that Tran has fallen into Andrew and Jay's deadly hands, and the goal becomes not reuniting with Tran, but rescuing him. Arriving too late to save him, Lucas murders Jay and confronts Andrew. Recognizing that Lucas is already on the verge of death, Andrew refuses to kill him, instead offering him several means to commit suicide. Lucas realizes that his life, no matter how short, is still of value to him and flees, telling no one what he has seen. After partially consuming Jay in a final act of love, Andrew leaves New Orleans to continue his murderous career, while Lucas, returning home, vows to spend his remaining time writing a novel to try to make sense of what he has witnessed. Publication history In 1991, Brite signed a contract to write three novels for Delacorte Books, the first two being Lost Souls and Drawing Blood, with Exquisite Corpse set to be the third. In early 1995, Brite turned in the finished manuscript of Exquisite Corpse and was informed that Delacorte would be unable to publish the novel due to its violent content. Soon afterwards, Brite received word that Penguin, then the author's UK publisher, had also declined the novel. The work bounced from publisher to publisher, who praised the novel's writing but ultimately rejected it, calling its subject matter "too nihilistic, too extreme, a bloodbath without justification". The book was eventually purchased by Simon & Schuster in the US and Orion Publishing Group in the UK. References 1996 American novels Novels by Poppy Z. Brite American horror novels Splatterpunk Novels about cannibalism Novels about necrophilia Novels with gay themes Novels about serial killers Novels set in London Novels set in New Orleans American LGBT novels 1990s LGBT novels Touchstone Books books LGBT-related horror literature Orion Books books