*Includes the story βCat Personββnow a major film*
A compulsively readable collection of short stories that explore the complexβand often darkly funnyβconnections between gender, sex, and power across genres.
βThese stories are sharp and perverse, dark and bizarre, unrelenting and utterly bananas. I love them so, so much.β βCarmen Maria Machado, National Book Award Finalist and author of Her Body and Other Parties
βKristen Roupenian isnβt just an uncannily great writer, she also knows things about the human psycheβ¦The world has made a lot more sense since reading this book.β βMiranda July, New York Times bestselling author
Previously published as You Know You Want This, βCat Personβ 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 sexβ¦until they canβt have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for βsomething meanβ; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her heartβs desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed βbiterβ 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 topicsβfrom the mundane to the murderous and supernaturalβthese 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 uncomfortableβor worse, understoodβas if to say, βYou want this, right? You know you want this.β