You Know You Want This - Kristen Roupenian

Short Stories

Rating: 8/10

The stories that are gathered together in this collection are not, and I cannot stress this enough, for the faint of heart. If you are sensitive to perceived slights or fictional aggression in any way, shape or form; stay away from this book. But if you feel you can handle it you will experience a truly brilliant wielding of words.

These sly stories seep into the shadowy parts of the psyche and find a way to either take root or claw their way back out. They are meant to burrow into the secrets that lie dormant, to pull back the veneer of acceptability and expose the stain of thought.

Games are played; party, head and sex. You are pulled in for a grotesquely twisted take on a fairytale, gleefully told. Characters are edgy, terrible, pathetic and hysterical in turn.

You will not be bored. You will laugh inappropriately.

In the end, it will leave you exhausted.

Footnote: I keep picturing this as a book club choice and wondering what that conversation might be like; raucous, uncomfortable, indignant and who knows what else. And that’s just for one story…