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Carmen's Reviews > You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories
You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories
by
by
Carmen's review
bookshelves: american-author, fiction, horror, published2019, she-says, traditionally-published
Apr 17, 2022
bookshelves: american-author, fiction, horror, published2019, she-says, traditionally-published
That combination of responsibility and powerlessness - truly, standing over her, I saw with absolute clarity how I had no one else to blame, how I was the one who'd let my life spin completely out of control. Everything I'd ever done had brought me to that point; all my choices had led me right here, to this.
But if that HAD been my rock bottom, I'd have changed, right? Seeing the light would've done something to me, helped me somehow. But it didn't. It only made me feel worse. pg. 212
IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO READ THE REVIEW, let me at least give you a few sentences here. Kristen Roupenian is an amazingly talented author. She is a skilled horror writer. Definitely a book worth reading if you have any interest in horror or the darkness of humanity.
...
I picked up this book not expecting much, honestly. I don't usually enjoy short story collections. I read CAT PERSON - of course, didn't everybody? - compounded by the fact that I subscribe to the New Yorker. When CAT PERSON came out, it lit a fire under everyone. People debated endlessly the moral ramifications of it. It was discussed through the lens of feminism. It was discussed through the lens of #MeToo, it was discussed through the lens of toxic masculinity.
However, what few (no?) people realized at the time is that Roupenian is actually A HORROR AUTHOR. Akin to Stephen King. I would have to say after reading this book that if you enjoy King and his work, please do yourself a favor and pick this up. It's a stunning, exquisite little collection that will unnerve you. Reading CAT PERSON under the lens of horror instead of trying to untangle its morality and the morality of its characters made me like it more.
LET'S ANALYZE, otherwise this review will be straight gushing on my part.
STORY #1: BAD BOY
About a (I'm assuming) m/f couple who make a male friend of theirs their sexual toy. This culminates in (view spoiler). Like most Roupenian stories, it is sordid, disgusting and centered around sexual themes. Roupenian's intent here isn't really a statement of feminism, like some of her other works. Instead, she is commenting on the current sexual climate (a favorite topic of hers), focusing on how the sexual crisis of the younger generations is affecting everything. What are sexual ethics and mores? How is using and degrading another person 'right' if the other person agrees to it? How do things like sex cults and sexual slavery begin? Always playing with issues of consent and sexual morals (or the lack thereof), Roupenian hopes to bring to light some of the more questionable aspects of our current society.
At first, what happened during these nights was a strange, unspoken thing, a bubble clinging precariously to the edge of real life, but then, about a week after it started, we made the first rule for him to follow during the day, and suddenly the world cracked open and overflowed with possibility. pg. 6
We only got worse after that. He was like some slippery thing we had caught in our fists, and the harder we squeezed the more of it bubbled up through our fingers. We were chasing something inside of him that revolted us, but we were driven mad as dogs by the scent. pg. 8
We thought we'd exposed every part of him, and yet he'd been lying to us, hiding this from us, all this time, and in the end, we were the ones who were exposed. pg. 10
STORY #2: LOOK AT YOUR GAME, GIRL
A sordid, creepy, unsettling and disturbing story about a 12-year-old girl who meets a creepy (possibly homeless) man in the park repeatedly in the days leading up to Polly Klaas's kidnapping. If you are a parent or a caregiver this one is going to be uncomfortable to read. It didn't go as dark as I was fearing. (view spoiler) but the feeling of disgust and danger will follow you even after you close the book and it might prompt you to have that uncomfortable conversation with your child that you were putting off.
Compared with what had happened to Polly - compared with the infinite number of bad things that had happened in the universe - her brush with evil was just a tiny pinprick of light, nearly imperceptible against a backdrop of whirling constellations made up of other, brighter stars. pg. 25
STORY #3 SARDINES
I don't know what Roupenian is going for in this story. Some kind of Stephen King thing? Trying her hand at the horror genre. It's not bad. It's not 100% successful, but it's not bad. It was gripping and scary up to a point, I didn't really think the ending landed, however. As per usual, the story is full of human insights and is shockingly human, dirty, and realistic – the Roupenian touch. She's got her thumb on human behavior and interactions.
Marla catches her husband cheating with a 23-year-old and now she has to host her daughter Tilly's birthday party at his house. Marla's hatred of everyone right now has bled over into Tilly's mind with some horrific and supernatural results.
Some of the messier aspects of parenthood are impossible to anticipate until you crash right into them. Discovering that, in certain circumstances, when someone smacks your daughter you respond with crazed laughter has proven to be a new and unwelcome entry on that list. pg. 28
Resilience – the ability to brush off pain – is something Marla herself has only fitfully and imperfectly grown into, over time. The petty miseries of her own early childhood are some of her most vivid memories, even now. pg. 28
Collective investigation on the part of the moms has uncovered the game's name, Sardines, and a rough outline of the rules, which are innocuous as far as any of them can tell. Yet the way Tilly has been acting reminds Marla of nothing so much as the week her daughter discovered what would happen when she typed BOOBS into the browser of the family computer - the overeager way she would hurry into the den after school, calling out in a trilling, syrupy voice, "Oh, nothing!" whenever Marla asked her what she was up to in there.
Marla would prefer to blame the other girls - vicious, clique-y little beasts, they are - but in fact Tilly herself seems to be the ringleader. That, too, is strange, because Tilly has always been a little bit excluded, either picked on or left out. Although all the other moms are too polite to say so, the game's apparent ability to rescue Tilly from her position at the bottom of the social hierarchy is a large part of its unsavory aura. It's unnatural, Marla thinks blearily one night, right before she falls asleep.
Something UNNATURAL is going on. pg. 31
This is a very King-like passage.
After discovering Steve and his little girlfriend in flagrante, Marla had sketched out dozens of schemes for revenge - swapping the lube in the girlfriend's bedroom drawer with superglue, tying her down and tattooing SLUT across her face. And yet somehow, day by day and drip by drip, all her fearless fury has dwindled down to this: she will spend a day smiling tightly and choking down her rage as her nemesis parades around victorious - unhumiliated, unsuperglued, untattooed. How could Marla have let this happen? How could she have resigned herself so meekly to defeat? pg. 32
Tilly's adult nose - Steve's nose - arrived on her face a few months ago, knocking all her other features out of whack. She's got a greasy sprinkle of new acne sprouting along her half-plucked hairline, and a puffy brown mole has popped up on the side of her neck. She sweats through her deodorant by midafternoon, even the Men's Sports Prescription Strength Marla left last week, without comment, on her bed. At random times of day, her breath turns dank and meaty, and Marla finds herself opening the car window, without comment. Her breasts appear to be growing at two slightly different rates, so none of the training bras Marla buys her ever fit. The further Tilly lurches into gruesome adolescence, the more she insists on acting like a baby, trying to recapture a cuteness she never possessed. Maddening, tic-ridden, love-hungry Tilly; beloved Tilly, who, despite Marla's best efforts to protect her, at times seems not only destined but determined to be chewed up by the world's sharp teeth. pg. 39
The ending to SARDINES doesn't 'land,' in my opinion, but this was my first clue, my first inkling that Roupenian was actually a HORROR AUTHOR. And there's PLENTY more horror stories (even pretty straight ones) in this collection, so JUST KEEP GOING. All her other ones land firmly, this is the only one in the collection that was shaky on the landing for me.
STORY #4 THE NIGHT RUNNER
This is a story about a Peace Corps volunteer who goes to Kenya and is harassed and humiliated firstly by his class of schoolgirls and then by a 'Night Runner' who torments him by knocking on his door all night long and shitting on his doorstep.
When he got off the phone, Aaron filled a bucket with warm, sudsy water. He knotted up an old T-shirt, went outside, then got down on his knees and scrubbed his walls until they shone. He felt no disgust or revulsion, just a kind of deadened disdain. It was a choice they'd made, to drive him out. Like beating children was a choice. Like having unprotected sex was a choice. They chose this, he said to himself, and the words were like blood in his mouth. pg. 56
STORY #5 THE MIRROR, THE BUCKET, AND THE OLD THIGH BONE
The princess smiled, and when the visitor returned her smile, she felt as though all of her blood had been drained from her body and replaced with a mixture of soap bubbles and light and air. pg. 65
A truly excellent and spine-tingling horror story. Fascinating! Chilling, VERY well done.
STORY #6 CAT PERSON
The famous and viral Cat Person. I reviewed this, but it got disappeared, either due to overzealous GR librarians or some other GR shenanigans. I remember all the uproar this story initially caused.
An insecure young woman named Margot hooks up with a man named Robert who is a rather boring loser IMO. She's in a shitty relationship, I think this hit a nerve with people because shitty relationships are common. She keeps trying to figure him out, to please him, to make things work which is baffling because she isn't attracted to him and doesn't even like him that much. She overthinks everything, like a lot of young women do, and I can't help but think this is Roupenian's treatise on the younger generations Z or Y or whatever the fuck they are calling themselves now, I've lost track.
He's a total fuckboy, and he's shit in bed. And she just PUTS UP WITH IT, which I think generated a lot of anger in readers. However, the sad reality is that MILLIONS of women put up with bad sex to avoid confrontations. It's VERY common. I think that is probably what hit a nerve, with both male and female readers. She makes herself seem dumber than she is, she puts up with his absolutely terrible bedplay, and she pays lightning attention to every single detail about him in order to better please him.
She feels unable to change her mind about having sex after giving initial consent. This is a huge issue, one much discussed right now, but when Roupenian brought it up in 2017 it seemed more shocking.
But the thought of what it would require to stop what she had set in motion was overwhelming; it would require an amount of tact and gentleness that she felt was impossible to summon. It wasn't that she was scared he would try and force her to do something against her will but that insisting they stop now, after everything she'd done to push this forward, would make her seem spoiled and capricious, as if she'd ordered something at a restaurant and then, once the food arrived, had changed her mind and sent it back. pg. 88
This is actually brilliant and a very well-written description of (some) thought processes that might go through the mind of a young woman in this situation. Also, in a way, she's not fucking a real person, instead a person whose personality and 'true feelings and intentions' she has created in her mind in a kind of projected fantasy. It's fully human and quite flawed, which I think only added to the fuel of Internet interest.
He made that sound again, that high-pitched feminine whine, and she wished there was a way she could ask him not to do that, but she couldn't think of any. pg. 90
The part where he fingers her (badly) and takes her flinching as a sign that she's a virgin – and then she laughs at him for thinking she's virginal – is SO ACCURATE. It's so aptly encapsulating the true cesspool of modern dating in which expectations of women that men get from porn clash with real-life women and their wants and needs.
She didn't mean to laugh; she knew well enough already that, while Robert might enjoy being the subject of gentle, flirtatious teasing, he was not a person who would enjoy being laughed at, not at all. But she couldn't help it. Losing her virginity had been a long, drawn-out affair preceded by several months' worth of intense discussion with her boyfriend of two years, plus a visit to the gynecologist and a horrifically embarrassing but ultimately incredibly meaningful conversation with her mom, who, in the end, had not only reserved her a room at a bed-and-breakfast but, after the event, written her a card. The idea that, instead of that whole involved, emotional process, she might have watched a pretentious Holocaust movie, drunk three beers, and then gone to some random house to lose her virginity to a guy she'd met at a movie theater was so funny that suddenly she couldn't stop laughing, though the laughter had a slightly hysterical edge. pg. 90
A powerful point nailed home by Roupenian. Margot then lies to Robert and says she's nervous about having sex with him to stroke his ego and harden his softening cock. THIS IS EXACTLY what I'm talking about... Roupenian nails this, she kills this. You may not like what she's saying, you certainly may not like Margot, who is an asshole on some level, but it resonates. It's accurate.
Also painfully accurate is this 34-year-old sad sack dating this 20-year-old. Wildly insecure, desperate, basing his sexual actions on porn. He's vulnerable, weak, and useless. His fantasies about her, what he's projecting on her, are both sad and dangerous. He's less interested in her as a person and more interested in her as an object, The Girlfriend.
I think what annoys people is that Margot is so spineless, she obviously despises this man and yet she has an incredibly hard time saying 'no' to him, hurting his feelings, wounding him. You can hate her or sneer at her for being weak but I feel like a lot of women struggle with this: the need to be seen as 'nice' all the time. Not to be 'mean.' Not to be 'a bitch.'
Which all gets proven right because the last line of the book is Robert calling Margot (view spoiler) This kind of misogyny is prevalent and it is every day and it is everywhere and it is part of the reason women (especially younger ones and/or less experienced ones) are so afraid of rejecting men. Getting called a name like that is hurtful, but if you get a really fucked-up one you could end up dead. Dead for telling him you don't want to see him anymore. Women are murdered and beaten every single day for this shit.
A complicated, layered story with many, many, many interpretations by readers. So much to talk about even given its short length. I can see why it sparked such outrage and response.
STORY #7 THE GOOD GUY
Honestly, parts of this story made me literally laugh out loud. Hilarious. An analysis and take down of a 'nice guy' by Roupenian. Anyone angered by her portrayal of a female in CAT PERSON might want to try this on for size... A man too cowardly to break up with a woman he's not interested in, like Margot was too cowardly to tell Robert to get lost.
It showcases nicely how self-hatred leads to hatred of women and misogyny and abusive behavior. I think it's interesting and telling how Roupenian paints both male and female characters as assholes.
Just an amazing, stunning, brilliant funny takedown of misogyny and 'nice guys' who actually hate and resent women. It's hard to put into words how fucking good this layered and nuanced story is, Roupenian is a genius.
I can't believe I was laughing out loud reading a story about a disgusting misogynist, this kind of thing is EXACTLY what makes Roupenian special. So skilled. So talented.
STORY #8 THE BOY IN THE POOL
Another exquisitely-written story by Roupenian, centering around childhood friendship, childhood crushes, burgeoning lesbianism, and washed up stars cashing in on their old projects and selling themselves to fans ala CAMEO. It's a gorgeous story, written with precision by Roupenian.
STORY #9 SCARRED
I had done MAGIC.
Sometimes, when people in stories encounter the paranormal, they react with horror as the fabric of reality shreds and they are faced with the dawning recognition that everything they once believed was a lie. As I stared down at my phone, I had that exact feeling, except the opposite: not horror but giddy, mounting joy. This was what all those books had promised. I knew it, I thought. I knew the world was more interesting than it was pretending to be. pg. 171
Another stellar horror story by Roupenian. The horror. OMGosh, who knew there was a horror talent like this lurking out there that I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT.
STORY #10 THE MATCHBOX SIGN
Creepy horror story. Well done. Revolting, nuanced, tragic.
STORY #11 DEATH WISH
Horrifying story. Roupenian is really writing depraved stuff here, she is filling a book with sick fucks and I'm sorry to say I am LIVING FOR IT. Masterful.
STORY #12 BITER
Perhaps the problem with adulthood was that you weighed the consequences of your actions too carefully, in a way that left you with a life you despised. pg. 218
FUCKING AMAZING. JUST FUCKING AMAZING. SLOW CLAPPING. Shocking, twisty, just amazing IMO. I didn't know where Roupenian was going with this, then it was brilliant.
SEE REST OF REVIEW IN THE COMMENTS
But if that HAD been my rock bottom, I'd have changed, right? Seeing the light would've done something to me, helped me somehow. But it didn't. It only made me feel worse. pg. 212
IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO READ THE REVIEW, let me at least give you a few sentences here. Kristen Roupenian is an amazingly talented author. She is a skilled horror writer. Definitely a book worth reading if you have any interest in horror or the darkness of humanity.
...
I picked up this book not expecting much, honestly. I don't usually enjoy short story collections. I read CAT PERSON - of course, didn't everybody? - compounded by the fact that I subscribe to the New Yorker. When CAT PERSON came out, it lit a fire under everyone. People debated endlessly the moral ramifications of it. It was discussed through the lens of feminism. It was discussed through the lens of #MeToo, it was discussed through the lens of toxic masculinity.
However, what few (no?) people realized at the time is that Roupenian is actually A HORROR AUTHOR. Akin to Stephen King. I would have to say after reading this book that if you enjoy King and his work, please do yourself a favor and pick this up. It's a stunning, exquisite little collection that will unnerve you. Reading CAT PERSON under the lens of horror instead of trying to untangle its morality and the morality of its characters made me like it more.
LET'S ANALYZE, otherwise this review will be straight gushing on my part.
STORY #1: BAD BOY
About a (I'm assuming) m/f couple who make a male friend of theirs their sexual toy. This culminates in (view spoiler). Like most Roupenian stories, it is sordid, disgusting and centered around sexual themes. Roupenian's intent here isn't really a statement of feminism, like some of her other works. Instead, she is commenting on the current sexual climate (a favorite topic of hers), focusing on how the sexual crisis of the younger generations is affecting everything. What are sexual ethics and mores? How is using and degrading another person 'right' if the other person agrees to it? How do things like sex cults and sexual slavery begin? Always playing with issues of consent and sexual morals (or the lack thereof), Roupenian hopes to bring to light some of the more questionable aspects of our current society.
At first, what happened during these nights was a strange, unspoken thing, a bubble clinging precariously to the edge of real life, but then, about a week after it started, we made the first rule for him to follow during the day, and suddenly the world cracked open and overflowed with possibility. pg. 6
We only got worse after that. He was like some slippery thing we had caught in our fists, and the harder we squeezed the more of it bubbled up through our fingers. We were chasing something inside of him that revolted us, but we were driven mad as dogs by the scent. pg. 8
We thought we'd exposed every part of him, and yet he'd been lying to us, hiding this from us, all this time, and in the end, we were the ones who were exposed. pg. 10
STORY #2: LOOK AT YOUR GAME, GIRL
A sordid, creepy, unsettling and disturbing story about a 12-year-old girl who meets a creepy (possibly homeless) man in the park repeatedly in the days leading up to Polly Klaas's kidnapping. If you are a parent or a caregiver this one is going to be uncomfortable to read. It didn't go as dark as I was fearing. (view spoiler) but the feeling of disgust and danger will follow you even after you close the book and it might prompt you to have that uncomfortable conversation with your child that you were putting off.
Compared with what had happened to Polly - compared with the infinite number of bad things that had happened in the universe - her brush with evil was just a tiny pinprick of light, nearly imperceptible against a backdrop of whirling constellations made up of other, brighter stars. pg. 25
STORY #3 SARDINES
I don't know what Roupenian is going for in this story. Some kind of Stephen King thing? Trying her hand at the horror genre. It's not bad. It's not 100% successful, but it's not bad. It was gripping and scary up to a point, I didn't really think the ending landed, however. As per usual, the story is full of human insights and is shockingly human, dirty, and realistic – the Roupenian touch. She's got her thumb on human behavior and interactions.
Marla catches her husband cheating with a 23-year-old and now she has to host her daughter Tilly's birthday party at his house. Marla's hatred of everyone right now has bled over into Tilly's mind with some horrific and supernatural results.
Some of the messier aspects of parenthood are impossible to anticipate until you crash right into them. Discovering that, in certain circumstances, when someone smacks your daughter you respond with crazed laughter has proven to be a new and unwelcome entry on that list. pg. 28
Resilience – the ability to brush off pain – is something Marla herself has only fitfully and imperfectly grown into, over time. The petty miseries of her own early childhood are some of her most vivid memories, even now. pg. 28
Collective investigation on the part of the moms has uncovered the game's name, Sardines, and a rough outline of the rules, which are innocuous as far as any of them can tell. Yet the way Tilly has been acting reminds Marla of nothing so much as the week her daughter discovered what would happen when she typed BOOBS into the browser of the family computer - the overeager way she would hurry into the den after school, calling out in a trilling, syrupy voice, "Oh, nothing!" whenever Marla asked her what she was up to in there.
Marla would prefer to blame the other girls - vicious, clique-y little beasts, they are - but in fact Tilly herself seems to be the ringleader. That, too, is strange, because Tilly has always been a little bit excluded, either picked on or left out. Although all the other moms are too polite to say so, the game's apparent ability to rescue Tilly from her position at the bottom of the social hierarchy is a large part of its unsavory aura. It's unnatural, Marla thinks blearily one night, right before she falls asleep.
Something UNNATURAL is going on. pg. 31
This is a very King-like passage.
After discovering Steve and his little girlfriend in flagrante, Marla had sketched out dozens of schemes for revenge - swapping the lube in the girlfriend's bedroom drawer with superglue, tying her down and tattooing SLUT across her face. And yet somehow, day by day and drip by drip, all her fearless fury has dwindled down to this: she will spend a day smiling tightly and choking down her rage as her nemesis parades around victorious - unhumiliated, unsuperglued, untattooed. How could Marla have let this happen? How could she have resigned herself so meekly to defeat? pg. 32
Tilly's adult nose - Steve's nose - arrived on her face a few months ago, knocking all her other features out of whack. She's got a greasy sprinkle of new acne sprouting along her half-plucked hairline, and a puffy brown mole has popped up on the side of her neck. She sweats through her deodorant by midafternoon, even the Men's Sports Prescription Strength Marla left last week, without comment, on her bed. At random times of day, her breath turns dank and meaty, and Marla finds herself opening the car window, without comment. Her breasts appear to be growing at two slightly different rates, so none of the training bras Marla buys her ever fit. The further Tilly lurches into gruesome adolescence, the more she insists on acting like a baby, trying to recapture a cuteness she never possessed. Maddening, tic-ridden, love-hungry Tilly; beloved Tilly, who, despite Marla's best efforts to protect her, at times seems not only destined but determined to be chewed up by the world's sharp teeth. pg. 39
The ending to SARDINES doesn't 'land,' in my opinion, but this was my first clue, my first inkling that Roupenian was actually a HORROR AUTHOR. And there's PLENTY more horror stories (even pretty straight ones) in this collection, so JUST KEEP GOING. All her other ones land firmly, this is the only one in the collection that was shaky on the landing for me.
STORY #4 THE NIGHT RUNNER
This is a story about a Peace Corps volunteer who goes to Kenya and is harassed and humiliated firstly by his class of schoolgirls and then by a 'Night Runner' who torments him by knocking on his door all night long and shitting on his doorstep.
When he got off the phone, Aaron filled a bucket with warm, sudsy water. He knotted up an old T-shirt, went outside, then got down on his knees and scrubbed his walls until they shone. He felt no disgust or revulsion, just a kind of deadened disdain. It was a choice they'd made, to drive him out. Like beating children was a choice. Like having unprotected sex was a choice. They chose this, he said to himself, and the words were like blood in his mouth. pg. 56
STORY #5 THE MIRROR, THE BUCKET, AND THE OLD THIGH BONE
The princess smiled, and when the visitor returned her smile, she felt as though all of her blood had been drained from her body and replaced with a mixture of soap bubbles and light and air. pg. 65
A truly excellent and spine-tingling horror story. Fascinating! Chilling, VERY well done.
STORY #6 CAT PERSON
The famous and viral Cat Person. I reviewed this, but it got disappeared, either due to overzealous GR librarians or some other GR shenanigans. I remember all the uproar this story initially caused.
An insecure young woman named Margot hooks up with a man named Robert who is a rather boring loser IMO. She's in a shitty relationship, I think this hit a nerve with people because shitty relationships are common. She keeps trying to figure him out, to please him, to make things work which is baffling because she isn't attracted to him and doesn't even like him that much. She overthinks everything, like a lot of young women do, and I can't help but think this is Roupenian's treatise on the younger generations Z or Y or whatever the fuck they are calling themselves now, I've lost track.
He's a total fuckboy, and he's shit in bed. And she just PUTS UP WITH IT, which I think generated a lot of anger in readers. However, the sad reality is that MILLIONS of women put up with bad sex to avoid confrontations. It's VERY common. I think that is probably what hit a nerve, with both male and female readers. She makes herself seem dumber than she is, she puts up with his absolutely terrible bedplay, and she pays lightning attention to every single detail about him in order to better please him.
She feels unable to change her mind about having sex after giving initial consent. This is a huge issue, one much discussed right now, but when Roupenian brought it up in 2017 it seemed more shocking.
But the thought of what it would require to stop what she had set in motion was overwhelming; it would require an amount of tact and gentleness that she felt was impossible to summon. It wasn't that she was scared he would try and force her to do something against her will but that insisting they stop now, after everything she'd done to push this forward, would make her seem spoiled and capricious, as if she'd ordered something at a restaurant and then, once the food arrived, had changed her mind and sent it back. pg. 88
This is actually brilliant and a very well-written description of (some) thought processes that might go through the mind of a young woman in this situation. Also, in a way, she's not fucking a real person, instead a person whose personality and 'true feelings and intentions' she has created in her mind in a kind of projected fantasy. It's fully human and quite flawed, which I think only added to the fuel of Internet interest.
He made that sound again, that high-pitched feminine whine, and she wished there was a way she could ask him not to do that, but she couldn't think of any. pg. 90
The part where he fingers her (badly) and takes her flinching as a sign that she's a virgin – and then she laughs at him for thinking she's virginal – is SO ACCURATE. It's so aptly encapsulating the true cesspool of modern dating in which expectations of women that men get from porn clash with real-life women and their wants and needs.
She didn't mean to laugh; she knew well enough already that, while Robert might enjoy being the subject of gentle, flirtatious teasing, he was not a person who would enjoy being laughed at, not at all. But she couldn't help it. Losing her virginity had been a long, drawn-out affair preceded by several months' worth of intense discussion with her boyfriend of two years, plus a visit to the gynecologist and a horrifically embarrassing but ultimately incredibly meaningful conversation with her mom, who, in the end, had not only reserved her a room at a bed-and-breakfast but, after the event, written her a card. The idea that, instead of that whole involved, emotional process, she might have watched a pretentious Holocaust movie, drunk three beers, and then gone to some random house to lose her virginity to a guy she'd met at a movie theater was so funny that suddenly she couldn't stop laughing, though the laughter had a slightly hysterical edge. pg. 90
A powerful point nailed home by Roupenian. Margot then lies to Robert and says she's nervous about having sex with him to stroke his ego and harden his softening cock. THIS IS EXACTLY what I'm talking about... Roupenian nails this, she kills this. You may not like what she's saying, you certainly may not like Margot, who is an asshole on some level, but it resonates. It's accurate.
Also painfully accurate is this 34-year-old sad sack dating this 20-year-old. Wildly insecure, desperate, basing his sexual actions on porn. He's vulnerable, weak, and useless. His fantasies about her, what he's projecting on her, are both sad and dangerous. He's less interested in her as a person and more interested in her as an object, The Girlfriend.
I think what annoys people is that Margot is so spineless, she obviously despises this man and yet she has an incredibly hard time saying 'no' to him, hurting his feelings, wounding him. You can hate her or sneer at her for being weak but I feel like a lot of women struggle with this: the need to be seen as 'nice' all the time. Not to be 'mean.' Not to be 'a bitch.'
Which all gets proven right because the last line of the book is Robert calling Margot (view spoiler) This kind of misogyny is prevalent and it is every day and it is everywhere and it is part of the reason women (especially younger ones and/or less experienced ones) are so afraid of rejecting men. Getting called a name like that is hurtful, but if you get a really fucked-up one you could end up dead. Dead for telling him you don't want to see him anymore. Women are murdered and beaten every single day for this shit.
A complicated, layered story with many, many, many interpretations by readers. So much to talk about even given its short length. I can see why it sparked such outrage and response.
STORY #7 THE GOOD GUY
Honestly, parts of this story made me literally laugh out loud. Hilarious. An analysis and take down of a 'nice guy' by Roupenian. Anyone angered by her portrayal of a female in CAT PERSON might want to try this on for size... A man too cowardly to break up with a woman he's not interested in, like Margot was too cowardly to tell Robert to get lost.
It showcases nicely how self-hatred leads to hatred of women and misogyny and abusive behavior. I think it's interesting and telling how Roupenian paints both male and female characters as assholes.
Just an amazing, stunning, brilliant funny takedown of misogyny and 'nice guys' who actually hate and resent women. It's hard to put into words how fucking good this layered and nuanced story is, Roupenian is a genius.
I can't believe I was laughing out loud reading a story about a disgusting misogynist, this kind of thing is EXACTLY what makes Roupenian special. So skilled. So talented.
STORY #8 THE BOY IN THE POOL
Another exquisitely-written story by Roupenian, centering around childhood friendship, childhood crushes, burgeoning lesbianism, and washed up stars cashing in on their old projects and selling themselves to fans ala CAMEO. It's a gorgeous story, written with precision by Roupenian.
STORY #9 SCARRED
I had done MAGIC.
Sometimes, when people in stories encounter the paranormal, they react with horror as the fabric of reality shreds and they are faced with the dawning recognition that everything they once believed was a lie. As I stared down at my phone, I had that exact feeling, except the opposite: not horror but giddy, mounting joy. This was what all those books had promised. I knew it, I thought. I knew the world was more interesting than it was pretending to be. pg. 171
Another stellar horror story by Roupenian. The horror. OMGosh, who knew there was a horror talent like this lurking out there that I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT.
STORY #10 THE MATCHBOX SIGN
Creepy horror story. Well done. Revolting, nuanced, tragic.
STORY #11 DEATH WISH
Horrifying story. Roupenian is really writing depraved stuff here, she is filling a book with sick fucks and I'm sorry to say I am LIVING FOR IT. Masterful.
STORY #12 BITER
Perhaps the problem with adulthood was that you weighed the consequences of your actions too carefully, in a way that left you with a life you despised. pg. 218
FUCKING AMAZING. JUST FUCKING AMAZING. SLOW CLAPPING. Shocking, twisty, just amazing IMO. I didn't know where Roupenian was going with this, then it was brilliant.
SEE REST OF REVIEW IN THE COMMENTS
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Reading Progress
January 28, 2019
– Shelved
April 16, 2022
–
Started Reading
April 16, 2022
–
2.67%
"At first, what happened during these nights was a strange, unspoken thing, a bubble clinging precariously to the edge of real life, but then, about a week after it started, we made the first rule for him to follow during the day, and suddenly the world cracked open and overflowed with possibility."
page
6
April 16, 2022
–
3.56%
"We only got worse after that. He was like some slippery thing we had caught in our fists, and the harder we squeezed the more of it bubbled up through our fingers. We were chasing something inside of him that revolted us, but we were driven mad as dogs by the scent."
page
8
April 16, 2022
–
4.44%
"We thought we'd exposed every part of him, and yet he'd been lying to us, hiding this from us, all this time, and in the end, we were the ones who were exposed."
page
10
April 16, 2022
–
11.11%
"Compared with what had happened to Polly - compared with the infinite number of bad things that had happened in the universe - her brush with evil was just a tiny pinprick of light, nearly imperceptible against a backdrop of whirling constellations made up of other, brighter stars."
page
25
April 16, 2022
–
12.44%
"Some of the messier aspects of parenthood are impossible to anticipate until you crash right into them. Discovering that, in certain circumstances, when someone smacks your daughter you respond with crazed laughter has proven to be a new and unwelcome entry on that list."
page
28
April 16, 2022
–
12.44%
"Resilience – the ability to brush off pain – is something Marla herself has only fitfully and imperfectly grown into, over time. The petty miseries of her own early childhood are some of her most vivid memories, even now."
page
28
April 16, 2022
–
13.33%
"Collective investigation on the part of the moms has uncovered the game's name, Sardines, and a rough outline of the rules, which are innocuous as far as any of them can tell. Yet the way Tilly has been acting reminds Marla of nothing so much as the week her daughter discovered what would happen when she typed BOOBS into the browser of the family computer - the overeager way she would hurry into the den after"
page
30
April 16, 2022
–
14.22%
"After discovering Steve and his little girlfriend in flagrante, Marla had sketched out dozens of schemes for revenge - swapping the lube in the girlfriend's bedroom drawer with superglue, tying her down and tattooing SLUT across her face. And yet somehow, day by day and drip by drip, all her fearless fury has dwindled down to this: she will spend a day smiling tightly and choking down her rage as her nemesis"
page
32
April 16, 2022
–
16.0%
""I think you'll like what I wished for, Mama." Tilly sucks the frosting off her fingers, wriggles happily, and adds, "I wished for something MEAN."
King, King King King"
page
36
King, King King King"
April 16, 2022
–
16.89%
"Tilly's adult nose - Steve's nose - arrived on her face a few months ago, knocking all her other features out of whack. She's got a greasy sprinkle of new acne sprouting along her half-plucked hairline, and a puffy brown mole has popped up on the side of her neck. She sweats through her deodorant by midafternoon, even the Men's Sports Prescription Strength Marla left last week, without comment, on her bed. At "
page
38
April 16, 2022
–
24.89%
"When he got off the phone, Aaron filled a bucket with warm, sudsy water. He knotted up an old T-shirt, went outside, then got down on his knees and scrubbed his walls until they shone. He felt no disgust or revulsion, just a kind of deadened disdain. It was a choice they'd made, to drive him out. Like beating children was a choice. Like having unprotected sex was a choice. "
page
56
April 16, 2022
–
28.89%
"The princess smiled, and when the visitor returned her smile, she felt as though all of her blood had been drained from her body and replaced with a mixture of soap bubbles and light and air."
page
65
April 16, 2022
–
33.33%
"Ok, this was an excellent horror story. Is Kristen Roupenian a HORROR AUTHOR?! It's shocking, but this is just beginning to dawn on me. In this collection, I can see it. FASCINATING."
page
75
April 16, 2022
–
61.33%
"It was a FOOLPROOF PLAN.
Oh, wait. No, it wasn't. It was a sexual fantasy, and he was an idiot.
LOL"
page
138
Oh, wait. No, it wasn't. It was a sexual fantasy, and he was an idiot.
LOL"
April 17, 2022
–
76.0%
"I had done MAGIC.
Sometimes, when people in stories encounter the paranormal, they react with horror as the fabric of reality shreds and they are faced with the dawning recognition that everything they once believed was a lie. As I stared down at my phone, I had that exact feeling, except the opposite: not horror but giddy, mounting joy. This was what all those books had promised. I knew it, I thought. I knew"
page
171
Sometimes, when people in stories encounter the paranormal, they react with horror as the fabric of reality shreds and they are faced with the dawning recognition that everything they once believed was a lie. As I stared down at my phone, I had that exact feeling, except the opposite: not horror but giddy, mounting joy. This was what all those books had promised. I knew it, I thought. I knew"
April 17, 2022
–
88.44%
"Another creepy horror story. Who know Roupenian was a horror author? Not I."
page
199
April 17, 2022
–
93.33%
"Why is every man named Ryan in this book? Did Roupenian know a Ryan? Is she exorcising her feelings about Ryan?"
page
210
April 17, 2022
–
96.89%
"Perhaps the problem with adulthood was that you weighed the consequences of your actions too carefully, in a way that left you with a life you despised."
page
218
April 17, 2022
–
100.0%
"FUCKING AMAZING. JUST FUCKING AMAZING. *slow clapping* Seriously, Roupenian, seriously... you should be SO PROUD of yourself. You are VERY talented.
THE END
REVIEW TO COME"
page
225
THE END
REVIEW TO COME"
April 17, 2022
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-14 of 14 (14 new)
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Wow! That's quite a review. I am now going to have to read this.
Kandice wrote: "Wow! That's quite a review. I am now going to have to read this."You're a horror fan! I think you should DEFINITELY give this a try. It's worth checking out.
Thanks for putting this one on my radar - I do horror once in a while, and this one tempts me!
Sarah wrote: "Thanks for putting this one on my radar - I do horror once in a while, and this one tempts me!"It surprised me so much, Sarah... in a good way! I hope you enjoy it even half as much as I did!
I skim through headlines for stories involving Ali Wong, limit my Facebook contacts mostly to family and am not on Twitter, so I was only vaguely aware of the Cat Person "controversy." I figured it was some fictionalized version of the Aziz Ansari consent incident. I wasn't far off. Nature's joke on us is that at the time we're most physically prepared to have sex we're also the most emotionally unprepared. Maybe a 25-year-old has more maturity than a 4-year-old but sometimes I see things that make me wonder.
I really appreciate your recap and very thoughtful review of each of these stories, Moneypenny. You sold me a book.
I skim through headlines for stories involving Ali Wong, limit my Facebook contacts mostly to family and am not on Twitter, so I was only vaguely aware of the Cat Person "controversy." I figured it was some fictionalized version of the Aziz Ansari consent incident. I wasn't far off.Nature's joke on us is that at the time we're most physically prepared to have sex we're also the most emotionally unprepared. Maybe a 25-year-old has more maturity than a 4-year-old but sometimes I see things that make me wonder.
I really appreciate your recap and very thoughtful review of each of these stories, Moneypenny. You sold me a book.
That's great, Joseph. This is something I'd actually recommend to you. Very interesting and a combination of sex and horror that I think you'll truly enjoy. Roupenian is smart.
You’re amazing Carmen.It had been awhile since I’ve read your reviews- and passion— goodness you stand for!
I’m resting -tired -with a cup of ‘passion’ tea with fresh lemon - taking some time catching up on some reviews— it’s been a joy and honor to take in your thoughts -wisdom & feelings.
Thank you so much, Elyse. Reading this comment made my day!
Cara wrote: "Great review, Carmen💓!!!"Thank you, Cara!
Adding this to my TBR. I love sick and depraved horror.😎
Jonann loves book talk❤♥️❤ wrote: "Adding this to my TBR. I love sick and depraved horror.😎"Ha ha, I would love to hear your thoughts when you get around to it, Jonann. :)
Kimber wrote: "Terrific review, Carmen! :-)"Thank you so much, Kimber. This was a TRIP. Worth it.
HOWEVER, everything changes almost magically when it dawns on you that Roupenian is a HORROR AUTHOR. She is writing HORROR. Sometimes conventional, sometimes not. But definitely horror. And it is sickening, filthy, depraved, unnerving. It makes your gorge rise. It makes your hair stand up. It sickens you.
And it's so FUCKING good. I mean, it is REALLY FUCKING GOOD.
Never, never did I think I was picking up a five-star book when I chose this. I thought, "Oh, ho-hum, the author of CAT PERSON. She's probably a one-trick pony. This will get three stars from me at most."
Boy, was I ever WRONG. Roupenian proved me wrong and also knocked me on my ass. Fuck, is she good. She's fucking brilliant. I feel sad now that this book doesn't seem to be very widely read or popular. She deserves ACCOLADES. She deserves a place at the table of renowned horror authors. Her insights on the darkness of humanity and the banality of evil are exquisite.
Please, if you have any appetite for horror, darkness, or chilling stories. If you like to be creeped out. If you love King and crave more, PICK UP THIS BOOK. She will surprise you. She surprised me.
Even though usually I would not give such a filthy, depraved, sick book five stars, I cannot NOT give her five stars. The woman has skillz. Major talent. I don't WANT to say that. I didn't EXPECT to say that. I honestly was not expecting much from this.
Do yourself a favor and pick this up. But only if you can handle depravity. This book is a gem and deserves more recognition, I can only hope she releases a second one.
Roupenian, if you are reading this, I hope you know that you are truly skilled. I don't know who is blowing smoke up your ass, but I don't blow smoke. Ask anyone. Be proud. This is truly a masterpiece. You deserve recognition for this. Keep it up.