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A review by kodameansfriend
The Sluts by Dennis Cooper
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.5
5 Star journey / 4 Star ending
It's hard not to give this a full 5 stars, anyway, since I just could. Not. Put. This. Down. It's filled with horrible, grotesque, and depraved content--but I could not put it down. The subject matter is pornographic and violent, to say the least--so not for everyone, and you might ask why I read the whole thing, or am giving it a high rating, but I could. Not. Put. This. Down, and that's mainly why. I can't see myself forgetting this saga, either, like I can so easily with most books, being that I'm getting older and read so many.
This book managed to make me feel like a teen, surfing around and reading in chatrooms I had no business being in, in the early days of the internet, when chat forums and message boards ruled. The execution of that 90s-internet feel in this book is flawless, and the messages and reviews you read through to get the story in this book are nothing if not a train wreck that you can't look away from. I wanted to know what exactly was going on--I wanted to know what was lies and what wasn't, who was who they said they were, and who was not. I wanted to know how the saga would end, and from a safe spectators-view. I wanted all these things, and yet I worried I needed to delete the book's web history as I continued to read. For that, I think it deserves 5 stars.
I will say that the end lacked a "punch" that I expected for no reason other than that's what I wanted. I'm giving this a solid 4.5 and I'll be checking out more of Dennis Cooper's novels.
It's hard not to give this a full 5 stars, anyway, since I just could. Not. Put. This. Down. It's filled with horrible, grotesque, and depraved content--but I could not put it down. The subject matter is pornographic and violent, to say the least--so not for everyone, and you might ask why I read the whole thing, or am giving it a high rating, but I could. Not. Put. This. Down, and that's mainly why. I can't see myself forgetting this saga, either, like I can so easily with most books, being that I'm getting older and read so many.
This book managed to make me feel like a teen, surfing around and reading in chatrooms I had no business being in, in the early days of the internet, when chat forums and message boards ruled. The execution of that 90s-internet feel in this book is flawless, and the messages and reviews you read through to get the story in this book are nothing if not a train wreck that you can't look away from. I wanted to know what exactly was going on--I wanted to know what was lies and what wasn't, who was who they said they were, and who was not. I wanted to know how the saga would end, and from a safe spectators-view. I wanted all these things, and yet I worried I needed to delete the book's web history as I continued to read. For that, I think it deserves 5 stars.
I will say that the end lacked a "punch" that I expected for no reason other than that's what I wanted. I'm giving this a solid 4.5 and I'll be checking out more of Dennis Cooper's novels.