Cat Person and Other Stories

*Includes the story Cat Personnow a major film* A compulsively readable collection of short stories that explore the complexand often darkly funnyconnections between gender, sex, and power across genres. These stories are sharp and perverse, dark and bizarre, unrelenting and utterly bananas. I love them so, so much. Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award Finalist and author of Her Body and Other Parties Kristen Roupenian isnt just an uncannily great writer, she also knows things about the human psycheThe world has made a lot more sense since reading this book. Miranda July, New York Times bestselling author Previously published as You Know You Want This, Cat Person and Other Stories brilliantly explores the ways in which women are horrifying as much as it captures the horrors that are done to them. Among its pages are a couple who becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sexuntil they cant have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for something mean; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her hearts desire: a nameless, naked man; and a self-proclaimed biter who dreams of sneaking up behind and sinking her teeth into a green-eyed, long-haired, pink-cheeked coworker. Spanning a range of genres and topicsfrom the mundane to the murderous and supernaturalthese are stories about sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain. These stories fascinate and repel, revolt and arouse, scare and delight in equal measure. And, as a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortableor worse, understoodas if to say, You want this, right? You know you want this.