Dennis Cooper

i felt so sleazy reading this lol

I get what Cooper was going for. I really do

and yet!

Ultimately it was disappointing. the format was not my favorite. the ending was not the best. i enjoyed the gritty gore in theory, but it felt like there was no real means to the end?

idk. sexual gore, sure. body horror, love that. the constant pedophilia thing was a bit much. go write in your journal about how into little boys you are instead of putting it in your book



there were things i did enjoy about this read. i love 2000s forums where people are lying for fun. and i do see deeper messages at play below the surface level style.

also- the P.O. box thing just feels so disjointed from everything else. i know that there are blurred lines, but i wanted some answers with that… (more)

I don't think I can rate this exactly. Everything except the 2nd to last chapter is really good - pretty fucking dark but a serious examination of fucked up fantasies, how we see The Body, male sexuality, the sick way young boys are fetishised, self destructive behaviour and passivity, the start of fetishes and fixations... it's clever and the fucked up ness is used judiciously. Then the 2nd to last chapter is just a long, incredibly graphic description of raping and murdering some boys. I could not do more than skim it after the first couple of pages. Regardless of artistic intent, it's unbearable and sickening. And I Get It! But I never want to read anything like that again, you know? I should have checked going in but I thought I'd at least try one "extreme" work before not reading them. And yeah, it's not for me. If that chapter was excised, at least 3.5 stars. But yeah.… (more)

Cooper writes about the intersection of sex and violence. This novel, mostly told through anonymous message boards provides a slew of unreliable narrators. While Cooper is often labeled as a transgressive writer, I really believe he transcends such labels, and it would be reductionist to say that his novels are transgressive. I find them wrapped in so many layers of honesty that isn't always present in the works of other transgressive writers. Highly recommended unless you have a low tolerance for sadism.… (more)

As much as I wanted to love this book, the narrator is just too much of a monster. In the end, I found him convincing, but too terrifying to relate to. There are no soft edges to grab, and so every encounter with the book made me both disgusted and nauseated. I love the work of Dennis Cooper but I found nothing redemptive, and in the end, the book is both empty of meaning and heart. I'd give the book 3.5 stars if I could, but only because of the incredibly high quality of Cooper's prose. I could only recommend this book to Cooper completists.… (more)