I have to agree with the previous reader's review. This was book was somewhat disappointing for several reasons. One, this book was not about "Group Sex" at all. Group sex was only part of a group conversation that took place on one evening of the entire book! I can't help but to wonder if the author used the title to attract 'would-be' readers... Second, most of the secondary characters in the book were extremely bland and boring, but I believe that may have been the author's intention to emphasize the life of the main character, Frances. Third, the reader may or may not understand why Frances would stay in a topsy-turvy relationship with Paul Treat, a theatre playwright, and the reader may grasp this in the very ending of the book where Frances finally voices her desires.

Having been introduced to Arensburg's work through the magnificent "Incubus," I was a little disappointed with "Group Sex." A truly disturbing tale of a young editor and her love (?) affair with a theatre director.

Although I finished the book in the matter or two days, it was an uncomfortable read. The main character allows her lover to completely reform her, pulling her in and out of distorted shapes. The main character is uncomfortable with her lover through most of the novel, and the reader senses this.

Because I think Arensburg is a gifted and talented writer, I cannot completely malign the book. "Group Sex" is a quick read, and an engaging one, although a bit disturbing for this reader.

Incubus was unfortunately for me a disappointment. The beginning was too weird and disconnected. The great hint of a plot kept me coming back hoping to be drawn into a potentially wonderful story. The genre and literary style is quite unique and shows extreme talent. But the writing stlye alone can't make a good book. The general plot is very unique and could make for a great story. But the author is too engrossed in proving God does not exist; even going so far as to misquote the Bible several times. The compelling but strange relationship between the sister and mom becomes too strange and confusing. It is very hard to care very much about any of the characters. I never could connect or relate with any of them. The resolution is never quite clear and I was left feeling puzzled and frustrated. Great writing, potentially great plot, but it's never developed enough to make the reader care.

In 1974, a severe drought and heat wave hits only Dry Falls, Maine while the surrounding area is much cooler and wetter. The male residents have lost so much of their sex drive that even Viagra could not help. There is also a marked increase in deformed births among local livestock.

The local Episcopal priest Dr. Henry Lieber has felt his faith in God deteriorating even as he records every odd event to strike the town. Henry believes that a supernatural being is destroying his town. His skeptical spouse Cora worries about her husband's well-being. However, she becomes converted and begins to wonder if a demon is raping the women of her town.

The story line of INCUBUS is fast-paced, well researched, and cleverly developed (through the eyes of Cora), leaving readers awestruck by the immense talent of Ann Arensberg. The characters feel so real and the town they inhabit seems like any small New England community. With this winner and her two previous terrific tales (see SISTER WOLF and GROUP SEX), Ms Arensberg has quickly donned mantles worn by the Kings and Deans of the genre.

Harriet Klausner

This is the best low-key, adult supernatural horror story since Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, and is told in very much the same style. The horrors it paints are initially presented in suspensefully suggestive backdrop, mounting gradually to a graphic and dramatic conclusion.

Narrator Cora Whitman is a pastor's wife in rural Dry Falls, Maine, which in 1974 suffers from a non-stop blighting heat-wave. It also suffers from something more sinister: an invisible menace that sexually molests sleeping women and maturing girls. Cora is far more reluctant than her falteringly religious husband, and his paranormal-researching circle of friends, to accept that the reported nocturnal assaults are the work of some supernatural agent - until she becomes its target, herself.

Cora begins her story with Charles Fort's most famous quote - "I think we're property" - and an enumeration of paranormal events in our time and before our time, before walking us through her own voyage from skepticism to belief. Her perspective enables the reader to witness events that could be nothing more than overactive imaginations or sexual frustration (all the women in Dry Falls are suffering from an epidemic lack of sexual interest from their husbands), but gradually become more indicative of supernatural intrusion: one woman feels as if a masculine presence was in her room, but sees nothing; another senses a vague shadowy outline in the door, while suffering apparent sleep-paralysis; a third has chunks of flesh gouged out of her scalp, by nails sharper than she possesses, and is certain an unseen male figure was in her room. Even after several girls from the nearby prep-school are found, in the same room and on the same night, sleeping as if drugged and sexually hyper-excreting while seeming to respond to bedpartners, Cora and the Dry Falls townsfolk manufacture rationalizations to account for the phenomenon. Eventually, however, too many people witness events beyond any natural explanation, and Dry Falls becomes a town besieged by fear.

What makes this novel work is the understated, first-person approach. Daily events are described in mundane fashion, with the odd occurrence here and there sandwiched in, mulled over for a moment, and then forgotten - until the next. By the time Cora is convinced that outside entities have targeted Dry Falls, so is the reader. She and her husband come off very much as a Scully and Mulder pair, the story itself feeling a great deal like a well-written episode of The X-Files. In fact, the presentation of paranormal researchers and their techniques is spot-on accurate, and completely believable for it. The tone and style have almost a documentary feel, and the illusion of reality is exceptionally well sustained.

The Reader's Guide/author's interview at the end of the book reveals that Arensberg was consciously drawing from lore of historical fairy abductions, demon hauntings, and contemporary reports of UFO entities in crafting her tale, and she presents them extremely realistically. Literarily, she sought to emulate Nathaniel Hawthorne and Shirley Jackson, and she succeeds fabulously.

This is thinking-man's horror, for mature readers only.

I bought "Sister Wolf" on the strength of the cover, blurb, and awards it received. I needed something to read on a six hour flight to Dublin.

The book was not engaging. I couldn't feel close to the characters, nor did I find their actions to be motivated by...anything.

This is a dreadful book, and I had to force myself to finish it.

Then, I did what I rarely do: I threw it into the trash.

Although I do not consider this book a wasted read, it is not topping my list of favorites.

I found the storyline very difficult to follow, the characters were not at all engaging, and if the author used the word "Sapphic" one more time I was going to throw the book. However, the final chapter was a page-turner with a engaging plot, and a surprise ending. It also provided insight into the title of the work and salvaged the entire reading experience for me.

My advice would be to skim everything but the last chapter. Read that one with relish.

For anyone interested in a GOOD Ann Arensburg book, I suggest "Incubus", her best work by far.

I wouldn't normally have reviewed "Sister Wolf", if I hadn't seen the only other review, which, while probably fairly correct, was a bit more cynical and harsh than I thought was deserved of the book. It's true that the plot is strange, and the characters a little distant and difficult to become attached to. However, the book was well done; Ann Arensburg is quite a good writer, and her prose is simple but sufficient. In the end, "Sister Wolf" seems to be nothing but a story about the difficult love of two people, and the attachment of one woman to her wild animals. However, "Sister Wolf" is saddening but fairly enjoyable, and is a fine light read. It's not a bestsellar, and it's not high on my list, but it's certainly not a novel deserving of the trashcan, and tossing it there without giving it a chance would certainly be a mistake.