*Includes the story โCat Personโโnow a major film*
A compulsively readable collection of short stories that explore the complexโand often darkly funnyโconnections between gender, sex, and power across genres.
โThese stories are sharp and perverse, dark and bizarre, unrelenting and utterly bananas. I love them so, so much.โ โCarmen Maria Machado, National Book Award Finalist and author of Her Body and Other Parties
โKristen Roupenian isnโt just an uncannily great writer, she also knows things about the human psycheโฆThe world has made a lot more sense since reading this book.โ โMiranda July, New York Times bestselling author
Previously published as You Know You Want This, โCat Personโ 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 sexโฆuntil they canโt have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for โsomething meanโ; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her heartโs desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed โbiterโ 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 topicsโfrom the mundane to the murderous and supernaturalโthese 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 uncomfortableโor worse, understoodโas if to say, โYou want this, right? You know you want this.โ