Kristen Roupenian describes her writing process like the hunt for an invisible bug bite.
That sense of raw, ugly, funny truth spelled out, plainly and brutally.
On Twitter, readers screenshotted excerpts of Cat Person and captioned them with their own romantic mishaps.
Credit: Elisa Roupenian
They debated its quality.
The very idea of Cat Person its premise, its resonance, its message was rooted in its virality.
The story went viral over the weekend, and it was exciting but also scary, Roupenian says.
Scout Press
I felt like I was under a giant spotlight in a way that was not comfortable at all.
This modern success story has yielded a traditional test in publishing: the first book.
Roupenian forms freakish monsters, grants bizarre wishes, depicts shocking depravity.
Sex and power course through the tome like a torrent of desire.
You Know You Want Thisis the stuff of nightmares, the kind that stick with you for days.
Roupenian even argues that the books genre plays change the shape of its most famous and realistic piece.
Margot wonders at this one moment [in Cat Person], Is he going to murder me?
The story that appears right after Cat Person is subversively called The Good Guy.
She cheers now: Be careful what you wish for!
She had to fight to lead the collection so pointedly.
There were situations where editors and other people were like, Maybe we should ease people into this!
We could start with Cat Person and build up to Bad Boy, she recalls.
I was like, No.
I dont have any interest in tricking people.
Readers know what they want.
Nowadays there are so many demands on our attention, she says.
Theres a certain kind of compelling discomfort that Im always searching for.
I come to it honestly as a reader.
you might bet she does as a writer, too.
