According to the Tate Museum, an exquisite corpse is "a collaborative drawing approach first used by surrealist artists to create bizarre and intuitive drawings." Poppy Z. Brite's novel of the same name is told by several different characters, in first- and third-person points of view.

I maintain that ideal victims are actually more similar than their murdering counterparts. An habitual killer needs a vivid personality, even if all that lies beneath the flash and scintillation is a howling emptiness. But even before his death, the victim is often more void than substance.

A little over halfway through (chapter 9), the perspectives start bleeding together, with Anthony (first-person) and Jay (third-person) "speaking" without clear breaks. It's a little chaotic and confusing at first.

Themes of loneliness and isolation: Anthony and Jay "recognize" each other and fall in love; Jay's biggest fear is loneliness and Anthony recognizes him as someobe like himself. (Anthony has always felt like something different than other people, a monster, a mutation. Is this just serial killing or part of the queer experience?