Review "These transgressive and darkly electric stories announce the arrival of a bold, new, necessary voice in American short fiction." --Claire Vaye Watkins, Story Prize-winning "5 Under 35" author of Gold Fame Citrus and Battleborn"In an age that needs a wrecking ball You Know You Want This provides one. This is a raucous, visceral page-turner that tunnels into the heart of relationships gone awry, modern-day miscommunications, and other horrors of being human. Not polite. Suffers no fools. Takes no prisoners. Read it." --Jeff VanderMeer, New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation"It's unheard of for a short story to go viral, but 'Cat Person'--through a combination of impossibly sharp writing and impossibly good timing--had done it. A year later, Roupenian's debut collection proves that success wasn't a fluke. The 12 visceral stories here range from uncomfortable to truly horrifying and are often--though not always--focused on the vicious contradictions of being female... Unsettling, memorable, and--maybe perversely--very, very fun." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review"If you think you know what this collection will be like, you're wrong. 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"Exceptionally compelling; I love the way these stories create a world that is simultaneously familiar and deeply unsettling, showing--in strange and surprising ways--the interplay of disgust, fear and desire. Images from the book keep coming back to me: its narratives feel both mythical and completely modern." --Megan Hunter, author of The End We Start From"The stories in You Know You Want This are wildly strange and deeply human. When it comes to the secret hurt and twisted desires that lurk in seemingly mundane encounters between men and women, Kristen Roupenian is a super genius. I loved every single word of this freaky, fantastic book." --Julie Buntin, author of Marlena"Roupenian's solid debut is highlighted by moments of startling insight into the hidden--and often uncomfortable--truths underneath modern relationships... there are some stellar moments of pithy clarity: In 'Scarred, ' upon summoning a way to cheat desire, the protagonist muses, 'I had everything that could be wanted. I invented new needs just to satisfy.' This is a promising debut." --Publishers Weekly"The best fiction leaves us thinking about it long after turning the last page, and with ['Cat Person'], author Kristen Roupenian established herself as a writer to watch. Her short-story collection, You Know You Want This, includes that story and others, all of which will have you talking about them long after finishing." --PopSugar"You Know You Want This is the perfect short story collection to pick up this winter... [it] seems poised to become one of the buzziest books of the season." --Bookish"You probably know Kristen Roupenian from her viral hit New Yorker story, 'Cat Person.' I have heard her referred to as 'the Cat Person Lady' multiple times. What isn't exactly obvious from that story, but becomes clear as soon as you open her forthcoming collection, is that she's really a horror writer--and not just 'horror' in the sense of modern dating and gross men, but also in the sense of gruesome acts, terrifying scenarios, and creeping dread. Come January, everyone's in for a surprise." --Lit Hub Daily About the Author Kristen Roupenian graduated from Barnard College and holds a PhD in English from Harvard, as well as an MFA from the Helen Zell Writers' Program at the University of Michigan. She is the author of the short story, "Cat Person," which was published in The New Yorker and selected by Sheila Heti for The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2018. She is currently at work on a novel.
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