As I was not yet writing reviews when I read this book, I don't have reviews for each of the short stories included in this anthology. So here are my ratings; if I ever reread the book, I intend to add reviews.

★★☆☆☆ The Museum of Dr. Moses by Joyce Carol Oates
★★☆☆☆ Worse than Bones by Ramsey Campbell
★★☆☆☆ King of Outer Space by Peter Atkins
★★☆☆☆ Piano Bar Blues by Melanie Tem
★☆☆☆☆ Those Vanished I Recognize by Tom Piccirilli
★☆☆☆☆ Inland, Shoreline by Darren O. Godfrey
★★☆☆☆ The Window by by Joel Lane
★★☆☆☆ Author, Author by Gordon Linzner
★★☆☆☆ Hammerhead by Richard Laymon
★★★☆☆ Imbroglio by Conrad Williams
★★☆☆☆ Transorbital Love Probe by Th. Metzger
★★★☆☆ The Impressionists in Winter by Susan Fry
★☆☆☆☆ Whose Ghosts These Are by Charles L. Grant
★☆☆☆☆ Perdido: A Fragment from a Work in Progress by Peter Straub
★★☆☆☆ In Real Life by William F. Nolan
★★★☆☆ Pound Rots in Fragrant Harbour by Lisa Morton
★★★★☆ Apologia by Robert Devereaux
★★☆☆☆ The Bird Catcher by S.P. Somtow

3 Stars - The Devouring - Damn. How do you rate something you're not into? The writing was solid. The couple, from my point of view, are twisted-sick, and are into some stomach-clenching, asphyxiation shit. If you dig that snuff stuff this may be for you.

5 Stars- If Memory Serves by Jack Ketchum- Multiple personalities. Some secretss should stay just that.

5 Stars- Scream and I'll Come To You by Raymond Little- Maybe they should have used another symptom instead of screaming. Too easy to misunderstand.

4 Stars- Real Dino Shit- A pregnant zombie? Cool story.

5 Stars- Finger Cuffs by Matt Kurtz- The prey becomes the predator.

4 Stars- Annointed by D. Lynn Smith- Plumbing the drains of sin.

3 Stars- Home by J.F Gonzalez- A solid story, but nothing horrific.

4 Stars- Road Kill by Monica J. O'Rourke- That was sick!

3 Stars- A Scalene Love Triangle by Kerry G.S. Lipp- Everyone gets off

2 Stars- Bordertown by Laura Campbell- Don't worry be healthy

2 Stars- One Flesh by Robert Devereaux

3 Stars- Telescopic by Harper Hull

2 Stars - Sexy by Wrath James White- When I die, I wanna be remembered as....

5 Stars- Threads by Calie Voorhis- Gross

2 Stars- Burn the Witches by K. Trap Jones

4 Stars- Under the Pretext of Propensity by Anton Cancre- Beware underage fantasizing! Nice ending.

2 Stars- Every Drop of Blood Has a Soul by David Quinn

5 Stars- Dr. Scabs and The Hags of El Cajon by Robert Essig- Drugs and scabs. What an odd combination.

5 Stars- STD by David Berstein- So freaking nasty!

3 Stars - Fat Boy by Kelly Hudson

4 Stars- The Pubic Hair Tumbleweed by Joshua Dobson- Too short, but original.

3 Stars- The Proud Mother by Ken MacGregor- A dead man's baby.

3 Stars- Game of Golf by Gregory Norris

3 Stars- Slice of Life by Thomas Pluck

3 Stars- Stud Service by J S Reinhardt

3 Stars- Give Me Something good to Eat by Shane McKenzie

3 Stars- Linger by Daniel Russell

3 Stars- Skunk Jr by John McNee

A really extreme horror read with some very talented authors. Some of them are new to me and I will be looking to see what else they have written.

Recommended for those who can stomach dark and twisted reads.

What do you get when you take the myths of Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny, turn them on their heads, and add in a little bit of naughtiness and perversity? If you said Santa Steps Out: A Fairy Tale for Grown-Ups then you would be correct.

This story is both shocking and titillating, yet funny and reflective. I can't say I found it to be a super read. Perhaps it's because I've read too many great books lately (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, Hunger Games trilogy) to feel this was in the same league as those. And though I kept losing interest in the beginning and had trouble getting beyond the first few chapters, I read on nonetheless and found it more interesting as the story progressed, with a bit more of an underlying story going on beyond just Santa doing the Tooth Fairy every which way to Sunday.

I didn't always care for the way the author portrayed some of these characters. It's not because he turned them into highly sexual beings, for I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but some of their actions seemed a bit forced or cliche to me, almost as if you could tell they were written by a guy, with a guy's fantasies.

I'd definitely say this book belongs in the Erotica genre as opposed to the Dark Fantasy/Horror genre where it currently resides. Though the antics of the Tooth Fairy could well fit into horror at times, the actions throughout the rest of the book. and the language it uses, would definitely categorize it as erotica. And it is that part which kept me reading, and the fact that I found some of the sex scenes kind of hot. ;-)

Brilliant FUN.