Book Review: Horotika

K.D. Surely's review

Oct 05, 13

3 of 5 starsSurprisingly good plot. I did not expect myself to like this horror-erotica (shortened to horotika). I've read a work by Jondmur in the gay anthology Michael's Shades of Blue Anthology: 13 Stories of Love, Hunger and Paranoia (3 stars) before and I remember liking his story there. So, when I saw this thin book in the recent Manila International Book Fair, I bought it right away. Well, I was also thinking that this will help me in my 2013 Goodreads Reading Challenge.

The story tells of a Ryan who is the son of a aswang mother. When the mother died nine years ago, she offered to give Ryan the "amulet" to transfer the aswang power to him. He refused and now after nine years, Ryan has to face his mother again (in the form of an animal) and if he refuses again, Ryan's daughterLiz will be the one to accept the "amulet" and so Ryan has to die. Ryan can save his family's life it he accepts the "amulet" and kill himself so the aswang lineage will stop forever.

The plot is intriguing and the erotic scenes are interwoven properly in it without appearing as superficial insertions just to provide erotica fans enough to chew on. The male member of Ryan that sometimes turn into a venomous cobra (snake) is so funny that I cheered when it was finally got dismembered from Ryan's body ha! ha!

The only issue I have of this book is the inconsistent use of point-of-view (POV). It seems that the intention of Jondmur is to have alternating POV's per chapter or paragraph but sometimes in the same paragraph, the owner of POV is not clear.

Otherwise, this is an entertaining thin book that can satisfy both fans of local horror and erotica genres.