Name: Exquisite Corpse
Rating: 3.810810810810811 (37 reviews)
ISBN: 9780575084353

Poppy Z. Brite

Exquisite Corpse

From the author of Lost Souls, Drawing Blood, and Wormwood comes a thrilling and chilling novel that bestselling author Peter Straub says serves as a “guidebook to hell.”

To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his “art” to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires, and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his “art” to limits even Compton hadn’t previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim.

Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London’s Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. Exquisite Corpse confirms Brite as a writer who defies categorization. It is a novel for those who dare trespass where the sacred and profane become one.

Amanda Autumn Berrey

Rowan Myers

It's odd, reading this book a few times over the course of the twenty years it's been around. As a kid, I thought it was this super deep love story. As a twenty something, I related to my friends succumbing to disease. (Certainly not as much as those who lived through the eighties, but the idea of getting any STI was terrifying, the idea that sex and my body could hold death, anathema to how I saw sex).

As a 35 year old, I see the hedonism and the fear. Luke, my least favorite character, became the one I wished was the protagonist.

It took me a looooong time to finish this. i’m a lover of the macabre and the disgusting but this is next level. advanced spooky readers only. the author knows exactly how to describe something horrific and do it without a dusting of purple prose to make it easier to digest. it sits heavy in the stomach and makes everything taste sour for a bit. in the best way. 

i will say i was more emotionally attached to Andrew than Jay, but them together scratched that fucked up itch i have for murderous couples. 

castor

It took me a looooong time to finish this. i’m a lover of the macabre and the disgusting but this is next level. advanced spooky readers only. the author knows exactly how to describe something horrific and do it without a dusting of purple prose to make it easier to digest. it sits heavy in the stomach and makes everything taste sour for a bit. in the best way. 

i will say i was more emotionally attached to Andrew than Jay, but them together scratched that fucked up itch i have for murderous couples. 

Exquisite Corpse

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