In twelve stories, Brite explores the darkest recesses of the human id, its erotic and violent drives, its deepest motivations. Reading Brite is often like reading fanfiction in the best, and most essential, sense: her writing is so id-motivated that it's the purest sort of wish-fulfillment--not despite, but rather because of, its lingering and loving gruesome detail. It's about death and drugs and feces; it's about what those conjure and where they originate, for characters but more often for r...

Book Reaction: https://neverhollowed.com/2018/10/31/...Rating: 4 Stars - minor quibbles but I loved it to bits

This collection featured a short about Ghost and Steve. I read it just for that and loved it even though it was way too short and I could happily read an entire novel dedicated to the awesome whimsy that is Ghost.

Poppy Z. Brite has a disturbing imagination and I love it. This was a fun collection of very different stories. Excellent stuff.

Poppy Z. Brite, Are You Loathsome Tonight? (Gauntlet, 1998)I've read some of Poppy Z. Brite's novels over the course of the last ten years, but have somehow not read any of her short stories until now. Perhaps, judging by the reviews, this wasn't the best place to start. If so, I can't wait to get to the other collections I have lined up.Most fans (and professional reviewers) seem to consider this one a weaker piece of output. While some of the criticisms are justified (not knowing some of the c...

I had previously read a couple of Brite's short stories, one found in this collection, and was interested in reading her more. Obviously, the stories I had read of hers were very tame and not indicative of her style as I really didn't like this collection much. Poppy's writing style is very readable but her topics, no, I should say content is less than to be desired for my tastes. There is a lot of explicit sex which I don't enjoy but don't really have an issue with. What really I didn't appreci...

A great selection of stories that demonstrate the diversity in Brite's writing.

Join me as I celebrate pride month with Poppy Z. Brite's "Are You Loathsome Tonight?" https://youtu.be/xiIAzxBH-Vs

So, this collection of short stories is really good. We have twelve stories that range from fairytale to horror and crime, mostly horror. I enjoyed all of them but the ones that stay with me are Saved (this one was TOO fucked up for my liking -consider i can dig almost everything dark-), Self-Made man was a small version of Exquisite Corspe which i enjoyed a lot (my fav story of the book) and Entertaining Mr. Orton (i wanted to know more about the past of the characters and their future). The ot...

a long preface, but bear with me...Brite is one of those authors with a fiercely devoted following that seethes with energy and anger and ferociousness and love... i often dislike unbridled fan appreciation, since it often leads to gushing about trivial and sophomorically written pieces or various length and dubious provenance, and, even worse, scathing criticism of anyone who decides any story/collection is not "the MOBBESTTHINGEVER!!" because the fans have decided - with no prodding or support...

My favorite story? Not the zombies or the cannibals, the sexy ghosts or the worms eating corpses. It’s a short story about Elvis’s final days that is quiet and bittersweet.

I never thought I'd get to feast on old-school Poppy Z. again. I don't begrudge a favored author her opportunity and right to grow and change in her writing, but Poppy's current "foodie lit" stage is not at all doing it for me. It's like a completely different writer adopted her name, watched an epic marathon of Food Network shows, threw together the thinnest of plots, and stuck in some gay characters for edge value. This, after I spent ten years reading and re-reading Wormwood and Lost Souls an...

This short story collection made me feel very uncomfortable, which I suppose was rather the point; probably my own fault for not knowing what I was getting into. Horror, gore, and sexual content are not my preferred reading topics, let alone all three combined, so that definitely clouds my opinion. However, I felt that all of the stories were well-written in their own right.1. In Vermis VeritasMy favourite of the bunch, it's a short snippet told from the point of view of a rather eloquent (immor...

"Are You Loathsome Tonight?" is a little pricey for such a small volume (185 pages) but as a big fan of Poppy Z. Brite's work I felt it was worth splurging on. Why? Because I got a quickie update on two of my favorite lovers, Trevor and Zach from "Drawing Blood" who, as she puts it, are still in "happy, disgusting, perfect love" - that short story alone was worth the cost of the book for me. Other highlights were "King of the Cats" a sweet, kinky, imaginative retelling of the fairytale "The Poor...

If you haven't liked Poppy Z. Brite's other writiong you won't like this either. This is not for the squeamish nor is it for those who are bothered by darkness, because it gets very very dark. I will say however, my two favorite stories in here were less than dark- "Entertaining Mr. Orton." a perfectly un-loathsome ghost story; so long as your aren't a homophobe. (And if you are, you shouldn't be reading Mz. Brite anyway) And I loved the title story, which I understand pissed off a great many pe...

I generally think his novels are better than this short stories just because when you get a lot of the short stories together it's more noticeable how similar almost all of them are. I will say that the Axeman's Jazz story was pretty unique compared to everything else in here though so I'll give points for that. Also found it interesting that the Self Made Man story was so similar to Joyce Carol's Oates' book Zombie especially since I think that one came first. And as always there's a weird amou...

This book was difficult to choose a rating for. The stories that I liked, I REALLY liked, but some flopped pretty hard in my opinion. Ultimately, I'm deciding to go with 3.5 stars and round up. What I liked: Brilliant writing with lasting imagery, beautiful prose, and a little dark humor where appropriate. Many of the stories have extremely well developed characters for just a few pages. The writing is (mostly) very natural, so even the absurd flows well into these stories.What I didn't like: Th...

Twisted, darkA lot of dark and twisted stories here. Well written. Full of gore, sex and some controversial themes. Not for everyone. But anyone who's a fan of Poppy Z. Brite knows there are no filters.

Published in 1998 by Gauntlet Press, “Are You Loathsome Tonight?” is a short story collection comprising of twelve different stories. The book contains an introduction by Peter Straub and closing by Caitlin R. Kiernan, providing some informative background information on the book and the author. This book was recommended to me and is my first Poppy Z. Brite book. Note: I had no idea who the author was prior to reading this collection so I had no idea what to expect. Had a I done a little researc...

Man I forgot how much I like Poppy Z Brite. Queer horror southern splatterpunk erotica like I read so much of. Gonna be dogging back into more in the real near future. 4.5 Stars