"Death in Venice" #ebook Review

Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I first heard of Thomas Mann in a literary calendar, via a quote from his son-in-law, W.H. Auden: "Who's the most boring German writer? My father-in-law."

In a 2012 episode of The Simpsons (as I wrote about here), Bart's fourth grade class is about to read "Death in Venice" with their substitute teacher, Waylon Smithers. This was what caused me to wonder what the short story was about. I read about "Death in Venice" years ago, but I never actually got around to reading it until now.

It's really inappropriate for average fourth graders; the dense prose is difficult even for adults. According to the end notes, it's quite a challenge to translate from the German.

I enjoyed this highly symbolic and sensually detailed sketch of the last days of a highly honored German literary figure, largely based on Mann himself. Gustav is a Capital-A Artist, and his last (and, perhaps, greatest) artistic act is a dance of chaste but erotically charged poetic interaction with the 14-year-old son of an aristocratic Polish family. (In my earlier post, I referred to Tadzio as "an Italian boy." I misspoke.)

Tadzio is physically perfect, like a statue of antiquity, and Gustav philosophizes grandly about whether his swiftly-kindling love for the boy makes him more or less of an Artist, whether it makes him moral or immoral. As the title gives away, the relationship - never consummated with anything more intimate than eye contact - ultimately takes Gustav's life.

This is hardly a surprise, since foreshadowings of death have stalked Gustav at every turn of the Venetian canals. Even the coffin-black gondolas warn him that Venice is a tomb. The hush-hush cholera epidemic that stalks the city may or may not directly contribute to Gustav being found slumped in the beach chair where he had settled to watch Tadzio play on a sand bar. Truly, Gustav died for love. The prospect of Tadzio leaving his life and returning to Poland made Gustav's continued existence in the world unbearable.

I didn't get quite all of the allusions to the philosophical circle of Socrates or of the Greek mythological stories, although the broad strokes are not too hard to infer from context. Fortunately, the Dover Thrift Edition explains these references in the end notes.

I checked this ebook out of the library at HooplaDigital.com. I was not obligated in any way to review it.

"Number Nine, The Potteresque," Pt. 3

Raven had Loki escort Persephone and Theodora upstairs.  Loki stopped outside a bright red swinging door.  “What’s in there?” Persephone asked.

“The locker room,” he said.  “You can lock up your valuables, shower, and change into a costume, if your fantasy involves a costume.  Which one did you pick again?”

“Number Seven.”

“Seven . . . that’s Raven’s favorite.  The ancient Greek pirate ship.  You can wear a pirate costume, if you like.  The seat of the wooden bench lifts up and the costumes are inside.  But for that one, I think you look fine the way you are.”

“Thank you,” Persephone giggled.  “Where do I go when I’m done freshening up?”

“At the end of the showers there’s another door.  It will take you to a hallway, and you look for your fantasy number on the door.  Knock on the door with the seven on it.  Your guy will be expecting you.”

“Thanks again.”  She handed Loki another tip and disappeared behind the red door.  Persephone noticed a long mirror.  She checked her makeup, but didn’t feel like she needed a shower until afterwards. "Theo?" she said.

"Yeah, Seph?"

"How do you think Jack will feel when I tell him I've been with another man?  Jack isn’t human, but he still has feelings.  He'll be jealous."

"Why should he be? Right now, he's probably got his fangs in some highly suggestable virgin's neck.  If she's really impressed with the way he sucks, he'll have his cock in her pussy before the sun rises."

"He does get horny when he feeds," Persephone admitted.

"So get yours, girl!  Jack will understand.  Either that, or you won't tell him."

"Thanks, Theo."  Persephone put on a fresh coat of lipstick and went off down the hallway until she found the number seven.

Theodora took off her clothes and showered.  She put on the costume Loki picked out for her.  It was a cute little thing, a blue schoolgirl’s uniform, complete with Mary Jane shoes.  She looked at herself in the mirror and laughed.  She could pass as a French schoolgirl, she was sure she could.  She tried out the prop that came with the costume, too, swishing and flicking her wand and watching the effect in the mirror.  Then Theodora went through the far door, into the hallway, and looked for the number nine.

She found herself within the stone walls of a castle.  There was a great fire roaring in the fireplace, and around it, four stout armchairs.  Outside the window, the sky was cloudless and lit by a shimmering silver moon.  She stepped inside and was suddenly aware of a young man sitting in one of the armchairs, watching the fire. In one hand he held what appeared to be a cherry lollipop.

Creative Commons image by KMHCandy

“Fleur Delacour,” the young man said with a heavy Bulgarian accent.

“Bon soir, Viktor,” she answered in her best French accent.  “Is this something you do often, sitting alone staring into the fireplace?”

To her surprise, the sulky Bulgarian smiled at her.  “No, not often.  Only when I have much to think about.”  She came and sat on the arm of his chair.  Their eyes locked.  The boy had beautiful brown eyes, and the little bit of brown stubble on his chin was incredibly sexy.

“Are you worried about the tournament, Viktor?’

He shrugged.  “I’d be foolish if I weren’t a little worried.  But that’s not what I’m thinking about.”

“Let me guess,” said Theodora.  “You’re thinking about little miss perfect.”  She leaned in closer, so close that their noses were almost touching.  “Well, let me tell you something about her you might not realize.  She may be smart, and she may be pretty, but she’s in the same year as the little boy Harry Potter.  She’s a baby, Viktor.”  She closed her eyes and waited.  The wait seemed eternal.  She had almost given up and opened her eyes when she felt his lips against hers.  The kiss was brief.

 Afterward, she licked her lips and finished her thought.  “I am a woman.”

“Yes you are,” he said, leaning in to kiss her some more.  Only then did she notice the unusual flavor on his lips.  She sniffed at the lollipop.  Rather than cherry or strawberry, it smelled like human blood.

"A Honeyduke's specialty," he said. "Blood-flavored lollipops for vampires."

"You're a vampire?"

He nodded.  "Did you not suspect?  I am a student of the dark arts." He smiled widely, and she saw how long and sharp his canines were.  They were no prosthetics, either: the young dead man playing Viktor Krum in this fantasy scenario was really a vampire. He tossed his lollipop into the fire and said, "I lose my taste for candy so near the throbbing veins of a young Frenchwoman."

Carefully she maneuvered herself into his lap.  Viktor looked around to make sure they were alone, and then unbuttoned Theodora’s blue jacket.  Soon her uniform was lying on the floor in front of the fire.

Public domain

Viktor stood as Theodora settled into the chair.  His fur-lined cape was resting on the back of the chair.  He wore black pants and a black sweater, but shed them as Theodora watched.  She felt guilty then, because underneath his clothes, the boy playing Viktor in her fantasy looked so young.  She wondered if he was any older than twenty.  But then again, this was the Underworld, and he was a vampire.  He might have died hundreds, even thousands, of years ago.

Either way, he looked strong in the firelight, especially as took off his black sweater and exposed the hard angles of slick, gleaming muscles. His skin was pale bathed in the orange glow, making Theodora want to see more.  She reached up to help him with his zipper and quickly learned he wore nothing underneath his black pants.  His face exhibited pure gratitude as her hand caressed his cock.

 He smelled incredibly good; she wanted to take him into her mouth, but remembered what Seph had said about vampires.  Never breaking the connection between her hand and his dick, he helped her out of the chair, and the two of them tumbled onto the Persian rug.   They wrestled for position for a moment.  She let Viktor win, eventually, though Theodora was far stronger than she let on while she was play-acting.  She ran the palms of her hands over his rock-like muscle.  As he ascended to the top, Viktor took "Fleur's" face in both hands and kissed her passionately.  Like a teenager, his kiss was a bit rough; like a vampire, he nipped her with wickedly sharp fangs.  Her lip bled, and Viktor licked the blood away.

When Theo showed no signs of objecting to the bite, Viktor moved from her lips to her neck.  She inhaled his scent, sweet and exotic, like tropical fruit.  It was strange to feel his lips and tongue on her neck without feeling the warmth of his breath; he didn't breathe.  If his body was cold, she couldn't tell so near the hearth.

Viktor's knee gently pushed Theo's legs apart, and she complied with this bodily request, spreading her legs further.  As his cock entered her wet, waiting pussy, his fangs entered an artery in her neck.  Pain and pleasure swirled in a dizzying sensation in her brain.  She wasn't aware of how much blood he was taking, but his persistent sucking seemed to go on forever. So, too, did Viktor's hard, supernaturally quick, persistent fucking.  He seemed able to go forever.  Theo lost count of how many times she came, with no indication that Viktor was near his own crescendo. He had either a teenager's stamina, or centuries of practice, she was sure.

After his fangs retracted from her artery, though, Viktor's release came.  Theo enjoyed the feel of his cock pumping into her, his body shuddering on top of hers...and tried not to think about his bloody ejaculation.

They separated.  Theodora kissed his forehead tenderly as she picked her clothes off the floor.  She was covered in sweat, but she didn’t care.

When Theodora reached the locker room, she changed back into the clothes she came in with.  She didn’t bother to shower.  She liked the sweaty smell of boy clinging to her.  When Loki returned Theodora to the bar, she found Persephone waiting for her, sipping on a cosmo that might have contained cranberry juice or blood.  She smiled broadly.

“How was yours?”

“It was wonderful,” Persephone said.  “I mean, I really love Jack.  I can’t wait to return to the world of the living to be with him again.  But today was—well, what I think about sometimes when I’m with Jack.  How was yours?”

“Just like being in the book, except dirty.  I loved it.”

“Was he that good?”

“Totally.”  The women laughed.  Raven appeared and took Theodora’s drink order.

“And could we see a food menu now, please?” Persephone asked.  Raven nodded and produced one from under the bar.  “I’m starving.  Are you hungry, Theo?”

“Like the wolf,” Theodora said, giggling.

The End

Creative Commons image by Rick A.

Like A God's Kiss: Erotic Mythological Tales

http://www.amazon.com/Like-Gods-Kiss-Mythological-Selections-ebook/dp/B002NGO4YW/

"Number Nine, The Potteresque," Pt. 2

After Jack’s death and rebirth, Persephone needed a little cheering up.  Theodora said she’d heard of a little place, and persuaded Persephone to put on one of her good dresses, brush on a little makeup, and go out for a couple of margaritas.

Public domain

They got in Persephone’s car and drove past the fields of colorless flowers, past the place where the nameless dead made their homes.  Few were the dead who remembered their own names and who they were in life.  Among those who did were Raven Rachel Templin and the many beautiful young men who resided in her inn.  One of these men, dressed in a fine old tuxedo, answered the heavy wooden door when Persephone knocked on it.  When he saw the goddess, he bowed low.

“Good evening, Your Majesty,” the well-dressed boy said.   “My name is Loki; please allow me to be your host tonight.  What may I do for you?”

“Loki, rise.  I want you to treat me as you would any other guest tonight.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“My friend and I would like to sit at the bar.”

Loki looked around, but he saw no one accompanying Persephone, other than a large silver-gray wolf.  “You and your wolf would like to sit at the bar, ma’am?”

Persephone nodded, as Theodora stood on her hind legs and regained her human form.  They each slipped a bright jewel into Loki’s pocket as a tip as he showed them to the bar.

Behind the bar tonight was none other than the proprietor herself.  Raven was a an olive-skinned woman whose long, curly black hair was tied back in a scarf and covered with a wide-brimmed straw hat, as if she still needed protection from the sun glinting off the Caribbean sea.  She wore string after string of pearls, in all colors from palest pink to shimmering black.

“You’d been Persephone, Queen of the Underworld,” Raven said.  Then, turning to Theodora, “I am not sure of your name, mademoiselle, but welcome.  I trust Loki saw you in with the utmost respect.”

“He did,” Persephone agreed.  “But Theodora and I want to be treated like regular guests.  Can you make us a couple of margaritas?”

“Frozen or on the rocks?”

“Rocks,” said Theodora.  In a moment, Raven set two glasses down, with lime slices and the salt shaker.  The women drank in silence until Raven wandered off.

“Can I tell you a secret about Jack?” Persephone said quietly.

“Of course, girl,” Theodora answered.  “You and I are like sisters.  You can tell me anything.”

Persephone giggled and confessed.  “Jack’s a vampire, right?  So he’s all about the oral thing.  Even though his teeth are kinda sharp, he’s really good at going down on me.  But when I go down on him . . .”

“What?” Theodora prompted, leaning in closer.  “You can tell me.”

“He’s not like the human guys that I went out with in high school.  When he comes, I mean.  Jack doesn’t have--well, he doesn’t have cum like human guys do.”

“So—what happens?  You’re blowing him, and he comes, and then nothing?”

“I wish,” said Persephone, still giggling, her cheeks glowing red.  “Nothing would be a nice change.  No, when I suck him off, I get a mouthful of...blood.”

Theodora almost choked on her margarita.  “Seph, that's disgusting.”

“I know,” Persephone said.  “If it was any other guy, I wouldn’t put up with it.  But Jack is so sweet, and since I’m doomed to live half my life in the Underworld anyway, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend my time with.  I can’t wait to see him again on the first day of spring.  But lately I’ve been thinking about, just once, being with a guy who’s human.”

Raven reappeared, holding a bright pink menu.  “Would you ladies like see my special menu?” she asked, setting it down in front of Theodora.

“I’m not hungry,” Persephone said.

“It’s not food,” Theodora said.  “Look, Seph.  These are all kinds of different fantasies you can get a guy to do with you.”

“A guy or two,” Raven corrected.  “Or more.  Not my thing, really, but girls these days like all kinds of things.  If you’re not interested in the fantasies, though, the back page shows you the basics.”  She flipped over the menu.

Theodora traced her finger along a line on the back page.  “There you go, Persephone.  A straight blow job is the cheapest thing on the menu.  Your fantasy, and a bargain to boot.”

“None of your guys are vampires, are they?” Persephone asked Raven.

“I have several vampires, naturally.”

Persephone stared at the menu for a moment longer, and then said, “I’ll have the Number Seven...but I want a human guy.  No vampires.”

“Dionysus and the pirates...very edgy,” Raven said.  And for you?”

“Hmmm,” said Theodora, surveying the menu again.  “I’ll go with Number Nine.”

Like A God's Kiss: Erotic Mythological Tales

http://www.amazon.com/Like-Gods-Kiss-Mythological-Selections-ebook/dp/B002NGO4YW/

"Number Nine, The Potteresque," Pt. 1

Peter Thackeray LeBon had been dead since 1830.  The monotony of his eternal punishment was starting to get to him.  He stood before the bathroom mirror, looking into his hollow blue eyes, asking himself for the millionth time how he could have ended up here, slave to that woman--if she was a woman.

“LeBon,” Maman Brigitte called from the bedroom.  “What is taking so long?  Get out here!”
Her voice, deep and booming with its Caribbean accent, sent chills through his body.  He feared her.  And there was no way to escape.

He opened the bathroom door and emerged, wearing nothing but a towel.  Maman Brigitte lay across her enormous feather bed, her gown of black velvet, lace and human bone pulled up and bunched up around her belly, revealing her long, chocolate-brown legs and black panties.

Brigitte sat up and brushed the bleached-blonde locks from her eyes.  She pointed to a pair of black leather pants at the foot of the bed.  “Drop the towel,”she commanded.  “Put those on.”  He obeyed, painfully aware the death-goddess was studying his every move.

“What’s the matter, LeBon?” she asked as he crouched down to kiss the top of her foot.  “Do you not enjoy being my slave?  Raven thought you would really enjoy this, since you loved the slave trade so much in life.”

“That was so long ago,” he said.  Every morning when he awoke, he cursed Raven Templin and wished he had never laid a hand on Raven’s friend Badu.  Badu, it turned out, was a priestess of the goddess Yemaya.  Yemaya, in another form, was none other than Maman Brigitte herself.  He would spend eternity doing whatever Brigitte/Yemaya wished.

Creative Commons image by Africaarianna

Right now, she wanted him to eat her pussy.  Brigitte stared up at the Baroque golden cherubim decorating the ceiling as LeBon worked his way up her calf, up her thigh, and into her panties, the way she'd trained him.  Suddenly, Brigitte was distracted by a scratching noise at the door.

“LeBon, be a dear and see who’s at the door,” Brigitte moaned.

Relieved, he opened the door.  He looked down and saw the raised paw of a large, silver-gray wolf with a white belly. The creature looked at him with curious yellow-green eyes.

“It’s a wolf,” LeBon said.

Maman Brigitte came nearer.  “Theodora!  Well, this is a surprise.  Don’t be a stranger, dear.  Come in.”

The wolf took a few steps back and turned its furry head.   A moment later it turned back to the doorway with a basket between its jaws.  Maman Brigitte took the offering, peering inside to find a green glass bottle stuffed with habanero peppers floating in dark rum.

“Theodora, you didn’t have to.  But I’m glad you did.”  Brigitte offered the bottle to LeBon, who gratefully took a long drink.  The potent mixture of hot peppers and rum burned his throat, but momentarily took him away from his surroundings.  What was left in the bottle he returned to Brigitte, who finished it.  She belched as the wolf stood on its hind legs and transformed into a woman.

Public domain

“Well, bitch,” Brigitte said, “what brings you to my humble abode today?”

“Humble?” Theodora said as she looked around the room.  “Your house is covered in gold.”  Like Brigitte, she had a Caribbean accent.

“I was being polite,” Brigitte said.  She gave LeBon a hard slap to the back of the head.  “What brings you here today, my friend?”

“The Underworld brings me here today, in fact,” Theodora said.  “I’ve heard rumblings, strange mutterings having to do with the Queen.”

Brigitte shook her head.  “I don’t know what kind of crowd you’ve been hanging out with, to have heard something like that.  But you’ve hit upon a truth.  Persephone hasn’t been at all happy lately.  But you know the rules.  As gatekeeper of the Underworld, I’m not supposed to let any mortals down there.  ”

Theodora frowned.  “But Persephone and I have been friends since high school.  I know a good way to cheer her up, if you’ll let me.  Come on now, Maman Brigitte.  There are always exceptions to the rule, aren’t there?”

“I can think of one or two,” Brigitte said.  “I suppose I can allow it.  But only this once, and only if you make a promise to me.  Give me your hand.”

Brigitte reached for Theodora’s hand, cupping her visitor’s honey-brown hand inside her own.  She drew a dagger from her boot and cut a deep line into Theodora’s palm, which began to bleed and dribble down her wrist into the marble floor.  She made a similar slit in her own hand.  The women pressed their palms together in a blood oath.

“What have I sworn to, my goddess?” Theodora asked.

“After you’ve passed back to the world of the living, you will be given one day to return to my dwelling with a larger offering.  No mere bottle of rum and peppers this time.  I want a feast, like the ones my followers used to leave in the graveyards for me in the olden days.”  She pressed a black handkerchief into Theodora’s hand to stop the bleeding.  “I want you to bring your drum.  Play for me, and sing me some of my old-time praises.”

“You’ll have your feast, goddess, I assure you.”

“Good,” Brigitte said.  "Now let’s get you through that gate.”

The women went through Brigitte’s mansion and out the French doors into the garden.  Among the birds of paradise and palm trees stood the stone gate that marked the entrance into the Underworld.
 Brigitte uttered the words only she knew, and the gate swung open.  A cold breeze blew in from the other side.

Theodora got down on her hands and knees to resume her wolf form.  She walked on four legs into the eerie world of the dead, her front paw stinging from the cut.  She reached the river of blood first.
 Had she been human, the ferryman would have asked her for fare to cross.  Since she appeared as an animal, however, the ferryman took no notice of her.  She jumped with a great splash into the red river, inhaling its musky, meaty perfume.  When she reached the far shore, she shook herself, then sat for a moment to lick the blood from her silvery coat.  She walked on, past the fields of unearthly colorless flowers, until she came to the palace of Hecate, Goddess of Death, where Persephone dwelled as Queen of the Dead for six months of every year.  She jumped right into the palace through an open window and headed for the tower where Persephone stayed with her lover, the vampire Jack Damuzi.

Theodora climbed the winding stone stairs to the tower, resuming her human shape as she climbed.  She lifted the brass knocker and knocked on the heavy wooden door.  Two minutes later, the door swung open.  Jack stood there, looking unusually pale even for a vampire, his red-brown eyes streaked with bloody tears.

“I heard the terrible news,” Theodora said sympathetically.  “May I see Seph?”

“Persephone,” Jack called softly into his quarters.  “You have a visitor.”

Jack opened the door wide, and Theodora could see Persephone lying face-down with her head on her pillow, sobbing.  She looked up to see Theodora, but did not stop crying.  Theodora sat beside her and stroked Persephone’s hair to comfort her.  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

Jack sniffed the air.  “You’ve been in the river of blood, haven’t you?”  He moved in closer to Theodora, picking up her hand.  “ And you’ve cut yourself, too.  Very recently.  I can smell how the blood is clotting.  It smells old and stale at the surface, but the fresh blood underneath is tempting.
 Just now I sensed that your heart started beating faster.  Am I making you nervous, Theodora?  I’m sorry.  I get overwhelmed when I smell living blood.  Seph, darling, would it bother you terribly if I took one tiny nibble of Theodora’s neck?”

“Yes,” Persephone sobbed.

“This is precisely the problem,” Jack explained sadly.  “First Persephone came down here, and she’s not dead.  Against my better judgement, I fed off of her.  But although there is no blood in the world as delicious as that of a young goddess, Persephone only aroused my appetite for the blood of the living without bedding it back down.  I tried to satiate myself.  I practically sucked Persephone dry, the poor thing.  That was when Hecate made the fateful decision to send me out into the world of the living for three months.”

Theodora nodded.  “I heard through the grapevine you were going to be born.”

“Yes,” Jack said.  “In three days’ time, when the Winter Solstice comes around, a mortal shall give birth to me.  Hecate chose a virgin, appeared to her in a dream and made her pregnant.  Next Hecate will perform an ancient ritual that will kill me here in the Underworld, so that I may be born as that child.”  Here Persephone gave a loud sob.  “In three months’ time I will grow from an infant into the man that you see before you now.  At the Vernal Equinox, Persephone will return to the world of the living, and we shall be reunited.”

“You see, dear?” Theodora said sweetly.  “There’s hope.  You’ll see Jack again.  In three months, you’ll get to be reunited with your true love.  It sounds wonderful.  Can’t you look forward to the reunion?”

Persephone raised her head off the pillow.  “I guess I never thought about it like that,” she said, wiping tears and mascara from her eyes.  She gave Theodora a kiss on the cheek.  “Thank you.  Will you stay with us until . . . after?”

“Of course,” Theodora said.  “That is, if it’s all right with Jack.”

“Fine with me,” shrugged Jack.  “It would be even finer if you let me have just a little bite . . .”

“No,” Theodora and Persephone said in unison.

Hecate with dog. Public domain within the United States

Like A God's Kiss: Erotic Mythological Tales

http://www.amazon.com/Like-Gods-Kiss-Mythological-Selections-ebook/dp/B002NGO4YW/

'Wild Girls' by Mary Atwell - Audiobook Review

Wild Girls by Mary S Atwell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Kate Reardon is a high school freshman. Her father has passed away when Kate was small. She lives with her mother, her mom's boyfriend Travis (the local sheriff's deputy, and a nice guy although a bit of a stoner), and her older sister Maggie. They live in the small Southern town of Swan River. The river is the town's predominant feature. Many of the residents spend their whole lives without crossing the bridge out of town, but not Kate and Maggie. Mother Reardon is an administrative assistant for Dr. Bell, the dean of the local girls' academy. Through her, the working-class Reardon girls are able to attend the fancy-pants preparatory academy.

But as one might expect in an atmospheric piece of Southern gothic/borderline horror fiction, Swan River is a town with a secret. It's an open secret and a mystery among the residents, but hidden from the outside world: Swan River is the home of the Wild Girls. These paranormal creatures start out as ordinary teenager girls, generally between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. (Dangerous 16th Birthday trope, anyone?) Seemingly at random, they're transformed: glowing skin, the ability to spark fire with their bare fingertips, extraordinary strength and violence, and the propensity to fly away. Then, just as suddenly, they return to normal girls, left to deal with the consequences of their supernatural mayhem and, occasionally, murder.

Kate is terrified she'll become a Wild Girl, and at the same time, she's a little afraid that she won't.

In the book's prologue, Kate and Maggie attend the town's yearly festival with Mom and Travis. It's held on the local commune, Bloodwort Farm, home of the Deadnecks. The nickname is a portmanteau of Deadhead (used as a general term for hippie types, whether they actually listen to the Grateful Dead or not) and redneck (used as a general term for socioeconomically disadvantaged Caucasian-Americans). Although Kate and her friend Willow aren't aware of it at first, it will be the town's last summer festival because of the strange events that occur that night. A seemingly innocent(ish) prank by local bully Crystal Lemons involving Roman candles turns into something far more sinister and threatening. By the morning, Crystal is dead, the commune-dwelling Bird Man (so called for his tattoo) is grievously injured, and the commune has mostly burned down.

An equally important development that night is that Kate and Willow meet Mason Lemons, Crystal's bad-boy brother. The three of them will become something of a love triangle, but all the relationships in the triangle are doomed from the start. Dr. Bell is a student of folklore and mythology, and he knows much more than he's letting on about the Wild Girls. He theorizes a connection between them and the Maenads of ancient Greek myth. (You may remember the Maenads from such literary works as Charlaine Harris's Living Dead in Dallas.)

An important literary reference - and one which, I admit, I haven't read - is The Bacchae by the ancient Athenian playwright Euripides. The play describes an attempt by a king to outlaw the worship of the god Dionysus and the subsequent revenge enacted upon that king by Dionysus's followers, the crazed Maenads. Dr. Bell fancies himself a modern Dionysus, but it turns out he is merely the king.

One of the interesting themes throughout this novel is the relationship between male authority and female wildness. We see it in the relationship between Mama Reardon and Travis, in the relationship between banjo-playing Maggie and her bandmate/lover Kevin (a.k.a. Kayak Boy), and we see it in the relationships between Kate, Willow, Mason, and Mason's pal/organic gardening enthusiast Clancy. (Clancy may or may not become the great love of Kate's life - the novel leaves it open-ended. They do share a passion for the environment.) We even see glimpses of it in the relationship between Willow and her parents. To what extent is a woman to put aside her own wildness, her own passions and enthusiasms, in exchange for the love and/or civilizing influence of a man? The author's answer seems to be, "It is a delicate balance. Different women will land of different sides of the equation."

The writing throughout this novel is beautiful and strange, even more poetic and lovely than the Southern-style writing I admired in Beautiful Creatures. Kate is a smart, savvy heroine well able to handle the dangers that creep into her world. She thinks she's not as tough as her sister Maggie, but she's wrong. She is both physically and emotionally stronger than she ever imagined.

I would recommend this book to anyone with the caveat that it contains scenes of graphic violence and an attempted rape scene. Those who are sensitive to violence may want to sit this one out.

In the novel, Willow and the other women drink bloodwort tea. Bloodwort, also known as bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis), is a real plant, and like tansy it has been used in traditional medicinal practices. However, it should be noted that ingesting bloodroot extracts is NOT recommended, since it contains substances that are known to be toxic to animal cells. (It is, however, being studied as a potential cancer treatment.) Perhaps the best traditional use of bloodroot is as a red dye; it is so used by some American Indian basket weavers.

I checked this audiobook out of my local public library and wasn't obligated to review it in any way.

Creative Commons image by Shawn Caza (http://www.t.isgood.ca)

Fan Fiction Obsession of the Week: Bound and Gagged

"Bound and Gagged" by Caroline, a.k.a. BlackHoleCastiel.  That is the Destiel fan fiction I've been obsessed with this week. Hear me out on this:

1) In this fictional universe, Dean (he has no last name in this short chapter) is a god. He's sort of a Greek-style god, a male version of Artemis, only not so much with the chastity. But he's the god of wild things, with a large collection of hunters who serve him. He has sons; their number is not specified.

2) To appease him, his mortals have to offer him an annual human sacrifice, who is supposed to be a willing volunteer. This volunteer is taken to Dean's temple, where the god appears bodily to claim his sacrifice, in front of the entire congregation.

And get this: the high priest's name is Azazel. Apparently Azazel appears as a character on Supernatural? But Caroline describes him as a "mean old drunk," so I doubt he's the dazzling beauty of a fallen angel* we explored in Cover Him With Darkness.

3) A boy named Castiel - for the sake of not being creepy and gross, let us assume "boy" here refers to a man between the ages of 18 and 21 - is most emphatically NOT a volunteer. He's being sold by his parents to pay their rather hefty bar tab!

4) But do not worry, because Dean has no intention of killing his not-so-willing sacrifice. He has another kind of claiming in mind. Ancient Greek-style sex ensues. Yes, in front of everyone.

This is supposedly only the first chapter. Castiel now has the honor of being promoted from "temple boy" (I'm imagining something like a Roman Catholic church's altar server) to god's consort.

Some thoughts:

It's a nice twist to have Cas be the bewildered mortal and Dean the powerful supernatural being. It's the opposite of both the TV show and what I tried to do in the Cupid & Psyche fic.

Despite the title, it doesn't seem that Cas is actually gagged. He keeps screaming, so I'm imagining he's just tied up and allowed to scream at will.

Dean threatens to eat Cas, causing Cas to flinch away from his beautiful but intimidating god. However, Dean means this in a sexual rather than carnivorous way, and that is an adorable little detail.

Personally, I can't imagine young!Castiel being as attractive as present Castiel. This is Misha Collins in his early 20s.

He's skinny, his hair is a lighter color, and it looks as if he borrowed that suit from a larger person - Jared Padalecki, perhaps. Like Laura Prepon, Misha Collins gets better with age and with darker hair. He is much prettier at age 40 than he was at 24-ish.

So if I were writing this story, I would have a much older Castiel tied to the altar. And gagged. I mean, if we're going to play around with a light bondage paradigm, then let's do the thing.

Also, I would have played up the "I'm going to eat you"/oral angle A LOT more before getting to the actual intercourse. That's more of a personal preference than a literary criticism, of course.

The writer is very young (14, if her Tumblr page is accurate) and I certainly don't want to discourage anyone from writing, ever, but this is a literary criticism: This fic commits the big guy-guy erotica sin of omitting lube. Kids, when we write anal, we write in some lube, k? It's true that ancient cultures didn't have AstroGlide, but they at least had olive oil, which was better than nothing.

I think I would have made the setting private, too. I think in the fic, god!Dean likes the naughtiness of scandalizing his mortals by "consuming" his sacrifice in front of their eyes. But if Castiel and god!Dean are going to end up having actual feelings for each other - and it's not guaranteed that they are - their first time together would be much more romantic in private. Maybe Dean appears to Azazel to accept the sacrifice, but then tells the priest to leave the temple. Azazel leaves the temple thinking Castiel is going to be literally eaten as a snack, clueless that god!Dean is much more horny than hungry. But again, that's more of a stylistic preference than a literary criticism.

I look forward to a second chapter.

*Speaking of fallen angels, I forgot to mention in my Crouching Tiger, Forbidden Vampire review that Lucifer is described in that book as being indescribably, almost painfully beautiful, but with utterly dead eyes.

Mark Pellegrino is Supernatural's Lucifer. I added his monologue from John Milton's Paradise Lost, because literary.

Book Review (Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Fiction): Hotter Than Hell by Jackie Kessler

Hotter Than Hell by Jackie Kessler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a very good story, well told. The first book in the series, Hell's Belles, is still my favorite, and honestly, I wouldn't be too sad if it had been a stand-alone, because it ends so perfectly. But the story keeps going, and there's still one more part, Hell To Pay. I'm scared of what's going to happen in that one.

I liked Virginia as a character, and I liked the slow build of Daun's transition from purely emotionless demon to a truly empathetic being - even if his empathy is limited to one mortal woman. I think my favorite part, though, was the flashback to the relationship between Daunuan (Don Juan) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - damned through no fault of his own, but through his father's infernal machinations - who would go on to write 'Don Giovanni' in Daun's honor. I really like how Kessler plays with history here.

The witch in me is less crazy about the characterization of Pan, who in this is just an evil, evil thing that gets his proper reward for being the scumbag that he is. Authors have the right to do whatever they want with their characters, but to witches, Pan is often used as the name of the good god, the consort of the Goddess, the divine masculine. We don't equate him in any way with evil or with the Christian devil, but this book certainly paints him in a horrifying light. Overall, I think it's fine, because the book needs a villain, and Kessler's Pan is a good literary villain, but Pan shouldn't always be judged so harshly.

You can read my further thoughts on Pan here.

Of course, the book has another villain - Eris, the ancient Greek goddess of strife and discord. I liked Eris as a literary villain because she's so seductive, she's almost a likable character, but she's also a little bit frightening. Okay, she's a LOT frightening. Daun figures out a way to get the better of her, and also of Pan. The happy ending isn't quite the one you'd expect in a paranormal romance - Kessler admits in the afterward it's less of a PNR and more of a dark urban fantasy. I didn't know if I was going to like the ending, but I thought it was appropriate for this novel.

I don't know yet whether or not I'll read the fourth book in the series. I may pretend this is a trilogy, since there are only three paperbacks. I'm scared that Jessie and Paul will get broken up in the next book. That would be a tragedy.

Should you decide to complete the Hell on Earth series and read Hell to Pay, you can get it for only $.99 on Amazon.

View all my reviews on Goodreads

Disclosure: I paid for this book with my own money. This review represents my own opinion; I was not compensated for this review in any way, nor was I asked by anyone to write this review. I am an Amazon.com affiliate, and if you make a purchase after clicking through the Amazon links on my blog, I will receive a small commission of a few cents.

#Fantasy #BookReview : 'Miss Underworld' by Racquel Kechagias

Miss Underworld is a modern adaptation of an ancient Greek myth, written and published by Australian author Racquel Kechagias. I met Racquel on Goodreads when we both commented on a posting about authors exchanging book reviews. She agreed to read Eminent Domain, and I agreed to read Miss Underworld. 

The main character in this short novel is Melinoe. Although she appears to be a normal young woman living in Sydney in modern times, we know from the prologue that her origin is far from ordinary. She is, in fact, the daughter of Zeus and Persephone.

If you're not a Greek mythology buff, you can skip the next section.

The Greek Mythology Stuff:

The ancient myth of Melinoe comes from an Orphic hymn. The Orphic hymns are a collection of 87 poems attributed to the mythic figure Orpheus, who was said to have journeyed to the underworld to collect his beloved Eurydice and returned still alive. Orpheus was renowned as a poet and a singer, and a religious cult developed around teaching attributed to him in ancient times. The Hymns are thought to have been written between approximately 200 BCE and 100 CE. The were translated in English by Thomas Taylor in 1792 and re-translated, supposedly with much more accuracy, by Apostolos Athanassakis.

The hymn to Melinoe is #70 in Taylor's translation and #71 in Athanassakis' translation (Taylor started his numbering at zero). The brief poem tells a story in which Zeus, pretending to be Hades, tricks Persephone into having sex with him (in other words, he rapes her) and Persephone subsequently gives birth to Melinoe. Melinoe "drives mortals to madness with her airy phantoms,/as she appears in weird shapes and forms" when she appears to mortals at night. She may be a personification of nightmares.

In an 1805 annotated version of Thomas's Orphic hymns by Gottfried Hermann, Wikipedia says, Melinoe is described as being half black and half white - literally, not in the usual mulitracial sense that human beings may be. In this way, she resembles the Norse mythological figure Hela, one of the children of Loki. Her two contrasting aspects represent her "two fathers," light for Zeus and dark for Hades (called Plouton in the Hymn).

The Wikipedia entry also mentions Melinoe as a character in the Percy Jackson series, where she is described as the "goddess of ghosts." In the Hymns, it's unclear that Melinoe is considered a goddess. She's sometimes considered a nymph, and sometimes considered an aspect of the underworld goddess Hecate, herself sometimes called an aspect of Persephone.

Back To Our Story:

In Racquel's telling, Melinoe looks like an average mortal human woman, except that her eyes are both stark black, and one has an eerie white film over it. She knows nothing about her unusual birth, and is raised in an orphanage. She's never been adopted, but aged out of the South Australian orphanage and moved to Sydney when she was sixteen. She lives with a very unusual roommate, a surfer-dude vampire named Bernard. Melinoe, called Meli for short, is appalled by Bernard's need to glamour women to drink their blood, but she has some very strange qualities of her own. Meli is sought out by ghosts, who need her help to cross over to the other side. Those who aren't able to cross over become vampires.

Suddenly, Meli finds herself being stalked by Death. She appeals to an older, stronger vampire - the turquoise-eyed Ivan - to protect her from Death, but even he is unable.

If I May Return to Mythology For Just A Moment: In our modern way of thinking, it's easy to equate the ancient Greek concept of the underworld with hell and Hades with the devil. However, in the Greek conception, the souls of the dead were not punished in the afterlife, although the very virtuous dead may have been rewarded. Hades and Persephone were the master and mistress of all human beings after their deaths, good and bad alike, and they were not thought of as evil. They were worshiped with the same awe and reverence as the Olympian gods. Similarly, it would be a cultural mistake to equate Hades with the modern personification of "Death" or the "Grim Reaper." To the Greeks, the god who collected souls and escorted them into the underworld was Hermes - Mercury to the Romans. Hermes wasn't particularly grim or scary.

Back To Our Story:

Meli senses Death - actually her stepfather Hades - is not the real threat. She has recurring dreams, perhaps based on a traumatic childhood memory, of a man associated with a terrible storm, and she sees this figure as the real threat. She's right - Hades and Persephone only want to let her know about her true parentage. Eventually, Meli is found and confronted by her biological father, Zeus. I won't spoil what happens when they meet, but it is not a sweet family reunion. Zeus is quite villainous in this.

Hades is not. Although he seeks revenge against his brother for Zeus's attack on Persephone, he loves Meli and accepts her as his own. He and Persephone are a good, strong match with genuine love and affection for one another.

Melinoe As Heroine: The plot of this novel, unfortunately, doesn't give Meli much chance to show off any special skills or powers she might have as the daughter of the King of the Gods and the Queen of the Underworld. (She's also Zeus's granddaughter, since Zeus is Persephone's father - a myth the book never mentions.) Her ability to aid ghosts is explained, but never really shown. She does come to the rescue of a new friend, a demigod figure named Morpheus who turns out to be the son of Poseidon. (In classical mythology, Morpheus is often considered the son of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and of the goddess Nyx.) However, she is powerless against Zeus and has to be saved by the intervention of Hades and Bernard. She has fascinating attributes, and she's quite brave, but the plot has more to do with her discovery of her true parents and her developing relationship with Bernard than a typical hero's epic journey.

Who Will Enjoy This Book? You might like this short novel if you enjoy young adult and new adult paranormal romances, since Melinoe and Bernard enjoy a slowly-developing friendship-to-love story that's sensual, but not explicit. There's a little bit of a love triangle involving Ivan as well. You might also like this book if you enjoy Greek mythology retellings for older YA readers, such as Aimee Carter's Goddess Test series or Lauren Hammond's Underworld Trilogy. If you like dark, brooding fantasy with an almost horror novel-like atmosphere of impending danger and mystery, this may be the book for you.

SOC Sunday + Writing Update + A Review of 'The Spindlers' by Lauren Oliver

This Stream of Consciousness Sunday's theme is "Pass It On:" what have we passed down to our children and what our parents have passed down to us. Jana wrote about the fear of the dentist she passed down to her youngster. I have the dental anxiety from my own bad dental experience as a 20-year-old, but my anxiety in general is a gift of dubious value from my mom, and she got it from her mom.

I'm nervous a lot. Ask my husband - it drives him crazy. I'm always imagining worst-case scenarios, and it's hard to be happy when you're always anticipating something bad being around the corner. I haven't been happy very much lately - more like just muddling through. It may have something to do with the fact that the prescription I get for my terrible PMS (I would say full-blown PMDD) ran out a little while ago and I haven't refilled it yet. It does seem to make me a slightly happier person at all times of the month.

Right now, things that are hard to tolerate are REALLY hard to tolerate.

Which brings me to a writing update. The husband/co-writer and I are putting the finishing touches on the third book in the Pagan Spirits novel series. Back in July of 2012 (that's how long it's been since I worked on this book), we wrote a really nice romantic scene that takes place at a fairy-haunted graveyard in Scotland, where Zen and Ramesh have gone for their honeymoon.

Not the final draft of the artwork, but it gives you some idea.

We wrote it on our old laptop. Said laptop is now a dead brick. The vast majority of the novel was saved elsewhere, but that one little scene that made the honeymoon chapter so much more interesting and romantic is now just a memory.

I have to rewrite it - and I HATE having to rewrite a lost scene. I know it'll never be as good as the lost one. I have had more than my fair share of anxiety and frustration (mostly frustration!!) over that stupid missing scene. I am not looking forward to the rewrite at all. We attempted to work on it today, but our collaboration devolved into an argument. It's been set aside for a few days until we can work on it without all the high drama and heartbreak.

If you're not a writer, you might not have any idea how hard it is to get your thoughts to cooperate with the scene you intend to write, and how precious the draft is once it's been written. Writing something that reads smoothly and sounds professional is nowhere near is easy as it seems.

But, God willin' and the creek don't rise, we'll have St. James's Day (Pagan Spirits Book Three) back from the proofreader's soon and ready for a late spring debut. I may be just a little burnt out at the moment, especially with erotica and writing sex scenes. I have been doing it since 2006, after all. Maybe I should try writing a children's book for a change of pace.

Which brings us to part 3 of the blog post: a review of The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver


The Spindlers by Lauren Oliver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lauren Oliver is famous for her books for slightly older readers, particularly Delirium and Pandemonium. There are too many good YA series for me to keep up with these days, so I haven't read those, but I picked up The Spindlers because it was a stand-alone book available for free from Amazon Vine.

The back cover of my ARC compares it to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass and Coraline, but there's really only one scene near the end that really reminded me of Coraline. (For the record, I have only seen the movie of Coraline. I did not read the book.)

It's a fairly dark story, in some ways akin to the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, if that couple were a brother and sister and the sister had to go to the Underworld (here simply called Below) to rescue the brother. Like Alice, Liza is a sensible, level-headed girl who finds herself on an adventure with talking animals, strange creatures and homicidal queen. Like Alice, she finds herself equal to the challenge - even when confronted, like Harry Potter, with a 3-headed dog.

Reading this, I had neither the sense that I was reading a wholly derivative retold Greek myth nor the sense that I was reading something wholly original - it falls somewhere in the middle. It touches on the issues of trust, friendship, honesty, the value of siblinghood and how children should treat their parents, but it's not overly didactic. I probably would have enjoyed this as a bedtime story when I was a middle-grade reader.

View all my reviews on GoodReads

Pagan Spirits novels:

Beltane (Book 1)

Midsummer Night (Book 2) 

Twilight of the Goddesses

(I recently discovered that, although it was originally published as a guest post on another blog, this post can no longer be found elsewhere on the Internet.)

Inside every woman there is a goddess archetype, according to the feminist classic Goddesses in Everywoman. Jean Shinoda Bolen’s 1984 book combined the psychology of women with classical Greek mythology to describe seven personality types. These goddess archetypes reoccur in women’s lives and in literature.

The women of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series are deeply in touch with their inner goddesses. Bella Swan, the human (at least until the fourth book) heroine of the series, has been criticized for her passivity, submissiveness and resemblance to a stereotypical damsel in distress. Yet the storybook cliché of the woman in need of rescue has a deeper meaning, a resonance with one of the classical goddesses of Greek mythology. From motherly Esme to the half-breed infant Nessie, the women of Twilight resemble five of Shinoda Bolen’s seven goddesses.

Alice ~ Athena

In Greek mythology, Athena was the warrior-goddess of wisdom. She was the patroness of great heroes including Achilles, Perseus and Jason. Alice Cullen has her own hero: Jasper Cullen, formerly a general in an ambitious vampire’s territory wars. Athena entered the pantheon of Greek deities as a full-grown adult; Alice joined the Cullen vampire coven not as a human but as a fully-formed vampire. Athena’s was also goddess of crafts; Alice has a talent for planning over-the-top, sophisticated parties.

Women who follow the Athena archetype always know what to wear. Alice has a distinctive sense of fashion and helps Bella choose outfits for special occasions. Athena women want to marry powerful, successful men; Alice is inseparable from Jasper. Wise Athena women go through life seeing clearly, but Alice does them one better: she has visions, literally seeing the future clearly.

Rosalie ~ Hera

Hera was the beautiful, regal Greek goddess of marriage. She had large, beautiful eyes and was represented by the peacock. Although widely revered in ancient times, she could be jealous and vindictive. When Zeus first tried to woo her, he appeared to her as a shivering, wounded bird, and she took pity on him. His first attempts to seduce her were unsuccessful; he had to marry her first. As an adolescent, a Hera woman is already planning her wedding. A Hera woman feels incomplete without a partner. She wants to get married more than anything else.

Alice’s adopted sister Rosalie Hale is also regal and beautiful. In the first novel, Bella describes Rosalie as “statuesque,” with a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model’s figure. She’s the most beautiful girl at Forks High School.

Like Hera, Rosalie took pity on a wounded creature¾the human Emmett¾when she found him mauled by a bear. Rosalie brought him to Carlisle, her adoptive father, who saved Emmett by turning him into a vampire. Incomplete without a partner, Rosalie fell in love with Emmett. They married, and as Edward reveals to Bella in Breaking Dawn, went through a wildly enthusiastic honeymoon period in which they accidentally damaged several homes with their lovemaking.

Before Rosalie was a vampire, she was a beautiful 18-year-old in 1933. Her beauty was her most important asset, and she enjoyed the attention it got her everywhere she went. Before she even had a beau she was planning the “huge, flowery” wedding of her dreams. Her social climbing parents pushed her into a relationship with Royce King, the son of her town’s wealthiest merchant. Rosalie felt like a princess, until a drunken Royce and his friends attacked Rosalie and left her for dead. After Carlisle turned her into a vampire, a vengeful Rosalie hunted and killed each of them…dressed in her wedding gown.

A Hera woman tends to displaces her anger at her spouse onto others. She devalues her friendships with other women. Rosalie’s treatment of Bella reflects this, as in New Moon when she allows Edward to think Bella is dead. Edward also reveals to Bella that Rosalie is jealous of her because Rosalie wishes she were still human.

Renesmee ~ Artemis

At first glance, the remote and beautiful huntress Rosalie may seem like an Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting and the moon. An even better Artemis, though, is Renesmee (Nessie for short), the half-vampire daughter of Edward and Bella. In mythology Artemis travels with a pack of hounds…appropriate for Nessie, the destined mate of wolf shapeshifter Jacob Black.

Artemis was one of a pair of twins born to the nymph Leto. Her twin brother was Apollo. Though the Artemis of Greek mythology never married, she was so close with Apollo that he became jealous of men who attempted to woo her. When an Artemis woman has a husband, she treats him like a brother. They often share an interest in the outdoors. As Nessie grows up, her relationship with Jacob is like sister and brother, and he loves the outdoors.

The Artemis archetype is independent, a trait Nessie shows from a shockingly early age. Artemis babies are interested in the world from the start. Artemis women have a loving, supportive set of parents, like Bella and Edward.  An Artemis woman’s father gives her a set of gifts that enable her to do as she wants, the way Edward passed some of his vampire traits to Nessie.

Esme ~ Demeter

Demeter, the goddess of grain, was ancient Greece’s nurturer/mother goddess. Demeter was driven to extremes when she lost her only child Persephone, who was abducted and taken to the Underworld by the god of the dead. A Demeter woman’s maternal instincts are not restricted to her own biological children; she is maternal toward everyone. She becomes depressed when she loses her literal or metaphorical children. She is the chosen rather than the chooser in romantic relationships. Her ideal partner is a mature, responsible family man.

Esme Cullen, the matriarch of the coven, is a perfect Demeter. She thrives on being the adoptive mother of Edward, Alice, Jasper, Rosalie and Emmett. Carlisle turned Esme into a vampire only after Esme attempted suicide by jumping off a cliff¾an extreme she was driven to when her baby died shortly after birth. She was fortunate to have been chosen by Carlisle. Though he appears to be only 23, Carlisle was born in the mid-seventeenth century. He’s the ultimate mature family man.

Bella ~ Persephone

Demeter’s only child, the goddess Persephone was the young maiden abducted by Hades, the god of the Underworld. By eating the pomegranate seeds (which resemble blood drops) Hades offered her, Persephone became part of the world of the dead and reigned as their queen throughout each winter. Bella Swan, when she fell in love with Edward, was transported from her everyday human life to a secret world of cold, unearthly beings, the walking dead. Through ingesting Edward’s vampire venom, she became one of them.

The Persephone woman may go through bouts of depression where she seems to disappear from the world. Disappearing from the world is how Bella’s father, Charlie describes Bella after Edward leaves in New Moon: “But she was…empty. Her eyes were blank.” Stephenie Meyer symbolizes Bella’s depression with blank pages.

As a young woman, a Persephone archetype doesn’t know who she is. She has a passive, compliant personality and few interests of her own. She adapts herself to please a man. Persephone archetypes rarely have close relationships with their fathers. They don’t choose marriage, but agree to get married to please their partners. Although initially unaware of their own sexuality, Persephone women mature into sensual women. All of these characteristics describe Bella, who only agreed to marry Edward after realizing it was the only way to fulfill her awakening sexual desire for him.

Many readers love the Twilight series precisely because of Bella and Edward’s abstinence before their marriage. In her essay “Bite Me (Or Don’t),” Christine Siefert refers to this as “abstinence porn.” It’s interesting that one of the goddesses not represented in Stephenie Meyer’s pantheon is Aphrodite. According to Goddesses in Everywoman, the Greek goddess of love was the one resident of Mount Olympus who was neither virginal nor vulnerable to the designs of the male gods. Nevertheless, whether consciously or not, Meyer gave each of her vampire women a divine counterpart and a unique set of powers.

Author Biography: Erin O’Riordan is a novelist, avid reader and book reviewer. She adores vampires and never tires of reading about them in all their forms. Visit her at the book blog Pagan Spirits: http://www.erinoriordan.blogspot.com

References:

Angela. (n.d.) “Beauty and the Bear: Rosalie and Emmett.” Retrieved January 1, 2011.  http://rosalieandemmett.net/beauty-the-bear/beauty-bear-rosalie-emmett/

Chung, Daniel. (n.d.) “Twilight Character Guide - Alice Cullen.” Retrieved January 1, 2011. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/twilight_character_guide/alice_cullen/

Chung, Daniel. (n.d.) “Twilight Character Guide - Emmett Cullen.” Retrieved January 1, 2011. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/twilight_character_guide/emmett_cullen/

Chung, Daniel. (n.d.) “Twilight Character Guide - Esme Cullen.” Retrieved January 2, 2011. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/twilight_character_guide/esme_cullen/

Chung, Daniel. (n.d.) “Twilight Character Guide - Rosalie Hale.” Retrieved January 2, 2011. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/guides/twilight_character_guide/rosalie_hale/

Czech, Jan. July 20, 2009. “Bella Swan - A Feminist’s Nightmare.” Retrieved January 2, 2010. http://www.suite101.com/content/bella-swan-a-feminists-nightmare-a133393

Kramer Bussel, Rachel (editor). Best Sex Writing 2010. Cleis Press, 2010.

Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little, Brown and Co., 2005.

Meyer, Stephenie. New Moon. Little, Brown and Co., 2006.

Meyer, Stephenie. Eclipse. Little, Brown and Co., 2007.

Shinoda Bolen, Jean. Goddesses in Everywoman. Harper and Rowe, 1984.