We, Monsters

  "We, Monsters by Zarina Zabrisky is the kind of unapologetic, visceral novel that explores the tenuous boundary between literature and reader exploitation....the brutal subject matter is leavened with emotion, humor, and an honest exploration of female sexuality. Much like Lolita...slyly funny and richly characterized. As with her short story collection Iron, the brutality and urgency of the subject matter is presented in flights of gorgeous prose."  --Guernica Daily "Literary crumb trails appear and then dry up as Zabrisky, playing a great cat and mouse game, with a wink, slyly shuts the door on the discerning reader... a story that will stick with the reader long after finishing it. "We, Monsters" is a stunning force of a debut novel." --Red Fez"...the literary equivalent of a Jackson Pollack painting: a multi-layered, amazing, and seductive mess... the realm of Art." --Al-Khemia Poetica "... a refreshing feeling, to know that such great characters are still being written and handled this expertly by contemporary authors..." --*Up the Stairs Quarterly"...this is not a book about either murder or analysis, not about the rote realities of dominatrix work, but about what Freud offers in the manner of Artaud, an enactment, fairy tales as hyperbolic truths, nightmares as myths of origin... agony, ecstasy, and enactment, "the experience itself, the plague itself." Which we all need." --decomp literary magazine "In addition to subtly and seductively posing questions of identity, Zabrisky's writing teases the mind, gently stroking the most erogenous of all zones--the brain... Writing sex in this way takes thoughtfulness, dexterity, and a command of the craft..." --Curbside Splendor"an edgy, shocking debut...a troubling, yet tantalizing, world..." --Scott James, author of SoMa and The Sower"An unabashedly pervy, comedically deconstructive romp through modern motherhood, psychoanalytic theory and the sex industry... also surprisingly charming and deeply moving." --Gina Frangello, author of A Life in Men"We, Monsters is a literary kaleidoscope of a novel written with elegant prose evoking a bold and searing modernism. The gutsy, honest "enfant terrible" of Cocteau, Calvino and Genet." --Cybele Zufolo Siegel, Word Performances"On page after page, I am reminded why I love literature so much." --Chalres Kruger, Bay Area Generations              From the Back Cover              "Exciting, fun, tragic, beautiful, and revealing. ...Engrossing and intelligent. An extraordinary read"* Like the nesting dolls of her childhood, she has secrets within secrets: a Ukrainian student of literature emigrates to America, becomes a soccer mom and moonlights as a dominatrix.  Taking the name Mistress Rose, she dives into the darkest desires of the human psyche and writes in the dungeon between client appointments while slowly doubting her own perception of reality. Her novel manuscript ends up in the hands of clinical psychologist Dr. Michael H. Strong, the only man in the world who unlocks her secrets through analyzing Rose at the bondage sessions. Is what follows murder?"...psychologically thrilling and emotional and beautiful and ugly and thought provoking and, oh what a ride!"--Sarah Page, editor and cofouner of Out of Our"... rich and complex, intricately structured... an utterly intense experience: a totally immersive reader-narrator fusion." --Polly Trope, author of Cured Meat "Zabrisky's writing sizzles, chills, mesmerizes."-Yanina Gotsulsky, author of Speed of LifeAbout the Author            Zarina Zabrisky is the author of two collections of short stories, Iron and A Cute Tombstone.