Episode 34: Mesmerizing Masks
Happy Halloween Monster Lovers! We’re getting into the festive season with this week’s topic: MASKS! We talk about the history and origins of masks, and their influences in pop culture. Then we unmask the hornification of masked characters and the role they play in sexuality and culture. Jess dives into The Boy, driven by endless thrist traps on TikTok, and Sarah explores The Mask — is it horror or comedy? Plus, we have book recommendations to get you into the spooky spirit, and we rate those masks baddies. Grab your candy, don your favorite mask, and press play now!
Media Consumed:
The Boy
An American nanny is shocked that her new English family's boy is actually a life-sized doll. After violating a list of strict rules, disturbing events make her believe that the doll is really alive.
The Mask
When he dons an ancient Nordic mask, Stanley Ipkiss moves at warp speed, knows your every desire, satisfies your every whim and dances like Fred Astaire, Gumby and Baryshnikov combined. He's s-s-s-smokin'!
Spooky Season reads:
Scream For Us by Molly Doyle
After wandering into an alluring Halloween party that is said to go down in history, Quinn finds herself captivated by three masked men. As she immerses herself in a night of both pleasure and pain, she finally has the opportunity to bring her darkest fantasies to life. Or death.
This is a Dark Romance/Suspense, RH Novella. Scream For Us contains mature and graphic content that is not suitable for all audiences. TRIGGER WARNINGS include: graphic sexually explicit scenes, physical assault, attempted sexual assault, violence, mentions of self harm/bullying, breath play/choking, knife play, fire play, blood/gore, voyeurism, mask kink, praise/degradation kink, and murder.
Burn for Jack by Aiden Pierce
Jack Calloway is the pumpkin-headed boogeyman of Hallow Hill. As the legend goes, he was a man of wicked tastes, devilish allure, and had a knack for dark magic. He and his lover—my ancestor—were tried as witches and burned at the stake at the edge of Hallow Hill’s pumpkin patch.
Some say he made a deal with the devil to spare his lover’s soul and haunts the pumpkin patch to this day, waiting for her return.
“Don’t go near the pumpkin patch on Halloween,” they’ve always warned the women in my family. “Jack might get you.”
Too bad I don’t listen because I have to find out the hard way that ghost stories exist for a reason. And in Jack’s flames, I just might become one.
Burn for Jack is a plot-light Halloween-themed PNR novella featuring a pumpkin-headed monster with a wicked thirst for our heroine. This story includes dark themes such as bondage, violence, gore, dubious consent, bullying, and murder.
