Brief Encounters

Title: L.A. Dreams
Author: Thomas Fuchs
Length: 5,280 words (20 pdf pages)
Publisher: JMS Books
Genre: m/m contemporary
Rating: C-

Blurb:

Newly arrived in Los Angeles, a horny guy looking to get laid becomes involved with a mysterious stranger called Chaz, whose dominating dark presence seems to enter his mind while he’s sleeping and give him the sexual thrills of a lifetime.

Then he meets Ben, a cheerful, sweet surfer dude not quite as exciting in the sack but very satisfying in other ways. This is someone he could fall in love with.

Which guy is right for him? And, more importantly, is the decision really his to make?

Review:

This is a rather unusual book and I’m not sure exactly how to rate it. I liked the concept, but the execution wasn’t quite my cup of tea. It’s told in the form of diary entries. I think this narrative style leaves you a bit removed from the action, as you are told this happened and that happened and he said that. However, others may not feel that same distance from the “action”.

The unnamed author is new to Los Angeles and places an ad on Craig’s List looking for sexual partners. Oddly (why do guys (and girls) do this?) he focuses on the one rather weird man who posts saying he want to “mind fuck” him in his dreams. Okay, for most of us, we’d roll our eyes and press delete, but not our intrepid narrator. He’s determined to try to figure the guy out. He’s told to look at the man’s picture and arouse himself before bed, and then remember his dreams. this is easier said than done — as most of us probably know — but every now and then he has some amazingly erotic dreams.

One night he thinks he sees the guy at a bar, but it’s not. This guy is named Ben and soon they are dating, however Ben is great and the sex is good, but not mind-blowing like with his on-line “dream” lover. One night when Ben is out of town, our narrator has a freaky experience that kind of creeps him out, and he starts to wonder if the guy has some kind of supernatural powers after all. But will he choose weird super-charged wet dreams, or nice guy and pretty good sex Ben?

It was an interesting story, and makes you wonder about the power of suggestion vs true supernatural interventions, and also touches on the nice guy vs the mysterious stranger. But I just never felt the connection between Ben and the narrator because of that sense of reading someone’s diary, rather than being in the minute with them as they experience some natural wonders of California. As well, given that it’s a personal journal, the writing tends to be rather short and choppy, as if you were just writing things down for your own purposes rather than with the intention that someone would read it later. All of these affectations work to perpetuate the narrative style, but it just left me a bit cold. The ideas covered were interesting, and this may work better for others.  I would try other work by the author though, perhaps in a more traditional style of story-telling.