Are You Loathsome Tonight? A Collection of Short Stories

This book is worth getting just for the title story. Self-Made Man stars a sort of Dahmer-esque (gay cannibal) villain who somehow remains touching. You can hear the desperate cry for true connection to another human being that leads to his pathology. It is gory and graphic, but it is a lot more than a gore story. As with a lot of the titles in this collection, and Poppy's writing in general, the characters are emotionally vulnerable and relatable. Depending on how far you are able to extend your empathy and suspension of "real life" morals for fictional tales, you will find something lovable and endearing even in characters who display abysmal behavior.

I've read that this is probably not the best volume of Poppy Z. Brite's work, and while I'm not extensively familiar I can certainly see that being the case. This is a pretty scattershot collection of (I believe) all previously published short stories without much in the way of unifying theme. Oh, the lackluster and frankly confusing introduction by Peter Straub rattles off a few themes he felt the collection focused on, but as far as I'm aware those are over-arching themes of (at a minimum) all of Brite's horror genre work.
I don't wish to mislead though, the writing here as one might expect is amazing. The subject matter, however, my not be to everyone's tastes. That's actually the reason for my relatively low rating compared to show more quality of the writing itself, a lot of the stories were just not what I was looking for.
So one knows what to expect, though this isn't necessarily what turned me off the stories, there is a lot of sexual and sexualized violence. I would classify it as erotica myself in a number of cases, though I don't know that Brite would. For fans, there are some characters recurring from previous stories, which should be a solid hook. I know some readers have been put off by "Self Made Man" being too similar to Dahmer, but the fun Dahmer-meets-Night of the Living dead tale was probably my penultimate pick from from the collection. My favorite story, which came as a surprise to me because I expected it to be much more mundane and less to my liking, was "Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz". A great supernatural spin on early 20th century history, serial killers, and one of America's favorite sweaty noir settings. You've everything here from Armstrong to Cagliostro in a few short pages.
All in all I'd say more of a collection for true fans, rather than for casual readers, although Gauntlet Press does a great job pulling together books. show less

I so want to like Poppy's books. I want to be one of the cool kids. I want to be open-minded. But, this grouping of short stories was way out of my comfort zone. Very graphic and detailed gay sexual encounters that had me wanting to cover my eyes and chant "lalalalalalalalaIcan'thearyou." His [yes, I know Poppy is female looking to US, but, she identifies herself as a gay male and I wanted to honor her preference] writing is wonderful--and the story I really enjoyed was "Mussolini and the Axeman's Jazz." I also enjoy the little looksee authors sometimes give us into the writing of their stories. Poppy prefaces each entry with a little blurb about it.

Five stars for the language and mechanics. Luxurious use of language, writing skills show more can't be questioned.

I admit. I'm just an uptight, old bat who can't handle in-your-face erotica. If you are at ease with detailed sexuality in your reading material, then you will enjoy Poppy's stories. show less

A very enjoyable short story collection. The stories range from the comic revisting of old characters to the more usual horror fare of serial killers and ghosts. Brite's characterisation is as strong as always, and while the blood and gore may not be for everyone the writing is beautful.

Kinky horror you cannot put down and the title just grabbed me.

Great read