Home :: Books :: Horror  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror

Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
EXQUISITE CORPSE

EXQUISITE CORPSE

List Price: $13.00
Your Price: $9.75
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. 14 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: WOW!!
Review: This is the second book I've read from Poppy Z Brite, the first being Lost Souls. I have to say I love this book! For those of you complaining about the contents of the book listen up: Why would you buy a book you know contains Necrophilia, Cannibalism, drugs, AIDS and murder if you can't handle it? Why complain about a book you knew what was inside before you bought it? That makes no sense. Anyway. I'm quite sure you already know what this book is about so I won't get into it. Am sure you just came here to find out if the book is good or bad. And I have to say the book was more than good, it was GREAT!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Wonderful writing style, mediocre plot
Review: Ms. Brite has a way with words that invites the reader to flow through the plot lines with her characters. The writing is strong enough that I didn't care that the plot was not up to par. I do see that with more experience Brite has the potential to dominate the genre.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Icky
Review: Poppy Z. Brite's 1996 gross out novel "Exquisite Corpse" must surely rank in the top tier of the most disturbing books ever written. The author, who gives the Marquis de Sade a run for his money, delves into nearly every anti-social activity imaginable in this tale about two serial killers embarking on a blood soaked alliance in New Orleans, Louisiana. The story, which blends southern atmosphere with extreme violence, will repeatedly offend those with easily riled sensibilities. Only fans of extreme horror need apply here.

"Exquisite Corpse" begins with the narrative of Andrew Compton. Andrew speaks to us from his prison cell in England, where he is currently serving life sentences for the murder of twenty-three men and boys. Compton revels in his notoriety as one of England's worst serial killers, but he hates staying in jail and cannot wait to get back out on the streets so he can return to his favorite hobbies. In due course, Andrew does get his chance to roam free again and do what he does best: stalk and murder innocent people. Of course, this killer recognizes he cannot stay in the United Kingdom any longer, so he escapes across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, cleverly covering his tracks along the way. Compton's observations about other human beings and the blasé way he looks at what he does are both chilling and vulgar in the extreme. The story takes a turn for the worse when he eventually encounters Jay Byrne, a tormented soul mate with his own predilection for insane behavior. Not since the union of Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole has such a couple wreaked so much havoc.

Byrne may even be more perverse than Compton. Descended from an old New Orleans family (with their own dark secrets that skipped a few generations to find expression in Jay), Byrne does not need to work due to inherited wealth. Living alone in a large house provides Jay with all the time in the world to imbibe in his grim pleasures: drugs, prowling for victims, and killing and dismembering bodies. And now Byrne has his eye on a young Asian man named Tran, a local drug dealer with his own problems. Tran used to date a famous writer named Luke, but Luke tested positive for HIV and has a big problem with drugs. In his haste to move beyond a failed relationship, Tran attempts to attract the attentions of Byrne. Jay knows he cannot lay a finger on Tran in the way he wants because Tran is a local boy with family and friends who will miss him. Most of the book deals with the relationship between these three characters as they move to a showdown that ranks about a ten on the gore meter.

I had a few problems with "Exquisite Corpse." My disdain for this book has nothing to do with the fact that every major character is a homosexual, or with the shocking amounts of violence, or with the severity of that violence. Nor do I have a problem with Brite's prose, which is quite good considering the subject matter. The difficulty comes from Brite's use of stereotyping. The world of the homosexual presented here is one of endless drug use and reckless sexual behavior. The impression the reader gets from this book is that all homosexuals engage in these practices on a regular basis, which is definitely far from the truth. Moreover, Brite's rantings against AIDS and how no one in society cares falls flat when she has her characters living lives of immense risk for the disease. Acquiring any potentially fatal virus is a tragedy for anyone, but when people continue to engage in behaviors when they know what the consequences might be is a tragedy of another sort, namely one of sheer idiocy. And that is exactly what several of the characters here do when they overtly declare they do not care if they get sick.

"Exquisite Corpse" is still worth reading for the avid horror hound. Excellently drawn characters with great insights into their personalities mixed with jaw dropping scenes of explicit violence make this one a memorable experience. The locality of New Orleans works as well, providing just the right colorful background for the shenanigans committed by the characters. Brite ought to have a long career in the genre, and if this book is any indication, that career will shine for a long time.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "A Brite Star"
Review: Only in the delightfully twisted mind of Poppy Z Brite can a love story about two cannibalistic serial killers even begin to form. Fortunately her vivid writing style draws even the most closed minded reader (i.e. me) into any tale that she chooses to conjure. Right off the bat I am warning the closed minded reader that you will be treated to over the top meticulous descriptions of murder and necrophilia set amid the New Orleans Bohemian community. However do not be fooled into believing that this is another splatter punk style gore fest, this novel is a work of art.
Brite's vivid and artistic description of the necrophilia acts the central character commits are a Monet painting with words. From a distance the acts depicted seems like a random act of senseless violence, but with a closer look they begin to seem to look more and more like an act of artistic expression when put into the perspective of the murderer. Brite lovingly describes each splatter of blood, and each laceration on the corpse in time with each heartbeat the character beats. Her exquisite word choice brings the velvety texture of an organ straight to the fingers while reading some of the novel's more graphic passages.
Another of Brite's gifts is the ability to entice the reader into falling in love with each character no matter how monstrous they may be. The technique of returning to a single narrator through out the story gives the reader a unique perspective on all involved; it allows the reader to understand and follow the perpetrator of the crime as well as allow them the luxury of being able to feel sympathy for the victim.
The common Brite technique of merging three or more characters' story line into a single finale plays out like a highway crash watched by three different people. Three different perspectives of the finale are each told by a superbly developed character and basic humanity is found in each one through the careful and meticulous description of each of their thoughts.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not her best.
Review: I read this one after Lost Souls and Drawing Blood. This was not my favorite. It seems more than anything she is trying to emulate Bret Easton Ellis with the gruesome content. Don't get me wrong, I like that sort of thing. American Psycho is one of my all time favorite novels. But please, leave that sort of thing to the master.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A TRAGIC LOVE STORY
Review: This was one of the best books I have ever read! It is horror, gore, love, suspense all at once. when I was finished with it I felt funny because I did not hate the killers, I felt sorry for them. I didn't think they were monsters even though they did absolutly unspeakable things to their victims. I actually liked them and I was happy that they found eachother. It made me belive in soul mates because that is what they were two of a kind.If you take out the gore, drugs, explict gay sex scenes, and murder. Your left with a tragic love story. I think it was very brave and creative of Poppy Z. Brite to put together such a complex story. It is an original in every sense of the word, you will never find a story remotely similar to this one.It is special.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: You Spin Me Right Round, Baby
Review: She hooked me with the passage about Guy Fawkes Day, about a soul condemned to burn for a billion years in penance for a crime that he had never commited.

There are few words to describe the reaction that this book brings. It is a combination of facination, revulsion, admiration, and desire. This book deals with four major characters: Luke, a pirate radio shock jock who is HIV positive; Andrew, a necrophiliac who escaped prison by dying; Tran, a Vietnamese boy who plays some rather dangerous games; Jay, a socialite cannibal. Each of these characters has a diamondlike brilliance, in that they are strong and cold and sharp. The descriptions of people and places here make this Poppy's best early book, hands down.

This book does not have a happy ending...how could it, with those characters? But it still leaves the reader satisfied in a way that no previous book of hers ever could. There is a HIGH squick factor here, but it exists to highlight the beauty that surrounds our main characters.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Chilling, disturbing and impossible to put down
Review:

Poppy Z. Brite's EXQUISITE CORPSE is darker and infinitely more disturbing than any of her previous works. This is an unflinching, unapologetic love story between two cannibalistic serial killers.

Brite's writing is done so well you can almost smell the scents of the decadent French Quarter. Her dialogue is clear, cutting and painfully honest, her imagery so vivid when that first slice is made into the delicate human abdomen you feel your own guts begin to churn. The story is made all the more chilling because of the point of view switches. She takes the reader into the head of not only the victim but the killers as well. Be warned this is not a book for the faint of heart. It's filled with powerful, grotesque erotic images, and unspeakable acts of pain, torture and humiliation. Unlike many other killer novels the author makes no excuses for her characters. They were not molested, beaten or neglected as children.

EXQUISITE CORPSE is a chilling trip into the darkest corners of the human mind and puts a new spin on the idea of eternal love. Exquisitely Frightening.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: haha
Review: hahahaha
doesn't compare to Matthew Stokoe.
if you liked this, check him out. he wrote COWS and HIGH LIFE.
check it out

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Pulp and not really anything else...
Review: Exquisite Corpse brought out contradicting feelings in me. It has all the same qualities that endear me to trashy exploitation films: despicable characters, buckets of gore and trashy sex. Every turn of the page I imagined what a wonderfully trashy movie this would make, but sadly, I could not feel that way about the novel itself.
While the descriptions of murder and carnage were truly disgusting, it seemed Poppy had attempted to meld this with a central theme that mired itself in the constant viewpoint shifting of its central characters. Also, the end felt rushed and I did not feel that the relationship between Jay and Andrew was fully explored.
In spite of all this, the book was a quick and fun read. It was just little more visceral than I had expected. This was my first book by Poppy, but I will definitely be checking out her other work soon.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. 14 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates