by John Waters
First published 2025
Lady Divine operates the Cavalcade of Perversion, a sleazy traveling show that lures suburban housewives to witness acts of depravity performed by her crew of degenerates. Each performance ends the same way: Divine and her associates rob the audience at gunpoint. But Divine grows tired of the predictable routine. She escalates to murder, killing audience members during one show. This violent turn launches her on a vengeful spree through Baltimore as she hunts down Mr. David, her unfaithful lover. Her rampage includes increasingly outrageous acts of blasphemy and culminates in a bizarre encounter with a giant lobster. Divine embraces her madness completely, declaring herself an incurable maniac as she marches through downtown Baltimore. Waters delivers a wild celebration of bad taste and transgressive behavior.
Genres: fiction, crime, horror, adult-fiction, thriller, dark
Vibes: dark, emotional, suspenseful
Tropes: anti-hero, revenge
Setting: Baltimore
Period: 20th-century
97 pages · Kindle Edition · Picador
Content warnings: graphic-violence, murder, violence