Hey you!
I have to be honest. I had a whole new different newsletter planned for this month, a book very different from the one I’m bringing you today. But the thing is I just finished reading “You Know You Want This”, by Kristen Roupenian and I just NEED to talk about it.
I came across Kristen’s work for the first time when The New Yorker published “Cat Person” back in 2017. I adored the story because it was totally relatable for anyone who’s ever been on a date in recent years. It was funny. Awkward. Dreadful. So when I saw the author was publishing a book of short stories I did what I had never done before: I bought a book on pre-order. That was how excited I was.
I started reading it as soon as the book was delivered. The content, however, was not what I was expecting. I thought her stories would have a somewhat common ground to what I read in “Cat Person” and, boy, was I wrong!
If anyone asked me to describe this book in one word it would be: violent. Some stories really shocked me while others made me physically ill. But please don’t think that this made me dislike the book. Quite on the contrary. The writing is brilliant and the stories have the kind of narrative that won’t let you put the book down. And isn’t this all we ever want from a book? Kristen definitely seems to know so. |
