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Exquisite Corpse

By: Poppy Z. Brite
Narrated by: Joshua Saxon
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Publisher's summary

From the author of Lost Souls, Drawing Blood, and Wormwood comes a thrilling and chilling novel that best-selling author Peter Straub says serves as a “guidebook to hell”.

To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his “art” to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires, and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his “art” to limits even Compton hadn’t previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim.

Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London’s Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. Exquisite Corpse confirms Brite as a writer who defies categorization. It is a novel for those who dare trespass where the sacred and profane become one.

©1996 Billy Martin (P)2020 David N. Wilson
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Featured Article: The top 100 horror books of all time


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What listeners say about Exquisite Corpse

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Extreme Horror Classic

Poppy Z. Brite was writing extreme horror before extreme horror was a thing. I read this great over fifteen years ago and thanks to Crossroad Press for producing this as an audiobook I was able to revisit this classic read during my work commute. The narration by Joshua Saxon is perfect for this book, fantastic all the way around.

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Buckle up

Weird, gruesome and fantastic! It's a gay Hannibal Lecture! Blood and guts! No detail left behind!

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WOW!!!!

This was dark, very disturbing, but sooo good! Definitely not for everyone. A little hard to listen too sometimes. I'm not sure how I feel knowing I enjoyed it so much. YIKES!!! LMAO

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slow and steady

This was really good, but took a long while to get to the meat of it. Then the meat of the story didn't last nearly enough. But what a great story it was. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

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Twisted and fascinating

This book is not for the faint of heart, but if you’re OK with Gore, rape, discussion of HIV and aids, murder. It’s phenomenal. This book talks about serial killers, and how HIV/aids decimated the gay population. I think this is a fascinating novel, and truly was an enjoyable experience for me. I enjoy body horror though, and if you are a faint of heart, this book is absolutely not for you. 

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Homoerotic Cannibalism

This book is vile and disturbing, yet goes deeper than just gay serial killers. Definitely lived up to the hype for me, so glad I finally got around to it.

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Reads more like penthouse letter

I’m not too squeamish, and I could’ve made it through this book but it’s literally a gay penthouse letter than HAPPENS to have a serial killer hunting New Orleans. Credit to the author’s prose that is sometimes reminiscent of “Lolita” and in that way a scene can be beautiful but it’s just again and again and aga.. a straight guy can only take so much hyper graphic man on man action. woke or not.

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WOW

okay. i have no words. i was amazed throughout the whole book, the narration was beautiful, and i completely forgot at times that this is a book about disgusting stuff until the stuff happened. one of my all time favorites, much quicker than j was expecting. i will come back to this again and again.

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Incredible story & writing.

Narrator was fantastic. The story is dark but very well written. Very matter of fact. Detail oriented and overall a thrilling take. Highly recommend to those who like twisted stories.

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Perfection

I love this book. Everything about it. It’s beautiful, uncomfortable and disgusting. The performance is phenomenal, a work of art.

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