It was standing room only at the third floor event space for the book launch and reading for viral sensation short story writer Kristen Roupenian’s just-published collection, You Know You Want This on Monday, January 14th.
The crowd of mostly female readers had assembled to hear the author of the short story, “Cat Person,” which appeared in The New Yorker in December of 2017 and quickly went viral to became the second most read piece in the magazine that year.
At that time, an auction for her short story collection and novel followed quickly (a seven figure deal) as well as the sale of a horror movie screenplay the following year, so this collection was one of the most highly anticipated books of the new year.
It does not disappoint.
Roupenian took to the stage to read an excerpt from “Biter,” the final story in the collection of dark and powerful tales, which she described as a literary “mix tape.” In this story, a female character has an insatiable desire to bite, which she has restrained since first grade, but the appearance of a particularly attractive office manager has made her fantasize about her old desire. The author did not finish reading the story but described it as “the story of a woman who wants something really badly and gets it.” And then she smiled.
The rest of the evening Roupenian was interviewed by Haley Mlotek, a journalist who had previously interviewed her in Elle Magazine and discussed the how and why of Roupenian’s stories.
