Staff Pick
The nightmares this book gave me could fill a book of their own. With these stories of unwholesome desire, Meijer shines a light on the shadowy corners of humanity. There is a boy possessed by his stillborn brother, a dog lusting after his owners, a man who starves himself and hungrily watches his daughter grow. Every page is clotted with forbidden want — it is a brand-new brutality and reading it, I couldn’t wait to see what came next. Dark, feral, and depraved, Rag is unsettling in a way that feels permanent. Recommended By Lauren P., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
One of Vol. 1 Brooklyn and Tor.com's Books to Read in February
From the author of Heartbreaker, a disquieting collection tracing the destructive consequences of the desire for connection
A man, forgotten by the world, takes care of his deaf brother while euthanizing dogs for a living. A stepbrother so desperately wants to become his stepsibling that he rapes his girlfriend. In Maryse Meijer's decidedly dark and searingly honest collection Rag, the desperate human desire for connection slips into a realm that approximates horror.
Meijer's explosive debut collection, Heartbreaker, reinvented sexualized and romantic taboos, holding nothing back. In Rag, Meijer's fearless follow-up, she shifts her focus to the dark heart of intimacies of all kinds, and the ways in which isolated people's yearning for community can breed violence, danger, and madness. With unparalleled precision, Meijer spins stories that leave you troubled and slightly shaken by her uncanny ability to elicit empathy for society's most marginalized people.