We All Scream by Elias True

Title: We All Scream
Author: Elias True
Publisher: Self
Cover: Robin Ludwig Design
Genre: Erotica
Length: 22 pages

A massive storm is brewing and Seth is ready to head back home. But when he sees an unrequited crush from high school driving an ice cream truck, he must pursue. When they meet, Seth flirts and finally gets what he craved from Aaron all those years ago – and much more – in the back of the truck as they wait out the storm of the century.

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We All Scream by Elias True is trying to straddle that line between erotica and romance. Seth is pondering a newly acknowledged attraction to men, something that simmered in his past but never quite surfaced except in small encounters of the quick look and glance away type with a school friend. Maybe he was kidding himself about girls all along, he thinks.


A chance meeting with Aaron, now grown and driving an ice cream truck lets Seth admit his feelings to himself and to Aaron as they drive around in the ice cream truck during a bad storm. The storm and their own desires bring them to a halt, where they make the most of the scant room in the freezer compartment, and confess a few things about the past.

The sex scenes are fine, and the setting is certainly novel. Where it becomes muddled is that while the guys could certainly have sex now that they’ve met again as adults, there isn’t nearly enough development to have them declaring love now. Love isn't evident, it feels thrown in just to be able to call this a romance. The plot, what there is of it in the current day, is the sketchy sort suitable to erotica. The author handles Seth’s character development and his introspection about himself and the past with enough skill that the near absence of relationship development is either an oversight or a guy thing. “Meet you for the next storm” would be a lot more believable than “I love you.”

The ending is HFN but without any real emotional satisfaction when a declaration of love is met with less joy than a round of golf would get. Considering the devastation of the storm and the novelty of their emotions, the ending has very little punch, and it's all provided by the idea in the last line. We All Scream probably works better as erotica; Elias True shows lot of writing skill in search of its genre. 3 marbles