After the death of his wife, Ray Parker decides to get involved with the local “cuddle party” community in order to once again feel the closeness of another human being. Although he’s sure it will be a strange and awkward experience, he’s determined to give anything a try if it will help him overcome his crippling loneliness. But he has no idea just how unsettling of an experience it will be until it’s far too late to escape.
Snuggle Club is a Bizarro Fiction novella by Carlton Mellick III.
This work contains examples of:
- Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Oggderians reproduce by snuggling with a human, immediately spitting out a multitude of tiny baby oggderians if the snuggling is especially good.
- Cosmic Horror: The afterword claims that the story is the first-ever work of Snuggle Horror. It's like Cosmic Horror, only snugglier.
- Eldritch Abomination: The creatures of the Snuggleverse are bizarre monsters with no regard for human life. Which doesn't stop the Snuggle Club from worshipping them and considering it an honour to be eaten by them. Or for that matter to be rearranged into a human work of art by them.
- Granola Guy: The hirsute Dan looks like a biker, but is actually more like a latter-day hippie.
- Hates Being Touched: Melody, since her "attack." It's a serious handicap for a snuggling enthusiast.
- Rape as Backstory: Subverted. Melody speaks in vague terms about "the attack" that has prevented her from enjoying snuggling, and Ray assumes that she must have been raped. However, when he mentions it, she is shocked and angry that he'd think that.
- Riddle for the Ages: We never do find out what the "attack" was that traumatized Melody so badly, only that it was not a rape.
- Serious Business: The snugglers consider cuddling to be the most important thing in the world.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: Ray is not reassured by how insistent Cherry is that the Snuggle Club does not contain any perverts and weirdos. He's right to be - other than him, there is exactly one other nice, normal person, and all the rest are some flavour of Jerkass, Broken Bird, Cloud Cuckoolander, Slime Ball or deranged worshipper of unholy abominations from beyond time and space.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Ray is quite short, and his wife was quite tall. He was always the little spoon when they snuggled.
