Seductions

Description of the Subterranean Press edition:

Dustjacket art and design by Gail Cross. Endsheet and interior art by Earl Geier. Introduction by Ray Garton. Afterword by Richard Laymon.

Pinnacle had sent a review copy of Seductions to Robert Bloch, one of my all-time favorites. When my editor told me shortly before the book was published, I was thrilled... but he quickly added that I shouldn't get too excited about it. Bloch had replied with a letter, which my editor read to me over the phone.

Bloch said that he could not in good conscience endorse Seductions. He thought the sex and violence in the novel were almost interchangeable. The writing wasn't bad, he said, but he found the content too disturbing to finish reading the book. He was worried it would take the genre one step closer to what he feared would no longer be horror, but a genre in which story and character and humanity took a back seat to pornographic violence.

"I disturbed Robert Bloch?" I asked in a tremulous whisper.

"Yeah, but he's not going to give you a blurb. Sorry."

"So what?" I said to my editor over the telephone. "I mean... I disturbed Robert Bloch!"

A short time later, I attended my first convention, a gathering of fans and writers of horror, science fiction and fantasy. Upon entering the building, I nearly ran into a woman wearing a fur bikini and carrying a spear, and who weighed approximately four hundred pounds. I considered making a quick exit. But I'm glad I didn't, because Robert Bloch was there.

I approached him nervously, shook his hand and introduced myself. I could tell my name meant nothing to him, so I told him about Seductions, and about the letter he'd written. He frowned thoughtfully, tugging on that rubbery, basset-hound face of his, then began to nod.

"Ah, yes," he said. He took a moment to look me over, then said slowly, "You're unwell."

– from the Introduction

A novel of sexual terror which predated such classics as Live Girls and The New Neighbor, this first hardcover edition features an original introduction by the author, and an afterword by horror legend Richard Laymon.