a collection of short fictions. language shoots up and through the body in these fictions of desire inwhich women bleed, bruise, and burn their way beyond culturally sanctioned girl slots. wicked love stories and the crack and split of new intellects emerge in the wake of a sea of "isms." yuknavitch's stories leave questions like marks on the flesh of characters whose stories aren't pretty--they are raw, terrible, a different beauty than we've yet imagined. freudian shudders; these mouths penetrate.