Review from a Transgressive Fiction Fan
Favorite book of all time. Lucky to have read it because I stumbled on to it by accident. I was looking for a book at a book store in Nashville. I read the jacket and was intrigued by the serial killer meets serial killer plot. I was even more interested when I saw that it was written by a women. But when I opened it and saw that the author dedicated the gruesome book to her mom I had to get it. I wasn’t disappointed. Some of the most shocking things I have ever read. Shocking in a gross, murderous, gay cannibal, endearing kind of way. The things that the author Poppy Z. Brite describes in the book were unimaginable when I first read it. I just kept wondering what kind of sick person could think up this kind of stuff. But the best part of the book is that it isn’t just some shock thriller. Poppy creates terrific characters in unimaginable situations. She draws from her own life in New Orleans to describe a city that is horrible and alluring at the same time. Wow, that sounded cheesy! But it’s true. I have let a few people borrow the book and most could not finish it. Not something that everyone would enjoy. BUT I DID!
“Insightful” Review from a Mainstream Reader
I could have done without this book. Perhaps I am not evolved enough to appreciate the care Ms. Brite has taken in limning the interiors of a sadistic mind, but I found this little more than a gallery of the grotesque, appealing only to puerile sensibilities.