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Literature / Seductions

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Seductions is Ray Garton’s debut novel, written in 1984.

Donald Ellis has a gift for knowing things that others can’t know, and it’s starting to take a toll on his mind. He has a recurring nightmare where he’s being tormented by horrible creatures. When his brother dies, he joins forces with a young woman to confront an ancient evil with a voracious, lustful appetite.

Seductions contains examples of:

  • Alpha Bitch: Leslie Newell, in addition to being the school slut, is highly unpleasant, manipulative, and possibly homophobic.
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The creatures don’t display much capacity to be anything other than malevolent. However, they do have a Masquerade of sorts, where they blend into society.
  • An Arm and a Leg: Donald loses most of an arm in a fight with the "Betty" creature.
  • Bittersweet Ending: There’s now irrefutable proof that the creatures exist and are responsible for the recent rash of bloody disappearances, which will inevitably lead to them being hunted down and exterminated. On the other hand, Donald’s hand is forced when Freddie is caught by two of the creatures, and he has no other choice than to Mercy Kill her in order to hold up to his promise, leaving him without anyone to console his nightmares.
  • Blessed with Suck: Considering how taxing it is on his mental state, Donald has perfectly good reason to hate his sixth sense.
  • Cool Teacher: Donald Ellis. He genuinely cares about his students, and had gone to see Kyle while he was in the hospital.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: The creatures take a form that their prey will find most pleasing and obsess over until they find their way right into their claws.
  • Doing In the Wizard: Sort of. It’s never really explained just what the creatures are. They’re the In-Universe basis for Succubi and Incubi, but they’re clearly not demonic in nature, living under the earth unbeknownst to man. However, their shapeshifting abilities aren’t ever fully explained. Donald further speculates that they also inspired the tales of werewolves and vampires.
  • Fan Disservice: Erotically charged as the sex scenes are, they always end with gory dismemberment.
  • Freudian Excuse: There’s a bit that explains why Leslie Newell is so promiscuous. Her mother, being attractive for her age, is always bringing men to the house, trying to justify to herself that she’s not being used for her body. As such, Leslie vows to never be like her, and instead to use the men that find her so attractive.
  • Gorn: A more literal example than most. Much of the gore in the story takes place during sex scenes, with the death of Leslie Newell being the most nearly pornographic in nature.
  • Interrupted Intimacy: Kyle is getting some from "Betty", only for Donald to show up and stop them, effectively saving his life from the monster.
  • Mercy Kill: Freddie asks Donald to kill her if she ever winds up caught by the creatures, in order to prevent her from suffering an even worse death. At the end, he’s forced to fulfill this promise.
  • Oh, Crap!: Donald, when he realizes that he just unwittingly delivered Kyle into the hands of one of the creatures.
  • Succubi and Incubi: Deconstructed. The creatures are the basis for the incubus/succubus myth, but they aren’t demons at all. Instead, they’re a race of shapeshifting monsters that have lived beneath the earth and emerge every 200 years to prey on the human population, assuming forms that their prey will find most sexually pleasing before devouring them whole.
  • Uncanny Valley: In-Universe. While assuming human form, the creatures can mostly pass for normal, but with a closer look, there’s always something off about them. Their skin is always unnaturally smooth, without any natural creases or wrinkles that can be found in a normal human.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Whoever got the idea to set the forest on fire wasn’t anticipating weird, sex-hungry, shapeshifting monsters to emerge from the underground.
  • Vagina Dentata: A defining characteristic of the creatures. They have it in both their human and true forms.

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