Party Monster

Book excerpt: Now a motion picture starring Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green, Party Monster is a "vastly entertaining, scarily well-written and horrifically funny book" (The Baltimore Sun) that depicts a dazzling, dizzying descent into hell—New York's downtown club scene, where dancing, sex, drugs, and murder were just part of the everyday experience. True crime has never been more fun. When Party Monster was first published, it created a storm of controversy for its startlingly vivid, strikingly fresh, and outrageous depiction of the hedonistic world of the 90s New York City club kids, for whom nothing was too outré—including murder. Nominated for the Edgar Award for best true crime book of the year, it also marked the debut of an audaciously talented writer, James St. James, who himself had been a club kid and close friend and confidant of Michael Alig, the young man convicted of killing the drug dealer known as Angel. This is the inside story of life in clubs like The Tunnel and The Limelight and hanging with leading lights like Keith Haring and RuPaul and the drugs, sex, music, and mayhem that existed during the heyday of New York City club culture.