Review - Scream and Steam by TJ Nichols
Scream and Steam
by TJ Nichols
My rating: 
Heat level: 
Tags: Fantasy Contemporary
Posted in Book Reviews on 8 November, 2026
The monsters under your bed were real. Farrow is one of them. It’s his job to scare young children to keep his world safe from the magic kids can unwittingly wield. Farrow is on assignment one night to scare a little girl who has moved to a new house when he accidentally encounters a young man who is in the midst of some vigorous self-pleasure. He surreptitiously films the young man, Timothy, and puts the video online in his world’s version of OnlyFans. Adults usually can’t see monsters, but Timothy can and soon becomes aware of what Farrow is doing. He and Farrow come to an arrangement, but it soon becomes more than either of them bargained for.
I think comparisons of the setup for this story to the Pixar movie Monsters Inc. are natural. At a very basic level, they’re both the same: monsters exist and scare children for a reason. The way the stories play out is much different, of course. First and foremost, this is a very adult tale that involves online sex work. It’s a fun and sexy fantasy that plays with some typical ideas about alternate realities.
The point of view for telling the story alternates between Farrow and Timothy in clearly marked chapters. We meet Farrow first, just as he’s entered the new house of one of the children he’s assigned to scare. As you can probably guess, to monsters, humans are the scary dangerous beings. Farrow is just doing his job, protecting his people, and trying not to kill his brother, whom Farrow lives with and is a real pain in the butt.
Timothy is a college student struggling with his relationship with his father, who has a new partner after the death of Timothy’s mother. Hence, the young child now in the household. A penchant for exhibitionism isn’t the only thing Timothy is about to discover about himself in this story.
“Scream and Steam” is available from Smashwords or visit Bookshop.org to purchase from an independent bookstore.
