eBook Painfreak epub

This collection of 10 stories of erotic horror by Gerard Daniel Houarner is rather hard to find; to the best of my knowledge, it was limited to 500 copies signed by the author and Tom Piccirilli (who wrote the introduction). Painfreak itself refers to a club, although club is hardly the right word for it. Painfreak is one of those mysterious places that moves all over the world, appearing in whichever location seems to need it most at the time; its owners and staff seem to exist outside of town itself and never change. You can only enter its doors by invitation, and many are the souls who enter never to return. Inside, men and women seek and learn the ecstasy of both pleasure and pain, although some are too timid to go all the way that Painfreak professionals do. A few of these stories do not really have anything to do with Painfreak, but they all are built on extreme sex and violence.
"Painfreak" introduces us to the secret club as one man follows his wayward wife back to the place he thought they had both given up several years earlier. "Safe Word" is the story of a young woman sent out on the streets to arouse and then punish random individuals for the pleasure of her master. "Painted Faces" is a particularly disturbing tale of domination, childhood trauma, and murder. In "The Night Pain," a rather pathetic young man employs horribly bizarre means to compel a woman to be his. "Hot Thing" is a rather surreal and ultimately flawed piece involving unusual means for securing one's pleasures. "Trail of Pain & Letters" is written in the form of letters from a dominatrix to her slave, and it boasts a particularly satisfying ending. "Tongue" did not impress me very much; it is another tale of childhood trauma impinging on adult behavior. Rounding things off is The Max Trilogy. These three stories all revolve around Max and the Beast within him, and his special relationship with a pair of twins. The three of them sate their passions by torturing unfortunate souls both physically and emotionally, living lives akin to vampires of a particularly erotic nature. They have their own enemies, however. Max, for example, is led by temptation to the unholy walls of Painfreak for the first time in years, and here he encounters an amalgamated force of all of his former victims. For the twin girls, the greatest danger comes in the form of their unknown father, a man intent on finding or else recreating his own long-lost twin.
A couple of these stories do not work exceedingly well in my mind, and sometimes the degree of eroticism in the horror becomes repetitive, but for the most part these are stand-out stories in the realm of erotic horror. The Painfreak concept works particularly well and really gives this book of stories a strong collective identity. The whole sex-pain-pleasure concept is an increasingly familiar one to readers of extreme horror, and Houarner proves himself an adept practitioner of the literary dark arts.

Gerard Houarner's collection of 10 stories of erotic horror is definitely worth finding if you can. Of course, you must be in the mood. More horror than sex, most of the stories focus mainly on the mindset of persons who have been emotionally harmed in some way. And of course, all seem to have a heavy bondage influence to them.
Some, like "A Trail Of Pain And Letters", are quite direct; while others like "Tongue" are a surrealistic journey into a scarred mind. The last three stories are a trilogy, connected together by the characters yet portraying separate occasions in their lives. Of all the stories, I liked the Max Trilogy the best.
Though Max is our protagonist, he is not a particularly nice guy, because inside him he carries a Beast. Though his twin protégés, he excises his beast only to find out later that he will need the Beast's spirit to survive. The twins, Alioune and Kueur, are not what they seem to be either, with their father being a God and their mother a Dragon Dream. In the second of the Max stories, "Angel Of Death", we visit the Painfreak club for only the second time in the book.
My biggest problem with this book was actually the font. Only 115 pages, it's a slim book but the font is so tiny and packed on each page that it was hard to read even with my reading glasses. But all in all, this is an excellent addition to your erotic horror collection. Also try "I Shudder At Your Touch" and "Poisoning Eros".
Enoy!
Table Of Contents:
1) Painfreak
2) Safe Word
3) Painted Faces
4) The Night Pain
5) Hot Thing
6) Trail Of Pain And Letters
7) Tongue
8) The Beast That Was Max
9) Angel Of Death
10) Deamons Of Blood And Passion