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tellsbooks's review against another edition
4.0
There was something in these stories that I really loved. I think it was just the complete absurdity of some of it. Everyone looking for something or grappling with some unspoken element of themselves that they just can't deny, no matter how much they'd like to. A perfect example of the aforementioned sentiment would be the longest story in this book - The Good Guy. This guy is trying to make sure he's remembered as a "good guy" by women he's dated, even though he is in fact, a terrible person.
I liken some of You Know You Want This to a sort of dark Seinfeldian experience, sans the overt comedy of it all. Bad Boy was such a fucked up yet sexually charged story; I felt myself get hot and bothered and then was disgusted as well. That kind of throughline existed in all the stories, this pent up or repressed or casually trotted out mania in relation to sexual situations. It felt akin to So Sad Today by Melissa Broder.
I had read Cat Person when it came out in the New Yorker a while back and I loved it, so that's what drew me to the book. Death Wish was super fucked up and I found myself reading the story and having my eyes bulge out my head at its ludicrousness.
Something about these stories gave me an excited, butterflies in the stomach, type of feeling. It's that feeling where you don't know if you're excited or if you're going to be sick. I wonder if that means I'm a little fucked up too. I doubt it though, because, real talk - the depravity in some of these stories was sometimes the thing that mildly soured them for me. As well written as it all was; the palpable, often insidious lack of what I like to call "CHD" aka common human decency, gave this book an on-the-brink of sour, sick yet satisfied, kind of feeling.
I primarily enjoyed it immensely, but there were moments!
I liken some of You Know You Want This to a sort of dark Seinfeldian experience, sans the overt comedy of it all. Bad Boy was such a fucked up yet sexually charged story; I felt myself get hot and bothered and then was disgusted as well. That kind of throughline existed in all the stories, this pent up or repressed or casually trotted out mania in relation to sexual situations. It felt akin to So Sad Today by Melissa Broder.
I had read Cat Person when it came out in the New Yorker a while back and I loved it, so that's what drew me to the book. Death Wish was super fucked up and I found myself reading the story and having my eyes bulge out my head at its ludicrousness.
Something about these stories gave me an excited, butterflies in the stomach, type of feeling. It's that feeling where you don't know if you're excited or if you're going to be sick. I wonder if that means I'm a little fucked up too. I doubt it though, because, real talk - the depravity in some of these stories was sometimes the thing that mildly soured them for me. As well written as it all was; the palpable, often insidious lack of what I like to call "CHD" aka common human decency, gave this book an on-the-brink of sour, sick yet satisfied, kind of feeling.
I primarily enjoyed it immensely, but there were moments!
victorialb's review against another edition
3.0
Not all of these stories rise to the funny and sharp level of Cat Person, but quite a few of them, especially towards the end of the book, do.
erickibler4's review against another edition
4.0
Unsettling stories about relationships, love, lust, and kinkiness.
Some of these stories would be classed as horror, but Roupenians psychological insight is scary in and of itself. She totally gets the way men and women protect their egos while at the same time try to get what they desire. She makes dating and relationships seem so fraught with pitfalls, cues, red flags, and deceptions that maybe we shouldn't even bother.
Disturbing stuff, because her characters' thought and motivations seem believable. But when you close the covers of the book you can go back to the world where relationships aren't nearly as bad as what Roupenian portrays.
Some of these stories would be classed as horror, but Roupenians psychological insight is scary in and of itself. She totally gets the way men and women protect their egos while at the same time try to get what they desire. She makes dating and relationships seem so fraught with pitfalls, cues, red flags, and deceptions that maybe we shouldn't even bother.
Disturbing stuff, because her characters' thought and motivations seem believable. But when you close the covers of the book you can go back to the world where relationships aren't nearly as bad as what Roupenian portrays.
micheleamar's review against another edition
3.0
Overall Rating: ✭✭✭½
Something I've seen people say about this collection is that it portrayed sex as something unenjoyable—the sex scenes weren't thrilling, weren't exciting, were almost disgusting—besties, that's kind of the point. This isn't a collection of erotic stories meant to be exciting, it's supposed to show the darker parts of human sexuality and the ways we find ourselves both disgusted and unable to look away. If you're trying to read erotic novels, I can point you in a better direction than this book, because that's not what it's meant to be, and if you're giving it a low rating because you didn't properly read what it was about before diving right in, I can't stop you. This, instead is a short story collection that dissects the power dynamics of sex, gender roles, sexuality, relationships, friendships, and obsession. Some of the stories were hits, some were huge misses, but so it goes for short story collections—I've yet to read one in which I enjoyed every single story it offered.
Bad Boy: ✭✭✭✭½
I loved this one, I think it was such a strong start to this collection. I loved the psychological implications of this story. It relentlessly tore its way under my skin and refused to leave. It both made me excited to continue reading and made me want to stop for the rest of the night because I needed to tear apart every word and find the meaning.
Look At Your Game, Girl: ✭✭✭½
I actually really liked this one?? It wasn't a standout, but it did feel very..."short story-esque". It felt complete in its whole narrative, and it was a pretty average story.
Sardines: ✭✭
Found it a little boring, a little less than "eh".
The Night Runner: ✭✭
This one was a bit pointless to me? I found it rather uninteresting and was kind of just waiting for it to be over.
The Mirror, The Bucket, and The Old Thigh Bone: ✭✭✭✭½
I LOVED this story! I was enamored with the way it turned on its head, truly—when we were first introduced to the princess, I had an image of your stereotypical "beautiful caged princess" in my head. I think the simplicity of the writing is so compellingly jarring against the backdrop of the events that take place, and I loved it.
Cat Person: ✭✭✭✭½
We all know this story—it's probably how the majority of people found their way to this collection and read it in the first place. I'm no exception. I love this story and so do a lot of people, so I'll leave you with this to explain just why I love it: "...she thought, brightly, This is the worst life decision I have ever made! And she marveled at herself for a while, at the mystery of this person who’d just done this bizarre, inexplicable thing."
Good Guy: ✭✭✭
Found it entertaining, but at this point I had already discovered that my favorites of this collection were turning out to be the ones that were the most psychologically intense, the ones where Roupenian dug into the back of my mind and showed me bits of inner monologue that I hadn't realized I myself had thought before. It did do that in a way for the narrator of this story, but it wasn't my inner monologue—it was a man who I didn't relate to, and I didn't find any of the women he was entangled with all that interesting separate from their story to his. So, while it was entertaining, it was also resoundingly average.
The Boy In The Pool: ✭✭✭
This one was also entertaining, and it did bring out that psychosexual sort of intensity that I was beginning to enjoy in these stories, but the meaning of the story itself sort of got lost for me, so this also ended up being rather average for me.
Scarred: ✭✭✭½
I really liked this one! I wish it had gone a bit more in-depth, as I probably would have latched on to this story more than I did, because the concept alone was enough to enthrall me. That being said, it did feel a bit detached from the story itself. The ending, though. The ending!!
The Matchbox Sign: ✭✭✭✭✭
Obsessed, loved it, probably my favorite story from the entire collection. It was originally 4.5 stars, but I bumped it up to 5 when I realized how deep it had gotten under my skin. That's usually how my 5 star reads come about: I read them, I love them, I can't stop thinking about them, I realize that it's a nearly perfect story. At times, the narration felt a bit too on the nose but that didn't take away the enjoyment of the story as a whole. I loved the scene in the doctor's office, a mere moment where the girlfriend is speaking about her symptoms and all it takes is one single comment, almost minuscule, from the boyfriend (our narrator) to nullify what she's said and almost simplify her, in the eyes of the doctor, into a "paranoid woman". I think we all could have seen the ending coming from the way the story was progressing, but that isn't something that takes away my love for a story; in fact, it enhances it.
Death Wish: ✭✭✭
This story exists completely and wholly separate, on its own. I mean that in the sense that this story is told from the point of a view of a man who meets a woman, and something happens during their first and only meeting. Because we are only in the head of our narrator, we never find out what the consequences of this meeting are. I think that I'm not alone in saying that we, as the readers, are more invested in the woman this man meets, so we have a lot of questions at the end, just like he does. Perhaps that's the point. The main focus of this story is someone we never see again because all we get is one story that takes place in one single scene and then it's over. There is no impact that we can see, but we clearly understand from the narrator's own words that he's still filled with questions, as are we. It was good.
Biter: ✭✭✭½
Took me surprise and I liked it a lot! I think we might have spent a bit too much on the buildup and not enough on the actual climax/ending of the story, but it was alright. I was surprised by the turn the story took, so it was above average, and I did love the closing passage.
Something I've seen people say about this collection is that it portrayed sex as something unenjoyable—the sex scenes weren't thrilling, weren't exciting, were almost disgusting—besties, that's kind of the point. This isn't a collection of erotic stories meant to be exciting, it's supposed to show the darker parts of human sexuality and the ways we find ourselves both disgusted and unable to look away. If you're trying to read erotic novels, I can point you in a better direction than this book, because that's not what it's meant to be, and if you're giving it a low rating because you didn't properly read what it was about before diving right in, I can't stop you. This, instead is a short story collection that dissects the power dynamics of sex, gender roles, sexuality, relationships, friendships, and obsession. Some of the stories were hits, some were huge misses, but so it goes for short story collections—I've yet to read one in which I enjoyed every single story it offered.
Bad Boy: ✭✭✭✭½
I loved this one, I think it was such a strong start to this collection. I loved the psychological implications of this story. It relentlessly tore its way under my skin and refused to leave. It both made me excited to continue reading and made me want to stop for the rest of the night because I needed to tear apart every word and find the meaning.
Look At Your Game, Girl: ✭✭✭½
I actually really liked this one?? It wasn't a standout, but it did feel very..."short story-esque". It felt complete in its whole narrative, and it was a pretty average story.
Sardines: ✭✭
Found it a little boring, a little less than "eh".
The Night Runner: ✭✭
This one was a bit pointless to me? I found it rather uninteresting and was kind of just waiting for it to be over.
The Mirror, The Bucket, and The Old Thigh Bone: ✭✭✭✭½
I LOVED this story! I was enamored with the way it turned on its head, truly—when we were first introduced to the princess, I had an image of your stereotypical "beautiful caged princess" in my head.
Spoiler
By the end of the story, I was caught so off guard with her selfishness, with her monstrosity, with her wretchedness.Cat Person: ✭✭✭✭½
We all know this story—it's probably how the majority of people found their way to this collection and read it in the first place. I'm no exception. I love this story and so do a lot of people, so I'll leave you with this to explain just why I love it: "...she thought, brightly, This is the worst life decision I have ever made! And she marveled at herself for a while, at the mystery of this person who’d just done this bizarre, inexplicable thing."
Good Guy: ✭✭✭
Found it entertaining, but at this point I had already discovered that my favorites of this collection were turning out to be the ones that were the most psychologically intense, the ones where Roupenian dug into the back of my mind and showed me bits of inner monologue that I hadn't realized I myself had thought before. It did do that in a way for the narrator of this story, but it wasn't my inner monologue—it was a man who I didn't relate to, and I didn't find any of the women he was entangled with all that interesting separate from their story to his. So, while it was entertaining, it was also resoundingly average.
The Boy In The Pool: ✭✭✭
This one was also entertaining, and it did bring out that psychosexual sort of intensity that I was beginning to enjoy in these stories, but the meaning of the story itself sort of got lost for me, so this also ended up being rather average for me.
Scarred: ✭✭✭½
I really liked this one! I wish it had gone a bit more in-depth, as I probably would have latched on to this story more than I did, because the concept alone was enough to enthrall me. That being said, it did feel a bit detached from the story itself. The ending, though. The ending!!
The Matchbox Sign: ✭✭✭✭✭
Obsessed, loved it, probably my favorite story from the entire collection. It was originally 4.5 stars, but I bumped it up to 5 when I realized how deep it had gotten under my skin. That's usually how my 5 star reads come about: I read them, I love them, I can't stop thinking about them, I realize that it's a nearly perfect story. At times, the narration felt a bit too on the nose but that didn't take away the enjoyment of the story as a whole. I loved the scene in the doctor's office, a mere moment where the girlfriend is speaking about her symptoms and all it takes is one single comment, almost minuscule, from the boyfriend (our narrator) to nullify what she's said and almost simplify her, in the eyes of the doctor, into a "paranoid woman". I think we all could have seen the ending coming from the way the story was progressing, but that isn't something that takes away my love for a story; in fact, it enhances it.
Death Wish: ✭✭✭
This story exists completely and wholly separate, on its own. I mean that in the sense that this story is told from the point of a view of a man who meets a woman, and something happens during their first and only meeting. Because we are only in the head of our narrator, we never find out what the consequences of this meeting are. I think that I'm not alone in saying that we, as the readers, are more invested in the woman this man meets, so we have a lot of questions at the end, just like he does. Perhaps that's the point. The main focus of this story is someone we never see again because all we get is one story that takes place in one single scene and then it's over. There is no impact that we can see, but we clearly understand from the narrator's own words that he's still filled with questions, as are we. It was good.
Biter: ✭✭✭½
Took me surprise and I liked it a lot! I think we might have spent a bit too much on the buildup and not enough on the actual climax/ending of the story, but it was alright. I was surprised by the turn the story took, so it was above average, and I did love the closing passage.
beeeeonka's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
zellreads's review against another edition
5.0
Delightfully weird and disturbing. I wasn't expecting body horror from this but it was so well done! A great mix of just weird vibes and graphic descriptions. I loved every single story.
elisabethstre's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
dieses buch hat mich jetzt ein halbes jahr lang regelmäßig begleitet.
manche geschichten fand ich etwas zu pretentious, andere fand ich GENIAL!!! auf jeden fall war ich bei jeder story aufs neue HOOKED und konnte das buch gar nicht weglegen, bis ich sie beendet hatte. jede story war mega geschrieben; bei manchen fehlte mir nur ein banger ende!
CAT PERSON ist natürlich ein realistischer banger gewesen, den ja auch sooo viele schon gelesen haben. „the mirror, the bucket and the old thigh bone“ war eine meiner favorites, so eine geile parabel mit so einem lustigen plot twist. „scarred“ und „the biter“ mochte ich beide auch so gerne!! die 4 sind für mich 5 stars short stories; die anderen haben manchmal bisschen gehinkt, waren aber trotzdem richtig gut.
alles in allem aber so eine geile auseinandersetzung mit relationships, sex, dem leben an sich sowie seinen tiefsten abgründen, alles so brutal und verstörend, manchmal ganz schön ekelhaft geschrieben. die fantasy & bodyhorror aspekte habe ich nicht erwartet, waren aber passend eingebaut und haben mich gut geschockt.
manche geschichten fand ich etwas zu pretentious, andere fand ich GENIAL!!! auf jeden fall war ich bei jeder story aufs neue HOOKED und konnte das buch gar nicht weglegen, bis ich sie beendet hatte. jede story war mega geschrieben; bei manchen fehlte mir nur ein banger ende!
CAT PERSON ist natürlich ein realistischer banger gewesen, den ja auch sooo viele schon gelesen haben. „the mirror, the bucket and the old thigh bone“ war eine meiner favorites, so eine geile parabel mit so einem lustigen plot twist. „scarred“ und „the biter“ mochte ich beide auch so gerne!! die 4 sind für mich 5 stars short stories; die anderen haben manchmal bisschen gehinkt, waren aber trotzdem richtig gut.
alles in allem aber so eine geile auseinandersetzung mit relationships, sex, dem leben an sich sowie seinen tiefsten abgründen, alles so brutal und verstörend, manchmal ganz schön ekelhaft geschrieben. die fantasy & bodyhorror aspekte habe ich nicht erwartet, waren aber passend eingebaut und haben mich gut geschockt.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Cannibalism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
shirley098's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A dark, twisted collection of short stories, with main character's whose flaws and desires are front and center from the get-go. Touches upon the various unspoken situations that women tend to come up against, from being groomed, to the fear of offending and retaliation during dating, and desires of vengeance upon a cheating spouse.
Ones that stood out to me:
Sardines:
About an intense game of sardines, "mean" birthday wishes, and the desire for revenge.
Marla is nursing her grievance along with her Merlot. She can feel it scratching at her, her anger, wedged in the space where the two halves of her ribcage meet.
Cat Person: About a confusing, lukewarm courtship, full of misunderstandings and fears of offending triggering something worse.
When he saw her face crumple, a kind of magic happened. All the tension drained of his posture; he stood up straight and wrapped his bearlike arms around her. She let herself be folded against him, and she was flooded with the same feeling she'd had outside 7-Eleven; that she was a delicate, precious thing he was afraid he might break.
The Mirror, the Bucket, and the Old Thigh Bone: A fairytale fable about selfish desires and how helping to indulge them may cause more harm than good.
Scarred: About a woman whose conjured up a lover, and the choice between that love and all other wants.
The Boy in the Pool: About a trio of friends, the tense relationships between them, and feelings of unrequited love and regret. Oh, and a cute actor from a childhood sleepover they once saw.
Biter: About a woman who loves to bite people, and her attempts to reign it in at work, until one day she finds a person that deserves to be bitten.
The difference between children and adults is that adults understand the consequences of their actions, and Ellie, as an adult, understood that if she wanted to pay her rent and keep her health insurance, she could not run around biting people at work.
What on earth had the people at the temp agency been thinking, sending him? Green-eyed, pink-cheeked Corey Allen did not belong in an office environment. Corey Allen, like a fan or a satyr, belonged in a sunlit field surrounded by happy naked nymphs, making love and drinking wine.
As Michelle in Accounting put it, Corey Allen have off the impression that he night, at any second, decide to quit being an office manager and run off to live in a tree.
Ones that stood out to me:
Sardines:
About an intense game of sardines, "mean" birthday wishes, and the desire for revenge.
Marla is nursing her grievance along with her Merlot. She can feel it scratching at her, her anger, wedged in the space where the two halves of her ribcage meet.
Cat Person: About a confusing, lukewarm courtship, full of misunderstandings and fears of offending triggering something worse.
When he saw her face crumple, a kind of magic happened. All the tension drained of his posture; he stood up straight and wrapped his bearlike arms around her. She let herself be folded against him, and she was flooded with the same feeling she'd had outside 7-Eleven; that she was a delicate, precious thing he was afraid he might break.
The Mirror, the Bucket, and the Old Thigh Bone: A fairytale fable about selfish desires and how helping to indulge them may cause more harm than good.
Scarred: About a woman whose conjured up a lover, and the choice between that love and all other wants.
The Boy in the Pool: About a trio of friends, the tense relationships between them, and feelings of unrequited love and regret. Oh, and a cute actor from a childhood sleepover they once saw.
Biter: About a woman who loves to bite people, and her attempts to reign it in at work, until one day she finds a person that deserves to be bitten.
The difference between children and adults is that adults understand the consequences of their actions, and Ellie, as an adult, understood that if she wanted to pay her rent and keep her health insurance, she could not run around biting people at work.
What on earth had the people at the temp agency been thinking, sending him? Green-eyed, pink-cheeked Corey Allen did not belong in an office environment. Corey Allen, like a fan or a satyr, belonged in a sunlit field surrounded by happy naked nymphs, making love and drinking wine.
As Michelle in Accounting put it, Corey Allen have off the impression that he night, at any second, decide to quit being an office manager and run off to live in a tree.