Poppy Z Brite Exquisite Corpse

[Hazel]

Andrew Compton is a serial killer, a necrophiliac, and he has recently escaped from prison. He makes his way to New Orleans where he crosses paths with another serial killer. It's like love at first sight and together they make plans for their first 'date'. To us, that would suggest a romantic dinner, candlelight, bunch of roses...for these two, it means much the same, though dinner would be a young man and torture would be dessert.

 

I found the pace of this book quite odd. Brite takes a while to set up the main event and often I found myself becoming disengaged from the story, then all of a sudden it races to the denouement in a bloody mess of violence and gore.

 

This book came recommended through one of those '25 thrillers to keep you up all night' lists you get, and I knew the author's name. Thanks to the wonder of BGO I searched and found that I had abandoned another of Brite's books, Lost Souls, in 2009. Pretty sure I never picked it up again. 3/4 of this book would have seen me doing the same again, but the last 1/4 was pretty horrific so, for me, a horror fan, it saved the book. I did enjoy Exquisite Corpse, maybe not enough to pick up another Brite, which is pretty telling.