When He's A Real Catch

A story about a fling with a merman makes for a memorably creepy novel.

- Catherine Woulfe

Six months ago, the New Yorker published an exquisitely discomfiting short story. Cat Person, by Kristen Roupenian, hauls us into the psyche of a 20-year-old woman as she hooks up with an older, semi-repugnant man. They have sex. The woman bails. The man calls her a slut. The story went viral.

In tone and content and cultural right-nowness, Cat Person is an excellent primer for The Pisces. It hummed in my head as I read.

This novel’s author, Melissa Broder, is a story unto herself. She is an anxious, addiction-prone, very funny 30-something poet. She was working in social media for a publishing house when her sideline – doling out vulnerable, coldly hilarious tweets to a massive audience under the handle @SoSadToday – led to a strange and exciting collection of essays by the same name.