Brite, Poppy Z. Books

Lost Souls

Poppy Z. Brite

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 229 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Extremely disappointing 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I found this story to be too confused and busy. It meanders between characters until it brings them all together later on in the book, but it just seems like the brief moments of actual "action" are just huge build-ups of anticipation with an anti-climatic little *pop* of dénouement. In short, nothing's happening to keep me interested! The characters are fantastic, the author's descriptive powers are beyond compare, but there's just no story there.

I tend to like a good vampire fic to keep me shivering for a night or two. This one has kept me groaning night after night trying to finish it for almost three weeks (an exhaustively long time for me to finish a book). Ghost, Steve, Nothing, Christian, and Brite's version of the Stygian triplets are all rich, wonderful characters. Now if only she'd done something with them....

Disappointing, especially after all the good I'd heard about this author.

Editorial Review:

In Missing Mile, North Carolina, in search of supple young flesh and thirsting for blood, three beautiful vampires--Molochai, Twig, and Zillah--follow vampires Nothing and Ann on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Reprint. AB. PW.

Exquisite Corpse

Poppy Z. Brite

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 157 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Tragic waste 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I picked up this book in a library because I had heard a bit about this Brite woman and wanted to see what she was like. That is why I began to read it, but I really don't know why I kept going. Was I hoping it would get better?

Plato wrote that literature should only deal with good and uplifting characters. Obviously, he was wrong: we cannot fashion a realistic or even interesting depiction of mankind by concentrating only on the good. Writers need to portray evil so that good may be understood more clearly by contrast.

But likewise, we cannot produce a literature worthy of the name by concentrating solely on evil. This is what Ms Brite has done. Here is a world utterly devoid of goodness, beauty, or any positive value. She seems to have gone out of her way to pile on detail after sickening detail to make the characters and events as loathsome as possible.

Some reviewers have referred to this book as "erotic" - a word that derives from the Greek god of love. But no love is possible in this world of self-obsessed characters, not even a meaningful self-love.

Despite a few well-written passages, this is a work which portrays the worst of mankind, and then tries to make it even worse. This book has no redeeming features. What a tragic waste of talent.

Editorial Review:

You've probably heard that this love story about two cannibalistic serial killers (loosely modeled after Dennis Nilsen and Jeffrey Dahmer) is over the top. You've been warned about the lovingly meticulous descriptions of murder and necrophilia. But the novel also features a keen look at the AIDS plague, in a setting almost worth dying for: Brite's doomed aesthetes dance in a sweet, heady New Orleans of milky coffee and beignets, alligators, Billy Holiday tunes, scented candles, pirate radio, swamp French, andouille sausage and one bar for every 175 people. And the structure is the tightest of Brite's books so far.

Drawing Blood

Poppy Z. Brite

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 106 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Putting the "hard" in "hardcore"! 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Ah, nothing like a good little haunted house story. The sort of tale written by the likes of Poe and told by campers around campires all over this great land.

Unless you went to a really odd summer camp, you never heard a haunted house story like this one.

"Drawing Blood" is the story of Trevor and Zach, two emo boys in the days before emo existed. Zach, on the run from the law, meets up with Trevor at the house where Trevor's father killed everyone but him when he was a little boy.

As events progress the two not only discover more about what happened that horrible night but also, and there's no non-cheesy way for me to put this, discover the joys they can have in each other's arms (see? Told you).

The book has some very hardcore sex scenes. I write what I shall obliquely refer to as "erotic fiction" as a hobby, and this stuff is only slightly less explicit. It also has some amazingly unpleasant imagery and disturbing scenes.

All of which, frankly, team up to make this one darn fine read! It's not the best horror novel, I'm sure, but it is the best Poppy Z Brite book I've read (all of three so far... sorry, Poppy! I know I need to read more).

It is, however, perhaps a book best read with lights on.

Editorial Review:

Escaping from his North Carolina home after his father murders their family and commits suicide, Trevor McGee returns to confront the past, and finds himself haunted by the same demons that drove his father to insanity. Reprint. K. AB.

Love in Vein

Poppy Z. Brite

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 25 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Not For The "Timid" 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

If your looking for "Darker" vampire erotica then Love In Vein is your book. Some of the stories such as "White Chapel" are a bit graphic, and border on B movie gore, but overall it's a worthwhile read. It is certainly not a book for the "Timid."

Misleading and Incredibly dull... 1 out of 5 stars.
3 of 8 people found this review helpful.

I picked up this short-story collection because the cover said it was a collection of vampire erotica and because the book was edited by Poppy Z. Brite. I feel like I've been ripped off. First of all, to say that this book is a collection of vampire erotica is misleading. Aside from some rough language here and there, there is almost no erotica in this collection. This is a collection of horror stories, period. And the stories are quite dull at that. The only ones I liked were "In this Soul of a Woman," by Charles de Lint; "The Alchemy of the Throat," by Brian Hodge; and "Café Endless: Spring Rain," by Nancy Holder. The aforementioned stories are thought provoking and horrific at the same time. The other stories simply failed to spark my interest. Poppy Z. Brite has let me down. I have the second part of the collection and am considering returning it to the bookstore. If you are in the bargain for vampire erotica, try the Ellora's Cave books.

Editorial Review:

A sexy new repackaging of the extremely popular anthology of vampire erotica, edited by acclaimed author Poppy Z. Brite.

The classic horror tale is about fear. But in the last few years a new literature of the macabre has arisen, one that goes deeper than horror, beyond fear, to explore our darkest, most intimate hungers. The ones even lovers are forbidden to share.

Acclaimed dark fantasy author Poppy Z. Brite has brought together this genre's most powerful and seductive authors in an original collection of vampiric erotica, a shameless celebration of unspeakable intimacies. It is not for everyone.

But neither is the night.

Wormwood: A Collection of Short Stories

Poppy Z. Brite

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 39 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Dark, terrifying, wonderful short stories! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Poppy Z. Brite has officially become a favorite author of mine. Her books are dark, disturbing and literary. And the fact that her stories have gothic elements makes them all the more appealing. Having read Are You Loathsome Tonight?, I couldn't wait to pick up another one of her books. Wormwood caught my attention the moment I lay my eyes on it. I am so glad I gave it a whirl. The stories here are dark, horrifying and full of beautiful prose (at least that's my take on them). Brite has incredible talent. My favorite stories are "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves," "Xenophobia," "How to Get Ahead in New York," "The Elder," "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood," and "The Sixth Sentinel." I devoured these stories from beginning to end. The stories are sheer horror. I recommend this anthology to those who like to read about things that go bump in the night with a literary twist.

Editorial Review:

The name of Poppy Z. Brite is well known to most horror fans. What some do not know, though, is that Brite hit the ground running as a fiction writer, and some of her best work so far is right here in this collection of a dozen tales (originally published as Swamp Foetus) she wrote between ages 18 and 24. The exigencies of long plot development and evolving characters that sometimes bog her down in the novels are absent from the short story form, where Brite's extraordinary talent for compressed, redolent imagery combines with her keen sense of narrative structure to create perfect little objets d'art. Stories like "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood," "Calcutta, Lord of Nerves," and my favorite, "The Sixth Sentinel," are too exquisite to be missed.

Love in Vein II : Eighteen More Tales of Vampiric Erotica

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Twice the fool... 2 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Once a fool, shame on you. Twice a fool, shame on me. Twice Bitten, like the first part of Love in Vein, is a major disappointment with a collection of insipid, uninteresting stories. The stories weren't dark, sensual, erotic, thought-provoking in the slightest -- well, not all of them. There are some good stories here that have the aforementioned ingredients that critics made such a big hype about. The ones I liked were "Dusting the Flowers," by David J. Schow; "Ceilings and Sky," by Lucy Taylor; and "When Memory Falls," by Roberta Lannes. I gave Twice Bitten a try because almost everyone told me that this one's so much better than the first Love in Vein offering. Nope. The subtitle "Tales of Vampiric Erotica" is a complete misnomer. Yes, there are vampires in the stories, but the erotica aspect of this book is debatable. I don't need in-your-face sex scenes to make a story erotic. I like subtle, sensual erotica, or sublime stories with erotic undertones, but said aspects in this story are few and far in between. The only thing I did like about this collection is that the stories are definitely creepy and scary. Other than that, this collection series is completely forgettable.

Editorial Review:

Be warned.If you found Love in Vein too disturbingly dark, too exquisitely explicit, too deliciously erotic in the secrets it revealed -- you're going to adore Love in Vein II.

Poppy Z. Brite has done it again with a provocative new collection even more dangerously seductive, more boldly erotic than her first. It is not for everyone. But it may be what you need.

The Devil You Know

Poppy Z. Brite

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW is a tradepaperback edition of the sold-out limited edition of Poppy's latest short story collection.

In her third short story collection, Poppy Z. Brite finds fresh ways of exploring territory both familiar and strange. Here you’ll meet the Devil and his giant cat last seen in the pages of Bulgakov, the gourmand coroner of New Orleans, the mad-genius chef who can’t stand to have his cheese list criticized, and an assortment of Crescent City characters who also appear in Brite’s novels Liquor and Prime.

Poppy Z. Brite has found a way of writing about New Orleans that bypasses the clichés and approaches the city’s true heart: the hard-working, hard-partying cooks; the ways in which race, class, and sexual orientation do and don’t matter; the love of bottom feeders, be they crustaceans or politicos; the million little juxtapositions of sacred and profane, bizarre and mundane, sublime and ridiculous that make up the everyday life of New Orleans. Some of these stories are set elsewhere, but Brite always returns home in the end.

Borderlands 1 (Borderlands No 1)

Harlan Ellison, Poppy Z. Brite, Charles L. Grant

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

One of the Best Anthologies I've Read 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the best Anthologies I've read yet. It is ashame it is falling out of print. Monteleone did a very commendable job editing this one, as I liked more of the stories in this one than in any previous anthology I've read. The best work in the book is "Stephen," the Bram Stoker Award winning Short Story (I actually think they counted it as a Novella) by Elizabeth Massie. Also very good was the ever-wonderful Poppy Z. Brite's "His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood." Yes, that is Brite's most collected story, but this anthology was the first place it appeared. Ed Gorman--an author I've not particularly cared for in the past--also contributed a short piece I thought was wonderful: "The Black Sedan." This is just a few wonderful pieces. Yes, it has a few that aren't worth the reading--most notably Joe R. Lansdale's contribution--but overall this is a great anthology.

Reality has fractured... and I like it that way. 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

The yarns contained in this volume (or most of them, anyway) are best described as... trippy. "Oh, look, there's a guy stuck on our flagpole," "My new job is watching 'men' pound," and so on. This book scratched an itch I didn't know I had. If you liked "The Twilight Zone," then this book is for you.

If asked about any shortcomings this book may have, I could only give two. First, there is one too many stories about terminal illness; I find stories of this nature to be less horrifying than boring. Second, there aren't any stories about clowns, and this would be the perfect place to publish such tales.

And, as a final note, the story about the wolf that turns into a human is just irresistably cute!

Are You Loathsome Tonight?: A Collection of Short Stories

Poppy Z. Brite

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Brilliant short stories -- Ms. Brite is a gifted writer! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

Having read Liquor, I wanted to read more of Poppy Z. Brite's work. Are You Loathsome Tonight? is quite a surprise. I hadn't expected this sort of writing from Ms. Brite, but I'd been told that this work is right on her alley and that she had branched out of the gothic genre with Liquor. These short stories are a mixture of gothic, paranormal and magic realism with some adult fairy tale elements thrown in for good measure. The writing is incredible -- dark, disarming and creative. My favorite stories are "Vine of the Soul," which from what I've read is the update of a previous story, "Monday's Special," "Self-Made Man," and "King of the Cats." I marvel at how marvelously written these stories are. I have placed Poppy Z. Brite in my "must-read" list. She is a very talented, gifted writer. I cannot recommend this short-story collection enough...

Editorial Review:

This collection by Poppy Z. Brite, author of "Exquisite Corpse" and "Love in Vein," among others, features anew story, "Monday's Special." Poppy contributed story notes as well as the Preface.

The Value of X

Poppy Z. Brite

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Faye Lewis doesnt have a clue 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 11 people found this review helpful.

I certainly hope that no one will heed the advice of the incredibly mean-spirited and bitter woman who seems to think she knows what is best for a writer's career, or for someone to write. Perhaps Poppy Z. Brite, one of America's finest writers, spurned her advice or something. Frankly, I am appalled that amazon allows such things to be posted on these pages.

I thought this book was beautiful in every aspect; the characters, the story, and its breathtaking view of a New Orleans that sadly might now be a thing of the past. But fortunately, Poppy gifted all of us with not only this book, but the ones that follow in this amazing series to always remind us of what this city once was--especially the now gone lower 9th ward.

I am sorry that Ms. Lewis was too busy choking on her own bile to see this book for what it truly is; an inspired new direction for one of our best writers.

I for one applaud her for having the courage to move in a new direction rather than write something she doesn't feel anymore.