ashley Lister
October 2010

Bare Souls by Marcelle Perks
(Xcite, 2010; eBook)
Available at:  Xcite Books

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© 2010 Ashley Lister. All rights reserved.

About the Author: Ashley Lister is a UK author responsible for more than two-dozen erotic novels written under a variety of pseudonyms.His most recent work, Swingers: True Confessions from Today's Modern Swinging Scene Virgin Books; ISBN: 0753511355), a non-fiction book recounting the exploits of UK swingers, is his first title published under his own name.
Ashley’s non-fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines, including Forum, Chapter & Verse and The International Journal of Erotica. Nexus, Chimera and Silver Moon have published his full-length fiction, with shorter stories appearing in anthologies edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Mitzi Szereto. He is very proud to be a regular contributor to ERWA.
Websites: www.ashleylister.co.uk / ashleylister.blogspot.com

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