A review by transpinestwins
You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

2.0

I liked “Cat Person” when I first read it, but only enough to want to check out the rest of Roupenian’s work, so the fact that it’s a high point in this collection is a disappointment. The writing is all over the place, with lots of clumsy exposition and weird last-minute tonal shifts. I liked “The Good Guy,” and stories like “Cat Person,” “The Night Runner,” and “The Mirror, the Bucket, and the Old Thigh Bone” at least have some potential or interesting ideas. Mostly, though, this collection was just dull and unpleasantly cynical (or bleak, to steal a word from Roxane Gay). We also started off on the worst possible foot, since I absolutely hated “Bad Boy.” 

Altogether, I was hoping for better from this author than I got. I would be curious to know when some of these pieces were written relatively to each other — maybe she’s improving over time?

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Sexual violence