The Sluts

A sickly, brilliant dive into early aughts internet culture and the sex industry, plumbing the depths of commercialized queerness. Cooper is fearless in his form and ruthless in his content, twisting and folding narrative reality in a sharp-confrontation with extreme desire.

The book has two really special features that made me love it.

(1) The whole thing, narration wise, is a series of forum posts and emails. There is no outside narration or dialogue. I had always imagined something like this could be done, like a book built on texts or social media for example, but had thought it was just too difficult to pull off without it being corny and destined to become heavily outdated. The Sluts really pulls it off with grace by not trivializing the medium (not playing it as a joke or ironic or silly), and somehow barely feeling outdated at all, years later.

(2) I loved the way truth and fact were never certainties; instead they were always being distorted and reframed to show entirely new perspectives. I see why show more people say it was Borgesian, but it reminded me most of Italo Calvino’s “If on a winter’s night a traveler…” The book’s plot was essentially a captivating whodunnit without any resolutions, or at least without any resolutions that stood for more than a few pages. It seems like really sharp commentary to present truth and fact conveyed digitally as so inaccessible and unbelievable, whether you’re in extremely niche communities (like the ones in this book) or on the front page of Reddit. It really rings true to my own browsing to never fully feel like I can believe anything I read on the internet. I guess that’s true in real life too, to some extent.

Anyways yes I am comfortably giving this 5 stars. The only thing I have to say is that it is extremely graphic and gory, highly disturbing content. Probably American Psycho or Less Than Zero level or slightly worse.

Thanks to Angie Dutton, who I do not actually know but is my friend on this app, who either recommended the book to me or left a review that convinced me to read it. show less

I saw this book on LT. I was intrigued by the extreme nature of the topics. They were extreme and may be offensive to those who don't read in the genre.

The story is told in an epistolary style: a series of emails, though there is a section that could be a chat. The premise is that men are writing in to a web site to rate their dates with male escorts. I don't know if the web sites for men actually exist, but I saw a documentary on high end female sex workers, and they do actually exist for them.

When they write in they use a screen name so its never clear who is who, and some comments could be from the same person using multiple names. The stories could be true, fantasies or complete lies.

The stories about one escort fuel the board, show more and he becomes the topic of conversation and speculation. Those in California try to 'date' him. The webmaster often steps in to referee, and point out what is true and what isn't. Then dueling customers post different reports and start calling others' reports lies. Everyone in the book is an unreliable narrator. The story follows the escort through real life events, there is a possible murder and investigation, but even that may not be true. One of the 'Customers' hooks up with the escort and begins offering his services, and there are reports that the escort is an impostor. The customer also becomes a topic of speculation.

The book is like a giant game of telephone, except some are deliberately lying. The motivations are never clear, and there are even people who post 'honest retractions' but its not clear if those are any more honest than the 'lies'.

The book looks at the group dynamics of a small number of people who are in a forum that allows them to expand and fuel their sexual fantasies. Some of the fantasies are sick, evil and even illegal. It is to be hoped that people who express their fantasies are not acting on them, and not engendering them in those who had no idea they existed before reading about them. It is interesting, a bit sad, and often gross. show less

Very clever structure, basically reviews and experiences you would find in an escort forum, or subreddit, or a chatroom, but better thought out and sorted out sentences with better grammar. If it was literally like a reddit post it would be unreadable. Filled with unreliable narrators and revolting and sad experiences. Like:

[I'm and evil, W, 30s, sadistic, violent, wealthy pedophile type seeking cute young victim. Name your price. Box 157]
[Box 157, I'll be at the ArcoStation in West Hollywood, corner of Fairfax and Sunset, 2 am, Friday Aug 23. Anonymous]
-Felix. Wake up. Say hello to Brian.
-What?
-Here. I'll put the covers off. Nice, right?
-Very nice.
-Someone's here to see you. Say hello.
-Hello? Hi.
-Get out of bed, Felix.
-Okay. Dad?
-He show more looks so young.
-It's the pajamas.
-Dad, can I lie down?
-No, you can't. Take your jammys off.
-I was asleep.
-Take your jammys off. Felix. I'm not kidding.
-Okay.
-Not down, off. All the way off.
-God, he's adorable.
-So you're satisfied.
-Yeah, very. But...
-Dad?
-Just a second, Felix.
-He seems sort of... I don't know.
-Spaced out.
-Yeah, he just seems sort of... I don't know.
-He had an accident. He has a proble.
-Dad?
-He drowned two years ago. They revived him, but he was dead too long. He used to be a reallt active kid. Soccer, little league, cub scout, actor. He was in a couple of TV commercials.
-Oh, that's it. Right. That's where a I saw him.
-You saw them.
-I just saw one maybe last week.
-Jif Peanut Butter.
-Yeah, exactly. I knew he looked familiar.
-There's a website about him. I don't know if you've seen that. Some pedophile put it together. Actually I put it up. That's a secret, though. It gets a lot of hits. Mostly fags, but a few girls. They're obsessed with him.
-Yeah, I always noticed those commercials.
-He got offered a series, a Disney film, a couple of other things. But it was too late.
-He can't do it?
-No way. Look in his eyes.
-Yeah,
-Not much there.
-They're beautiful eyes.
-He looks kind of soulful, doesn't he? Guys say that.
-Yeah.
-He's not. Or maybe he is, who knows?
-He's really something.
-So I'm thinking two-five.
-Twenty five thounsand?
-Yeah.
-Dad?
-You're joking. That's an insane amount of money.
-Look, take as long as you want. Charge your friends to fuck him. Make pornos with him. I don't care.
-Dad?
-Look, I had to quit my job to be his fucking nurse. He can't eat or take a shit by himself. He can't walk by himself. I'm in debt. I'm totally exhausted.
-I'll give you fifteen.
-Twenty's the lowest I'm going to go. What, Felix?
-Can I sit down?
-All right, twenty.
-But you have to do it here, tonight.
-Here?
-Dad?
-You can sit down in a minute, Felix.
-Fuck that.
-And I get to beat the crap out of him first.
-Look, I want to take some time on this. He's and amazing kid. There's a lot I want to do.
-Then it's twenty-five.
-Look... Okay, fine.
-Good. Felix?
-Yeah?
-Get dressed.
-No, don't. He's great like this.
-Dad?
-Do what he says, Felix.
-Give me your hand.
-Okay, dad?
-Later, Felix.
-Okay. Bye.

If you're intrigued by this and want to read the book, go ahead, but it gets worse. show less

The time I read this book was quite haunted, only adding to the general content of the book. I had quit my job and spent most of my savings flying out to California because a friend had told me he 100% had work lined up for me trimming weed. We met up in LA and before heading north to the emerald triangle we went to his friends house. It turned out to be some one I have many mutuals with through Chicago. A total anarcho worm. Any ways she gave us both adderall and cbd and all that good stuff, but soon my friend and she went to their room to hook up while I had to just chill and go to sleep on the couch in the living room. She recommend I read this book, so I read the whole thing that night while the two continued to bang loudly in the show more room over. I don't often read books in one setting, but I also rarely take adderall. Also it was the night before my birthday and I told no one. The story itself? Well it deserves applause for it's unique structure consisting of forum posts from a wide arrange of people. A mixture of speculation, fabrication and truth. A faulty narrative in which you have to decide what is true and what not, all the while filled with quite perverse subject matter. All in all a dirty hoot. show less

if Borges took on Rashomon, but instead of the action happening in a grove, it went down on a message board dedicated to reviewing homosexual escorts

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 show more some answers with that show less