I really admire how Mary Gaitskill is willing to think about the problematic with complexity and humanity, and without taking sides or engaging in all the fashionable moral hectoring that passes for serious thought these days.

Gaitskill shares Edith Wharton's forensic awareness of what happens just beneath the surface of high-toned encounters in public places

Gaitskill's brand of brainy lyricism, of acid shot through with grace, is unlike anyone else's. And it constitutes some of the most incisive fiction writing around

It’s only a matter of time before you find yourself thumping someone’s dinner table vigorously as you discuss [You Know You Want This]… Roupenian’s latest tales are sexy, chilling and disturbingly gruesome in finest fairytale tradition… Think Delta of Venus meets Angela Carter meets Bridesmaids.

Wholly engrossing.

Looking at modern gender and power dynamics, these uncomfortable tales are frequently (understandably) dark – and sometimes horrific – but equally often there is sheer relief at hearing someone brilliantly articulate those itchy-scratchy ‘Is it just me?’ irritations and neuroses… [You Know You Want This] may not be an easy read, but it’s an original one.

A scintillating new debut collection, with a glorious revenge comedy at its center… [Roupenian] proves astonishingly deft at depicting the warped psychology of romantic entanglement, and finding the black humor in it.

Roupenian is a horror writer, bone-deep and red-blooded. Her horrors, like the horrors of Shirley Jackson or Janet Frame, are grounded in sharp emotional veracity... Roupenian bites unsparingly into the darkest chambers of the human heart.

[Roupenian's] writing here is sharp and pitiless, and... makes Cat Person look tame... toe-curlingly nasty at times, [You Know You Want This owes] more to writers such as Shirley Jackson and Joyce Carol Oates than to the new wave of post#MeToo fem-lit.

Kristen Roupenian isn’t just an uncannily great writer, she also knows things about the human psyche—things that I always supposed I would learn at some point, but never did. Some of these things are about men’s minds in particular and I’m pretty sure she’s right. The world has made a lot more sense since reading this book.

If you think you know what this collection will be like, you’re wrong. These stories are sharp and perverse, dark and bizarre, unrelenting and utterly bananas. I love them so, so much.

Roupenian offers an audacious take on human relations in all their awkward and weird glory, putting some of these stories in mind of Curtis Sittenfeld or even, on occasion, Sally Rooney. There's no doubt that Roupenian is a wellspring of original ideas… And if Roupenian can continue to mine the heart of darkness with the same sort of daring, her future as one of our great literary truth-tellers could very well materialise.

[There's] a huge amount of variety in You Know You Want This. Magical realism rubs up against full fantasy, narrative formats chop and change, the first and third person are used with equal and impressive skill… This is a highly accomplished collection.

I found the stories exceptionally compelling; I love the way they create a world that is both familiar and deeply unsettling, showing – in strange and surprising ways – the interplay of disgust, fear and desire. Images from the book keep coming back to me: its narratives feel both mythical and completely modern.

In an age that needs a wrecking ball, You Know You Want This provides one. This is a raucous, visceral page-turner that tunnels into the heart of relationships gone awry, modern-day miscommunications, and other horrors of being human. Not polite. Suffers no fools. Takes no prisoners. Read it.

These transgressive and darkly electric stories announce the arrival of a bold, new, necessary voice in American short fiction.

The 11 new stories [in You Know You Want This] are equally compulsive, equally repellent [as Cat Person]. You’ll be left longing for the bygone days of courtship.

The stories in You Know You Want This are wildly strange and deeply human. When it comes to the secret hurt and twisted desires that lurk in seemingly mundane encounters between men and women, Kristen Roupenian is a super genius. I loved every single word of this freaky, fantastic book.

In Roupenian’s debut, You Know You Want This, she establishes herself as a raucous and bloodthirsty storyteller… She slathers even the most innocuous pastoral imagery with erotic Baudelairean macabre… it’ll have you covering your eyes and reading through your fingers.

It's a new literary genre. Preorder You Know You Want This, the eagerly awaited short-story collection from Cat Person author Kristen Roupenian. Supernatural horror meets bedroom politics.

[Roupenian's] writing exists in that nebulous dimension just before desire turns into repulsion. It hits a pinpoint target of an unspeakable discomfort. Seen one way, it’s a relief to have recognition; in another, like the title itself, it’s an indictment.

It's unheard of for a short story to go viral, but Cat Person – through a combination of impossibly sharp writing and impossibly good timing – had done it. A year later, Roupenian's debut collection proves that [Cat Person's] success wasn't a fluke. The 12 visceral stories here range from uncomfortable to truly horrifying and are often – though not always – focused on the vicious contradictions of being female… Unsettling, memorable, and – maybe perversely – very, very fun.

Moments of startling insight into the hidden – and often uncomfortable – truths underneath modern relationships… there are some stellar moments of pithy clarity: In 'Scarred,' upon summoning a way to cheat desire, the protagonist muses, ‘I had everything that could be wanted. I invented new needs just to satisfy.’ This is a promising debut.

Roupenian’s tales from the frontline of modern relationships are perfect for an alternative Valentine’s Day display.

A collection of short stories which cover the same murky waters of attraction as "Cat Person".

There is always some anxiety following such a short, steep rise to recognition, but in this collection Roupenian lives up to those high expectations. The stories are wonderfully varied in execution, from realist to surreal, staying fresh while circling one primary concern: how men and women relate to one another, and how often that relationship can go wrong.

[A] sharp, powerful and uncomfortable debut collection of stories… [Roupenian] is always in narrative control.

Abrasive, painfully aware accounts of relationships in turmoil… You know you want this collection.

You Know You Want This seems to touch on conversations that the country has yet to have — often using horror and magical realism to illuminate the darker corners of our world.

In Look at Your Game, Girl and The Boy in the Pool, naïve female desire is so brilliantly and lushly evoked… [Biter] shows a flair for satire and comic timing… I look forward to Roupenian’s next book.

The best fiction leaves us thinking about it long after turning the last page, and with [Cat Person], author Kristen Roupenian established herself as a writer to watch. Her short-story collection, You Know You Want This, includes that story and others, all of which will have you talking about them long after finishing.

In her highly anticipated debut collection, the author behind the viral Cat Person story offers up a host of strange, fascinating, and downright delightful narratives you won't be able to stop talking about. Spanning a range of genres and topics, it is equal parts dark, uncomfortable, and funny.

Readers who are looking for more uncomfortably realistic renderings of awkward romantic encounters won’t be disappointed, but this collection is so much more than that, offering an array of biting (sometimes literally!) looks at the ways our most hidden perversions manifest in our lives. It’s a razor-sharp, often ruthless, never less than relentless examination of the way we are now. Scary, right? But you know you want it.

[You Know You Want This captures] the torturous and complicated justifications for untoward behaviour in the search for closeness and connection.

What unites the collection is less her [Roupenian’s] gender politics than her interest in the way fantasies become distorted, disappointing, even dangerous when they approach reality… narrative twist[s] changes the direction of a story and leads it somewhere new. Roupenian’s desire to have her moral and reject it too could be said to put a twist on the twist.

Roupenian remains rooted in realism, she gives pause by exposing the sinister side of sexuality, and one looks forward to seeing what she might accomplish with the novel form.

Kristen Roupenian's debut short stories fulfil all expectations… she infuses mundane reality with a thrilling layer of menace.

One of the most anticipated story collections of the year.

Violence, cruelty or misunderstanding are never far away in these 12 stories, which are by turns, unsettling, ruthless and often funny.

Walker’s laconic, Hemingway-esque prose style perfectly complements his low-key approach to his material: the matter-of-fact tone in which he recalls his most horrific experiences in Iraq makes them seem all the more horrible. It works equally well with deadpan humour.

Roupenian is a wizard of provocative, psychological fiction, exploring the dark side of the human psyche. Each of her short stories is terrifyingly relatable, making the reader fear something much more relevant than more supernatural horror stories.

A fascinating and repugnant series of stories, all tremendous examples of what this unsung hero of a literary form can do.

Roupenian’s wildly discomfiting new collection, You Know You Want This… is often wonderfully, if grotesquely, physical… This book isn’t bedtime reading.

These are stories that make you feel fascinated but repelled, scared but delighted, revolted but aroused.

You Know You Want This is an alarming but compelling book. Roupenian’s short stories, weaving together science fiction, confession and fantasy, are like infections spreading across the senses, blocking out everything except the compulsion to read on… Roupenian achieves something few other writers have: providing a balanced reflection on a very difficult subject.

There isn't enough ink on the internet to recommend this collection highly enough; I urge you to experience not only the viral hit ‘Cat Person' but the sheer abundance summarised in the ‘and other stories'… Her ability as a short story writer is absolute, and in her hands the form returns to what it is in the works of writers like Poe, Kafka, Shirley Jackson: they're provocations.