just another reader, 23 Jul 2008
ok this was extremley distressing, disgusting and a very dangerous read however despite these negatives i felt the writer wrote on a very contreversial subject with great authority and ksill. even though i found partd of the book extremley distressign i was still enveloped in this almost cryptical book playing detective to find out the trugh.

overall if you want to read something that is extremeley challenging this is the book







Gratuitous rubbish, 24 Oct 2007
I can't believe this book took 10 years to write. I'm no prude, believe me, but this book contains some of the most vile passages I have ever read. And to what end? It's a deeply dark book, that thinks it sheds light on a murky world, but ultimately it's just sick porn.

The most harrowing and disturbing book i have ever read, 22 Apr 2007
Just finished this book and, like the previous reviewer, I read this in one sitting propelled on by my increasing horror for the fate of the doomed protagonist.

OK, let's be very clear from the start, the subject matter is very dark and distressing and this book is not a comfortable read at all. I'd file it next to Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho' and Poppy Z Brite's 'Exquisite corpse' in terms of the graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Unlike those books however, 'The Sluts' is fairly unrelenting in the harrowing and increasing depravity it depicts . The reader feels much less distanced from fiction here as there is no irony or humour (`American psycho`) or fantasy/magic (`Exquisite Corpse') to distract from the extremely disturbing subject matter.

Essentially 'The Sluts' is the story of 'Brad' a very damaged young male hustler working the extreme end of the escort industry. He is hired by, and caters to the most sadistic and depraved of clients. His story of escalating abuse, torture and eventual murder (?) is pieced together largely on the internet via escort sites, message boards, and e-mails.

As a comment on the darkest state of humankind it is a very depressing one indeed. There are small sections in the middle part of this book, entries from Brad's customers, when you believe they are beginning to show a glimmer of compassion towards their subject . This hope is brutally erased however when their entries conclude by describing their sick fantasies. Or it becomes clear that they have already, or would like to,further abuse the escort.

This is a good book in the sense that it works the emotions very effectively. It is however, extremely disturbing so do not expect to sleep well after reading it.


Is it wrong to enjoy this book?, 05 Apr 2006
This book has taken over ten years to write according to Cooper himslef. With this in mind the concerns are similar to those in the George Miles cycle- young boys, rock stars, heavy sex and death. However, unlike the GM cycle which deteriorated into incomprehensibility by the end this is a lucid and brilliant novel. Although it is continually about sex for 250 pages there is a strong story underneath dealing with the problems of identity and truth on the internet. I read this book in one sitting even though some of it the most sickening writing I've read for a long time!

just another reader, 23 Jul 2008
ok this was extremley distressing, disgusting and a very dangerous read however despite these negatives i felt the writer wrote on a very contreversial subject with great authority and ksill. even though i found partd of the book extremley distressign i was still enveloped in this almost cryptical book playing detective to find out the trugh.

overall if you want to read something that is extremeley challenging this is the book







Gratuitous rubbish, 24 Oct 2007
I can't believe this book took 10 years to write. I'm no prude, believe me, but this book contains some of the most vile passages I have ever read. And to what end? It's a deeply dark book, that thinks it sheds light on a murky world, but ultimately it's just sick porn.

The most harrowing and disturbing book i have ever read, 22 Apr 2007
Just finished this book and, like the previous reviewer, I read this in one sitting propelled on by my increasing horror for the fate of the doomed protagonist.

OK, let's be very clear from the start, the subject matter is very dark and distressing and this book is not a comfortable read at all. I'd file it next to Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho' and Poppy Z Brite's 'Exquisite corpse' in terms of the graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Unlike those books however, 'The Sluts' is fairly unrelenting in the harrowing and increasing depravity it depicts . The reader feels much less distanced from fiction here as there is no irony or humour (`American psycho`) or fantasy/magic (`Exquisite Corpse') to distract from the extremely disturbing subject matter.

Essentially 'The Sluts' is the story of 'Brad' a very damaged young male hustler working the extreme end of the escort industry. He is hired by, and caters to the most sadistic and depraved of clients. His story of escalating abuse, torture and eventual murder (?) is pieced together largely on the internet via escort sites, message boards, and e-mails.

As a comment on the darkest state of humankind it is a very depressing one indeed. There are small sections in the middle part of this book, entries from Brad's customers, when you believe they are beginning to show a glimmer of compassion towards their subject . This hope is brutally erased however when their entries conclude by describing their sick fantasies. Or it becomes clear that they have already, or would like to,further abuse the escort.

This is a good book in the sense that it works the emotions very effectively. It is however, extremely disturbing so do not expect to sleep well after reading it.


Is it wrong to enjoy this book?, 05 Apr 2006
This book has taken over ten years to write according to Cooper himslef. With this in mind the concerns are similar to those in the George Miles cycle- young boys, rock stars, heavy sex and death. However, unlike the GM cycle which deteriorated into incomprehensibility by the end this is a lucid and brilliant novel. Although it is continually about sex for 250 pages there is a strong story underneath dealing with the problems of identity and truth on the internet. I read this book in one sitting even though some of it the most sickening writing I've read for a long time!

I will never forget this book, 29 Oct 2006
This book affected me so much that 10 minutes after reading it my teeth were chattering, 30 minutes after reading it I was crying inconsolably, and 6 weeks after reading it I'd written my first novel! Everyone has their own tastes, and this book is neither for the easily offended nor for those looking for a 'light read'. But I personally was deeply affected by this book, and still can't get it out of my mind months later.

well..., 04 Mar 2003
the first Cooper book i've read. i finished it a couple of months ago, and struggle now to remember anything particular about it. and this is my first point; it is all written on the flat. the author has an excellent ear for dialogue, and is pleasingly experimental with his syntax, but the voice remains the same throughout. Larry in a car being troubled and talking about murder, Larry in his room being troubled and talking about murder, Larry back in his car again being...etc. i couldn't help feeling the whole thing was something of a glamorisation of troubled youth too. rather than charting what is actually present in the disturbed young male psyche, i had the impression Cooper was charting it rather as he wanted it to be. overall, i felt i got more out of the book stylistically than content-wise. that said, it is an intelligent, unusual piece of work, and should be valued for these qualities which are present all too rarely in books published today.

Rewritten maturity, 29 Aug 2002
Although I 'enjoy' (wrong word) Dennis Cooper's books I have had the feeling for some time that his plot is simply rewritten in each book. His obsession with dark haired, skinny boys, aberrant sexual relationships, insecurity about sexuality, murder and rape appear in each book. This worked detrimentally towards the end of his five book cycle; Period was dire and incomprehensible, but Cooper is back on form. There is a new maturity to his writing. Gone are the sentences where the subject is uncertain, and the prose is fuller and clearer. He is to be commended for trying to push forward the way the novel is written but his experiments didn't always work. This is more conventionally written and deals with his usual issues in a fuller manner. Cooper seems clearer about his stance as narrator in this novel and deserves to be heard.

just another reader, 23 Jul 2008
ok this was extremley distressing, disgusting and a very dangerous read however despite these negatives i felt the writer wrote on a very contreversial subject with great authority and ksill. even though i found partd of the book extremley distressign i was still enveloped in this almost cryptical book playing detective to find out the trugh.

overall if you want to read something that is extremeley challenging this is the book







Gratuitous rubbish, 24 Oct 2007
I can't believe this book took 10 years to write. I'm no prude, believe me, but this book contains some of the most vile passages I have ever read. And to what end? It's a deeply dark book, that thinks it sheds light on a murky world, but ultimately it's just sick porn.

The most harrowing and disturbing book i have ever read, 22 Apr 2007
Just finished this book and, like the previous reviewer, I read this in one sitting propelled on by my increasing horror for the fate of the doomed protagonist.

OK, let's be very clear from the start, the subject matter is very dark and distressing and this book is not a comfortable read at all. I'd file it next to Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho' and Poppy Z Brite's 'Exquisite corpse' in terms of the graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Unlike those books however, 'The Sluts' is fairly unrelenting in the harrowing and increasing depravity it depicts . The reader feels much less distanced from fiction here as there is no irony or humour (`American psycho`) or fantasy/magic (`Exquisite Corpse') to distract from the extremely disturbing subject matter.

Essentially 'The Sluts' is the story of 'Brad' a very damaged young male hustler working the extreme end of the escort industry. He is hired by, and caters to the most sadistic and depraved of clients. His story of escalating abuse, torture and eventual murder (?) is pieced together largely on the internet via escort sites, message boards, and e-mails.

As a comment on the darkest state of humankind it is a very depressing one indeed. There are small sections in the middle part of this book, entries from Brad's customers, when you believe they are beginning to show a glimmer of compassion towards their subject . This hope is brutally erased however when their entries conclude by describing their sick fantasies. Or it becomes clear that they have already, or would like to,further abuse the escort.

This is a good book in the sense that it works the emotions very effectively. It is however, extremely disturbing so do not expect to sleep well after reading it.


Is it wrong to enjoy this book?, 05 Apr 2006
This book has taken over ten years to write according to Cooper himslef. With this in mind the concerns are similar to those in the George Miles cycle- young boys, rock stars, heavy sex and death. However, unlike the GM cycle which deteriorated into incomprehensibility by the end this is a lucid and brilliant novel. Although it is continually about sex for 250 pages there is a strong story underneath dealing with the problems of identity and truth on the internet. I read this book in one sitting even though some of it the most sickening writing I've read for a long time!

I will never forget this book, 29 Oct 2006
This book affected me so much that 10 minutes after reading it my teeth were chattering, 30 minutes after reading it I was crying inconsolably, and 6 weeks after reading it I'd written my first novel! Everyone has their own tastes, and this book is neither for the easily offended nor for those looking for a 'light read'. But I personally was deeply affected by this book, and still can't get it out of my mind months later.

well..., 04 Mar 2003
the first Cooper book i've read. i finished it a couple of months ago, and struggle now to remember anything particular about it. and this is my first point; it is all written on the flat. the author has an excellent ear for dialogue, and is pleasingly experimental with his syntax, but the voice remains the same throughout. Larry in a car being troubled and talking about murder, Larry in his room being troubled and talking about murder, Larry back in his car again being...etc. i couldn't help feeling the whole thing was something of a glamorisation of troubled youth too. rather than charting what is actually present in the disturbed young male psyche, i had the impression Cooper was charting it rather as he wanted it to be. overall, i felt i got more out of the book stylistically than content-wise. that said, it is an intelligent, unusual piece of work, and should be valued for these qualities which are present all too rarely in books published today.

Rewritten maturity, 29 Aug 2002
Although I 'enjoy' (wrong word) Dennis Cooper's books I have had the feeling for some time that his plot is simply rewritten in each book. His obsession with dark haired, skinny boys, aberrant sexual relationships, insecurity about sexuality, murder and rape appear in each book. This worked detrimentally towards the end of his five book cycle; Period was dire and incomprehensible, but Cooper is back on form. There is a new maturity to his writing. Gone are the sentences where the subject is uncertain, and the prose is fuller and clearer. He is to be commended for trying to push forward the way the novel is written but his experiments didn't always work. This is more conventionally written and deals with his usual issues in a fuller manner. Cooper seems clearer about his stance as narrator in this novel and deserves to be heard.

God Jr, 10 Mar 2006
For those used to Cooper's work this may seem a departure. God Jr. explores the emotional aftermath of an accident which kills a man's son through the obsessed, guilty and basically screwed up thoughts of a man who try's to make sense of his own life through his son's obsessions with a video game and a mysterious tower.
Cooper's spare, taut prose produces a tender and real depiction of grief and guilt that draw you in unsuspectedly to identifying with a flawed character.
Short and very, very sweet.

Guide is Dennis Cooper's fourth volume in an ambitious five novel cycle (which has also included Frisk, Wrong, Closer and Try). His previous novels have all attempted to articulate the difficulty that the (modern)writer has in constructing in language a narrative that elucidates language's own ever present tension between disclosure and evasion.

Guide follows, in its hip, sassy, sexy way, this same theme. The textual problematic is played out in an arena where a self-conscious authorial voice, with all the correct pop-cultural references, narrates an often brutal and very explicit homo-erotic story of sex, drugs and rock 'n'roll. Whilst an LSD-induced lucidity, or perhaps simply the ingenuousness of youth, is nostalgically invoked, the ever present search for a more visceral sexual experience that could throw the narrator back into a more authentic sense of being continues throughout. The novel is very episodic with only the flimsiest of "stories": Dennis thinking of past sexual experiences, past valid experiences, fantasising along with his "friends" of future possible connections. They dream of sexually abusing the lead singer of a Britpop band; they watch more pornography; the magnitude of their indolence, and disappointment, continues in direct proportion to their drug-taking.

Cooper portrays a snuff-porn lifestyle saturated with ennui and pain but somehow gilded with hope. Like Generation X's Douglas Coupland Cooper is not nearly as world-weary as he seems. There is a humanity here and it is this humanity, this sense of care, coupled with the quality of the writing, that rescues the novel from its potential nihilism. Guide maps a certain set of existential crises and suggests that our responses, if they are to rescue us, must be embedded in our desires. --Mark Thwaite

just another reader, 23 Jul 2008
ok this was extremley distressing, disgusting and a very dangerous read however despite these negatives i felt the writer wrote on a very contreversial subject with great authority and ksill. even though i found partd of the book extremley distressign i was still enveloped in this almost cryptical book playing detective to find out the trugh.

overall if you want to read something that is extremeley challenging this is the book







Gratuitous rubbish, 24 Oct 2007
I can't believe this book took 10 years to write. I'm no prude, believe me, but this book contains some of the most vile passages I have ever read. And to what end? It's a deeply dark book, that thinks it sheds light on a murky world, but ultimately it's just sick porn.

The most harrowing and disturbing book i have ever read, 22 Apr 2007
Just finished this book and, like the previous reviewer, I read this in one sitting propelled on by my increasing horror for the fate of the doomed protagonist.

OK, let's be very clear from the start, the subject matter is very dark and distressing and this book is not a comfortable read at all. I'd file it next to Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho' and Poppy Z Brite's 'Exquisite corpse' in terms of the graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Unlike those books however, 'The Sluts' is fairly unrelenting in the harrowing and increasing depravity it depicts . The reader feels much less distanced from fiction here as there is no irony or humour (`American psycho`) or fantasy/magic (`Exquisite Corpse') to distract from the extremely disturbing subject matter.

Essentially 'The Sluts' is the story of 'Brad' a very damaged young male hustler working the extreme end of the escort industry. He is hired by, and caters to the most sadistic and depraved of clients. His story of escalating abuse, torture and eventual murder (?) is pieced together largely on the internet via escort sites, message boards, and e-mails.

As a comment on the darkest state of humankind it is a very depressing one indeed. There are small sections in the middle part of this book, entries from Brad's customers, when you believe they are beginning to show a glimmer of compassion towards their subject . This hope is brutally erased however when their entries conclude by describing their sick fantasies. Or it becomes clear that they have already, or would like to,further abuse the escort.

This is a good book in the sense that it works the emotions very effectively. It is however, extremely disturbing so do not expect to sleep well after reading it.


Is it wrong to enjoy this book?, 05 Apr 2006
This book has taken over ten years to write according to Cooper himslef. With this in mind the concerns are similar to those in the George Miles cycle- young boys, rock stars, heavy sex and death. However, unlike the GM cycle which deteriorated into incomprehensibility by the end this is a lucid and brilliant novel. Although it is continually about sex for 250 pages there is a strong story underneath dealing with the problems of identity and truth on the internet. I read this book in one sitting even though some of it the most sickening writing I've read for a long time!

I will never forget this book, 29 Oct 2006
This book affected me so much that 10 minutes after reading it my teeth were chattering, 30 minutes after reading it I was crying inconsolably, and 6 weeks after reading it I'd written my first novel! Everyone has their own tastes, and this book is neither for the easily offended nor for those looking for a 'light read'. But I personally was deeply affected by this book, and still can't get it out of my mind months later.

well..., 04 Mar 2003
the first Cooper book i've read. i finished it a couple of months ago, and struggle now to remember anything particular about it. and this is my first point; it is all written on the flat. the author has an excellent ear for dialogue, and is pleasingly experimental with his syntax, but the voice remains the same throughout. Larry in a car being troubled and talking about murder, Larry in his room being troubled and talking about murder, Larry back in his car again being...etc. i couldn't help feeling the whole thing was something of a glamorisation of troubled youth too. rather than charting what is actually present in the disturbed young male psyche, i had the impression Cooper was charting it rather as he wanted it to be. overall, i felt i got more out of the book stylistically than content-wise. that said, it is an intelligent, unusual piece of work, and should be valued for these qualities which are present all too rarely in books published today.

Rewritten maturity, 29 Aug 2002
Although I 'enjoy' (wrong word) Dennis Cooper's books I have had the feeling for some time that his plot is simply rewritten in each book. His obsession with dark haired, skinny boys, aberrant sexual relationships, insecurity about sexuality, murder and rape appear in each book. This worked detrimentally towards the end of his five book cycle; Period was dire and incomprehensible, but Cooper is back on form. There is a new maturity to his writing. Gone are the sentences where the subject is uncertain, and the prose is fuller and clearer. He is to be commended for trying to push forward the way the novel is written but his experiments didn't always work. This is more conventionally written and deals with his usual issues in a fuller manner. Cooper seems clearer about his stance as narrator in this novel and deserves to be heard.

God Jr, 10 Mar 2006
For those used to Cooper's work this may seem a departure. God Jr. explores the emotional aftermath of an accident which kills a man's son through the obsessed, guilty and basically screwed up thoughts of a man who try's to make sense of his own life through his son's obsessions with a video game and a mysterious tower.
Cooper's spare, taut prose produces a tender and real depiction of grief and guilt that draw you in unsuspectedly to identifying with a flawed character.
Short and very, very sweet.

A SHOCKING NOVEL ABOUT WRITING A SHOCKING NOVEL, 14 Sep 2000
'Guide' is the fourth in Dennis Cooper's five novel cycle, and it is apparent from the outset - in the way characters drug themselves and each other, murder, get murdered, or just sort of arbitrarily drop dead - that Cooper is assuming his readers will already be familiar with his work. In fact it is his work that is central to this book, as it is the story of the writer 'Dennis Cooper' writing the novel you are reading, and all the things that happen to him while he's doing it. A touch post-modern, perhaps, but the effect is to make the events described seem more immediate and 'real' somehow, which, in many ways, is a mixed blessing.

Cooper assembles his usual collection of perverts, paedophiles, drug-dazed boys, suicidal hustlers and heroin addicts, only this time he claims these people are his circle of close friends in Los Angeles (which maybe some of them are). In an attempt to recreate a moment of (what now seems like) perfect lucidity he remembers from an acid trip when he was a teenager, 'Dennis' drops a tab and begins writing a novel about the people around him. Some of these people die or are killed during this process, while 'Dennis' kills some of them off himself, in the novel at least. Others try to satisfy their various lusts with whatever comes to hand, be it an underaged kid, a dead corpse, a picture in a pop magazine or a passing celebrity, and 'Dennis' himself becomes besotted by Luke, a raver with new-age mystical tendencies nearly half his age. What becomes obvious as the novel progresses is that 'Dennis' is editing and distorting the destinies of some of his characters more than others - what he is trying to figure out as a writer is: why?

Perhaps it's the quality of the writing, but this is the first of Cooper's novels where it is genuinely hard at times to distinguish between what might be real and what definitely isn't. Cooper's requisitioning of elements of reality for his own fictional ends has never been more blatant, nor more effective: for instance, an entire chapter is a fictional reworking of a factual article he wrote for Spin magazine about HIV-positive hustlers (the original, 'real' version can be found in his collection of reportage 'All Ears'), while the episode in which the bassist of the British band 'Smear' (a fantastically flimsily disguised Blur) is drugged and raped takes the whole thing to almost surreal proportions. Cooper's point is to make us more aware than ever of the distance between his fictional fantasy life and his fictional reality, and therefore, by extension, the distance between the fictional elements of the novel and his actual reality. The fact that we cannot ultimately distinguish one from the other is precisely his point - in life, our inner fantasies coexist with our realities, colouring and contorting them whether we like ot or not. However, the chances of our worst fantasies toppling out into reality are remote. That, after all, is what fiction is for - to safely exorcise our fantasies.

While this book still contains plenty to upset many readers, you feel that in 'Guide' Cooper is beginning a process of putting his worst excesses of human carnage into quotation marks, trying to show you that his books, although deeply shocking and thought-provoking, are still only books, no matter to what extent they may or may not have a basis in reality. There are moments when you feel you are being directly addressed by Dennis Cooper the writer, not 'Dennis Cooper' the character, and he's trying to explain why he writes what he writes, and why he thinks what he thinks. It takes tremendous courage for any writer to put themselves in that position, and this is what makes 'Guide' ultimately worthwhile.

just another reader, 23 Jul 2008
ok this was extremley distressing, disgusting and a very dangerous read however despite these negatives i felt the writer wrote on a very contreversial subject with great authority and ksill. even though i found partd of the book extremley distressign i was still enveloped in this almost cryptical book playing detective to find out the trugh.

overall if you want to read something that is extremeley challenging this is the book







Gratuitous rubbish, 24 Oct 2007
I can't believe this book took 10 years to write. I'm no prude, believe me, but this book contains some of the most vile passages I have ever read. And to what end? It's a deeply dark book, that thinks it sheds light on a murky world, but ultimately it's just sick porn.

The most harrowing and disturbing book i have ever read, 22 Apr 2007
Just finished this book and, like the previous reviewer, I read this in one sitting propelled on by my increasing horror for the fate of the doomed protagonist.

OK, let's be very clear from the start, the subject matter is very dark and distressing and this book is not a comfortable read at all. I'd file it next to Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho' and Poppy Z Brite's 'Exquisite corpse' in terms of the graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Unlike those books however, 'The Sluts' is fairly unrelenting in the harrowing and increasing depravity it depicts . The reader feels much less distanced from fiction here as there is no irony or humour (`American psycho`) or fantasy/magic (`Exquisite Corpse') to distract from the extremely disturbing subject matter.

Essentially 'The Sluts' is the story of 'Brad' a very damaged young male hustler working the extreme end of the escort industry. He is hired by, and caters to the most sadistic and depraved of clients. His story of escalating abuse, torture and eventual murder (?) is pieced together largely on the internet via escort sites, message boards, and e-mails.

As a comment on the darkest state of humankind it is a very depressing one indeed. There are small sections in the middle part of this book, entries from Brad's customers, when you believe they are beginning to show a glimmer of compassion towards their subject . This hope is brutally erased however when their entries conclude by describing their sick fantasies. Or it becomes clear that they have already, or would like to,further abuse the escort.

This is a good book in the sense that it works the emotions very effectively. It is however, extremely disturbing so do not expect to sleep well after reading it.


Is it wrong to enjoy this book?, 05 Apr 2006
This book has taken over ten years to write according to Cooper himslef. With this in mind the concerns are similar to those in the George Miles cycle- young boys, rock stars, heavy sex and death. However, unlike the GM cycle which deteriorated into incomprehensibility by the end this is a lucid and brilliant novel. Although it is continually about sex for 250 pages there is a strong story underneath dealing with the problems of identity and truth on the internet. I read this book in one sitting even though some of it the most sickening writing I've read for a long time!

I will never forget this book, 29 Oct 2006
This book affected me so much that 10 minutes after reading it my teeth were chattering, 30 minutes after reading it I was crying inconsolably, and 6 weeks after reading it I'd written my first novel! Everyone has their own tastes, and this book is neither for the easily offended nor for those looking for a 'light read'. But I personally was deeply affected by this book, and still can't get it out of my mind months later.

well..., 04 Mar 2003
the first Cooper book i've read. i finished it a couple of months ago, and struggle now to remember anything particular about it. and this is my first point; it is all written on the flat. the author has an excellent ear for dialogue, and is pleasingly experimental with his syntax, but the voice remains the same throughout. Larry in a car being troubled and talking about murder, Larry in his room being troubled and talking about murder, Larry back in his car again being...etc. i couldn't help feeling the whole thing was something of a glamorisation of troubled youth too. rather than charting what is actually present in the disturbed young male psyche, i had the impression Cooper was charting it rather as he wanted it to be. overall, i felt i got more out of the book stylistically than content-wise. that said, it is an intelligent, unusual piece of work, and should be valued for these qualities which are present all too rarely in books published today.

Rewritten maturity, 29 Aug 2002
Although I 'enjoy' (wrong word) Dennis Cooper's books I have had the feeling for some time that his plot is simply rewritten in each book. His obsession with dark haired, skinny boys, aberrant sexual relationships, insecurity about sexuality, murder and rape appear in each book. This worked detrimentally towards the end of his five book cycle; Period was dire and incomprehensible, but Cooper is back on form. There is a new maturity to his writing. Gone are the sentences where the subject is uncertain, and the prose is fuller and clearer. He is to be commended for trying to push forward the way the novel is written but his experiments didn't always work. This is more conventionally written and deals with his usual issues in a fuller manner. Cooper seems clearer about his stance as narrator in this novel and deserves to be heard.

God Jr, 10 Mar 2006
For those used to Cooper's work this may seem a departure. God Jr. explores the emotional aftermath of an accident which kills a man's son through the obsessed, guilty and basically screwed up thoughts of a man who try's to make sense of his own life through his son's obsessions with a video game and a mysterious tower.
Cooper's spare, taut prose produces a tender and real depiction of grief and guilt that draw you in unsuspectedly to identifying with a flawed character.
Short and very, very sweet.

A SHOCKING NOVEL ABOUT WRITING A SHOCKING NOVEL, 14 Sep 2000
'Guide' is the fourth in Dennis Cooper's five novel cycle, and it is apparent from the outset - in the way characters drug themselves and each other, murder, get murdered, or just sort of arbitrarily drop dead - that Cooper is assuming his readers will already be familiar with his work. In fact it is his work that is central to this book, as it is the story of the writer 'Dennis Cooper' writing the novel you are reading, and all the things that happen to him while he's doing it. A touch post-modern, perhaps, but the effect is to make the events described seem more immediate and 'real' somehow, which, in many ways, is a mixed blessing.

Cooper assembles his usual collection of perverts, paedophiles, drug-dazed boys, suicidal hustlers and heroin addicts, only this time he claims these people are his circle of close friends in Los Angeles (which maybe some of them are). In an attempt to recreate a moment of (what now seems like) perfect lucidity he remembers from an acid trip when he was a teenager, 'Dennis' drops a tab and begins writing a novel about the people around him. Some of these people die or are killed during this process, while 'Dennis' kills some of them off himself, in the novel at least. Others try to satisfy their various lusts with whatever comes to hand, be it an underaged kid, a dead corpse, a picture in a pop magazine or a passing celebrity, and 'Dennis' himself becomes besotted by Luke, a raver with new-age mystical tendencies nearly half his age. What becomes obvious as the novel progresses is that 'Dennis' is editing and distorting the destinies of some of his characters more than others - what he is trying to figure out as a writer is: why?

Perhaps it's the quality of the writing, but this is the first of Cooper's novels where it is genuinely hard at times to distinguish between what might be real and what definitely isn't. Cooper's requisitioning of elements of reality for his own fictional ends has never been more blatant, nor more effective: for instance, an entire chapter is a fictional reworking of a factual article he wrote for Spin magazine about HIV-positive hustlers (the original, 'real' version can be found in his collection of reportage 'All Ears'), while the episode in which the bassist of the British band 'Smear' (a fantastically flimsily disguised Blur) is drugged and raped takes the whole thing to almost surreal proportions. Cooper's point is to make us more aware than ever of the distance between his fictional fantasy life and his fictional reality, and therefore, by extension, the distance between the fictional elements of the novel and his actual reality. The fact that we cannot ultimately distinguish one from the other is precisely his point - in life, our inner fantasies coexist with our realities, colouring and contorting them whether we like ot or not. However, the chances of our worst fantasies toppling out into reality are remote. That, after all, is what fiction is for - to safely exorcise our fantasies.

While this book still contains plenty to upset many readers, you feel that in 'Guide' Cooper is beginning a process of putting his worst excesses of human carnage into quotation marks, trying to show you that his books, although deeply shocking and thought-provoking, are still only books, no matter to what extent they may or may not have a basis in reality. There are moments when you feel you are being directly addressed by Dennis Cooper the writer, not 'Dennis Cooper' the character, and he's trying to explain why he writes what he writes, and why he thinks what he thinks. It takes tremendous courage for any writer to put themselves in that position, and this is what makes 'Guide' ultimately worthwhile.

A Future Classic of Hollywood Noir, 05 Jun 2006
Matthew Stokoe follows up his visceral novel Cows with this brilliant yet graphic crime thriller. I came across Cows on the recommendation of a friend who claimed to have found the most shocking novel I would ever read. It quite possibly is one of the most visceral books in existance, impossible to enjoy but also impossible to put down. High Life is just as gruesome with regards to sex and violence but it is a far superior tale to it's predecessor. The book is told from the point of view of Jack, a nobody who moves to Hollywood to pursue his dreams of working in the film industry. Instead he finds himself living amongst the sleazy criminal underbelly of Los Angeles whilst at the same time investigating the murder of his wife, a hooker he had recently married.

I can't think of many other authors who would think to include drugs, prostitution, murder and blackmail in the same book as tramp torture and illegal organ harvesting but Stokoe isn't a typical author. If you can look past the stomach churning excesses of High Life it is an excellent, well written crime thriller.

A tour de force in new wave thriller writing, 15 Jun 2004
This must rate as one of the most oustanding of modern horror thrillers. Horror, not as in the traditional horror genre, but is in horrifying. Despite the occasionally unsavoury subject matter of Stokoe's writing, this is a rollercoaster ride in terms of plot tension and excitement mixed with terrifying and gratuitous situations. Stokoe's imagination is unlimited in its ferocious approach to fiction. Outrageous moments flash out of nowhere and leave the reader breathless with terror and surprise. In the midst of all this is a complex tale of real mystery and suspense. It's a great story apart from anything, its just that when the added gut churning aspects are thrown in the book becomes a triumph of lewd and degrading twists.

just another reader, 23 Jul 2008
ok this was extremley distressing, disgusting and a very dangerous read however despite these negatives i felt the writer wrote on a very contreversial subject with great authority and ksill. even though i found partd of the book extremley distressign i was still enveloped in this almost cryptical book playing detective to find out the trugh.

overall if you want to read something that is extremeley challenging this is the book







Gratuitous rubbish, 24 Oct 2007
I can't believe this book took 10 years to write. I'm no prude, believe me, but this book contains some of the most vile passages I have ever read. And to what end? It's a deeply dark book, that thinks it sheds light on a murky world, but ultimately it's just sick porn.

The most harrowing and disturbing book i have ever read, 22 Apr 2007
Just finished this book and, like the previous reviewer, I read this in one sitting propelled on by my increasing horror for the fate of the doomed protagonist.

OK, let's be very clear from the start, the subject matter is very dark and distressing and this book is not a comfortable read at all. I'd file it next to Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho' and Poppy Z Brite's 'Exquisite corpse' in terms of the graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Unlike those books however, 'The Sluts' is fairly unrelenting in the harrowing and increasing depravity it depicts . The reader feels much less distanced from fiction here as there is no irony or humour (`American psycho`) or fantasy/magic (`Exquisite Corpse') to distract from the extremely disturbing subject matter.

Essentially 'The Sluts' is the story of 'Brad' a very damaged young male hustler working the extreme end of the escort industry. He is hired by, and caters to the most sadistic and depraved of clients. His story of escalating abuse, torture and eventual murder (?) is pieced together largely on the internet via escort sites, message boards, and e-mails.

As a comment on the darkest state of humankind it is a very depressing one indeed. There are small sections in the middle part of this book, entries from Brad's customers, when you believe they are beginning to show a glimmer of compassion towards their subject . This hope is brutally erased however when their entries conclude by describing their sick fantasies. Or it becomes clear that they have already, or would like to,further abuse the escort.

This is a good book in the sense that it works the emotions very effectively. It is however, extremely disturbing so do not expect to sleep well after reading it.


Is it wrong to enjoy this book?, 05 Apr 2006
This book has taken over ten years to write according to Cooper himslef. With this in mind the concerns are similar to those in the George Miles cycle- young boys, rock stars, heavy sex and death. However, unlike the GM cycle which deteriorated into incomprehensibility by the end this is a lucid and brilliant novel. Although it is continually about sex for 250 pages there is a strong story underneath dealing with the problems of identity and truth on the internet. I read this book in one sitting even though some of it the most sickening writing I've read for a long time!

I will never forget this book, 29 Oct 2006
This book affected me so much that 10 minutes after reading it my teeth were chattering, 30 minutes after reading it I was crying inconsolably, and 6 weeks after reading it I'd written my first novel! Everyone has their own tastes, and this book is neither for the easily offended nor for those looking for a 'light read'. But I personally was deeply affected by this book, and still can't get it out of my mind months later.

well..., 04 Mar 2003
the first Cooper book i've read. i finished it a couple of months ago, and struggle now to remember anything particular about it. and this is my first point; it is all written on the flat. the author has an excellent ear for dialogue, and is pleasingly experimental with his syntax, but the voice remains the same throughout. Larry in a car being troubled and talking about murder, Larry in his room being troubled and talking about murder, Larry back in his car again being...etc. i couldn't help feeling the whole thing was something of a glamorisation of troubled youth too. rather than charting what is actually present in the disturbed young male psyche, i had the impression Cooper was charting it rather as he wanted it to be. overall, i felt i got more out of the book stylistically than content-wise. that said, it is an intelligent, unusual piece of work, and should be valued for these qualities which are present all too rarely in books published today.

Rewritten maturity, 29 Aug 2002
Although I 'enjoy' (wrong word) Dennis Cooper's books I have had the feeling for some time that his plot is simply rewritten in each book. His obsession with dark haired, skinny boys, aberrant sexual relationships, insecurity about sexuality, murder and rape appear in each book. This worked detrimentally towards the end of his five book cycle; Period was dire and incomprehensible, but Cooper is back on form. There is a new maturity to his writing. Gone are the sentences where the subject is uncertain, and the prose is fuller and clearer. He is to be commended for trying to push forward the way the novel is written but his experiments didn't always work. This is more conventionally written and deals with his usual issues in a fuller manner. Cooper seems clearer about his stance as narrator in this novel and deserves to be heard.

God Jr, 10 Mar 2006
For those used to Cooper's work this may seem a departure. God Jr. explores the emotional aftermath of an accident which kills a man's son through the obsessed, guilty and basically screwed up thoughts of a man who try's to make sense of his own life through his son's obsessions with a video game and a mysterious tower.
Cooper's spare, taut prose produces a tender and real depiction of grief and guilt that draw you in unsuspectedly to identifying with a flawed character.
Short and very, very sweet.

A SHOCKING NOVEL ABOUT WRITING A SHOCKING NOVEL, 14 Sep 2000
'Guide' is the fourth in Dennis Cooper's five novel cycle, and it is apparent from the outset - in the way characters drug themselves and each other, murder, get murdered, or just sort of arbitrarily drop dead - that Cooper is assuming his readers will already be familiar with his work. In fact it is his work that is central to this book, as it is the story of the writer 'Dennis Cooper' writing the novel you are reading, and all the things that happen to him while he's doing it. A touch post-modern, perhaps, but the effect is to make the events described seem more immediate and 'real' somehow, which, in many ways, is a mixed blessing.

Cooper assembles his usual collection of perverts, paedophiles, drug-dazed boys, suicidal hustlers and heroin addicts, only this time he claims these people are his circle of close friends in Los Angeles (which maybe some of them are). In an attempt to recreate a moment of (what now seems like) perfect lucidity he remembers from an acid trip when he was a teenager, 'Dennis' drops a tab and begins writing a novel about the people around him. Some of these people die or are killed during this process, while 'Dennis' kills some of them off himself, in the novel at least. Others try to satisfy their various lusts with whatever comes to hand, be it an underaged kid, a dead corpse, a picture in a pop magazine or a passing celebrity, and 'Dennis' himself becomes besotted by Luke, a raver with new-age mystical tendencies nearly half his age. What becomes obvious as the novel progresses is that 'Dennis' is editing and distorting the destinies of some of his characters more than others - what he is trying to figure out as a writer is: why?

Perhaps it's the quality of the writing, but this is the first of Cooper's novels where it is genuinely hard at times to distinguish between what might be real and what definitely isn't. Cooper's requisitioning of elements of reality for his own fictional ends has never been more blatant, nor more effective: for instance, an entire chapter is a fictional reworking of a factual article he wrote for Spin magazine about HIV-positive hustlers (the original, 'real' version can be found in his collection of reportage 'All Ears'), while the episode in which the bassist of the British band 'Smear' (a fantastically flimsily disguised Blur) is drugged and raped takes the whole thing to almost surreal proportions. Cooper's point is to make us more aware than ever of the distance between his fictional fantasy life and his fictional reality, and therefore, by extension, the distance between the fictional elements of the novel and his actual reality. The fact that we cannot ultimately distinguish one from the other is precisely his point - in life, our inner fantasies coexist with our realities, colouring and contorting them whether we like ot or not. However, the chances of our worst fantasies toppling out into reality are remote. That, after all, is what fiction is for - to safely exorcise our fantasies.

While this book still contains plenty to upset many readers, you feel that in 'Guide' Cooper is beginning a process of putting his worst excesses of human carnage into quotation marks, trying to show you that his books, although deeply shocking and thought-provoking, are still only books, no matter to what extent they may or may not have a basis in reality. There are moments when you feel you are being directly addressed by Dennis Cooper the writer, not 'Dennis Cooper' the character, and he's trying to explain why he writes what he writes, and why he thinks what he thinks. It takes tremendous courage for any writer to put themselves in that position, and this is what makes 'Guide' ultimately worthwhile.

A Future Classic of Hollywood Noir, 05 Jun 2006
Matthew Stokoe follows up his visceral novel Cows with this brilliant yet graphic crime thriller. I came across Cows on the recommendation of a friend who claimed to have found the most shocking novel I would ever read. It quite possibly is one of the most visceral books in existance, impossible to enjoy but also impossible to put down. High Life is just as gruesome with regards to sex and violence but it is a far superior tale to it's predecessor. The book is told from the point of view of Jack, a nobody who moves to Hollywood to pursue his dreams of working in the film industry. Instead he finds himself living amongst the sleazy criminal underbelly of Los Angeles whilst at the same time investigating the murder of his wife, a hooker he had recently married.

I can't think of many other authors who would think to include drugs, prostitution, murder and blackmail in the same book as tramp torture and illegal organ harvesting but Stokoe isn't a typical author. If you can look past the stomach churning excesses of High Life it is an excellent, well written crime thriller.

A tour de force in new wave thriller writing, 15 Jun 2004
This must rate as one of the most oustanding of modern horror thrillers. Horror, not as in the traditional horror genre, but is in horrifying. Despite the occasionally unsavoury subject matter of Stokoe's writing, this is a rollercoaster ride in terms of plot tension and excitement mixed with terrifying and gratuitous situations. Stokoe's imagination is unlimited in its ferocious approach to fiction. Outrageous moments flash out of nowhere and leave the reader breathless with terror and surprise. In the midst of all this is a complex tale of real mystery and suspense. It's a great story apart from anything, its just that when the added gut churning aspects are thrown in the book becomes a triumph of lewd and degrading twists.

DENNIS DISAPPEARS INTO OBSCURITY, 14 Sep 2000
This is the last instalment of Cooper's five novel cycle, a kind of literary full-stop that manages to revisit most of his familiar obsessions - death, cute boys, drugs, sex - in the most sparse and minimalistic prose he has ever created. It is also, in part, the continuing story of the beautiful but deeply disturbed George Miles, the object of everyones desire in the first book 'Closer', and the hero of a fictional novel - 'Period' - by his one-time lover Walker Crane. Now George may or may not have suffered a brutal rape which has left him in a wheelchair, a deaf mute called Dagger who looks remarkably like him and who has suffered a remarkably similar fate may or may not be talking to him through a mirror from a parallel universe, he may or may not be the boy in the pictures on a web site devoted to the book (as might many of the other characters), and he may or may not have shot himself in the head. Radiating out from all this uncertainty are Leon and Nate, or Noel and Etan, two kids from Dagger's universe, or perhaps another parallel dimension all of their own, or perhaps reality, whose own stories form a mirror-like frame around the central chapter, and whose fortunes at the end of the book are somehow completely the reverse of how they were at the start. Add to this the satanic goth band The Omen, who speed around the countryside murdering innocent hitchhikers and spouting fake, devil-worshipping nonsense, and the stage is set for Cooper's most mesmerisingly bizarre slice of fiction ever.

The novel's intensity comes from its almost complete lack of descriptive passages. Compared to 'Frisk' and 'Closer', which revelled in their goriness to a certain extent, 'Period' reads more like a radio play. Anonymous, (literally) dismebodied voices talk at you out of the fog, carrying on their conversations with very little reference to the fact that they're hacking up a body or being molested by the Devil, and this lack of context only makes it more intriguingly difficult to figure out what's going on. Technically, Cooper's dazed, vague narrative style has never been sharper, making this the shortest novel of the series (it's entirely possible to read it in one sitting, and I suggest you do). Perhaps it is the case that, by now, Cooper knows his most devoted readers will be able to fill in the gaps for themselves, or perhaps the air of general confusion and mirror-images repeating themselves into infinity was the only way to bring the series to a conclusion. Either way, as the end of the cycle, it all makes perfect sense for some reason.

As a book in its own right, however, I'm not sure how well it functions. Even though this is not a sequel in any way, so much still depends on you knowing what's come before it that it's difficult to imagine anyone who hasn't read the previous books making any sense of it whatsoever. If you haven't read Dennis Cooper before, my advice would be to go back to the start and read the books in order. But if you've been waiting for the final instalment, prepare to be... perplexed?

just another reader, 23 Jul 2008
ok this was extremley distressing, disgusting and a very dangerous read however despite these negatives i felt the writer wrote on a very contreversial subject with great authority and ksill. even though i found partd of the book extremley distressign i was still enveloped in this almost cryptical book playing detective to find out the trugh.

overall if you want to read something that is extremeley challenging this is the book







Gratuitous rubbish, 24 Oct 2007
I can't believe this book took 10 years to write. I'm no prude, believe me, but this book contains some of the most vile passages I have ever read. And to what end? It's a deeply dark book, that thinks it sheds light on a murky world, but ultimately it's just sick porn.

The most harrowing and disturbing book i have ever read, 22 Apr 2007
Just finished this book and, like the previous reviewer, I read this in one sitting propelled on by my increasing horror for the fate of the doomed protagonist.

OK, let's be very clear from the start, the subject matter is very dark and distressing and this book is not a comfortable read at all. I'd file it next to Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho' and Poppy Z Brite's 'Exquisite corpse' in terms of the graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Unlike those books however, 'The Sluts' is fairly unrelenting in the harrowing and increasing depravity it depicts . The reader feels much less distanced from fiction here as there is no irony or humour (`American psycho`) or fantasy/magic (`Exquisite Corpse') to distract from the extremely disturbing subject matter.

Essentially 'The Sluts' is the story of 'Brad' a very damaged young male hustler working the extreme end of the escort industry. He is hired by, and caters to the most sadistic and depraved of clients. His story of escalating abuse, torture and eventual murder (?) is pieced together largely on the internet via escort sites, message boards, and e-mails.

As a comment on the darkest state of humankind it is a very depressing one indeed. There are small sections in the middle part of this book, entries from Brad's customers, when you believe they are beginning to show a glimmer of compassion towards their subject . This hope is brutally erased however when their entries conclude by describing their sick fantasies. Or it becomes clear that they have already, or would like to,further abuse the escort.

This is a good book in the sense that it works the emotions very effectively. It is however, extremely disturbing so do not expect to sleep well after reading it.


Is it wrong to enjoy this book?, 05 Apr 2006
This book has taken over ten years to write according to Cooper himslef. With this in mind the concerns are similar to those in the George Miles cycle- young boys, rock stars, heavy sex and death. However, unlike the GM cycle which deteriorated into incomprehensibility by the end this is a lucid and brilliant novel. Although it is continually about sex for 250 pages there is a strong story underneath dealing with the problems of identity and truth on the internet. I read this book in one sitting even though some of it the most sickening writing I've read for a long time!

I will never forget this book, 29 Oct 2006
This book affected me so much that 10 minutes after reading it my teeth were chattering, 30 minutes after reading it I was crying inconsolably, and 6 weeks after reading it I'd written my first novel! Everyone has their own tastes, and this book is neither for the easily offended nor for those looking for a 'light read'. But I personally was deeply affected by this book, and still can't get it out of my mind months later.

well..., 04 Mar 2003
the first Cooper book i've read. i finished it a couple of months ago, and struggle now to remember anything particular about it. and this is my first point; it is all written on the flat. the author has an excellent ear for dialogue, and is pleasingly experimental with his syntax, but the voice remains the same throughout. Larry in a car being troubled and talking about murder, Larry in his room being troubled and talking about murder, Larry back in his car again being...etc. i couldn't help feeling the whole thing was something of a glamorisation of troubled youth too. rather than charting what is actually present in the disturbed young male psyche, i had the impression Cooper was charting it rather as he wanted it to be. overall, i felt i got more out of the book stylistically than content-wise. that said, it is an intelligent, unusual piece of work, and should be valued for these qualities which are present all too rarely in books published today.

Rewritten maturity, 29 Aug 2002
Although I 'enjoy' (wrong word) Dennis Cooper's books I have had the feeling for some time that his plot is simply rewritten in each book. His obsession with dark haired, skinny boys, aberrant sexual relationships, insecurity about sexuality, murder and rape appear in each book. This worked detrimentally towards the end of his five book cycle; Period was dire and incomprehensible, but Cooper is back on form. There is a new maturity to his writing. Gone are the sentences where the subject is uncertain, and the prose is fuller and clearer. He is to be commended for trying to push forward the way the novel is written but his experiments didn't always work. This is more conventionally written and deals with his usual issues in a fuller manner. Cooper seems clearer about his stance as narrator in this novel and deserves to be heard.

God Jr, 10 Mar 2006
For those used to Cooper's work this may seem a departure. God Jr. explores the emotional aftermath of an accident which kills a man's son through the obsessed, guilty and basically screwed up thoughts of a man who try's to make sense of his own life through his son's obsessions with a video game and a mysterious tower.
Cooper's spare, taut prose produces a tender and real depiction of grief and guilt that draw you in unsuspectedly to identifying with a flawed character.
Short and very, very sweet.

A SHOCKING NOVEL ABOUT WRITING A SHOCKING NOVEL, 14 Sep 2000
'Guide' is the fourth in Dennis Cooper's five novel cycle, and it is apparent from the outset - in the way characters drug themselves and each other, murder, get murdered, or just sort of arbitrarily drop dead - that Cooper is assuming his readers will already be familiar with his work. In fact it is his work that is central to this book, as it is the story of the writer 'Dennis Cooper' writing the novel you are reading, and all the things that happen to him while he's doing it. A touch post-modern, perhaps, but the effect is to make the events described seem more immediate and 'real' somehow, which, in many ways, is a mixed blessing.

Cooper assembles his usual collection of perverts, paedophiles, drug-dazed boys, suicidal hustlers and heroin addicts, only this time he claims these people are his circle of close friends in Los Angeles (which maybe some of them are). In an attempt to recreate a moment of (what now seems like) perfect lucidity he remembers from an acid trip when he was a teenager, 'Dennis' drops a tab and begins writing a novel about the people around him. Some of these people die or are killed during this process, while 'Dennis' kills some of them off himself, in the novel at least. Others try to satisfy their various lusts with whatever comes to hand, be it an underaged kid, a dead corpse, a picture in a pop magazine or a passing celebrity, and 'Dennis' himself becomes besotted by Luke, a raver with new-age mystical tendencies nearly half his age. What becomes obvious as the novel progresses is that 'Dennis' is editing and distorting the destinies of some of his characters more than others - what he is trying to figure out as a writer is: why?

Perhaps it's the quality of the writing, but this is the first of Cooper's novels where it is genuinely hard at times to distinguish between what might be real and what definitely isn't. Cooper's requisitioning of elements of reality for his own fictional ends has never been more blatant, nor more effective: for instance, an entire chapter is a fictional reworking of a factual article he wrote for Spin magazine about HIV-positive hustlers (the original, 'real' version can be found in his collection of reportage 'All Ears'), while the episode in which the bassist of the British band 'Smear' (a fantastically flimsily disguised Blur) is drugged and raped takes the whole thing to almost surreal proportions. Cooper's point is to make us more aware than ever of the distance between his fictional fantasy life and his fictional reality, and therefore, by extension, the distance between the fictional elements of the novel and his actual reality. The fact that we cannot ultimately distinguish one from the other is precisely his point - in life, our inner fantasies coexist with our realities, colouring and contorting them whether we like ot or not. However, the chances of our worst fantasies toppling out into reality are remote. That, after all, is what fiction is for - to safely exorcise our fantasies.

While this book still contains plenty to upset many readers, you feel that in 'Guide' Cooper is beginning a process of putting his worst excesses of human carnage into quotation marks, trying to show you that his books, although deeply shocking and thought-provoking, are still only books, no matter to what extent they may or may not have a basis in reality. There are moments when you feel you are being directly addressed by Dennis Cooper the writer, not 'Dennis Cooper' the character, and he's trying to explain why he writes what he writes, and why he thinks what he thinks. It takes tremendous courage for any writer to put themselves in that position, and this is what makes 'Guide' ultimately worthwhile.

A Future Classic of Hollywood Noir, 05 Jun 2006
Matthew Stokoe follows up his visceral novel Cows with this brilliant yet graphic crime thriller. I came across Cows on the recommendation of a friend who claimed to have found the most shocking novel I would ever read. It quite possibly is one of the most visceral books in existance, impossible to enjoy but also impossible to put down. High Life is just as gruesome with regards to sex and violence but it is a far superior tale to it's predecessor. The book is told from the point of view of Jack, a nobody who moves to Hollywood to pursue his dreams of working in the film industry. Instead he finds himself living amongst the sleazy criminal underbelly of Los Angeles whilst at the same time investigating the murder of his wife, a hooker he had recently married.

I can't think of many other authors who would think to include drugs, prostitution, murder and blackmail in the same book as tramp torture and illegal organ harvesting but Stokoe isn't a typical author. If you can look past the stomach churning excesses of High Life it is an excellent, well written crime thriller.

A tour de force in new wave thriller writing, 15 Jun 2004
This must rate as one of the most oustanding of modern horror thrillers. Horror, not as in the traditional horror genre, but is in horrifying. Despite the occasionally unsavoury subject matter of Stokoe's writing, this is a rollercoaster ride in terms of plot tension and excitement mixed with terrifying and gratuitous situations. Stokoe's imagination is unlimited in its ferocious approach to fiction. Outrageous moments flash out of nowhere and leave the reader breathless with terror and surprise. In the midst of all this is a complex tale of real mystery and suspense. It's a great story apart from anything, its just that when the added gut churning aspects are thrown in the book becomes a triumph of lewd and degrading twists.

DENNIS DISAPPEARS INTO OBSCURITY, 14 Sep 2000
This is the last instalment of Cooper's five novel cycle, a kind of literary full-stop that manages to revisit most of his familiar obsessions - death, cute boys, drugs, sex - in the most sparse and minimalistic prose he has ever created. It is also, in part, the continuing story of the beautiful but deeply disturbed George Miles, the object of everyones desire in the first book 'Closer', and the hero of a fictional novel - 'Period' - by his one-time lover Walker Crane. Now George may or may not have suffered a brutal rape which has left him in a wheelchair, a deaf mute called Dagger who looks remarkably like him and who has suffered a remarkably similar fate may or may not be talking to him through a mirror from a parallel universe, he may or may not be the boy in the pictures on a web site devoted to the book (as might many of the other characters), and he may or may not have shot himself in the head. Radiating out from all this uncertainty are Leon and Nate, or Noel and Etan, two kids from Dagger's universe, or perhaps another parallel dimension all of their own, or perhaps reality, whose own stories form a mirror-like frame around the central chapter, and whose fortunes at the end of the book are somehow completely the reverse of how they were at the start. Add to this the satanic goth band The Omen, who speed around the countryside murdering innocent hitchhikers and spouting fake, devil-worshipping nonsense, and the stage is set for Cooper's most mesmerisingly bizarre slice of fiction ever.

The novel's intensity comes from its almost complete lack of descriptive passages. Compared to 'Frisk' and 'Closer', which revelled in their goriness to a certain extent, 'Period' reads more like a radio play. Anonymous, (literally) dismebodied voices talk at you out of the fog, carrying on their conversations with very little reference to the fact that they're hacking up a body or being molested by the Devil, and this lack of context only makes it more intriguingly difficult to figure out what's going on. Technically, Cooper's dazed, vague narrative style has never been sharper, making this the shortest novel of the series (it's entirely possible to read it in one sitting, and I suggest you do). Perhaps it is the case that, by now, Cooper knows his most devoted readers will be able to fill in the gaps for themselves, or perhaps the air of general confusion and mirror-images repeating themselves into infinity was the only way to bring the series to a conclusion. Either way, as the end of the cycle, it all makes perfect sense for some reason.

As a book in its own right, however, I'm not sure how well it functions. Even though this is not a sequel in any way, so much still depends on you knowing what's come before it that it's difficult to imagine anyone who hasn't read the previous books making any sense of it whatsoever. If you haven't read Dennis Cooper before, my advice would be to go back to the start and read the books in order. But if you've been waiting for the final instalment, prepare to be... perplexed?

Beyond graphics into brilliance, 24 Aug 1998
The best of coopers work is not in the novels but here in his powerful, utterly original poems and short verse pieces. Where readers might become bored or confused or unsettled at coopers run on in his long works, here is coopers intelligence in tight, detailed emotion. A perfect read.

just another reader, 23 Jul 2008
ok this was extremley distressing, disgusting and a very dangerous read however despite these negatives i felt the writer wrote on a very contreversial subject with great authority and ksill. even though i found partd of the book extremley distressign i was still enveloped in this almost cryptical book playing detective to find out the trugh.

overall if you want to read something that is extremeley challenging this is the book







Gratuitous rubbish, 24 Oct 2007
I can't believe this book took 10 years to write. I'm no prude, believe me, but this book contains some of the most vile passages I have ever read. And to what end? It's a deeply dark book, that thinks it sheds light on a murky world, but ultimately it's just sick porn.

The most harrowing and disturbing book i have ever read, 22 Apr 2007
Just finished this book and, like the previous reviewer, I read this in one sitting propelled on by my increasing horror for the fate of the doomed protagonist.

OK, let's be very clear from the start, the subject matter is very dark and distressing and this book is not a comfortable read at all. I'd file it next to Bret Easton Ellis's 'American Psycho' and Poppy Z Brite's 'Exquisite corpse' in terms of the graphic descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and murder. Unlike those books however, 'The Sluts' is fairly unrelenting in the harrowing and increasing depravity it depicts . The reader feels much less distanced from fiction here as there is no irony or humour (`American psycho`) or fantasy/magic (`Exquisite Corpse') to distract from the extremely disturbing subject matter.

Essentially 'The Sluts' is the story of 'Brad' a very damaged young male hustler working the extreme end of the escort industry. He is hired by, and caters to the most sadistic and depraved of clients. His story of escalating abuse, torture and eventual murder (?) is pieced together largely on the internet via escort sites, message boards, and e-mails.

As a comment on the darkest state of humankind it is a very depressing one indeed. There are small sections in the middle part of this book, entries from Brad's customers, when you believe they are beginning to show a glimmer of compassion towards their subject . This hope is brutally erased however when their entries conclude by describing their sick fantasies. Or it becomes clear that they have already, or would like to,further abuse the escort.

This is a good book in the sense that it works the emotions very effectively. It is however, extremely disturbing so do not expect to sleep well after reading it.


Is it wrong to enjoy this book?, 05 Apr 2006
This book has taken over ten years to write according to Cooper himslef. With this in mind the concerns are similar to those in the George Miles cycle- young boys, rock stars, heavy sex and death. However, unlike the GM cycle which deteriorated into incomprehensibility by the end this is a lucid and brilliant novel. Although it is continually about sex for 250 pages there is a strong story underneath dealing with the problems of identity and truth on the internet. I read this book in one sitting even though some of it the most sickening writing I've read for a long time!

I will never forget this book, 29 Oct 2006
This book affected me so much that 10 minutes after reading it my teeth were chattering, 30 minutes after reading it I was crying inconsolably, and 6 weeks after reading it I'd written my first novel! Everyone has their own tastes, and this book is neither for the easily offended nor for those looking for a 'light read'. But I personally was deeply affected by this book, and still can't get it out of my mind months later.

well..., 04 Mar 2003
the first Cooper book i've read. i finished it a couple of months ago, and struggle now to remember anything particular about it. and this is my first point; it is all written on the flat. the author has an excellent ear for dialogue, and is pleasingly experimental with his syntax, but the voice remains the same throughout. Larry in a car being troubled and talking about murder, Larry in his room being troubled and talking about murder, Larry back in his car again being...etc. i couldn't help feeling the whole thing was something of a glamorisation of troubled youth too. rather than charting what is actually present in the disturbed young male psyche, i had the impression Cooper was charting it rather as he wanted it to be. overall, i felt i got more out of the book stylistically than content-wise. that said, it is an intelligent, unusual piece of work, and should be valued for these qualities which are present all too rarely in books published today.

Rewritten maturity, 29 Aug 2002
Although I 'enjoy' (wrong word) Dennis Cooper's books I have had the feeling for some time that his plot is simply rewritten in each book. His obsession with dark haired, skinny boys, aberrant sexual relationships, insecurity about sexuality, murder and rape appear in each book. This worked detrimentally towards the end of his five book cycle; Period was dire and incomprehensible, but Cooper is back on form. There is a new maturity to his writing. Gone are the sentences where the subject is uncertain, and the prose is fuller and clearer. He is to be commended for trying to push forward the way the novel is written but his experiments didn't always work. This is more conventionally written and deals with his usual issues in a fuller manner. Cooper seems clearer about his stance as narrator in this novel and deserves to be heard.

God Jr, 10 Mar 2006
For those used to Cooper's work this may seem a departure. God Jr. explores the emotional aftermath of an accident which kills a man's son through the obsessed, guilty and basically screwed up thoughts of a man who try's to make sense of his own life through his son's obsessions with a video game and a mysterious tower.
Cooper's spare, taut prose produces a tender and real depiction of grief and guilt that draw you in unsuspectedly to identifying with a flawed character.
Short and very, very sweet.

A SHOCKING NOVEL ABOUT WRITING A SHOCKING NOVEL, 14 Sep 2000
'Guide' is the fourth in Dennis Cooper's five novel cycle, and it is apparent from the outset - in the way characters drug themselves and each other, murder, get murdered, or just sort of arbitrarily drop dead - that Cooper is assuming his readers will already be familiar with his work. In fact it is his work that is central to this book, as it is the story of the writer 'Dennis Cooper' writing the novel you are reading, and all the things that happen to him while he's doing it. A touch post-modern, perhaps, but the effect is to make the events described seem more immediate and 'real' somehow, which, in many ways, is a mixed blessing.

Cooper assembles his usual collection of perverts, paedophiles, drug-dazed boys, suicidal hustlers and heroin addicts, only this time he claims these people are his circle of close friends in Los Angeles (which maybe some of them are). In an attempt to recreate a moment of (what now seems like) perfect lucidity he remembers from an acid trip when he was a teenager, 'Dennis' drops a tab and begins writing a novel about the people around him. Some of these people die or are killed during this process, while 'Dennis' kills some of them off himself, in the novel at least. Others try to satisfy their various lusts with whatever comes to hand, be it an underaged kid, a dead corpse, a picture in a pop magazine or a passing celebrity, and 'Dennis' himself becomes besotted by Luke, a raver with new-age mystical tendencies nearly half his age. What becomes obvious as the novel progresses is that 'Dennis' is editing and distorting the destinies of some of his characters more than others - what he is trying to figure out as a writer is: why?

Perhaps it's the quality of the writing, but this is the first of Cooper's novels where it is genuinely hard at times to distinguish between what might be real and what definitely isn't. Cooper's requisitioning of elements of reality for his own fictional ends has never been more blatant, nor more effective: for instance, an entire chapter is a fictional reworking of a factual article he wrote for Spin magazine about HIV-positive hustlers (the original, 'real' version can be found in his collection of reportage 'All Ears'), while the episode in which the bassist of the British band 'Smear' (a fantastically flimsily disguised Blur) is drugged and raped takes the whole thing to almost surreal proportions. Cooper's point is to make us more aware than ever of the distance between his fictional fantasy life and his fictional reality, and therefore, by extension, the distance between the fictional elements of the novel and his actual reality. The fact that we cannot ultimately distinguish one from the other is precisely his point - in life, our i