*Includes the story âCat Personâânow a major film*
A compulsively readable collection of short stories that explore the complexâand often darkly funnyâconnections between gender, sex, and power across genres.
âThese stories are sharp and perverse, dark and bizarre, unrelenting and utterly bananas. I love them so, so much.â âCarmen Maria Machado, National Book Award Finalist and author of Her Body and Other Parties
âKristen Roupenian isnât just an uncannily great writer, she also knows things about the human psycheâĻThe world has made a lot more sense since reading this book.â âMiranda July, New York Times bestselling author
Previously published as You Know You Want This, âCat Personâ and Other Stories brilliantly explores the ways in which women are horrifying as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Among its pages are a couple who becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sexâĻuntil they canât have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for âsomething meanâ; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her heartâs desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed âbiterâ who dreams of sneaking up behind and sinking her teeth into a green-eyed, long-haired, pink-cheeked coworker.
Spanning a range of genres and topicsâfrom the mundane to the murderous and supernaturalâthese are stories about sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain. These stories fascinate and repel, revolt and arouse, scare and delight in equal measure. And, as a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortableâor worse, understoodâas if to say, âYou want this, right? You know you want this.â