Trick and treat! Two reviews

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Well, it is half term week here and the cats have brought a mouse in for us all to play with. Oh joy. 

However I have managed to get in two little reads which I'm bringing to you for Halloween. Both have an underlying theme: exploring women's insecurity about our sexuality although the two tales do this in different ways. These are good stories which you can read any time of the year, worthy competition entrants since they utilise the occasion properly; they are not just sexy stories with a witch costume thrown in.

The internet is a wild world. Its complete freedom makes people anxious. On the one hand there is web activity which probably does need regulation. (For discussion on that, see any politician's spoutings. The situation isn't as bad as it sounds, since that activity has usually been going on for a long time anyway, and when it comes out on the internet, the authorities find it easier to track down and tackle.) On the other hand the internet allows us to get out and tell our own stories, not be so dominated by the privately owned media. Stories about women's sexuality are a classic case. Now that we can publish our own tales, we don't have to be dominated by the ever-present images of thin femininity which we are constantly being told by advertising moguls is how we ought to want to look.

MagicaPractica's A Little Halloween Magic is our luscious treat of the day. This is a chocolate truffle of a tale - crispy shell (nicely structured classic Cinderella tale), and a rich flavoursome mmmmmm centre. A LIttle Halloween Magic is a well told BBW (Big Beautiful Woman) story, dismissing the nonsense idea that you have to be a size 0 to attract interest from the guys with unabashed romance. 

When Halloween comes round, Rose is persuaded into an outfit of the kind which flatters BBWs (see my reviews of the burlesque for additional detail - or go along to any show). Michael is unable to resist and some hot hot action ensues.The main thrust of the tale (<snigger>) is, however, Rose's inability to realise how lovely and sexy she is in her bounteous femininity until a kindly friend puts her firmly in Michael's way.

Friendship is also a strong theme in SheaBlue's The Tank. SheaBlue has a delicately eerie touch to her writing, highly suited to a Halloween entry. This is our trick of a story, with a great twist in it. A tale about what happens when a young woman tries out a flotation tank, it starts with the unfamiliar and goes from there.

Exploration of issues around women's sexuality, anxieties and self-esteem lie just under the fun story making this more than a snack of a tale. Characters are well-drawn, the two women friends contrast each other, and this good friendship is the main relationship although there is a man floating about (ho ho). I have been following SheaBlue's writing for a while. I admire the eerie otherworldly tones and themes in her work and the way her imagination goes the distance. In this story I feel she's successfully written in a more realistic vein while maintaining that touch of eldritch.

Both stories could do with a light edit, as is common with stories which have been rushed to get them into a Literotica competition, but don't let that spoil your Halloween enjoyment of a trick and a treat. 

(BTW, I managed to trap the mouse in a Lego box and chuck it out into the actual wild world of our hedge.)