Kristen Roupenian, Author of You Know You Want This Book

From the author of “Cat Person” comes the debut collection You Know You Want This, which brilliantly explores the complex—and often darkly funny—connections between gender, sex and punishment, guilt and anger, the pleasure and terror of inflicting and experiencing pain, across multiple genres.

The short stories find horror in both the things done to women, and in the women themselves. A couple becomes obsessed with their friend hearing them have sex, then seeing them have sexuntil they cant have sex without him; a ten-year-old whose birthday party takes a sinister turn when she wishes for something mean; a woman who finds a book of spells half hidden at the library and summons her hearts desire: a nameless, naked man.

As a collection, they point a finger at you, daring you to feel uncomfortable—or worse, understood—as if to say, You want this, right? You know you want this.