Most Disturbing Books: Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- Subscribe and turn on notifications for a new video every day at 5pm UK time, noon Eastern, 9am Pacific
___
Join my Discord to chat books and stuff: / discord
___
Currently accepting crime, pulp and horror books for review. Email CriminOlly (at) gmail.com
___
If you'd like to support the channel you can donate via Ko-Fi or buy me a book from my Amazon wishlist.
Ko-FI: ko-fi.com/crim...
Amazon: www.amazon.co....
___
Music: Who's Afraid of Halloween by Alfred Grupstra from Pixabay
I just read it, this is one of those books and characters that's gonna stick with me for a very long time.
Tran is a character I can unfortunately relate to alot. and there was only one thing I wanted from the plot which was to not have him die. I loved that you used the word "inevitable" to describe this book because that's what it seemed to be. Tran's death, no matter how much I didn't want it to happen, was inevitable. the last paragraphs describing what he's thinking as he realizes he's gonna die. thinking about his dad and thinking that Jay and Arthur/Andrew are his final destination. it's truly heartbreaking.
i found the book less distrubing and more just sad. i genuinely cried at the end of this book.
it's also ironic how Luke wanted to save Tran in the end. But it was also his fault that he died, his dominos that lead to this outcome. Luke groomed a 19 year old virgin Tran, taught him to like rougher and humiliating sex. He was shown to have been violent and controlling of Tran, especially after the diagnosis. This developed into Tran seeking out other dangerous and violent men. We see this from an outsider perspective, of Soren's specifically. Soren describes Jay as a creep. Tran cannot seem to accept that, even tho he himself had noticed things being not normal in Jay's house (bag of hair, super clean bathroom and kitchen). Had Luke been kinder to Tran or just not been with Tran in the first place, if he hasn't groomed him into being sumbissive, Tran could have perhaps seen the red flags in Jay and not gone to the house that night.
Interesting
Brite was instrumental to my desire to broaden my scope as a reader. Up until finding Lost Souls, I stuck to King, Straub and more accessible writers. Brite showed me that there was so much more to the genre and I've always owed a debt to him for that.
That's brilliant. I think Clive Barker was probably my equivalent
Ohhhhh my goodness, I literally just finished this book last night and I came running on here to see if you did a review of it. I’m a little worried about myself because of how much I enjoyed this book, and I really found it hard to put down. Yes Andrew and Jay are truly reprehensible but as a reader I was intensely interested in them and couldn’t wait to see what happened next. As a child of the 80s and 90s, I vividly remember AIDS as one of the most terrifying things that could happen to someone, so that was a fascinating backdrop and definitely added to the nihilism here. I so thoroughly enjoyed Andrew especially though, he was so darkly funny at times and completely fascinating. Im glad I am not the only one wondering why this was so fascinating to me 😂
Ha! Really glad you enjoyed it so much! Yeah it really is a fascinating and beguiling book. Horrible, and yet impossible to look away from
All I’ve read by Poppy Z Bright was a collection of short stories, but Lord did it leave a mark! An expert at twisted storytelling.
I'll have to check that out!
@@CriminOllyBlog doubled checked and it’s a collection called ‘Are You Loathsome Tonight?’. Definitely give it a go if you can find time!
You taught me something. I thought Poppy was a woman. I googled him during the video and learned otherwise.
Poppy has successfully and wonderfully transitioned to a masculine self. He is still creating art and living life.
She is a woman.
She is a woman
She is a woman ?
I think you should check out Poppy's short story collection Swamp Fetus, I think it may be published under a different title now, it has a great story for cat lovers if I remember correctly. Exquisite Corpse and Zombie were two titles I wrote my English dissertation on, the other was Red Dragon. Poppy's later books involving two gay cooks in New Orleans are also worth reading, Liquor is the first in the series
Oh that's a great trio of bools for a dissertation! I definitely want to read more Poppy after this. Thanks for watching and commenting and sorry it has taken me so long to reply.
I’m so glad you liked this! I loved it when I read it earlier this year and it quickly catapulted to a fave. But yeah…it’s a bit hard to describe why I loved it so much.
It definitely has a quality that few books possess
I read Exquisite Corpse not long after it came out, and having read Poppys other books I was kinda prepared for it, but it still hit. The fact I remember so much of it after all this time that I was able to follow your review and know exactly what you were refering to in the novel, I think speaks to the quality and impact of the book. Great review.
Thank you! Really glad you enjoyed the review. Thanks for watching and commenting and sorry it has taken me so long to reply.
There isn't much I can add that I haven't said time and time again and that you didn't cover wonderfully in this video. Suffice to say that I 100% agree with all of your points. This is a book that means a lot to me because I read it when I was in my early 20s, and I'd never encountered anything like it before. So violent and cruel and nihilistic, but also with moments of poetic beauty and eroticism, and that was so very, very gay. I didn't even know books like this were possible, lol. It really kind of blew my head open. Brite's prose is sumptuous and, as you said, incredibly readable. I hope you dig into more of his bibliography. :) I highly recommend Lost Souls and Drawing Blood, as well as his short story collection Wormwood, aka Swamp Foetus.
Thanks Jesse - I definitely need to read more of his work
I, too, was in my early 20s when I first encountered Exquisite Corpse and they were such a revelation to me! I need to check out Brite's short story collection you mentioned (BTW, thank you for using his correct pronouns, really appreciate it).
i flew through this book, i loved it so much. i don’t find much of it disturbing as much as upsetting, like you can feel the anxiety of the time. i think because of the pace i read through it, it was such an emotional whirlwind that i cried at the end (not much of a crier). i absolutely loved Tran too, Tran deserved better!
I know! Poor Tran!
Lopez Karen Davis Daniel Robinson Kimberly
Anderson Sarah Hall Christopher Walker Sandra
Legit one of my favourite novels. I read it as a teenager and wasn’t prepared for it, but it made such a deep impression. If you dug this, maybe try Frisk by Dennis Cooper, his style is more experimental than Poppy but deals with similar themes and ideas. (Plus the prose is superb)
Frisk was an insane read. I'd love for him to review some Dennis Cooper.
I haven't read any Cooper yet, but definitely need to
@@CriminOllyBlog I just finished one of your recommendations, "Night Film" by Marisha Pessl. I loved it. It had a great noir / giallo vibe to it that kept me guessing throughout the entire novel. At first I was disappointed by the "twist," but the more I think about it, the more it resonates with me. Does the end suggest that there is more than one way to La Pincoya Negro? There are unanswered questions, which makes "Night Film" even better. Great recommendation, Olly! Love your channel.
@@db8658 Really glad you enjoyed it. Definitely agree it has a giallo vibe!
I went into this book back in the late 90's when I was into my Anne Rice phase thinking: "Horror in New Orleans, this must be like Anne Rice!"
I was wrong about that...
Brite (Billy Martin) has been threatening a new book for years, but I am hopeful. It's meant to be a non fiction analysis of spirituality in Stephen King, which sounds interesting.
Check out Drawing Blood and Lost Souls...but be warned they are very early 90's goth, especially the later.
If he ever releases it, I am down to hear Martin's thoughts on King and Spirituality. From what I have gathered he is not a believer in an organized religion but has his own sense of the divine which comes across in his books.
Though I would l just want to read something from Martin.
@@cmmosher8035 Same.
I think I tried Lost Souls when it came out and din't get on with it, but definitely keen to revisit it now
@@CriminOllyBlog It is very much of it's time and pretty dated, but worth a revisit.
I highly recommend reading If You Tell by Gregg Olsen. This is actually a true crime book, but the book has statements and quotes from the main perpetrators' children, so it feels like the reader is with the victims the whole way. This is a page turner. This book is about Shelly Knotek who abused and manipulated her whole family including her 3 children. The three girls all have different fathers, but eventually live with Dave Knotek as their stepfather. Very disturbing. 5/5
I have it on my to read list, getting definitely more and more interested as I learn more about it!
@@AsFlowingWater Absolutely read it. This was only the 2nd true crime book I read, but it's up there in my all time favorites.
Really good reporting on such a gruesome story. Generally quality true crime from this writer, unlike some.
That does sounds interesting, thanks for the recommendation!
I absolutely ADORE this book and this review puts a lot of what I love about it into perspective! Really glad I found your channel as I too am a fan of disturbing books (though I am far less eloquent 😅) Have you read Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry? If not, I definitely recommend it.
Thank you! And sorry it has taken me so long to reply!
Saving Noah sounds interesting - just read the blurb and I have added to my long term list!
This book is a monument of horror littérature ! One of the best American writer alive 😊
Yeah it is great
Glad you enjoyed this, Olly. It's certainly an absorbing read, and the first person narrative is particularly chilling. Wonderfully written; it's almost like observing someone stepping on to a motorway and not being able to look away, even though you know it'll end badly.
That's a great description of it! Thanks for watching and commenting and sorry it has taken me so long to reply.
When Brite started getting a lot of attention on BookTube recently I did the Publisher's Weekly check. Contemporaneous reactions always interest me. Brite was described as "Gen X's answer to Anne Rice" which makes me think whoever came up with the description had never read Brite and only the biography.
If he's X's answer, you'd have to wonder just what the Boomer question was. :)
Yeah, quite possibly! Also shows how bad the industry was at dealing with female horror authors back then, all they could do was compare Brite to the only other one they could think of
@@CriminOllyBlog Gen X's answer to Elizabeth Bathory! 👍🏼
I don’t think Billy would give a sh@t.
Exquisite Corpse was my first Brite, which I plucked off a shelf in the library back in the late nineties. I was quick to go on and read Lost Souls and Drawing Blood, as well as the short story collections from around the time. Swamp Foetus and Self-Made Man. I think there was another. While I liked Exquisite Corpse a great deal, I hadn't long read Don Davis's 'The Milwaukee Murders', a true crime book on Jeffrey Dahmer who, along with, as you say, Nilsen, was clearly a model for the American killer. I think my only true disappointment was that the scene with Tran, the Vietnamese kid, was almost a verbatim account of what happened between Dahmer, Konerak Sinthasomphone, and the police, that I felt it lacked imagination regardless of the way it was told. But years later, on reflection, that it should have happened at all, real life echoed in fiction, is disturbing whichever may you experience it - with fore knowledge or purely as a dark entertainment.
Yes that scene really did echo the Dahmer case. Chilling stuff for sure.
I always presumed Poppy Z. Brite was a female. I never even considered a name like "Poppy" being a male ... but now I see in the context of this novel ... the guy is gay as Christmas. Duhh!!
My understanding is that Poppy was Poppy when most of the books were published but is now a trans man and goes by the name Billy Martin
@@CriminOllyBlog had no idea. Thanks for that info!
Exquisite Corpse is the only book I've ever unintentional DNFed. I put it down because I needed a breather and I just never picked it back up. I've read Lost Souls so I thought I knew what I was getting into but nope. This video has given me the push to try to reread and finish it this time.
Hope you enjoy it!
Samuel L. Jackson kept buying the movie option for years. Like a decade, but I can't see how you could film without watering it down.
Really? Yeah it’s hard to see how you could maintain the impact without it being super graphic
Still one of the mooost grisly books Ive ever read.
Yeah it is hard going
This was a book club pick this past year ... it's something 😂
It really is!
This has always been my favourite American book of the C20th. It’s so perfectly written. The writer is better than Bukowski and that’s saying a lot.
I’ll have to wait until my Read What You Challenge is over. I think I read story by Brite in the 90s, but I remember nothing about it.
I'm having to say that about a lot of books!
Billy Martin is one of my most favourite humans in the world. I’m so glad people are still talking about this book. It is literary perfection.
1st time I heard of a book that changes from 1st 2 3rd person. Odd!
I think my Poppy Z. Brite days are behind me, but yay for the Holes shoutout! Holes is a very fun read-aloud book if you have kids.
It's such a fun and charming book! (Holes not Exquisite Corpse)
Read this twenty years ago. It's a multi way romance. Some willing, some not. Lolz
One of the best books i read.disturbing but fking amazing
No one every mentions Alfred Chester's "Exquisite Corpse". Kick-ass book.
I don't know that one!
@@CriminOllyBlog It's a doozy!
if you don't want to be disturbed or deal with violent gay literature,dont read it. very sick by the end when you get to the nitty gritty details.
I've only read Are You Loathsome Tonight which I found was a mixed bag. There was one story re imagining the tale of Jeffrey Dahmer that was seriously horrific and disgustingly entertaining. I will definitely look out for Exquisite corpse. I own Drawing Blood but have heard too many negative reviews for it to be on my tbr.
I definitely want to read more PZB after this, but may start with something other than those two. Thanks Cliff and thanks for watching and commenting and sorry it has taken me so long to reply.
@@CriminOllyBlog No worries Olly! Have a Merry Christmas and take care. Look out for my channel launch soon!
Will do!
Am I the only one who absolutely hated this book?? 😭😭😭
I think so.
Excellent review! Not one I have but I will read it someday.
Cheers Michael!
Thanks!
Hey! Thank you so much! Very kind of you 😊
Oh okay then! You've convinced me to give this one a read too! You really must stop stop doing that Olly. My Kindle is already bordering on being full, but you just keep selling me on adding more to the darn thing! (I'm starting to think you might be a secret plant working for Amazon, because with the oh-too-easy ability to buy something with a simple one-click-purchase, your reviews make my contribution to the ever-increasing dominance of the formerly Bezosantine empire, greater by the week. You are a terrible influence on me sir...but a brilliant installation by the retail giant, lol!)
hahahah sorry not sorry!
*rolls around in all the Bezos cash*
One of the few books i had to put down for a little before reading (the bathtub pleasure scene) like the rodent scene in american psycho,
will say the one character was laughably all edge calling heterosexuals "Breeders"
certainly a book for people into dark fiction
Yeah it was super dark in places!
Thanks, Olly. I read this about 6 mos ago and found it tragic, grotesque, and ultimately necessary to read (same for Zombie and Girl Next Door). For me the protagonists -- or antagonists, I suppose -- seemed metaphors for both HIV-AIDs and homophobia. I'm picking up Brite's collection of shorts soon. Best, S
Thanks Scott - that's a really interesting observation and something that hadn't occurred to me
Hi Olly, I love your videos. I was wondering if you have read Bones & All by Camille DeAngelis? I’m in the middle of reading in it now & would love to hear your thoughts in a video. Or if you already have talked about it in a video I’m trying to catch up on your videos 3:17
Hi! No I haven't read that one - will have to check it out
I'd like to suggest a brazlilian one: Good Morning, Veronica, by Ilana Casoy. A not too disturbing book, but with a disturbing theme...
Interesting - I'll look into that! Thanks!
A disgusting read
This book is one of my favourites, though I did wish it was just the pov of Jay and Andrew as the others just bored me
Yes I did think their sections were the best
I just started reading this book
Hope you enjoy it!
@@CriminOllyBlog Thank you 😊
Back in the 90s I read a lot of Bright's books but I never found a copy of this one, I may have to track down a copy.
It’s definitely worth a read
Hey Olly! Do you have a goodread’s account or a link tree with all book recommendations?
Hi! Yeah I have goodreads - there is a link in the about section for the channel
Sounds grim and depraved,,,,perfect Olly...more darkness please sir.
Thanks Asif!
Glad you reviewed this one as I was on on the fence about reading it and I think I am going to skip it after all haha doesn't seem like it is what I am looking for.
Ha! Fair enough
Still haven’t added this to my disturbing fictions shelf yet… actually I don’t even have the shelf yet 😂 all my books are boxed RN but after Christmas I’m hoping to get some nice shelves. Thanks for the nice review of what seems like a brutal book. Sounds decent.
It's great! Hope you get some shelves soon!
A book I found a bit similar is succulent prey! Definitely just as graphic in the gore and it's really vile at some moments. Also in first person of a growing cannibal on a spree
Yeah, Wrath James White is definitely quite an extreme author
So glad you enjoyed this book! I had a very similar experience to yours so I found myself nodding here and there while watching the video. I haven't read anything else by Brite but I'm planning to, at some point.
Thanks, glad you liked the review!
Just started reading this one and am enjoying it a lot so far. I like the authors writing style quite a bit. I noticed in one of your previous videos you mentioned 'the summer I died'. I just finished that one and I'm curious to hear what you think of it when you are finished with it.
Should get to that one fairly soon
Hi, Olly. A decent movie was made of Holes, you may want to track it down.
I've seen that, great fun!
Have you read Sopaths by Piers Anthony? It was so disturbing I wish I could make it disappear out of my library on Kindle
I haven’t! I read Firefly by him and that was pretty bad too
@@CriminOllyBlog my friend said he was a fantasy writer, so I checked him out. I don't think I want to try anymore. Lol
@@kimberlydaughton8765 He's best known for a really long running fantasy series that a lot of people love, but I don't think that's anything like Sopaths or Firefly
@@CriminOllyBlog yes Zanth series is loosely based on Florida, which is where I live. I started the first book, but couldn't get into it at the time. Probably will try again in 2023
Heard this title so much but haven’t looked much into it. Very interested in checking it out now!
Hope you enjoy it!
I have never heard of this book but i want to read it. It´s sounds like a book for me, glad you also liked it 😊
It's really good!
Very engaging, as always. Thank you so much. Joyous holidays,
Thank you!
Not I haven’t
Yeah I didn't like the extreme violence.......
It is pretty graphic!
💚🖤
I'm glad you liked it! I wish I had the edition that you have, my cover is much more bland
Yeah some of the covers do seem to want to hide the fact it's a horror novel
As if the title didn't give it away.... My copy is just two hands holding, but one is slack.
Even though this probably isn’t my cup of tea….the compelling nature of the prose you describe makes me want to read it. - 📚MJ
You might want to pick up one of the Rickey and G-Man books by Brite if you want a taste of the writing without, y'know, the actual described taste of human flesh.
@@eriebeverly Thanks for the recommendation. I dont think the cannibalism will bother me, it’s more the necrophilia. 🫤
Things you never expect to say...
@@CriminOllyBlog 😂😂 with you? I’m not THAT shocked anymore. 😄
Thank you for reading and reviewing this book and I feel you hit the nail on the head with your review.
I absolutely loved this book and appreciated how disturbed it left me feeling.
I’m reading Drawing Blood now by Poppy 😬
I definitely need to read more Poppy!
@@CriminOllyBlog I just finished Drawing Blood by Poppy ! Wow ! Would loves review sometime !
@@stephnefourie7213 I'll add to the list!
@@CriminOllyBlog ooh while we are on Poppy do you have any suggestions for similar books ?😭 I’m running trough these fast !
@@stephnefourie7213 I'm not sure I do!
You can tell a lot about a person by what they read.
Can you? Moderately serious question.
And what they watch 👍🏻