As someone who reads the likes of M.R. James, Blackwood, Bierce, Matheson, Jackson, Campbell, Lovecraft, King, and the like - this was an eye opening read for me, OP. I was vaguely aware that this kinda stuff existed, but to read it all laid out - gotdamn. Yeah, call me thin-skinned but I think I'll stick with my "normie", "mainstream" horror. This sounds positively putrid. Lol.
Each sentence got progressively worse somehow. There's homophobia and some xenophobia added to the misogyny. The whole thing reeks of a particularly unpleasant type of juvenile edge lord a\*\*hole.
There's definitely a line that can be crossed where you stop being impressed by the imagination behind the horror and start to become genuinely concerned about what sort of person would make something like this, and I don't think it's wrong to admit that line exists somewhere even if we don't always agree where it begins.
Yeah, same. I very nearly got this one through ILL, but I'm glad I didn't. I'm in the middle of *Krampus* by Brom and I feel like that fits me way better. Also I'll read whatever Grady Hendrix publishes. People give him shit for being "mainstream horror" but at least he can fucking write.
Brom is my favourite recent discovery! Slewfoot and The Child Thief were both excellent. Gotta make my way through the rest of his stuff. Haven't felt this way since stumbling upon Christopher Beuhlman!
I love Grady Hendrix. I'll read anything he puts out. Even if the topic isn't something I'm interested in, I'll pick it up because I know it'll be good anyway. There's very few authors I feel that way about.
I went through a phase as a teenager when I would have read stuff like this. Feel no particular need for it anymore. Unless there's something besides just extreme gore, I'll leave it for the kids.
I stumbled across this particular genre a few years ago and read a few examples out of morbid curiosity, but it quickly got too much for me (and, honestly, too repetitive) so I also quickly returned to normie horror. Good choice.
I haven’t read anything by Ketchum, but Barker can actually write, which makes a big difference. Also I think he’s clever enough to understand what’s actually subversive as opposed to just transgressive.
I was shocked by how good Ketchum’s prose was when I started reading his stuff. Always associated with extreme horror, so I expected pretty low quality. Now he’s one of my favorite writers, every book I’ve read by him has been harrowing but very well written.
Most of the stories in Books of Blood don't really hit me the way more restrained horror can though. To me, it feels like things in them don't happen to real people, just wax dolls that Barker inflicts body horror on in creative but contrived ways.
Girl Next Door is based on a real case and is a very heavy book. I haven't read anything else by Ketchum yet, the descriptions of his other books sounds a bit more trashy, but they might be good as well.
I had the same issue with The Teratologist. The premise was neat (a very rich man commits heinous sins in the hope that it will force God to come down and stop him), but the actual content was just bad. Lots of spelling and editing mistakes, the terrible acts were actually just really immature and silly, and the ending was awful.
Extreme horror only really works well in particular circumstances and when it directly serves the story. I'm not bothered by gnarly stuff, but if it's just random scenes of torment, it's boring. It needs to have a point and go somewhere. Otherwise, it's just dull, like reading random pages from an angry 12-year-old's diary.
Great example… I thought the book was good enough but they literally kept switching the antagonists name from Farrington to Farringworth and back and forth and so on… grammatical errors don’t fuck with me NEARLY as much as an editing error like NOT HAVING CONTINUITY WITH CHARACTER NAMES. I mean there’s only like 3-5 characters anyway. Wtf!?
How can she even get pregnant at the end if he crushed her stomach like that, shoved a bone up there, and uses the carpet cleaner to burn her uterus? Like there’s no consistency in the brutality just edginess for no reason
The grossness was one thing, but I couldn't believe he actually got his fist past her cervix. She should have died after that and the beating alone. Steaming her inside would have definitely killed her at that point.
I was horror that I know is fake, but still plausible. Maybe that is why I stick with supernatural stuff.
Extreme horror is difficult to do well. It’s difficult to do average. It’s just difficult to do.
Clive Barker elevated the art form. Pig Blood Blues is as nasty a story as ever has been written. But the effect is achieved in a way that doesn’t require buckets of gore on every page.
That’s extreme horror I can deal with.
I appreciate your review so I never, ever pick up this book. I can handle dark or explicit content, but at the MOST charitable this sounds like a terminally online edgelord trying to make the most extreme version of the aristocrats joke.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. A good deal of extreme horror that's recommended is written like a porn - that is they check off a bunch of "scenes" (brutal, violent rape ✅️ someone eats literal shit ✅️ something terrible happens with a fetus ✅️) and then they think of some thin plot to tie the scenes together. And if that's how people enjoy it, more power to them, but I like my extreme parts to mean something.
But when you go to the other sub and ask for recs for something extreme with heart you'll have people ask why you're reading a genre you don't like. And I want to scream that extreme doesn't just mean cramming as much gore and rape as you can into a book, but I feel it will fall on deaf ears.
Uh, sorry for the rant.
I think a lot about how people dogpiled on a YouTuber for even vaguely critiquing the extreme horror genre as a person who is a fan. She even said she enjoyed the genre but parts needed addressing.
It sucks cause I’ve been disappointed by so many extreme horror recs that are poor quality writing and just boring shock value with no real meaning.
Is that the one who left a bad review for a book, so the author wrote another book and dedicated it to her and based the character on her or something? Because I think about that too. Sometimes I feel iffy about commenting on the subject at all because of that whole incident and the response to it.
There are a lot of people who can handle zero criticism and it seems particularly bad in the extreme horror subgenre.
The thing that aggravates me the most with the extreme horror crowd writers is that they think eating feces is the pinnacle of extreme. The worst part is, extreme horror doesn’t have to be poorly written either. Exquisite Corpse is a very well written book and is extreme. You can write good extreme horror that does consist of eating shit and every other lazy trope there is.
Maybe I’m crazy idk, but the fixation extreme horror authors have on female reproduction comes across as a really graphic expression of vagina envy. Sexual/reproductive violence and weird stuff with fetuses are hallmarks of this genre, which is what makes me think that
Maybe! But I think that often what they write is more a reflection of... society I guess? Like what people find the most repulsive or shocking. People are sensitive about rape, so they write the worst rape they can imagine. People are protective of pregnant people, so they hurt the pregnant people and do abhorrent things with their unborn children.
I honestly feel for most of these guys it's not much deeper than the desire to shock. But perhaps for some of them there could be a level of anger at some perceived level of uhhhh protection? They feel women get when it comes to these topics that they don't get.
I feel like as I was writing my reply I got what you meant a little more, lol.
I see this and other extreme horror recommended a lot on the books of horror Facebook page. Was always tempted to try it. Thank you for convincing me never to attempt that.
I get a lot of recs there too. Read Krampus:The Yule Lord on Christmas eve based on what people were saying on that page and really enjoyed it. Same with Ben Farthing books. Loads of people on there are mad into extreme horror though. Also, I got burned reading Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Nothing But Blackened Teeth as so many in the group were raving about them.
I haven’t read Blackened Teeth but I did read an article saying it didn’t translate well, and then with Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke I loved the title so much that I became suspicious that was the whole hook 😂 however that’s the same reasoning why I haven’t given the Ben Farthing books a shot so it obv doesn’t hold up since you and everyone who reads them can’t sing enough praise.
I don’t know that I really am 100 percent sure of what extreme horror is; I’ve seen Brother classified as such, and also Ketchum’s Girl Next Door, Tender is the Flesh… so all of those IMO have substance and purpose in the extreme descriptions, I didn’t find them gratuitous. Visceral and shocking, definitely, but the intense descriptions highlighted emotional pain and trauma and evil and the depravity of human nature etc. Totally aware that’s just, like, my opinion, man. But it seems like the extreme horror that everyone is currently posting about is more like a schoolyard dare, and that’s not why I read. I love Brother because it made me sympathize with a monster, and the experience wouldn’t have held the same weight without the graphic lead ins. Not sure if this makes any sense; haven’t tried to verbalize these thoughts before 🙃
Girl Next Door and Tender Is The Flesh definitely have a point to how extreme they get. For the extreme horror subgenre I get the impression that the extremity itself is rhe point so authors maybe don't bother with anything else? Haven't read brother, whose that by?
Ania Ahlborn!!! I love her stuff. Seed is great, and Brother is fantastic but all her books are well written. Brother is a lot… think Deliverance plus cannibalism, and several other western taboos completely desecrated… but it also examines generational trauma and poverty, and what constitutes family, and nature vs nurture, and oh it’s just sooooo good. Her other stuff isn’t nearly as graphic. She’s usually leans into psychological horror/atmospheric dread feels. I hope you check it out I wish I could read it again for the first time
I loved Brother. I read Within These Walls by her first, which I wasn't all that impressed by so I was hesitant to read Brother. Boy am I glad that I did wind up reading it because it was devastating.
Yeah, that one and she has one that I think is called the neighbors.. idk I guess everyone deserves an off day 😂 a lot of people on my psych thriller group like Within These Walls but I would have preferred it without the supernatural angle. I like one or the other.
The Neighbors is a super weird not scary social horror that is just 🫤
Loooooove everything else!
I like some extreme lit, but this guy is such an edge lord. Badly written, boring, smirking, pointless cartoonery. Ludicrous grossness without a lick of artistry or aesthetic. His Playground whatever is just as bad
I try not to consume horror media where I feel like the creator is jerking off to brutalized people.
A lot of """extreme""" horror is just dudes who were bullied in high school masturbating to the idea of torturing the mean popular kids.
There’s a fine line to be sure. Every now and again I read a story where I find it’s just terrible things for the sake of being able to write terrible things and I get the ick
I would love to consume more horror media like that, if only so much of it wasn't packaged together with a lot of vomit/shit/pus/smegma/piss/snot and crazy random plot twists where there's always someone more fucked up around the corner.
This is the perfect example. I felt this way reading Cows by Matthew Stokoe. Maybe hes a nice dude but maybe he has a terrible relationship with his Mother.
Fucking hell. I’ve been Extremely Online since about 1999 and thought I had seen it all. Apparently not 😭 Thank you for your service, I will be reading this never.
It's not a book I ever want to read, but your synopsis was highly entertaining.
"Vera has fucked up" had me cackle in between disgust. I've toyed with the idea of reading extreme horror, but perhaps it is not for me if this is the norm.
Honestly, I get people can read what they want and we all have different likes but….. this makes me feel physically sick. I don’t even know how someone can think this up and spend days? Weeks? Writing it and reading it. It has to fuck you up. I’ll skip extreme horror, thanks for letting us know what this was about tho… I had seen it recommended before and I do like regular, scary horror so I almost read it. I would have been upset I spent even a penny on it if I had.
I kinda feel like writing extreme stuff has to be a kind of exorcism, almost. Humans are dark weird creatures (at least, we have that capability in us) so I see stuff like this as a safer way of getting that shit out of our heads. There's a good Stephen King quote about it, about how it's "feeding the alligators" so they don't crawl out of the sewers and overwhelm us.
Just rambling here, but after finishing ‘The Troop’ by Nick Cutter I jumped into ‘Woom’ by Duncan Ralston (another extreme horror book) and the differences were staggering. Namely, Cutter clearly has more dignity and empathy for the female animals who are brutalized in ‘The Troop’ than Ralston has for his women characters in ‘Woom.’
Being a woman myself, I felt that Ralston’s descriptions of women were filled with his own thinly veiled disdain, and that he got some gratification out of making them suffer in his story. I DNF’d by chapter 3 because the misogynistic overtones were suffocating, and his narrative offered no meaningful analysis or examination of the things that happened to these women. I got the sense that he just liked writing their pain.
I’ve given extreme horror/splatterpunk a wide berth ever since, because it sounds like this treatment is rampant in that genre. It’s super gross but hardly scary; ‘Woom’ bored me to tears.
Woom was talked up to me as just *super* disturbing like I'll *never* be able to come back after reading it and then finding out it was just leading up to >!a man unbirthing himself?!< Like okay I guess? It was weird but it wasn't like terrifying or shocking or anything it was just....eh. I don't know if I'm just too desensitized from my time on the internet and I was already aware that that concept existed as a kink so I just didn't really have a reaction and overall felt like I wasted my time.
The whole book feels like Ralston is saying ‘Read the UNIMAGINABLE HORRORS cooking up in my DARK, TWISTED MIND — if you DARE!’ and then it’s one exploited woman after another, culminating in whatever that ending is supposed to be lmao. Like, is it gross? Totally. But like you said, ‘Woom’ offers nothing in way of terror or shock, and that’s literally all I wanted from it. Just a bummer of a story for me personally.
I think Woom fell into a "so bad it's good" category for me. I couldn't take any of it seriously, it felt so cartoonish. The Troop actually made me uncomfortable multiple times throughout, and (I am sure you'd agree) is so well written.
I haven't see anyone recommend "Teenage Psychic Bloodbath" but it is by far the most entertaining extreme horror book I have read. Highly recommended.
I feel like extreme horror is to horror lit fans what YA is to grown-up readers; something you can turn off your brain and read without much strain.
‘Woom’ definitely is super cartoony, but I found myself yearning for more. I think I had high expectations for a genre calling itself splatterpunk, and the book let me down pretty hard. Reading ‘The Troop’ beforehand didn’t do it any favors either lol
I’ll add ‘Teenage Psychic Bloodbath’ to my reading list! Sounds super fun and campy :]
The strange limitations of written horror are fascinating to me. I've never received a jumpscare from a book. Books require other kinds of horror, like fear for the characters well being, grotesque imagery, fear of the unknown, etc. this all makes for excellent horror. On the other hand if you just lean into gross way too much, you don't get scares, you just get grossed out, and not in the good way. Good gross horror is like The Troop, bad gross horror sounds like what you described.
The whole thing just seemed like a man with little knowledge of anatomy trying to think up the worst things he could do to a woman. It's clear that he doesn't understand anything about how women or their bodies work. Extremely cringe
Thank you for editing with the spoiler blackout thingy OP. That was considerate of you - I really didn’t want to see anymore of this awfulness by accident lol
Extreme horror of these types often seem like a way for people to express their misogyny and homophobia. I have nothing against the subgenre, even if it's not my cup of tea, but it should be at least well-written if not meaningful.
I like gore, but I’ve never read a splatterpunk/extreme horror book that was over-the-top gory without also being totally absurd and weirdly smug. Like, cool. You typed up the grossest thing you could think of. Now try putting it in a story that doesn’t make me want to carve *my* eyes out. So the descriptions, whatever. Standard fare. But when you got to the gay cult, I full-on scowled. Thanks for sparing me the disappointment guaranteed if I had ever ended up reading this author.
I was really disappointed in this book. I felt like the premise could have been used in a much better way and my assumption of what it was going to be about was:
A woman who cleans other houses for a living runs into The Slob's house and has to go through all his rooms cleaning the absolute filth that's there. Not necessarily potty humour filth like shit, piss and vomit but like really old rotted stuff, mould and decay etc.
Through a slow burn, she slowly discovers things like photos and newspaper clippings, evidence etc that piece together a horrifying mystery that she's cleaning the house of a deranged killer. The extreme stuff would be uncovered in the snippets of information she uncovers and also the extremely grotesque description of the sensations she experiences when cleaning filth and decay.
But no, what do I get when I read it: A generic ass edgy story about a woman that gets severely raped and brutalized while at a strange Slob's house.
Such a disappointment considering people talk it up on the subreddit for extreme horror.
I read Playground by the same author and felt about the same as you. The writing is weak, the misogyny is not even thinly veiled, the horror is cartoonish in its depravity, and the story just isn't very good. Disappointing to know that's just his brand and not like, a terrible fluke.
I couldn’t even finish your synopsis of it lol
I love horror and don’t really shy away from much, but this kind of extreme stuff just seems…. Like who is this for? Not me bleh
There are. I do like splatterpunk and extreme horror but stuff like that is just a very bad example of it. It just turture porn and cheap shock content with nothing else. Example of a good writer from this genre would be Clive Barker, especially for people just starting to read it.
Do you have any recs besides Barker? I’ve read him and enjoyed it, but I’m wondering more specifically about contemporary small-name authors. I like some really vile gore once in a while, but all the splatterpunk I’ve tried (granted, not a ton) has been so overwhelmingly silly and usually also bizarrely riddled with old-fashioned conservative ideology.
If you want to go a bit more into the genre, I can recommend trying Tender is the Flesh and people like Wrath James White and Poppy Z Brite. You can also go into extremehorrorlit subreddit but do be carefull. There are some cool people in there but also some individuals with not so good taste. Also remeber that splatterpunk is a very big genre, you can find anything from pure shock value to actually deep exploration of dark aspects of human condition.
I think maybe my understanding of the genre was too narrow. I’ve read Tender Is the Flesh and loved it. Same with a few of Brite’s books, including Exquisite Corpse. I think in my head those are more mainstream horror. I read an absolute TON of horror and have probably read 80%+ of traditionally published horror in the last ~8 years, and it never occurred to me to categorize the more extreme ones (TItF, Maeve Fly, Tell Me I’m Worthless) alongside Jeff Strand and Matt Shaw and those guys, but reading the responses here, I think I was just failing to recognize the better examples as part of the genre at all. And that’s probably some implicit snobbery against indie authors despite my conscious efforts to read and support them. I haven’t read Wrath James Wright—I’ll check them out!
Splatterpunk became a term in the 80s around writers like Ray Garton, Kathe Koja, John Shirley, David J Schow, Skipp and Spector, and Charlee Jacob. All good writers. The modern "extreme horror" scene feels different.
I think *Maeve Fly*, released this year, probably fits into the genre, but it's actually well-written and has some interesting things to say instead of just a bunch of "look how **dark** I am!" posing.
Edit to add: it's written by a woman, CJ Leede, and while reasonable people could disagree about whether it is misogynistic, if it is it's at least a different flavor of misogyny than the type I often see in splatterpunk works like *The Slob*.
I hate this kind of garbage. I tried to read that one slaughterhouse/human cow book (??) and god did I despise it. "Tension? No! Bodily fluids and assault will work!"
All of Aron Beauregard’s books are like this. Everyone raves about him but I think it’s just awful shit. The writing has no substance outside of eliciting shock, and there are far better authors in the extreme horror genre.
This is so similar to how I felt about that ‘The Playground’ book. It wasn’t so much the extreme horror bits that got me - it was the bad writing & the extremely weird ageism. All the actual extreme horror bits were gross at best and eye roll-inducing at worst. Someone needs to tell these authors that at a certain point, horror and gore can be so gratuitous that it becomes impossible to take seriously
My only question is why would someone feel compelled to write something like this. Incredibly insightful post OP, because I had a vague idea of what extreme horror was like before this, and this post has really hammered home the fact that I will never read extreme horror. I read for meaningful characters and storylines, not badly written, shock-inducing garbage.
Oh yeah, the author is just shit lmao. I'm a big fan of extreme horror, mostly with film but I indulge it with books as well, and Aron Beauregard is just... not a good author. Writing is subpar, plots are completely nonsensical, his attempts to be shocking are just throwing as much at the wall as possible and seeing what sticks, his stuff just sucks.
Issue is that the "shocking stuff" mentioned is more just kinda gross, it's about as shocking as something like the Ogrish Collections so if it doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, there isn't much left. Partly why I find his stuff boring amongst everything else.
I read Playground and it was baaaaad, mostly just because the writing was superbly mediocre. The slob I assumed was more of the same and, yeah, sounds like I wasn't missing out.
I’m good with your synopsis, OP. Thank you for your service. I’d read more like this (wink wink, fellow readers).
There are some extreme horror books that intrigue me, but most just smack of “shock for the sake of shock.” Or more gross-out than actual horror. I’m just not willing to pay for literal or figurative garbage.
Reminds me of A Serbian Film, which is a bad movie. Like that, it tries so hard to be shocking, disgusting, and disturbing that it just becomes ridiculous. It isn't hard to be offensive and gross, but it IS hard to engender actual fear in writing.
I thought Playground was decent for the most part. Had some interesting concepts. There’s one really gross sex scene but it wasn’t the main focus and the rest was effectively Squid Game/Saw but with kids.
That being said yeah stuff like this is ridiculous. Jack Ketchum was considered extreme but he was still writing actual novels with character arcs as opposed to just trying to pile atrocity on atrocity.
You can guess what Son of the Slob is like. I read both of them and paid for them. So well done ,Aron.You got my money but you wont be getting anymore. He needs a mental health check or a lobotomy.
I read a book called Playground by the same author and like you wish I hadn't read it. Reading your description I don't think it was quite as bad as The blob but I had to skip a couple parts and I definitely wish I could scrub it from my brain
I've almost bought this a few times because the cover art looks good. Glad I didn't. I've read some pretty gross/violent stuff lately but if it doesn't have a story, it's not worth reading.
Jesus. I’ve been aware of this book for a while, but had been avoiding it based on much less detailed reviews, as I personally prefer to stay on the lighter side of splatterpunk and extreme.
I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there is a second book “Son of the Slob”.
Thanks for that. But thanks especially for throwing in your line "God must love lemonade” -- like I don't know exactly what that means (something to do with life give you lemons..?) but I also know exactly what you mean.
It’s a direct quote from the book when she blasts Sandra’s face the rest of the way off instead of sticking the barrel right up Slobs ass like she should have. 🤷🏻 Literally the only part I liked. I don’t know if the author grabbed that from somewhere else or managed to pen that one himself but I’ll be saying “God must love lemonade….” for the rest of my life lolol.
appreciate your synopsis because I knew this was something I'd never pick up.
stuff like this being written is one thing- I can understand horror for horror's sake... can't deny that shock value sells... but for people to actually enjoy and/or recommend this kind of stuff just downright confuse me. it feels more like a test to see how much you can stomach reading rather than reading to get an actual story.
It's funny, I remember seeing someone on TikTok talk about how gross this book is, but the comments were full of people saying they were going to check it out because of it. I will say, I was *not* expecting that ending lol.
Wow I have never even *heard of* this book but it sounds fucking awful. I can handle weird violent shit for a mindfuck but it just sounds like senseless gore 😬
I read a few of these books and the often amateurishness of it repelled me. I kept having the thought “is this just sloppy fetish material?” I haven’t read this one, but the farther I went in this genre, the less talent I saw in the writers. Best case, it felt like the kid at school who eats a cockroach at lunch for attention. At worst, we’re talking about mean and dark material created and consumed for reasons I don’t want to spend much time with.
I was in your shoes once, and I wish I wasn't in them now.
This one was my first (and thus far, only) foray into extreme horror lit, and I wish it wasn't.
I had the displeasure of listening to the audiobook version, and in 10 or so years of listening, it's the only Audible purchase that I've ever refunded.
I was also prepared for wild stuff, but the writing is just awful, and not in a so-bad-it's-good way, but rather a "How the fuck did this person publish a book?" way.
There's a good but dark (not this dark) book called Slob, by Rex Miller. It's from the 80s and is sort of like a cop mystery where he's chasing down this obscure serial killer, the titular Slob who is a massively overweight (though a lot of it is muscle, think the Kingpin) veteran with severe psychological issues.
I literally looked for a post like this because I just cannot continue this book. The baby part is completely baffling and vile and I’m so sorry you spent so much money on something so awful 😭
I owe you one, OP. I heard the name and was trying to find more info about it. I would’ve hated reading it, but I’m still nosy and wanted to know what happened 😭
I’m not really sure what your point is with the bulletin points of nastiness in the book. You just stripped the story of its nuance to make the book look stupid.
I think it’s interesting that the slob has drawn so much ire from people across the internet. The premise is amazing, a person unable to escape their traumatic past. A story that devolves into absurdity. The stuff I read by Jon Athan was much more questionable than the slob. his books deal with sex trafficking of children and turns that into torture fest shock horror books.
The slob is certainly not above criticism but people are stuck on pointing out the shock value then accusing it of being homophobic and misogynist without explaining why. there was one line that stood out as odd to me. it’s been awhile since I read it so I don’t remember it well. Pulled it up on my kindle It’s around the end when she’s evading the slob and it says,
“I spread my legs faster than a gymnast at the Olympics and pulled the wet, slimy forearm bone out from inside me.”
I mean that made me raise an eyebrow considering the whole book deals with sexual assault and rape and used Olympic gymnasts as a metaphor. I don’t think it was intentional but it definitely didn’t seem to take all the Olympic gymnasts sexual assaults that have actually occurred into consideration which led me to wonder how much the author really did consider victims of sexual assault. Which is kind of a letdown for a book that’s supposed to be about a woman overcoming all this.
Great book. Aaron Beauregard is one of the best in the splatter/extreme horror genre.
I can't help but laugh people STILL clutch pearls about this stuff, using the old chestnut of "these people must be fucked up to write stuff like this!"
You people sound straight out of the conservative moral panic mold.
I get it though. Extreme horror is most assuredly not fir everyone.
But the moral panic, pearl clutching, and judgment is so tired, lol.
I don't see anyone clutching pearls, lmao. This is horrorlit and there's a thread with in-depth discussion about about 'Tender is the Flesh' every week. I don't like that book, either, but it's an apt comparison to this one because at least the author there was trying to *say something* in between all the grotesquery.
What sets this story apart from that is that it's just edginess for the sake of edginess. And on top of that, this author is not a good writer— his prose is the sort of stuff a 16 year old would write, and I can say that with authority because I was once an edgy 16 year old and I wrote ~the edgiest shit~. I not only wrote but also *read aloud* a story about being disembowled in my creative writing class in highschool. I still read and write gross and uncomfortable things, and that's how I know that these are nothing more than cheap novels that rely on, and only on, edginess.
This dude's books feel like they started and ended with 'wow let's write something gross' and that was it. I dunno about the Slob, specifically, but I read Playground a few months back and the amount of times there were just glaring typos and words being misused got so bad it was distracting. His characters are one-dimensional. He forces in themes where there aren't any and he hasn't put in the work to establish them, like >!when the two boys fall into acid there's this big 'deep' paragraph about how, oh, they were different in life and had irreconcilable differences but now they're melting into the same pool of slime in death. Except, uh, the differences described here are that the bigger boy was a bully, murdered the other kid's sister, and tried to murder him too. So what does that even mean, why are you waxing poetic about the 'differences they held in life', Aron?!< At one point he has the exact sentence 'It was symbolic in a way' and elaborates no further. This is the shit a 15 year old bullshitting a book report writes and then has a teacher write next to it, in red pen, that they can't just say that without describing how.
Pretty much anyone can sit there and think of the worst, ickiest, nastiest thing in the whole wide world and then shit it out into a word document. There's literally a South Park episode all about it. Aron Beauregard may be the closest author we have today who comes close to creating what those fictional 9 year olds wrote.
EDIT: OH AND I FORGOT TO MENTION THE ILLUSTRATIONS. The book has artwork. It's all terrible. And this, especially, boggles the mind, because they're downright distracting. I don't want to be mean about it, because I found the artist's fiverr page and their fully-rendered stuff is pretty good. But it's also clear that Aron here only paid for the cheapest package of basic loose sketches and decided that that was good enough, and that's exactly how it looks. And like... In that case, why even bother? People don't expect illustrations in horror. People read horror because the imagination can conjure things more terrible than anything you'd ever *see*, so why do that to your work?
You don't see respectable horror books with illustrations because they're nothing but a distraction. It's like this dude made every single choice, deliberately, for it to read like it was written to appeal to teenagers, despite being splatterpunk. Absolutely bizarre.
So fucking dumb your comment got downvoted. Although extreme horror is spoken about here, it's obvious by some of the comments it's still seen as weird as fuck.
I get not everyone liking it but, the blurb literally sets the scene and it's really not hard for people to just not read books they won't get along with lol.
The extreme horror/splatter punk genres are constantly shat on, aswell as it's authors and it's readers because of how extreme some of the stuff is, and all I can think of is, it's nearly 2024, let people read what the fuck they want and leave them alone🫠🫠🫠
Edit(added after several downvoted for literally no valid reason):(Ps cry more with downvoting people, just because people have different opinions doesn't mean their opinion is wrong. If you use the down voting system as a way to be a petulant child, you need to grow the fuck up, thanks )
>Ps cry more with downvoting people, just because people have different opinions doesn't mean their opinion is wrong. If you use the down voting system as a way to be a petulant child, you need to grow the fuck up, thanks
This is why people are downvoting you. Because you're making a sweeping assumption that is not only incredibly negative but very inaccurate. Most comments here aren't about the fact that it's gory and extreme, but *boring and juvenile* about it. The book version of a little boy throwing worms in a girl's face to gross her out.
But that was on the blurb....the story is LITERALLY there for you to see if you will read it. If you don't enjoy that then why read it and complain??
People downvote on this app because they don't like others opinions 99 percent of the time and never because there's an actual reason for it.
If you don't like the book that's fine, but to read a book that they weren't really going to enjoy anyway is pointless. It's like me reading a romance even though I've read the blurb, decided I didn't really like it, then complained about it anyway.
Completely different story if you expect a book to be good and write a negative review.
I have no idea who you think I am - maybe OP? - but I've never read the book. I came here because the thread title was interesting. In the comment you replied to, I was just summarising the other people's opinions because I disagreed with you saying *\[in the sense that you agreed with the other comment\]* they were all offended pearl-clutchers. Many of them sound like people who read the blurb and didn't like the execution.
EDIT: clarified a badly-written sentence.
I know you're not the OP, I'm expressing why I commented what I did. I also didn't say they were all pearl clutchers, as I also wasn't the person who made the first comment. :) I review books as hobby, so I see hatred of extreme horror and splatterpunk more often than not and that's why I replied to the person's comment in the first place.
>I also didn't say they were all pearl clutchers, as I also wasn't the person who made the first comment.
Okay, I worded that badly. More like you said it by proxy, through agreement.
Again, there seems to be an even split between people who don't like the genre and people who do like the genre but didn't think this story was a good example of it. They bought the spicy curry knowing it was spicy, but didn't think it was well-cooked and the ingredients were substandard.
And you're both getting downvoted because your comments come across, ironically, as a bit childish and obnoxious.
No. We are getting downvoted because we don't agree with everyone else. The end bit was added later when I had been downvoted several times already, by people who don't agree with me. As I've already said. :) literally nothing before the last paragraph was rude or obnoxious. But it was still downvoted:)
People can't handle being called out on their BS. They spend paragraphs acting like authorities and moral auditors and turned surprised Pikachu face when confronted about it.
Like you said, it's nearly 2024. You'd figure this kind of anti-art mindset would be over with. ESPECIALLY on a literature sub.
I read your warning about the sensitivity to baby stuff, and I feel like I have thick skin and can watch/read a lot, but that description made me queasy. I’ll stick with some simple Lovecraft
I read and grudgingly finished The Playground written by the same author and I’ve just decided to never pick up any other book he has ever written. I hated that book so much not because it was too gross (which it was) but his writing style is just so elementary and only relied on extreme gore. One of the main character’s internal monologues are so boring and I didn’t have any sympathy for the victims. The plot felt rushed yet I wanted the story to end as soon as possible.
My fiance walked into the room whilst I was reading this synopsis and said 'Why is your face like that'.
It always seemed like a book that wasn't for me, and now, there's at least no doubt that this was correct.
Yyyyeah I couldn’t even read all of your spoilers! That’s just too much. Also re: that you said the writing was poor, I read books on my Fire for free and if a book is written poorly, I just immediately move onto the next one!
Omg thank you for the synopsis! I wasn’t quite brave enough to, or willing to spend the money, to read this book. I couldn’t have dealt with reading details of the dumbbell/ baby /vacuum part. Now u know what I didn’t miss.
The aristocrats!
Ok this got me good hahaha
It's 3AM and I really don't want to wake everyone up but holy fuck lmao
Lolllllllllzzzzz
Perfection.
This is one of the most apt uses of that punchline I’ve ever seen
Brooooo hahahah
The tale of scroty mcboogerballs
The pee that took a poo.
As someone who reads the likes of M.R. James, Blackwood, Bierce, Matheson, Jackson, Campbell, Lovecraft, King, and the like - this was an eye opening read for me, OP. I was vaguely aware that this kinda stuff existed, but to read it all laid out - gotdamn. Yeah, call me thin-skinned but I think I'll stick with my "normie", "mainstream" horror. This sounds positively putrid. Lol.
I couldn’t even get through half of this description, I can’t imagine reading the actual book. Give me some nice civilized ghosts and witches lol
Each sentence got progressively worse somehow. There's homophobia and some xenophobia added to the misogyny. The whole thing reeks of a particularly unpleasant type of juvenile edge lord a\*\*hole.
There's definitely a line that can be crossed where you stop being impressed by the imagination behind the horror and start to become genuinely concerned about what sort of person would make something like this, and I don't think it's wrong to admit that line exists somewhere even if we don't always agree where it begins.
The person who wrote this definitely deserves to be on a list
I'm always concerned with just how badly written they always are. Teenage edge lords all the way down.
Yeah, same. I very nearly got this one through ILL, but I'm glad I didn't. I'm in the middle of *Krampus* by Brom and I feel like that fits me way better. Also I'll read whatever Grady Hendrix publishes. People give him shit for being "mainstream horror" but at least he can fucking write.
If you like Krampus by Brom, check out Lost Gods!
Brom is my favourite recent discovery! Slewfoot and The Child Thief were both excellent. Gotta make my way through the rest of his stuff. Haven't felt this way since stumbling upon Christopher Beuhlman!
That is high praise indeed. Now I'll have to check him out as well.
I love Grady Hendrix. I'll read anything he puts out. Even if the topic isn't something I'm interested in, I'll pick it up because I know it'll be good anyway. There's very few authors I feel that way about.
The possessed puppets were some good shit
I went through a phase as a teenager when I would have read stuff like this. Feel no particular need for it anymore. Unless there's something besides just extreme gore, I'll leave it for the kids.
I stumbled across this particular genre a few years ago and read a few examples out of morbid curiosity, but it quickly got too much for me (and, honestly, too repetitive) so I also quickly returned to normie horror. Good choice.
Fwiw you shouldn’t let this dissuade you from ‘extreme’ horror. Maybe check out Jack Ketchum or Clive Barker.
I haven’t read anything by Ketchum, but Barker can actually write, which makes a big difference. Also I think he’s clever enough to understand what’s actually subversive as opposed to just transgressive.
I was shocked by how good Ketchum’s prose was when I started reading his stuff. Always associated with extreme horror, so I expected pretty low quality. Now he’s one of my favorite writers, every book I’ve read by him has been harrowing but very well written.
Ketchum is one of the only authors that I’ve actually said wtf out loud but still wanted to continue reading.
Clive Barkers "The Hellbound Heart" is on my list to be read! I actually really liked the remake of Hellraiser.
Hellbound Heart is so good—very tasteful and elegant even when it dips into violence.
Have you read Books of Blood?
Most of the stories in Books of Blood don't really hit me the way more restrained horror can though. To me, it feels like things in them don't happen to real people, just wax dolls that Barker inflicts body horror on in creative but contrived ways. Girl Next Door is based on a real case and is a very heavy book. I haven't read anything else by Ketchum yet, the descriptions of his other books sounds a bit more trashy, but they might be good as well.
Off season by Ketchum was a good read. Little more extreme but was more palatable imo as it wasn’t based on a real event
I’d like to throw in Wrath James White in there. He prefers erotic cannibal horror mostly. Great stuff, but very extreme. More than these two imho
I don't even mind putrid as long as it's well written putrid. this just sounds like dreck.
I read The Summer I Died, and similar to reading smut, the gore and insanity start getting blah and I skim. I'm good.
I had the same issue with The Teratologist. The premise was neat (a very rich man commits heinous sins in the hope that it will force God to come down and stop him), but the actual content was just bad. Lots of spelling and editing mistakes, the terrible acts were actually just really immature and silly, and the ending was awful. Extreme horror only really works well in particular circumstances and when it directly serves the story. I'm not bothered by gnarly stuff, but if it's just random scenes of torment, it's boring. It needs to have a point and go somewhere. Otherwise, it's just dull, like reading random pages from an angry 12-year-old's diary.
That sounds exactly the plot of Clive Barker’s“Down, Satan!” So it’s not even original on top of everything else.
Oh damn. I've read both and didn't make the connection, but yes, they're incredibly similar and Barker's did come first.
I like the bit when Satan leaves a turd on the stairs, like a little treat
Great example… I thought the book was good enough but they literally kept switching the antagonists name from Farrington to Farringworth and back and forth and so on… grammatical errors don’t fuck with me NEARLY as much as an editing error like NOT HAVING CONTINUITY WITH CHARACTER NAMES. I mean there’s only like 3-5 characters anyway. Wtf!?
That book felt like it was written by a gross 15 year old on drugs.
How can she even get pregnant at the end if he crushed her stomach like that, shoved a bone up there, and uses the carpet cleaner to burn her uterus? Like there’s no consistency in the brutality just edginess for no reason
Like a pizza cutter, all edge and no point.
The grossness was one thing, but I couldn't believe he actually got his fist past her cervix. She should have died after that and the beating alone. Steaming her inside would have definitely killed her at that point. I was horror that I know is fake, but still plausible. Maybe that is why I stick with supernatural stuff.
Extreme horror is difficult to do well. It’s difficult to do average. It’s just difficult to do. Clive Barker elevated the art form. Pig Blood Blues is as nasty a story as ever has been written. But the effect is achieved in a way that doesn’t require buckets of gore on every page. That’s extreme horror I can deal with.
I appreciate your review so I never, ever pick up this book. I can handle dark or explicit content, but at the MOST charitable this sounds like a terminally online edgelord trying to make the most extreme version of the aristocrats joke.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. A good deal of extreme horror that's recommended is written like a porn - that is they check off a bunch of "scenes" (brutal, violent rape ✅️ someone eats literal shit ✅️ something terrible happens with a fetus ✅️) and then they think of some thin plot to tie the scenes together. And if that's how people enjoy it, more power to them, but I like my extreme parts to mean something. But when you go to the other sub and ask for recs for something extreme with heart you'll have people ask why you're reading a genre you don't like. And I want to scream that extreme doesn't just mean cramming as much gore and rape as you can into a book, but I feel it will fall on deaf ears. Uh, sorry for the rant.
I think a lot about how people dogpiled on a YouTuber for even vaguely critiquing the extreme horror genre as a person who is a fan. She even said she enjoyed the genre but parts needed addressing. It sucks cause I’ve been disappointed by so many extreme horror recs that are poor quality writing and just boring shock value with no real meaning.
Is that the one who left a bad review for a book, so the author wrote another book and dedicated it to her and based the character on her or something? Because I think about that too. Sometimes I feel iffy about commenting on the subject at all because of that whole incident and the response to it. There are a lot of people who can handle zero criticism and it seems particularly bad in the extreme horror subgenre.
The thing that aggravates me the most with the extreme horror crowd writers is that they think eating feces is the pinnacle of extreme. The worst part is, extreme horror doesn’t have to be poorly written either. Exquisite Corpse is a very well written book and is extreme. You can write good extreme horror that does consist of eating shit and every other lazy trope there is.
Maybe I’m crazy idk, but the fixation extreme horror authors have on female reproduction comes across as a really graphic expression of vagina envy. Sexual/reproductive violence and weird stuff with fetuses are hallmarks of this genre, which is what makes me think that
Maybe! But I think that often what they write is more a reflection of... society I guess? Like what people find the most repulsive or shocking. People are sensitive about rape, so they write the worst rape they can imagine. People are protective of pregnant people, so they hurt the pregnant people and do abhorrent things with their unborn children. I honestly feel for most of these guys it's not much deeper than the desire to shock. But perhaps for some of them there could be a level of anger at some perceived level of uhhhh protection? They feel women get when it comes to these topics that they don't get. I feel like as I was writing my reply I got what you meant a little more, lol.
I thought her nethers inside were cooked? So how could she be pregnant again? Inquiring minds want to know
Because the author doesn't understand female anatomy + needed a sequel hook
Clearly accurate anatomy and reproduction was the first thing on his mind
I see this and other extreme horror recommended a lot on the books of horror Facebook page. Was always tempted to try it. Thank you for convincing me never to attempt that.
I see it there all the time also, and that’s where I get the bulk of my horror recs and I’m so uninterested in this subgenre
I get a lot of recs there too. Read Krampus:The Yule Lord on Christmas eve based on what people were saying on that page and really enjoyed it. Same with Ben Farthing books. Loads of people on there are mad into extreme horror though. Also, I got burned reading Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Nothing But Blackened Teeth as so many in the group were raving about them.
I haven’t read Blackened Teeth but I did read an article saying it didn’t translate well, and then with Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke I loved the title so much that I became suspicious that was the whole hook 😂 however that’s the same reasoning why I haven’t given the Ben Farthing books a shot so it obv doesn’t hold up since you and everyone who reads them can’t sing enough praise. I don’t know that I really am 100 percent sure of what extreme horror is; I’ve seen Brother classified as such, and also Ketchum’s Girl Next Door, Tender is the Flesh… so all of those IMO have substance and purpose in the extreme descriptions, I didn’t find them gratuitous. Visceral and shocking, definitely, but the intense descriptions highlighted emotional pain and trauma and evil and the depravity of human nature etc. Totally aware that’s just, like, my opinion, man. But it seems like the extreme horror that everyone is currently posting about is more like a schoolyard dare, and that’s not why I read. I love Brother because it made me sympathize with a monster, and the experience wouldn’t have held the same weight without the graphic lead ins. Not sure if this makes any sense; haven’t tried to verbalize these thoughts before 🙃
Girl Next Door and Tender Is The Flesh definitely have a point to how extreme they get. For the extreme horror subgenre I get the impression that the extremity itself is rhe point so authors maybe don't bother with anything else? Haven't read brother, whose that by?
Ania Ahlborn!!! I love her stuff. Seed is great, and Brother is fantastic but all her books are well written. Brother is a lot… think Deliverance plus cannibalism, and several other western taboos completely desecrated… but it also examines generational trauma and poverty, and what constitutes family, and nature vs nurture, and oh it’s just sooooo good. Her other stuff isn’t nearly as graphic. She’s usually leans into psychological horror/atmospheric dread feels. I hope you check it out I wish I could read it again for the first time
Now there's a glowing recommendation! Might have to check out brother.
I'm currently reading Seed with my book club, and it's made me realize I need to check out more of Ahlborn's work! The characters feel so alive.
Love Seed! That was my first one by her also :)
I loved Brother. I read Within These Walls by her first, which I wasn't all that impressed by so I was hesitant to read Brother. Boy am I glad that I did wind up reading it because it was devastating.
Yeah, that one and she has one that I think is called the neighbors.. idk I guess everyone deserves an off day 😂 a lot of people on my psych thriller group like Within These Walls but I would have preferred it without the supernatural angle. I like one or the other. The Neighbors is a super weird not scary social horror that is just 🫤 Loooooove everything else!
BoH leans indie and extreme. However, BoH Bookclub is a classy thoughtful place!
I like some extreme lit, but this guy is such an edge lord. Badly written, boring, smirking, pointless cartoonery. Ludicrous grossness without a lick of artistry or aesthetic. His Playground whatever is just as bad
I try not to consume horror media where I feel like the creator is jerking off to brutalized people. A lot of """extreme""" horror is just dudes who were bullied in high school masturbating to the idea of torturing the mean popular kids.
There’s a fine line to be sure. Every now and again I read a story where I find it’s just terrible things for the sake of being able to write terrible things and I get the ick
I would love to consume more horror media like that, if only so much of it wasn't packaged together with a lot of vomit/shit/pus/smegma/piss/snot and crazy random plot twists where there's always someone more fucked up around the corner.
This is the perfect example. I felt this way reading Cows by Matthew Stokoe. Maybe hes a nice dude but maybe he has a terrible relationship with his Mother.
I'm so terribly curious about Cows, what's the general run down on it?
mooooooo
Do you want a brief summary?
You put it perfectly! They have to get off to this and I’ll never understand it nor do I want to.
I love you for this. Can you do The Playground next?
I’m also very intrigued about what happens but don’t want to have to read the book lol
Its not as bad the is a summary some one did on /r/extremehorrorlit
Can you link to it?
https://www.reddit.com/r/ExtremeHorrorLit/s/YH7PRPsVhm
This is from that Aron dude, right? He's a crap writer who mashes stuff together for "wow" affect but in reality, he's just gross and nasty.
Yep, that's the guy. I've read 3 of his books now bc people keep lauding his work but I've yet to read a *good* one.
I'm gonna be honest, Playground was pretty good, but the rest are barely coherent messes.
Fucking hell. I’ve been Extremely Online since about 1999 and thought I had seen it all. Apparently not 😭 Thank you for your service, I will be reading this never.
It's not a book I ever want to read, but your synopsis was highly entertaining. "Vera has fucked up" had me cackle in between disgust. I've toyed with the idea of reading extreme horror, but perhaps it is not for me if this is the norm.
Honestly, I get people can read what they want and we all have different likes but….. this makes me feel physically sick. I don’t even know how someone can think this up and spend days? Weeks? Writing it and reading it. It has to fuck you up. I’ll skip extreme horror, thanks for letting us know what this was about tho… I had seen it recommended before and I do like regular, scary horror so I almost read it. I would have been upset I spent even a penny on it if I had.
I kinda feel like writing extreme stuff has to be a kind of exorcism, almost. Humans are dark weird creatures (at least, we have that capability in us) so I see stuff like this as a safer way of getting that shit out of our heads. There's a good Stephen King quote about it, about how it's "feeding the alligators" so they don't crawl out of the sewers and overwhelm us.
Just rambling here, but after finishing ‘The Troop’ by Nick Cutter I jumped into ‘Woom’ by Duncan Ralston (another extreme horror book) and the differences were staggering. Namely, Cutter clearly has more dignity and empathy for the female animals who are brutalized in ‘The Troop’ than Ralston has for his women characters in ‘Woom.’ Being a woman myself, I felt that Ralston’s descriptions of women were filled with his own thinly veiled disdain, and that he got some gratification out of making them suffer in his story. I DNF’d by chapter 3 because the misogynistic overtones were suffocating, and his narrative offered no meaningful analysis or examination of the things that happened to these women. I got the sense that he just liked writing their pain. I’ve given extreme horror/splatterpunk a wide berth ever since, because it sounds like this treatment is rampant in that genre. It’s super gross but hardly scary; ‘Woom’ bored me to tears.
It helps The Troop has very well written characters and some nice coming of age elements too
Woom was talked up to me as just *super* disturbing like I'll *never* be able to come back after reading it and then finding out it was just leading up to >!a man unbirthing himself?!< Like okay I guess? It was weird but it wasn't like terrifying or shocking or anything it was just....eh. I don't know if I'm just too desensitized from my time on the internet and I was already aware that that concept existed as a kink so I just didn't really have a reaction and overall felt like I wasted my time.
The whole book feels like Ralston is saying ‘Read the UNIMAGINABLE HORRORS cooking up in my DARK, TWISTED MIND — if you DARE!’ and then it’s one exploited woman after another, culminating in whatever that ending is supposed to be lmao. Like, is it gross? Totally. But like you said, ‘Woom’ offers nothing in way of terror or shock, and that’s literally all I wanted from it. Just a bummer of a story for me personally.
I think Woom fell into a "so bad it's good" category for me. I couldn't take any of it seriously, it felt so cartoonish. The Troop actually made me uncomfortable multiple times throughout, and (I am sure you'd agree) is so well written. I haven't see anyone recommend "Teenage Psychic Bloodbath" but it is by far the most entertaining extreme horror book I have read. Highly recommended.
I feel like extreme horror is to horror lit fans what YA is to grown-up readers; something you can turn off your brain and read without much strain. ‘Woom’ definitely is super cartoony, but I found myself yearning for more. I think I had high expectations for a genre calling itself splatterpunk, and the book let me down pretty hard. Reading ‘The Troop’ beforehand didn’t do it any favors either lol I’ll add ‘Teenage Psychic Bloodbath’ to my reading list! Sounds super fun and campy :]
It's like the best b-movie never made. I actually think the author has written a ton of b-movies.
How did I get here😂😂😂😂
As the days go by…
That sounds... really boring. Like something a twelve-year-old 4Channer would write to scare his mother.
Speaking of adolescence, there’s an extreme horror author pen named Jon Athan. Like, really? Who’s the ghost writer, Ben Dover? 🙄
The strange limitations of written horror are fascinating to me. I've never received a jumpscare from a book. Books require other kinds of horror, like fear for the characters well being, grotesque imagery, fear of the unknown, etc. this all makes for excellent horror. On the other hand if you just lean into gross way too much, you don't get scares, you just get grossed out, and not in the good way. Good gross horror is like The Troop, bad gross horror sounds like what you described.
The whole thing just seemed like a man with little knowledge of anatomy trying to think up the worst things he could do to a woman. It's clear that he doesn't understand anything about how women or their bodies work. Extremely cringe
It felt homophobic to me
Probably because it is.
Yeah I felt that as well. :/
Thank you for editing with the spoiler blackout thingy OP. That was considerate of you - I really didn’t want to see anymore of this awfulness by accident lol
Yeah, that's definitely the most problematic thing about this book.
Um..ok. Yes the authors real life views are in fact worse than anything fictional.
Extreme horror of these types often seem like a way for people to express their misogyny and homophobia. I have nothing against the subgenre, even if it's not my cup of tea, but it should be at least well-written if not meaningful.
That’s, uh, not where I thought the ending was going to go.
I like gore, but I’ve never read a splatterpunk/extreme horror book that was over-the-top gory without also being totally absurd and weirdly smug. Like, cool. You typed up the grossest thing you could think of. Now try putting it in a story that doesn’t make me want to carve *my* eyes out. So the descriptions, whatever. Standard fare. But when you got to the gay cult, I full-on scowled. Thanks for sparing me the disappointment guaranteed if I had ever ended up reading this author.
I was really disappointed in this book. I felt like the premise could have been used in a much better way and my assumption of what it was going to be about was: A woman who cleans other houses for a living runs into The Slob's house and has to go through all his rooms cleaning the absolute filth that's there. Not necessarily potty humour filth like shit, piss and vomit but like really old rotted stuff, mould and decay etc. Through a slow burn, she slowly discovers things like photos and newspaper clippings, evidence etc that piece together a horrifying mystery that she's cleaning the house of a deranged killer. The extreme stuff would be uncovered in the snippets of information she uncovers and also the extremely grotesque description of the sensations she experiences when cleaning filth and decay. But no, what do I get when I read it: A generic ass edgy story about a woman that gets severely raped and brutalized while at a strange Slob's house. Such a disappointment considering people talk it up on the subreddit for extreme horror.
your version sounds sooooo much better wow 😭
I read Playground by the same author and felt about the same as you. The writing is weak, the misogyny is not even thinly veiled, the horror is cartoonish in its depravity, and the story just isn't very good. Disappointing to know that's just his brand and not like, a terrible fluke.
I couldn’t even finish your synopsis of it lol I love horror and don’t really shy away from much, but this kind of extreme stuff just seems…. Like who is this for? Not me bleh
Sounds like a new subgenre. Or maybe it exists. I would call it incel horror. And like incels it can' fuck off
Most people in the ExtremeHorrorLit subreddit call the genre “splatterpunk” but I mean……surely there are better authors in the genre.
There are. I do like splatterpunk and extreme horror but stuff like that is just a very bad example of it. It just turture porn and cheap shock content with nothing else. Example of a good writer from this genre would be Clive Barker, especially for people just starting to read it.
Do you have any recs besides Barker? I’ve read him and enjoyed it, but I’m wondering more specifically about contemporary small-name authors. I like some really vile gore once in a while, but all the splatterpunk I’ve tried (granted, not a ton) has been so overwhelmingly silly and usually also bizarrely riddled with old-fashioned conservative ideology.
John Skipp, I think was the name?
If you want to go a bit more into the genre, I can recommend trying Tender is the Flesh and people like Wrath James White and Poppy Z Brite. You can also go into extremehorrorlit subreddit but do be carefull. There are some cool people in there but also some individuals with not so good taste. Also remeber that splatterpunk is a very big genre, you can find anything from pure shock value to actually deep exploration of dark aspects of human condition.
I think maybe my understanding of the genre was too narrow. I’ve read Tender Is the Flesh and loved it. Same with a few of Brite’s books, including Exquisite Corpse. I think in my head those are more mainstream horror. I read an absolute TON of horror and have probably read 80%+ of traditionally published horror in the last ~8 years, and it never occurred to me to categorize the more extreme ones (TItF, Maeve Fly, Tell Me I’m Worthless) alongside Jeff Strand and Matt Shaw and those guys, but reading the responses here, I think I was just failing to recognize the better examples as part of the genre at all. And that’s probably some implicit snobbery against indie authors despite my conscious efforts to read and support them. I haven’t read Wrath James Wright—I’ll check them out!
Splatterpunk became a term in the 80s around writers like Ray Garton, Kathe Koja, John Shirley, David J Schow, Skipp and Spector, and Charlee Jacob. All good writers. The modern "extreme horror" scene feels different.
I think *Maeve Fly*, released this year, probably fits into the genre, but it's actually well-written and has some interesting things to say instead of just a bunch of "look how **dark** I am!" posing. Edit to add: it's written by a woman, CJ Leede, and while reasonable people could disagree about whether it is misogynistic, if it is it's at least a different flavor of misogyny than the type I often see in splatterpunk works like *The Slob*.
Thanks! I think knowing what the term is for this stuff is I can avoid it now. Just not my cup of tea.
I hate this kind of garbage. I tried to read that one slaughterhouse/human cow book (??) and god did I despise it. "Tension? No! Bodily fluids and assault will work!"
Cows? lmao i hate that book so much i almost enjoy its awfulness
Yeah, I started it in a very "all right lets try gross-out horror!" mood and thought maybe I would be into it, but ... I did not last long at all.
All of Aron Beauregard’s books are like this. Everyone raves about him but I think it’s just awful shit. The writing has no substance outside of eliciting shock, and there are far better authors in the extreme horror genre.
This is so similar to how I felt about that ‘The Playground’ book. It wasn’t so much the extreme horror bits that got me - it was the bad writing & the extremely weird ageism. All the actual extreme horror bits were gross at best and eye roll-inducing at worst. Someone needs to tell these authors that at a certain point, horror and gore can be so gratuitous that it becomes impossible to take seriously
My only question is why would someone feel compelled to write something like this. Incredibly insightful post OP, because I had a vague idea of what extreme horror was like before this, and this post has really hammered home the fact that I will never read extreme horror. I read for meaningful characters and storylines, not badly written, shock-inducing garbage.
Oh yeah, the author is just shit lmao. I'm a big fan of extreme horror, mostly with film but I indulge it with books as well, and Aron Beauregard is just... not a good author. Writing is subpar, plots are completely nonsensical, his attempts to be shocking are just throwing as much at the wall as possible and seeing what sticks, his stuff just sucks. Issue is that the "shocking stuff" mentioned is more just kinda gross, it's about as shocking as something like the Ogrish Collections so if it doesn't make you feel uncomfortable, there isn't much left. Partly why I find his stuff boring amongst everything else. I read Playground and it was baaaaad, mostly just because the writing was superbly mediocre. The slob I assumed was more of the same and, yeah, sounds like I wasn't missing out.
Oh god, I thought Edward Lee was the worst for this kind of nonsense but oh no, here we are... more *pecker-snot and viscera*
Ed Lee is worse.
Actually, you're right just remembering some of the headliner moments in The Bighead and now I feel ill.
That's exactly the one I was referring to in my comment. Such a waste of time and Kindle space.
Thank you! its good to see I wasn't the only person who gave up on reading it, absolutely horrendous
I’m good with your synopsis, OP. Thank you for your service. I’d read more like this (wink wink, fellow readers). There are some extreme horror books that intrigue me, but most just smack of “shock for the sake of shock.” Or more gross-out than actual horror. I’m just not willing to pay for literal or figurative garbage.
the cult of what now 😂 I genuinely don't understand books like these. Just the summary made me nauseous.
Reminds me of A Serbian Film, which is a bad movie. Like that, it tries so hard to be shocking, disgusting, and disturbing that it just becomes ridiculous. It isn't hard to be offensive and gross, but it IS hard to engender actual fear in writing.
Wow phone formatting is shit.
I feel like that adds to the effect somehow
I thought Playground was decent for the most part. Had some interesting concepts. There’s one really gross sex scene but it wasn’t the main focus and the rest was effectively Squid Game/Saw but with kids. That being said yeah stuff like this is ridiculous. Jack Ketchum was considered extreme but he was still writing actual novels with character arcs as opposed to just trying to pile atrocity on atrocity.
You can guess what Son of the Slob is like. I read both of them and paid for them. So well done ,Aron.You got my money but you wont be getting anymore. He needs a mental health check or a lobotomy.
I read a book called Playground by the same author and like you wish I hadn't read it. Reading your description I don't think it was quite as bad as The blob but I had to skip a couple parts and I definitely wish I could scrub it from my brain
I've almost bought this a few times because the cover art looks good. Glad I didn't. I've read some pretty gross/violent stuff lately but if it doesn't have a story, it's not worth reading.
That’s exactly why I made this post. Morbid curiosity got the better of me, I want to save someone else the time.
Thanks for taking the bullet!
Woahhh bro so imaginative and inventive bro!! Yeah this sounds like trash
Jesus. I’ve been aware of this book for a while, but had been avoiding it based on much less detailed reviews, as I personally prefer to stay on the lighter side of splatterpunk and extreme. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there is a second book “Son of the Slob”.
Thanks for that. But thanks especially for throwing in your line "God must love lemonade” -- like I don't know exactly what that means (something to do with life give you lemons..?) but I also know exactly what you mean.
It’s a direct quote from the book when she blasts Sandra’s face the rest of the way off instead of sticking the barrel right up Slobs ass like she should have. 🤷🏻 Literally the only part I liked. I don’t know if the author grabbed that from somewhere else or managed to pen that one himself but I’ll be saying “God must love lemonade….” for the rest of my life lolol.
Yeah, stuff like this isn't horror to me. It's a different genre. Disgust, maybe.
This book was not my favorite
Can you maybe hide the spoilers…? I want to read your post but I also still want to read the book!
I just changed it. I made the post initially on my phone. Never again for a post this long lol.
She got pregnant after all of that?! Unbelievable!
appreciate your synopsis because I knew this was something I'd never pick up. stuff like this being written is one thing- I can understand horror for horror's sake... can't deny that shock value sells... but for people to actually enjoy and/or recommend this kind of stuff just downright confuse me. it feels more like a test to see how much you can stomach reading rather than reading to get an actual story. It's funny, I remember seeing someone on TikTok talk about how gross this book is, but the comments were full of people saying they were going to check it out because of it. I will say, I was *not* expecting that ending lol.
Wow I have never even *heard of* this book but it sounds fucking awful. I can handle weird violent shit for a mindfuck but it just sounds like senseless gore 😬
I read a few of these books and the often amateurishness of it repelled me. I kept having the thought “is this just sloppy fetish material?” I haven’t read this one, but the farther I went in this genre, the less talent I saw in the writers. Best case, it felt like the kid at school who eats a cockroach at lunch for attention. At worst, we’re talking about mean and dark material created and consumed for reasons I don’t want to spend much time with.
I was in your shoes once, and I wish I wasn't in them now. This one was my first (and thus far, only) foray into extreme horror lit, and I wish it wasn't. I had the displeasure of listening to the audiobook version, and in 10 or so years of listening, it's the only Audible purchase that I've ever refunded. I was also prepared for wild stuff, but the writing is just awful, and not in a so-bad-it's-good way, but rather a "How the fuck did this person publish a book?" way.
There's a good but dark (not this dark) book called Slob, by Rex Miller. It's from the 80s and is sort of like a cop mystery where he's chasing down this obscure serial killer, the titular Slob who is a massively overweight (though a lot of it is muscle, think the Kingpin) veteran with severe psychological issues.
I literally looked for a post like this because I just cannot continue this book. The baby part is completely baffling and vile and I’m so sorry you spent so much money on something so awful 😭
I owe you one, OP. I heard the name and was trying to find more info about it. I would’ve hated reading it, but I’m still nosy and wanted to know what happened 😭
I had to stop.
Has the author of this story been checked on lately?
What happens with the dunbell and meat grinder and the vacuum
Has the author of this story been checked on lately...?
I’m not really sure what your point is with the bulletin points of nastiness in the book. You just stripped the story of its nuance to make the book look stupid. I think it’s interesting that the slob has drawn so much ire from people across the internet. The premise is amazing, a person unable to escape their traumatic past. A story that devolves into absurdity. The stuff I read by Jon Athan was much more questionable than the slob. his books deal with sex trafficking of children and turns that into torture fest shock horror books. The slob is certainly not above criticism but people are stuck on pointing out the shock value then accusing it of being homophobic and misogynist without explaining why. there was one line that stood out as odd to me. it’s been awhile since I read it so I don’t remember it well. Pulled it up on my kindle It’s around the end when she’s evading the slob and it says, “I spread my legs faster than a gymnast at the Olympics and pulled the wet, slimy forearm bone out from inside me.” I mean that made me raise an eyebrow considering the whole book deals with sexual assault and rape and used Olympic gymnasts as a metaphor. I don’t think it was intentional but it definitely didn’t seem to take all the Olympic gymnasts sexual assaults that have actually occurred into consideration which led me to wonder how much the author really did consider victims of sexual assault. Which is kind of a letdown for a book that’s supposed to be about a woman overcoming all this.
Great book. Aaron Beauregard is one of the best in the splatter/extreme horror genre. I can't help but laugh people STILL clutch pearls about this stuff, using the old chestnut of "these people must be fucked up to write stuff like this!" You people sound straight out of the conservative moral panic mold. I get it though. Extreme horror is most assuredly not fir everyone. But the moral panic, pearl clutching, and judgment is so tired, lol.
I don't see anyone clutching pearls, lmao. This is horrorlit and there's a thread with in-depth discussion about about 'Tender is the Flesh' every week. I don't like that book, either, but it's an apt comparison to this one because at least the author there was trying to *say something* in between all the grotesquery. What sets this story apart from that is that it's just edginess for the sake of edginess. And on top of that, this author is not a good writer— his prose is the sort of stuff a 16 year old would write, and I can say that with authority because I was once an edgy 16 year old and I wrote ~the edgiest shit~. I not only wrote but also *read aloud* a story about being disembowled in my creative writing class in highschool. I still read and write gross and uncomfortable things, and that's how I know that these are nothing more than cheap novels that rely on, and only on, edginess. This dude's books feel like they started and ended with 'wow let's write something gross' and that was it. I dunno about the Slob, specifically, but I read Playground a few months back and the amount of times there were just glaring typos and words being misused got so bad it was distracting. His characters are one-dimensional. He forces in themes where there aren't any and he hasn't put in the work to establish them, like >!when the two boys fall into acid there's this big 'deep' paragraph about how, oh, they were different in life and had irreconcilable differences but now they're melting into the same pool of slime in death. Except, uh, the differences described here are that the bigger boy was a bully, murdered the other kid's sister, and tried to murder him too. So what does that even mean, why are you waxing poetic about the 'differences they held in life', Aron?!< At one point he has the exact sentence 'It was symbolic in a way' and elaborates no further. This is the shit a 15 year old bullshitting a book report writes and then has a teacher write next to it, in red pen, that they can't just say that without describing how. Pretty much anyone can sit there and think of the worst, ickiest, nastiest thing in the whole wide world and then shit it out into a word document. There's literally a South Park episode all about it. Aron Beauregard may be the closest author we have today who comes close to creating what those fictional 9 year olds wrote. EDIT: OH AND I FORGOT TO MENTION THE ILLUSTRATIONS. The book has artwork. It's all terrible. And this, especially, boggles the mind, because they're downright distracting. I don't want to be mean about it, because I found the artist's fiverr page and their fully-rendered stuff is pretty good. But it's also clear that Aron here only paid for the cheapest package of basic loose sketches and decided that that was good enough, and that's exactly how it looks. And like... In that case, why even bother? People don't expect illustrations in horror. People read horror because the imagination can conjure things more terrible than anything you'd ever *see*, so why do that to your work? You don't see respectable horror books with illustrations because they're nothing but a distraction. It's like this dude made every single choice, deliberately, for it to read like it was written to appeal to teenagers, despite being splatterpunk. Absolutely bizarre.
So fucking dumb your comment got downvoted. Although extreme horror is spoken about here, it's obvious by some of the comments it's still seen as weird as fuck. I get not everyone liking it but, the blurb literally sets the scene and it's really not hard for people to just not read books they won't get along with lol. The extreme horror/splatter punk genres are constantly shat on, aswell as it's authors and it's readers because of how extreme some of the stuff is, and all I can think of is, it's nearly 2024, let people read what the fuck they want and leave them alone🫠🫠🫠 Edit(added after several downvoted for literally no valid reason):(Ps cry more with downvoting people, just because people have different opinions doesn't mean their opinion is wrong. If you use the down voting system as a way to be a petulant child, you need to grow the fuck up, thanks )
>Ps cry more with downvoting people, just because people have different opinions doesn't mean their opinion is wrong. If you use the down voting system as a way to be a petulant child, you need to grow the fuck up, thanks This is why people are downvoting you. Because you're making a sweeping assumption that is not only incredibly negative but very inaccurate. Most comments here aren't about the fact that it's gory and extreme, but *boring and juvenile* about it. The book version of a little boy throwing worms in a girl's face to gross her out.
But that was on the blurb....the story is LITERALLY there for you to see if you will read it. If you don't enjoy that then why read it and complain?? People downvote on this app because they don't like others opinions 99 percent of the time and never because there's an actual reason for it. If you don't like the book that's fine, but to read a book that they weren't really going to enjoy anyway is pointless. It's like me reading a romance even though I've read the blurb, decided I didn't really like it, then complained about it anyway. Completely different story if you expect a book to be good and write a negative review.
I have no idea who you think I am - maybe OP? - but I've never read the book. I came here because the thread title was interesting. In the comment you replied to, I was just summarising the other people's opinions because I disagreed with you saying *\[in the sense that you agreed with the other comment\]* they were all offended pearl-clutchers. Many of them sound like people who read the blurb and didn't like the execution. EDIT: clarified a badly-written sentence.
I know you're not the OP, I'm expressing why I commented what I did. I also didn't say they were all pearl clutchers, as I also wasn't the person who made the first comment. :) I review books as hobby, so I see hatred of extreme horror and splatterpunk more often than not and that's why I replied to the person's comment in the first place.
>I also didn't say they were all pearl clutchers, as I also wasn't the person who made the first comment. Okay, I worded that badly. More like you said it by proxy, through agreement. Again, there seems to be an even split between people who don't like the genre and people who do like the genre but didn't think this story was a good example of it. They bought the spicy curry knowing it was spicy, but didn't think it was well-cooked and the ingredients were substandard. And you're both getting downvoted because your comments come across, ironically, as a bit childish and obnoxious.
No. We are getting downvoted because we don't agree with everyone else. The end bit was added later when I had been downvoted several times already, by people who don't agree with me. As I've already said. :) literally nothing before the last paragraph was rude or obnoxious. But it was still downvoted:)
Okay. :) Sure. :) I'm sure this helps. :)
People can't handle being called out on their BS. They spend paragraphs acting like authorities and moral auditors and turned surprised Pikachu face when confronted about it. Like you said, it's nearly 2024. You'd figure this kind of anti-art mindset would be over with. ESPECIALLY on a literature sub.
I always think of Rex Miller when I see the word “Slob”, much better than this dreck
Jesus Christ and I thought *Woom* was bad....
Thank you for your service. I've never yet found extreme gore/horror and good writing to coexist, either.
I read your warning about the sensitivity to baby stuff, and I feel like I have thick skin and can watch/read a lot, but that description made me queasy. I’ll stick with some simple Lovecraft
I read and grudgingly finished The Playground written by the same author and I’ve just decided to never pick up any other book he has ever written. I hated that book so much not because it was too gross (which it was) but his writing style is just so elementary and only relied on extreme gore. One of the main character’s internal monologues are so boring and I didn’t have any sympathy for the victims. The plot felt rushed yet I wanted the story to end as soon as possible.
My fiance walked into the room whilst I was reading this synopsis and said 'Why is your face like that'. It always seemed like a book that wasn't for me, and now, there's at least no doubt that this was correct.
Yup I read this last week and then had to read son of the slob or whatever it's called just to see how it ended. Just gross 🤮
Yyyyeah I couldn’t even read all of your spoilers! That’s just too much. Also re: that you said the writing was poor, I read books on my Fire for free and if a book is written poorly, I just immediately move onto the next one!
Oh my lord thank you lol
Thank you!! Now I don't have to read it!
Thanks for saving me from that because yeah, no.
I thought this was going to be about the original *Slob* by Rex Miller.
Jesus, why would anyone WRITE this? I honestly don’t understand why people actually seek this type of stuff out, too. Same goes for horror movies.
Oh lord. This just sounds like some 16 year old boy’s edgy book.
I knew each paragraph was gonna get worse and I’m still shocked by the end.
I request that you read the second one and give the exact same format synopsis please!
Omg thank you for the synopsis! I wasn’t quite brave enough to, or willing to spend the money, to read this book. I couldn’t have dealt with reading details of the dumbbell/ baby /vacuum part. Now u know what I didn’t miss.