A review by butyougotmysoul
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

challenging dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is my second time reading this book. My first time reading it was about 10 years ago so there was a LOT I’d forgotten.

So, this book is very difficult to read, but I enjoyed it anyway.  At first glance this novel is nothing but gore and sex and nothing else, but if you look closely to when it was written and the underlying subject matter it is actually quite intricate.  The book explores the grief, anger and horror of the AIDS epidemic, at the height of the AIDS epidemic. I feel that there are several ways to interpret the characters of this novel, and one way that I have chosen to do so is to interpret them as the stages of grief.  Lucas Ransom's character is especially interesting to me because he is the only character that I feel had a whole redemption arc.  Anyway, yeah.  How does one talk about this novel intelligently?  I'm having brain fog at the moment.  I may come back to edit this at some point, or I may not.



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