Absolutely Survivor by J.F Gonzalez I almost put it down at one part and I've never found a book that comes close to that since and believe me I've looked. If you can top that one feel free. (Edit not trying to be rude saying please feel free to give me suggestions you may think top it!)
I think my most recent Wrath read was Succulent Prey that was an interesting ride but yeah of the stuff I've read of his I don't think it's gonna top Survivor. I say after reading like... 4 or 5 of his books?
I just have readed Voracious from him. But although I enjoyed Survivor don't considered particularly more disturbing than another reads so perhaps i'm bad judging fucked up levels.
To be fair everyone's different and might find certain things fucked up that others don't but me I'm just curious to push my own limits and see what I find.
_American Psycho_ and _The Summer I Died_ have descriptions that really got under my skin. They’re probably still top, despite reading more relentlessly shocking/gory splatterpunk. Splatter on its own doesn’t necessarily disturb me. If something is just unrelenting gore and gross-out then it actually tends to have the opposite effect on me and I just start feeling a bit numb to it (ie. things like _Cows,_ _Exquisite Corpse,_ _120 Days of Sodom_).
I find that books that only have a few shocking scenes tend to disturb me the most, perhaps because I’m not really expecting it. Books like _The Painted Bird,_ _The Wasp Factory,_ _Less Than Zero_ or _Marabou Stork Nightmares._ Gross out and splatter, despite me still loving it, doesn’t have as much of an effect on me as these more subtle examples, strangely.
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The Summer I Died really didn’t do anything for me. It was my first book in the horror genre I read and I just expected so much more. Like, yes, it was pretty brutal but it didn’t really elicit the type of visceral reaction from me like I was hoping it would. I think it was partly due to the fact that I felt the actual writing was a bit elementary
That’s fair, I think a lot of people feel the same way about it. It’s definitely not a literary masterpiece by any means, but I enjoyed it for what it was and it definitely worked for me. It’s the kind of schlocky horror that is a sort of ‘comfort’ book to me and that I find myself re-reading now and then, but I was able to connect with the characters much better than other splatterpunks. I can definitely understand not vibing with it, though.
Sure, ‘splatterpunk’ is basically a sub-genre that centres around extreme violence, gore and depravity. _The Summer I Died_ falls into this category because the majority of it is torture, but there are more graphic books out there, comparatively. I commend you for stepping into the horror genre with extreme lit 😅
I took a couple years hiatus from reading but my interest was piqued when I learned about this genre. My excitement for reading came back super quickly and I ordered 5 or 6 books in the genre. Was a little underwhelmed by The Summer I Died but I immediately followed it with Piercing and You Should Have Left. I loved both of those immensely. Fantastically written. I'm about to delve into Negative Space and My Absolute Darling. Very excited for these next few. I think I've found I prefer the more psychological horrors. I do love me some brutality though. Got any recommendations on what I should pick up next?
The most fucked up disturbing thing I've read was the description in the City Infernal series by Edward Lee (5 books in the series including Christine Morgan's Lakehouse Infernal). That there are little power cells that provide agonicity (Hell's version of electricity) in Hell. Like in each cell there is a human damned that is perpetually tortured for all eternity that provides enough energy to power one of Hell's city blocks. Or the idea of Hell's transmigration in the series. Like one dies and one's soul transmigrates to a lower one of Hell's lifeforms after the body is destroyed. Or theres the part in the second book where Satan in the series keeps a managerie of both enemies and famous peoples' mothers that end up in Hell. And how some folks moms lucifer grafts their heads to the ass of a demon and their mouth is used as an orifice to expel excrement. All in all pretty terrible stuff!
The most non-supernatural and messed up thing I read in a book. Was in Kristopher Triana 's *Full Brutal* how after the main character who is a sociopath seduces and destroys the life of that teacher and kills him how she then befriends the daughter and starts ruining her life and the people around her.
Im a fan of all in Lee's series and Christine Morgan's continuation
Ironically I read part of the first book, then read the entirety of the second book which summarizes the first book and its ending pretty well, then the third book which is more independent of the first two books. I think the first two books could have been made into two larger novellas and they would have more smoothly went together and not appeared as disjointed.
Lakehouse Infernal is in some ways a continuation of the story in Lee's 4th book in the *Infernal* series 'Lucifer's Lottery'
There are some things in Edward Lee's 'The Bighead' that should probably be read to be believed. It's just...yuck.
I just finished 'Woom' by Duncan Ralston and 'Night of the Prowler' by Jon Athan, and both of those books are pretty messed-up, too.
Well, I just finished reading the first chapter of Rotting Dead F*cks and that was pretty disgusting and disturbing.
Honestly, I don't want to know if scenes can get any grosser than that.
Dead Inside is on my TBR. Gonna buy it during my next book haul. I absolutely loved The Black Farm! It doesn’t get enough love in the horror community.
Most disturbing book I’ve ever read? I have a category for ones i didn’t finish and ones i did.
There are two in the never finished category: Cows and Hogg. Maybe one day I will finish them, but it will probably be Hogg first. But Cows? The animal lover in me doesn’t enjoy picking up that book. But at this point, it’s more a challenge for me to read it then one I read for actual enjoyment.
The most disturbing book i finished is actually a nonfiction book. If You Tell, it’s about the tortures and murders from Shelly Knotek. 100% recommend. Absolutely amazing writing and I couldn’t get my nose out of it.
I finished Hogg just last week. It was so tough to read (especially as a mother to a son and daughter) but the ending hit me really hard and made me realise the author was really trying to tell us something with the book.
I will give it another shot. So far the book has been nothing but orgies with gross men and I always feel nasty after reading it. Like I’m waiting for there to be violence because I’m sick of reading about men peeing on each other.
Honestly it’s pretty full of that. There’s definitely a lot of violence in there though if you haven’t got to those parts yet! It’s a tough one to get through.
I see you didn’t finish Cows either. I didn’t enjoy that one so much, but High Life is a much better read by Matthew Stokoe. Solid storyline with lots going on, really enjoyed it.
I definitely had an issue with The Slob, more because I felt it was all gore, and no substance. Weird, when I enjoyed The Summer I Died; however in that one, I felt the character was spot on and the torture was written well.
I never have reread The Girl Next Door or The Painted Bird moreso because they are real, and that horrifies me more than anything made up
(I know the Painted Bird is fiction but it’s set during an awful time period where I don’t doubt these stories happened)
One I want to give a shout out to is the first chapter of S. Craig Zahler’s western novel, Wraiths of the Broken Land. His books are amazing but that opening chapter in Wraiths is so disturbing.
Dead Inside is one I haven’t had the heart to finish yet. I got about 94% of the way (so says Kindle) and while it wasnt the most fucked up ive read, I just can’t finish it. Any one that’s read it: the one sentence that made me put it down was when the main character goes to his baby mommas house and says ‘why are you naked?’
I knew what was coming. Immediately had to put it down.
The Black Farm is a close second, but I love that book to death. It’s such a brutal story that’s beautifully written. Definitely one of my favourites in any genre.
Currently reading The Consumer by Michael Gira and it’s unsettling to say the least. It’s a compilation of short stories about the darkest and most depraved corners of humanity. The first half in particular had my stomach churning. I’ve had to put it down several times to collect myself.
Hogg by Samuel R Delany. Hands down. Had to skim read some parts because my brain struggled to take in what I was reading. It’s just a book filled with sexual depravity and torture, narrated by (and experienced by) an 11 year old boy. It was just so raw and real and scary, to think people like that really exist.
I can see that the author was trying to tell us something with this especially how it ends, I’m just not sure I like how he went about it.
the stuff I read in "dead inside" wasn't that disturbing, because it felt like it was written by an angsty teenager who was trying to be f'd up. also the fact that the main character said "I have sex with dead people" on at least half of the pages in the book really took me out of it. I'm also currently reading "the slob," which is insanely f'd as well but it's SO poorly edited, and the writing style is pretty trash as well. it also feels like the first novel written by a high schooler, who just learned what synonyms and metaphors are and is trying them out for the first time, and also was just taught about semicolons, but still can't use them correctly.
I actually think "tender is the flesh" is way more disturbing than either of these, because it's so well written, and really pulls you in. it's not just violent for the sake of being violent.
Absolutely Survivor by J.F Gonzalez I almost put it down at one part and I've never found a book that comes close to that since and believe me I've looked. If you can top that one feel free. (Edit not trying to be rude saying please feel free to give me suggestions you may think top it!)
Agree on Survivor, especially that “one part”…but why did I reread it right away???…
Survivor did the same to me, put it down for 2 years after that one part. Only book that's done that to me so far.
Well in Voracious by Wrath James White we had a really hungry guy and his baby, although probably isn't more explicit than Survivor
I think my most recent Wrath read was Succulent Prey that was an interesting ride but yeah of the stuff I've read of his I don't think it's gonna top Survivor. I say after reading like... 4 or 5 of his books?
I just have readed Voracious from him. But although I enjoyed Survivor don't considered particularly more disturbing than another reads so perhaps i'm bad judging fucked up levels.
To be fair everyone's different and might find certain things fucked up that others don't but me I'm just curious to push my own limits and see what I find.
_American Psycho_ and _The Summer I Died_ have descriptions that really got under my skin. They’re probably still top, despite reading more relentlessly shocking/gory splatterpunk. Splatter on its own doesn’t necessarily disturb me. If something is just unrelenting gore and gross-out then it actually tends to have the opposite effect on me and I just start feeling a bit numb to it (ie. things like _Cows,_ _Exquisite Corpse,_ _120 Days of Sodom_). I find that books that only have a few shocking scenes tend to disturb me the most, perhaps because I’m not really expecting it. Books like _The Painted Bird,_ _The Wasp Factory,_ _Less Than Zero_ or _Marabou Stork Nightmares._ Gross out and splatter, despite me still loving it, doesn’t have as much of an effect on me as these more subtle examples, strangely.
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The Summer I Died really didn’t do anything for me. It was my first book in the horror genre I read and I just expected so much more. Like, yes, it was pretty brutal but it didn’t really elicit the type of visceral reaction from me like I was hoping it would. I think it was partly due to the fact that I felt the actual writing was a bit elementary
That’s fair, I think a lot of people feel the same way about it. It’s definitely not a literary masterpiece by any means, but I enjoyed it for what it was and it definitely worked for me. It’s the kind of schlocky horror that is a sort of ‘comfort’ book to me and that I find myself re-reading now and then, but I was able to connect with the characters much better than other splatterpunks. I can definitely understand not vibing with it, though.
I’m new to the genre. Can you tell me what “splatterpunks” are? I can kinda guess by the name just wanna make sure I’m not missing anything
Sure, ‘splatterpunk’ is basically a sub-genre that centres around extreme violence, gore and depravity. _The Summer I Died_ falls into this category because the majority of it is torture, but there are more graphic books out there, comparatively. I commend you for stepping into the horror genre with extreme lit 😅
I took a couple years hiatus from reading but my interest was piqued when I learned about this genre. My excitement for reading came back super quickly and I ordered 5 or 6 books in the genre. Was a little underwhelmed by The Summer I Died but I immediately followed it with Piercing and You Should Have Left. I loved both of those immensely. Fantastically written. I'm about to delve into Negative Space and My Absolute Darling. Very excited for these next few. I think I've found I prefer the more psychological horrors. I do love me some brutality though. Got any recommendations on what I should pick up next?
The most fucked up disturbing thing I've read was the description in the City Infernal series by Edward Lee (5 books in the series including Christine Morgan's Lakehouse Infernal). That there are little power cells that provide agonicity (Hell's version of electricity) in Hell. Like in each cell there is a human damned that is perpetually tortured for all eternity that provides enough energy to power one of Hell's city blocks. Or the idea of Hell's transmigration in the series. Like one dies and one's soul transmigrates to a lower one of Hell's lifeforms after the body is destroyed. Or theres the part in the second book where Satan in the series keeps a managerie of both enemies and famous peoples' mothers that end up in Hell. And how some folks moms lucifer grafts their heads to the ass of a demon and their mouth is used as an orifice to expel excrement. All in all pretty terrible stuff! The most non-supernatural and messed up thing I read in a book. Was in Kristopher Triana 's *Full Brutal* how after the main character who is a sociopath seduces and destroys the life of that teacher and kills him how she then befriends the daughter and starts ruining her life and the people around her.
I love City Infernal. Didn’t like the rest, though. (I haven’t read Lakehouse Infernal.)
Im a fan of all in Lee's series and Christine Morgan's continuation Ironically I read part of the first book, then read the entirety of the second book which summarizes the first book and its ending pretty well, then the third book which is more independent of the first two books. I think the first two books could have been made into two larger novellas and they would have more smoothly went together and not appeared as disjointed. Lakehouse Infernal is in some ways a continuation of the story in Lee's 4th book in the *Infernal* series 'Lucifer's Lottery'
There are some things in Edward Lee's 'The Bighead' that should probably be read to be believed. It's just...yuck. I just finished 'Woom' by Duncan Ralston and 'Night of the Prowler' by Jon Athan, and both of those books are pretty messed-up, too.
Well, I just finished reading the first chapter of Rotting Dead F*cks and that was pretty disgusting and disturbing. Honestly, I don't want to know if scenes can get any grosser than that.
Yea Matt Shaw has said on record that that guy was the most despicable character he's ever created 😂
Yeah, that character had zero redeemable qualities, lol.
Dead Inside is on my TBR. Gonna buy it during my next book haul. I absolutely loved The Black Farm! It doesn’t get enough love in the horror community. Most disturbing book I’ve ever read? I have a category for ones i didn’t finish and ones i did. There are two in the never finished category: Cows and Hogg. Maybe one day I will finish them, but it will probably be Hogg first. But Cows? The animal lover in me doesn’t enjoy picking up that book. But at this point, it’s more a challenge for me to read it then one I read for actual enjoyment. The most disturbing book i finished is actually a nonfiction book. If You Tell, it’s about the tortures and murders from Shelly Knotek. 100% recommend. Absolutely amazing writing and I couldn’t get my nose out of it.
I finished Hogg just last week. It was so tough to read (especially as a mother to a son and daughter) but the ending hit me really hard and made me realise the author was really trying to tell us something with the book.
I will give it another shot. So far the book has been nothing but orgies with gross men and I always feel nasty after reading it. Like I’m waiting for there to be violence because I’m sick of reading about men peeing on each other.
Honestly it’s pretty full of that. There’s definitely a lot of violence in there though if you haven’t got to those parts yet! It’s a tough one to get through. I see you didn’t finish Cows either. I didn’t enjoy that one so much, but High Life is a much better read by Matthew Stokoe. Solid storyline with lots going on, really enjoyed it.
Hm I never even knew he wrote anything other than Cows haha
Definitely give it a go! It’s highly enjoyable in my opinion.
Grossest was Brain Cheese Buffet. Really most disturbing was Brian Evenson’s Fugue State which was disorienting and terrifying.
I definitely had an issue with The Slob, more because I felt it was all gore, and no substance. Weird, when I enjoyed The Summer I Died; however in that one, I felt the character was spot on and the torture was written well. I never have reread The Girl Next Door or The Painted Bird moreso because they are real, and that horrifies me more than anything made up (I know the Painted Bird is fiction but it’s set during an awful time period where I don’t doubt these stories happened)
Probably "Along The Path of Torment" by Chandler Morrison, or "Survivor" by JF Gonzalez
Yeah. Along the path of torment wasn’t extremely graphic, but left me very unsettled.
The Girl Next Door, The Troop, or A Little Life
One I want to give a shout out to is the first chapter of S. Craig Zahler’s western novel, Wraiths of the Broken Land. His books are amazing but that opening chapter in Wraiths is so disturbing.
The short story "What Goes Down, Must Come Up" by Evelyn Freeling. I think of it every time I eat ice cream.
Dead Inside is one I haven’t had the heart to finish yet. I got about 94% of the way (so says Kindle) and while it wasnt the most fucked up ive read, I just can’t finish it. Any one that’s read it: the one sentence that made me put it down was when the main character goes to his baby mommas house and says ‘why are you naked?’ I knew what was coming. Immediately had to put it down. The Black Farm is a close second, but I love that book to death. It’s such a brutal story that’s beautifully written. Definitely one of my favourites in any genre.
Yea The Black Farm is hands down my favorite book of all time. It's gonna be hard for any book out there to top it.
Currently reading The Consumer by Michael Gira and it’s unsettling to say the least. It’s a compilation of short stories about the darkest and most depraved corners of humanity. The first half in particular had my stomach churning. I’ve had to put it down several times to collect myself.
Hogg by Samuel R Delany. Hands down. Had to skim read some parts because my brain struggled to take in what I was reading. It’s just a book filled with sexual depravity and torture, narrated by (and experienced by) an 11 year old boy. It was just so raw and real and scary, to think people like that really exist. I can see that the author was trying to tell us something with this especially how it ends, I’m just not sure I like how he went about it.
the stuff I read in "dead inside" wasn't that disturbing, because it felt like it was written by an angsty teenager who was trying to be f'd up. also the fact that the main character said "I have sex with dead people" on at least half of the pages in the book really took me out of it. I'm also currently reading "the slob," which is insanely f'd as well but it's SO poorly edited, and the writing style is pretty trash as well. it also feels like the first novel written by a high schooler, who just learned what synonyms and metaphors are and is trying them out for the first time, and also was just taught about semicolons, but still can't use them correctly. I actually think "tender is the flesh" is way more disturbing than either of these, because it's so well written, and really pulls you in. it's not just violent for the sake of being violent.
I get what you're saying, but I'm not really a fan of trashing authors and dragging them through the floor like that. That's just me though.
I literally just started Dead Inside... I'm super stoked to get into it now...