She was by anyone’s standards a beauty, there was no question, but the illness had transformed her into something quite different, something barely human. Lina Dahlstrom is beautiful but poor and when tests show that she has tuberculosis it seems that all hope is lost. Her husband and family cannot afford the fees to get Lina the healthcare that she needs. Then along comes Dr Dance who claims he can cure Lina and that he will do it for free. Linas sister Greta is all for it at first but then becomes wary of Dr Dance. Linas husband Petter outright refuses and states that the free hospital will help his wife. As Lina becomes more unwell Petter disappears. Lina agrees to the treatment that Dr Dance is offering but becomes more unwell and when news comes regarding Petters disappearance Lina finally succumbs to the illness. Dr Dance does not take this well and he becomes more obsessed than ever….. With that off my chest, you can expect extreme gore, cannibalism, murder, necrophilia, rape, and a LOT of graphic sex and torture. It goes without saying this one isn't for the light of heart, or for the squeamish.

I would stare out of the window and I would try to use my mental forces to form the clouds into the shapes I wanted. Cloud-sculpting might be the art of the future, I thought… My experiments in the clinic and their failure led me to the objective conclusion that the universe was not after all constructed around me, as my presence at its centre had at first led me to surmise.Brite's writing is done so well you can almost smell the scents of the decadent French Quarter. The dialogue is clear, cutting and painfully honest, the imagery so vivid when that first slice is made into the delicate human abdomen you feel your own guts begin to churn. The story is made all the more chilling because of the point of view switches. Brite takes the reader into the head of not only the victim but the killers as well. Be warned this is not a book for the faint of heart. It's filled with powerful, grotesque erotic images, and unspeakable acts of pain, torture and humiliation. Unlike many other killer novels the author makes no excuses for her characters. They were not molested, beaten or neglected as children. I love when we move from Greta’s pov to Dr Dance’s because it’s at that point you truly see how deluded & insane he has become.

Poppy Z. Brite (born Melissa Ann Brite, now going by Billy Martin) is an American author born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The title refers to a game invented by the surrealist Andre Breton. A person writes a line on a piece of paper, folds the paper so that only their line can be seen, and passes the paper onto the person next to them. They write their piece, fold it so the next person can only see the line they wrote, and so the game goes on. It’s a bit like Chinese Whispers, really. I remember doing it once in Secondary School, I was the charming kid who wrote the bit where everyone died. (In another life I could have been a troll…) The financing of the first issue was borne by the University of Baltimore, thanks to the English Department Chair, Lawrence Markert, who earned himself a title on the mast for his good work. (And publication of two of his poems which, having been rejected by the academic quarterlies, belonged by default to the Rebels.) Continuing to publish was another matter, but fate intervened. (As did “faith,” later).

Reason for Reading: I read a book like this a long time ago when the great mystery writers got together, including Agatha Christie, and did the same thing. This sounded like it would be a lot of fun. As to the others - the sister, the victim and the wife - they all have unique points of view and all of them are victims in one way or another. The book doesn't treat them that way though. It does demonstrate some of their point of view and the experiences that they suffer. If these points had been pushed more strongly the book would have been far less readable, but they're raised sufficiently to make the point.Jay Byrne: Mass-murderer, homosexual, necrophiliac, cannibal, recreational drug abuser, alleged Cajun. Andrew Compton: Mass-murderer, homosexual, necrophiliac, AIDS-infected, and worst of all, a Londoner.