Hmmm... I try to find something nice to say about every story before I get to the stuff I didn't like. I thought the writing itself was good, no problems there.
When listening to the warning, I'd thought "slash" referred to "slasher". I hadn't been aware of that subgenre...
I knew I had a few "DISLIKE!" story elements in fiction that will, at worst, make me put the story down immediately, scrub my eyes (or in this case my ears) with steel wool to scrub away the image, and be wary of reading more from that author in the future. Or at best, just hate the story.
The story elements I knew of so far:
1. Genital mutilation
2. pedophilia
3. cannibalism, especially when described in detail.
There's now one more:
4. Sex with animals.
Judging by the comments, the wolf turned out to be a werewolf, but at the point where I turned the story off, the boy was being screwed by a talking wolf. The fact that it talked didn't mean it was not a wolf.
Yes, it was gay sex, which isn't my favorite thing to read or listen about. Some of the comments on the blog screamed "homophobia" at anyone who said this (thankfully not here), but I think that's an exaggeration. Not wanting to watch gay porn is not the same thing as homophobia. And, at the point when the sex started, the characters were so underdeveloped that it was pretty much a porn plot. Maybe it got more developed later on...
I agree with those who said it wasn't pedophilia, the boy was clearly of consenting age. He didn't exactly consent, though, since he didn't know what was going on. Which was another detail that seemed like it came straight from a porn plot.
But in any case, the same-sex sex was not the reason I turned it off. If it had been a she-wolf having sex with a man or a he-wolf having sex with a woman does not change the fact that I find human-on-animal sex disgusting, and not in an entertaining way. I tried to grit my teeth and just wait for it to be over (Is anyone going to chime in with "That's what she/he said"?), but that scene just went on and on until I finally had to tap out, like a bestiality endurance challenge that I am clearly not prepared for (or even interested in winning for that matter).
I'm glad that this didn't happen to be the first episode of Podcastle that I ever listened to, as I may have left and never come back, thinking this a clear indication that the editor's idea of entertaining is far outside of what I care to endure.
