Set largely on the pages of a website where gay male escorts are reviewed by their clients, and told through the postings, emails, and conversation...
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Jul 23, 2011
brian
rated it: 
back in the good 'ol days, when goodreads was a much smaller (and some would say better) place, the #1 top ranked reviewer was a woman called ginnie jones. she claimed to be a very old women in pasadena (her avatar remained a found image of a frazzled pencil-chomping booknerd) who spent all her time reading, reviewing, and tending to her very sick husband. ginnie was an elusive bird: she'd rarely comment on others' pages and would almost never answer private messages. but she was part of our lit
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35 comments
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(74 people liked it)
Apr 13, 2009
Imogen
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Dennis Cooper is such a good writer that it looks like he's just saying some stuff to you, which is hard to pull off. I like the mood you get into in all of his books: these semi-reliable narrators, who tend to be pretty out of it, lazily unspooling a bunch of stuff that happened. Even when, like in this one, there's structural stuff happening, the structure (and the mutilation, and the murders and suicides and bleak gay mopiness and whatever other sensationalist stuff is happening) is secondary
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2 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Jan 05, 2008
Christopher
rated it: 
Cooper's material here -- violent intergenerational gay sex -- is not for every one. But The Sluts brilliantly captures the seductive dangers of online behavior -- how we get entangled in a pointless debates in the comments sections of a web site (or write reviews of books for an audience strangers, ostensibly to "connect," but perhaps really to broadcast a "literate" persona and have our superior tastes reflected back to us).
The Sluts is almost entirely told as More...
The Sluts is almost entirely told as More...
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(3 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Chris
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This book is formalistically brilliant, the story being primarily told by a host of anonymous or quasi-anonymous reviewers of a hustler in southern california.
It reads like the legal dossier of some horrid crime, transforming "the reader" into a voyer and participant in the drama that unfolds. Violently plucking the chords of desire, lust, infatuation, ambiguity and anonymity, Dennis Cooper has written a complex and entertaining work.
I read this book while on t More...
It reads like the legal dossier of some horrid crime, transforming "the reader" into a voyer and participant in the drama that unfolds. Violently plucking the chords of desire, lust, infatuation, ambiguity and anonymity, Dennis Cooper has written a complex and entertaining work.
I read this book while on t More...
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(2 people liked it)
Jul 26, 2008
Ill
rated it:
Chuck Palahnuik is a fucking poser. Fuck "Snuff". Fuck Chuck. If you want some down and dirty snuff film fiction it doesn't get any better (or dirtier) than this little gem.
I felt guilty after reading this book. He blurs the line between reader and participant so skillfully I found myself grappling with my own hideous perversions.
Ultimately in a society where the internet, et al. has made the once impossible attainable - the lone nut now linked to other lone nuts.
Hav More...
I felt guilty after reading this book. He blurs the line between reader and participant so skillfully I found myself grappling with my own hideous perversions.
Ultimately in a society where the internet, et al. has made the once impossible attainable - the lone nut now linked to other lone nuts.
Hav More...
Aug 27, 2007
Matthew
rated it:
One point many other reviewers haven't hit on yet is that the obvious analogy of the fictitious "slut" is J.T. LeRoy, the Cooper protege and author recently discovered to be a middle-aged woman that had tricked the publishing industry with an elaborately crafted guise of a teen runaway-turned-prostitute. The story of LeRoy and Sluts both highlight the ease in which "lives" can be created in our current era - particularly lives that appeal to certain gay men's fantasies of he
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(2 people liked it)
Jan 29, 2008
zack
rated it:
Both more exciting and complex than other Cooper novels. The anonymity of the message board adds another layer of intrigue/suspense of his usual description of violent sexuality. And instead of focusing on the lives of the young teenage boys, he tells the story almost exclusively through the fantasies and lies of the real and fake perpetrators. This is an improvement, as all the teenage characters from previous novels, no matter how much their inner-lives were portrayed, seemed more like they ca
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(1 person liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Robert
rated it:
I was hooked on Dennis Cooper when I first read Closer, and was again moved when I read Frisk. The books I followed, I enjoyed but they held me less and less. So when The Sluts came out, I bought it immediately, because his books often become difficult to find new, and I let it sit on my shelf, thinking I would read it when I got around to it.
Holy shit. It's brilliant. The narrative is moves from online escort advertisements two faxes and instant message logs.
My fas More...
Holy shit. It's brilliant. The narrative is moves from online escort advertisements two faxes and instant message logs.
My fas More...
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 20, 2011
Joey
rated it:
Dennis Cooper's novel, The Sluts, opens with an online review of a hustler named "Brad" who has mental problems. A second review follows, and then a third. The novel is told through these reviews and through emails and posts on a website devoted to reviewing hustlers. The posts by these reviewers mix the empty, repeated, imitative language of pornography with a series of straightforward, honest sounding voices. And they lie.
They lie, and they admit to lying when they think i More...
They lie, and they admit to lying when they think i More...
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(1 person liked it)
Oct 06, 2011
Ashmedai
rated it:
The Sluts is a novel which is mainly set on a web site where gay male escorts are reviewed by their clients. It's a story told through these reviews, e-mails, telephone conversations and posts on web forums, which is exactly why I was ambivalent about starting this book. I found it hard to imagine how a novel could be written in that format and not become a disjointed mess. However, once I picked it up, I could barely put it back down, and was riveted from cover to cover. It's hands down one of
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Aug 03, 2009
still processing this one. a swift, vile read. the layers of mystery & lies surrounding the murder of one gay male escort and the identity and whereabouts of another make me wonder if cooper was at all in on the j.t. leroy scam -- he wrote the novel before the scandal broke and the similarities between the situations of each are enough to warrant suspicion.
extremely graphically violent, although much of the violence is fantasy. but all fiction is fantasy, right? well -- in this book, every More...
extremely graphically violent, although much of the violence is fantasy. but all fiction is fantasy, right? well -- in this book, every More...
Jan 18, 2012
Brad was a troubled kid who had a fettish for rough sex with men. So he begged and begged for it until one man said "yes". Their first time together it was good but then Brad started to get crazy. As time went by they saw each other even more. Only to realize that Brad was a Sociopath who was molested at every turn. So the website owner took Brad to the hospital to get checked out because he suspected that he had a disease in the brain. Turns out he was right Brad had a tumor in his br
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Apr 29, 2010
Lizzy
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The Sluts was a book someone had recommended to me a while back, so when it turned up at the bookshop where I work, I decided to give it a go.
While not for the squeamish, I found that Cooper handled what was incredibly dark material in a fantastic way. Even at it's most graphic and disturbing, The Sluts never feels like a cheep thrill. It's dark and twisted, but at the same time full of human pain and problems.
The book takes place in the deepest and darkest corners of the More...
While not for the squeamish, I found that Cooper handled what was incredibly dark material in a fantastic way. Even at it's most graphic and disturbing, The Sluts never feels like a cheep thrill. It's dark and twisted, but at the same time full of human pain and problems.
The book takes place in the deepest and darkest corners of the More...
Feb 08, 2010
Lewis
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Sep 17, 2011
Intplibrarian
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The material in this book may be disturbing to some readers...[return][return]Seriously. It's Palahniuk gruesome, but without the humor.[return][return]That being said, this is an amazing mindfuck of a book. I stayed up way too late because I didn't want to put it down. (Such a cliche, I know, but when it's true, it's true!)[return][return]I actually wish I knew more disturbed people so that I'd have more people I'd feel comfortable recommending this book to.
Jan 23, 2010
Victoria
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This book is absolutely not for everyone. I picked up the novel because the title caught my eye. This was one those stories that stayed with me after I finished the book. Though the concept is incredibly disturbing, the author's style is incredibly real and raw. Needless to say, I googled Dennis Cooper and find his life fascinating. Though his material is, I'll say "aquired," I am interested in reading his other books. I seem to have an affinity for things that are twisted.
Dec 06, 2010
Trashpalace
rated it: 
Dopo aver sentito innumerevoli pareri contrastanti, questo è il mio primo Cooper. Un agghiacciante resoconto dell'illusorio mondo di Internet e dell'immaginario sessuale nei suoi aspetti più perversi. A tratti temo che Cooper si lasci prendere la mano dal desiderio di shockare (una scena in particolare mi ha rivoltato lo stomaco), ma il risultato è efficace e provocatorio, nel senso positivo del termine.
Mar 06, 2010
Akigriffin
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I read this book in one 5 hour sitting. it was addicting, suspenseful, and by the end, utterly disturbing. The way it is writtne, mostly in the form of internet reviews of "Brad" and message board posts, add a unique spin to the story. By the end it's still hard to work out what really happened and what was made up, even though of course it's all really fiction. Anyways, amazing book, but not for the light of heart at all!
Aug 07, 2011
Not for the faint-hearted! Both repelling and compelling, this a book I had to read in one sitting. Characters, who may or may not be who they say they are, indulge in acts of sex and violence which may or may not actually take place. While the mystery story may be extreme, the portrayal of an online community feels very real! Off now to torture members of a boy band... or am I?!
Sep 10, 2011
Tancredi
rated it:
Un romanzo folle, osceno, estremo. Un romanzo coraggioso, perché ci vuole un coraggio mostruoso ad addentrarsi nelle menti di uomini che sembrano sempre più bestie (senza offesa per le bestie), uomini che sono pazzi, sadici, violenti, drogati, e dei grandi bugiardi.
Questo thriller metapornografico - così è stato definito - è interamente costruito su un mosaico di bugie che nascondono, trasformano e violentano la verità. E' una spirale di perdizione anche per lo stesso lettore, che ad un certo pu More...
Questo thriller metapornografico - così è stato definito - è interamente costruito su un mosaico di bugie che nascondono, trasformano e violentano la verità. E' una spirale di perdizione anche per lo stesso lettore, che ad un certo pu More...
Nov 27, 2011
I had kind of a stendhal syndrome reaction to this (or maybe it was something else), and then all the time these sweet-faced 18 year old girls are coming to the place where I work reading it, and it feels like when there are babies on roller coasters just chilling. I liked how this was so internet-y and suspenseful.
Apr 19, 2010
Amy
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This book is not what anyone could really deem "well-written." It's totally trashy and takes the form of message boards on an "escort-review" site for male prostitutes. Sometimes words are missing, I believe in an attempt at message-board authenticity, but Cooper never misspells or uses capitalization in a strange manner. At its heart, this is a mystery about "Brad" a male escort that may or may not have a mental disorder, may or may not be okay with being snuffed o
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Feb 03, 2009
Robin
rated it:
Chat rooms are more real than face to face for certain taboo practices. Narrators are all unreliable perverts. And all objects are fetishized as living until revealed as dead. hard hard hard to read, but worth worth worth it.
Dec 10, 2007
Brent
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Aside from the story itself -- which definitely has its own scary merit (seriously seriously horrific, imaginative, and nightmarish but I've commented on that in reviews of other Dennis Cooper books so I won't repeat myself) -- what I really appreciate about The Sluts is the experimentation with the literary form in the internet age. I'm sure it will seem embarrassingly out of date in no time whatsoever, but the novel uses the device of internet postings to tell this crazy typical-Dennis Cooper
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Jan 20, 2009
Jon
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This is my favorite Dennis Cooper novel and one of the best book i've read to play with the form and structure of a novel. Once again though, it's not for the faint of heart
Jul 23, 2011
Tyne
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Sluts was a very entertaining look into a world that I assume is very underground and well hidden from the straight community. Eye opening and interesting.
Nov 07, 2010
Adam
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What if Borges took on Rashomon, but instead of the action happening in a grove, it went down on a message board dedicated to reviewing homosexual escorts?
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Mar 30, 2009
Nick
rated it:
This book was AMAZING! It's the only book I had to put down in order to take a breather. It's intense, but well worth it.
Jul 01, 2009
Stephen
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This book seems frighteningly real. The plot doesn't quite button up, but it's like nothing you've probably read before.
May 31, 2010
Terence
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Love the use of the internet, chat rooms, e-mails and faxes to evoke this profane mystery/fantasy. Excellent work.
