Exquisite Corpse

De: Poppy Z. Brite

Narrado por: Joshua Saxon

From the author of Lost Souls, Drawing Blood, and Wormwood comes a thrilling and chilling novel that best-selling author Peter Straub says serves as a “guidebook to hell”.

To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his “art” to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires, and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his “art” to limits even Compton hadn’t previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim.

Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London’s Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. Exquisite Corpse confirms Brite as a writer who defies categorization. It is a novel for those who dare trespass where the sacred and profane become one.

©1996 Billy Martin (P)2020 David N. Wilson

Extreme Horror Classic

Poppy Z. Brite was writing extreme horror before extreme horror was a thing. I read this great over fifteen years ago and thanks to Crossroad Press for producing this as an audiobook I was able to revisit this classic read during my work commute. The narration by Joshua Saxon is perfect for this book, fantastic all the way around.

Buckle up

Weird, gruesome and fantastic! It's a gay Hannibal Lecture! Blood and guts! No detail left behind!

WOW!!!!

This was dark, very disturbing, but sooo good! Definitely not for everyone. A little hard to listen too sometimes. I'm not sure how I feel knowing I enjoyed it so much. YIKES!!! LMAO

slow and steady

This was really good, but took a long while to get to the meat of it. Then the meat of the story didn't last nearly enough. But what a great story it was. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Twisted and fascinating

This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you’re OK with Gore, rape, discussion of HIV and aids, murder. It’s phenomenal. This book talks about serial killers, and how HIV/aids decimated the gay population. I think this is a fascinating novel, and truly was an enjoyable experience for me. I enjoy body horror though, and if you are a faint of heart, this book is absolutely not for you. 

Homoerotic Cannibalism

This book is vile and disturbing, yet goes deeper than just gay serial killers. Definitely lived up to the hype for me, so glad I finally got around to it.

Oof

Wow that hit me like a truck. Gorgeous writing and excellent performance, definitely requires a strong stomach

Reads more like penthouse letter

I’m not too squeamish, and I could’ve made it through this book but it’s literally a gay penthouse letter than HAPPENS to have a serial killer hunting New Orleans. Credit to the author’s prose that is sometimes reminiscent of “Lolita” and in that way a scene can be beautiful but it’s just again and again and aga.. a straight guy can only take so much hyper graphic man on man action. woke or not.

Beautifully told

Story:
The setting is in 1970s to 80s when there was a lot of misinformation about AIDS and the dark times of being a member of LGBTQ++. Andrew and Jay meet, a one-in-a-million chance of two queer serial killers meeting in a bar, thinking about killing each other in bed later that night, but instead, finding that they reflect each other in a complicated, murderous way. They start targeting a Vietnamese boy, Tran, to be their "perfect victim."

I will never forget this novel. My first Poppy Z. Brite read. Exquisite Corpse is so beautifully written. Yes, it would be talking about how a serial killer is using a scalpel to open the skin and eat the flesh of its victim, removing the blood and draining the dead body of all bodily fluids, and it would be cut in all the right places to be displayed, frozen, eaten -, but damn, it's beautifully written. Like Gordon Ramsay would describe the juicyness of a beef wellington he's making, LOVELY. It felt like that! I'm so scared about me being fascinated by the way it forms romantically in my head, but that's really how it felt.

The prose-way this is written, I cannot believe it could make killing/dissecting a body seem/sound fascinating. I also learned a lot of new words in this novel. Like Shakespeare's language is being used to describe each paragraph.

Man, this is such an amazing novel. Never read it in front of a food, though, especially if you are queasy. Check the trigger warnings before proceeding to read. If you are a True Crime, Serial Killer story fan, I'd highly recommend this. Just remember to have a tough stomach for its vivid imagery on murder and violence.

Audible: Mr. Joshua Saxon's reading is brilliant. The way he says each beautiful word adds so much value to the novel. I could fall asleep in his voice and drift to dreamland slowly but surely. He is so soothing, despite the murderous sentences he's reading. Gosh, great job!

T.W.: Murder, Serial Killing, Queer, LGBTQia++, Murder, Violence, Assault, HIV, AIDS

Killers on the Road!

What can be said about EXQUISITE CORPSE that hasn't already been said? Even though this read is all the things everyone says it is, (gross, disgusting, explicit), it's much more than that.

Set in the time when HIV and AIDS were just becoming known terms, two men were destined to meet in New Orleans. Andrew, a serial killer recently escaped from prison in a way Edmond Dantes would have admired; the other a wealthy, long time New Orleans resident named Jay whose tastes mirror Andrew's. They prowl the streets of New Orleans together, searching for new prey. Will they find it? Will they ever be caught? You'll have to read this to find out!

Perhaps this would be a good point to say choose this book carefully? In this time of trigger warnings, this book has them all. Be warned. All that violence, homosexual sex, cannibalism and extreme horror are here; the warnings are true.

But for me, there was an entire backstory which consisted of a number of things: how gays were treated, labeled, and bullied at that time in American history. How when the HIV/AIDS epidemic began it made life for gays even worse. Not only were they having to watch their friends and lovers die, they had to endure humiliation and violence daily in their own lives. What kind of life is that? What makes life even worth living, knowing that you'll be taunted, laughed at, beat up, dragged through the mud, and maybe even killed, and no one would care. They'd say you got what you deserved...how long before you start thinking that maybe "they" were right?

Joshua Saxon, the narrator, delivered a fine performance, that I'm sure must have been difficult at times, considering the subject matter. Despite all of the violence and gritty sex, he, (in conjunction with the author), somehow conveyed an air of melancholy sadness that seemed to hover over the entire story.

It was that melancholy sadness that stood out the most for me. Sure, it's well written and once again, the shocking violence and homosexual sex permeated nearly every chapter of EXQUISITE CORPSE- but none of it even began to touch the despondency and grief I felt emanating from every single page. (Do you still phrase it like that when you're listening instead of reading? I say yes.)

Drawing out my empathy, even in the midst of all the nasty things happening, means that the author got to me, and most likely not in the way they intended, but then again, maybe so? Maybe I'm just crazy because I don't see many other reviews talking about these aspects of the story? Each reader takes away something different from a tale, and this is what I have chosen to take from this one.

Recommended for sure, but only for those who can handle such explicit horrors.

*Thank you to the narrator for the Audible download in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*