Cottonmouth Kisses

by Clint Catalyst

With wicked sarcasm and brilliant agility, Catalyst shreds the surface of all his many subjects—gay relationships, backwater adolescence, and spiraling addiction—and ignites a bonfire of personal honesty. Whether he's writing about a chance sexual encounter at a Goth club or revealing the inner thoughts of young hustlers, Catalyst grinds platitudes into toxic dust with a vivid, whip-smart voice.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, Short Stories, LGBT, Goth, Drugs, Addiction

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Bitemeblair · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book means a lot to me. The stories are so visual, so graphic, it's like your there. I especially love the poetry. Clint's ability to compose poetry is simply masterly. Inky Bloater is one of my favorite little pieces from this book, it's just so dark and potent. I loved all of the book itself, it's all self-medicated glory made literature. I can't gush enough over this book. Really THEE favorite book I own. I think I've read it at least 19 times. Not to mention I happen to proudly wear the book title in my skin ;) this book made it to my meat diary.

In shorter terms, I love it, and I suggest everybody invest a bit of time reading it.

[S Cearley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cottonmouth Kisses is a collection of mostly poetry, with some poesy and short stories scattered throughout. It is not an easy read, for it will show you ugliness and take you out of your expected comfort zone. Yet while you read, you'll realize that what you thought you were comfortable with is a much more boundaryless place. Clint Catalysts' writing shows that the beauty and happiness is connected not only to what you've always found beautiful and serene, but to the harsh brutalities you didn't want to experience.

Clint Catalysts' writing is dark, challenging, and wonderful.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm currently still reading this amazing piece of work, but so far I'm utterly speechless with excitement (If that makes sense)! With each page it gets better and better!! I want more! I can't wait to finish "Cottonmouth Kisses" ... then move on to another amazing find of yours!!


.... by the way, I finished the book! This is 100% most definitely my favorite book of all time! Words can't describe it!
-Madam

[Barbie]

I happened to stumble upon this book while looking for something new & interesting to waste my time with, and what I discovered was my favorite author. This entire collection of short stories and poetry had me captured from the first line of the first page, and leaving me asking just what other little snacks for my brain Clint Catalyst has to offer. I recommend this book to all of my friends.

[Janadoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Catalyst really hits the mark with this collection of goth-tinged debauchery - and a fine reminder that the English language still lives.

My one complaint: I WANT MORE. A writer of this calibur shouldn't just tease us with the occasional short story! Why is this his only solo book?

[Joy Yamada · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every time I dust this tome off and give it another read-through, I find new impact. Catalyst's ability to capture the darkest lows becomes an unexpected form of beauty.

[James Busuttil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A close and personal account of an alternative lifestyle delivered with graphic visuals and insightful anecdotes. Using a blend of symbolic poetry and narrative, it is ultimately showcasing the beauty of self-destruction.

[Alvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A splendid tale about one young man's sordid misadventures on the druggier side of gothdom.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed his poetry and stories, very much so, but it quickly turned into a memoir of a "junky". As I have lost many friends to drugs, I really hate the desolate feeling that comes along with peeking into the brain of an addict who has hit rock bottom and will do anything for the next score.
There is nothing delightful about this book, but there is something very intriguing that makes you flip the pages at turbo speed, it is Raw, and painful, and the brutal truth without any speck sugar coating or rose colored glasses.
There was an endless search for him to find meaning to his life, and to finally feel loved and accepted as is (tran/queer) Lucky for us here, there was a happy ending, unlike many others who have lost that battle.
After reading this, I need a healthy dose of a Victorian Romance with drama and happy endings, and I am taking a break from the deep and heavy stuff, hurts too much to keep on.
( I keep saying that, then I instantly reach for the next deep darkly kept secret, *le sigh* )

[Loren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been looking for this book for years and finally got it as a birthday present. I hadn't realized it had so much poetry in it. The poetry is adequate, but the stories are so good that I wanted more of them. The last piece, "The Dreaming Real" put things in perspective. From a reader's point of view, though, the decadence ended too soon. The club stories made me nostalgic and I wanted to wallow.

[Cha · Rating 4 out of 5]

for recovering members of the "goth scene", for recovering addicts, and for those who love(d) them, and those who want to read and experience the lives of people not at their best.

[Pamela Langhorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to see how Cottonmouth Kisses could become a lot of things to a lot of people. Ostensibly a collection of nine stories and countless poems of twenty-something ennui, shot through with gritty glimpses of universal pathos and pain, it is also an announcement of arrival from a writer with a gift for explosive exposition. Personal favorites among the remarkable many can be found in the "middle" section, entitled A Shedding Of Skins, which wander from tongue-in-cheek diatribes (Winner, Conversations With What Once Was A Friend) to revealing emotional baggage familiar to any who have had to deal with being different and uninhibited in a uniform and up-tight world (Guess I Should Talk About Sex, Everybody's Big Exception, The Truth About Modeling).

Bracketing this section are two less refined (with the exception of the excellent Metaphor And Remorse), but no less intriguing vitriolic mixtures chronicling one pretty boy's trip from small town disenchantments to big city disillusions. But lest you think this simply one more collection of jaded journal entries from another all-too-precious angst farmer, think again. Clint Catalyst lives up to his name, setting off rumblings of mirrored distortion in his readers and prying open shuttered portals to lives and times best remembered without the threat of handy razors. His is a unique voice with many timbres and Cottonmouth Kisses a proclamation of intent from a wickedly gifted and insightful writer.

[Isobel Totten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I definitely read this at too young an age, but it shaped the development of my personality in too big of a way to give it any less then 5 stars. Gave a queer goth kid living in a strict farming household in rural Ontario some sense of escapism and excitement. Cheers to you, Clint.

[Sofia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tad too stylized for my delicate sensibilities. Some lovely metaphors and observations, though.

[Jazzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was overall a pretty good book. I enjoyed the mixture of poems and short stories and the book had a really nice flow.

[Erin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I just didn't get it, I guess.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no clue what I just read.