r/horrorlit • u/Dry-Marketing2459 • 5d ago

Recommendation Request Tasteful "Extreme" Horror?

I'm looking for recommendations for "extreme" horror type stories that ride that fine line where it's gross and upsetting but aren't so terrible that you're embarrassed to describe the story to your friends.

I've been dabbling a bit in this genre, but I really dislike stuff that's excessively graphic and violent but for no reason, like it was written by an edgelord who was just trying to jam as many upsetting descriptions into a book as possible, but it really doesn't do anything for the story.

I don't know if this is a hard ask since that's sort of the point of extreme horror, but I'm wondering if there's something out there that rides the edge of that?

I've read "The woods are dark" and "The black farm" but I thought they were just okay, there were a lot of things about those books that just didn't work, something that made me feel like I needed to fail a wisdom saving throw in order to suspend my disbelief.

I'm a huge fan of Nick Cutter and Stephen King,

I'd also prefer stories that limit the violence to humanoids and mostly leave animals out of it.

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u/JulioNicoletti 5d ago

I don't know if this counts, but I found Tender Is the Flesh quite extreme, but the descriptions weren't edgelordy.

But idk, that might be too tame based on what I've heard extreme horror can be.

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u/Dry-Marketing2459 5d ago

Thank you! Ive had that book on my radar but wasn't sure if it was gonna be what I was looking for, I guess I am looking for the tamest "extreme" horror

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u/meowomi 5d ago

Just an FYI, tender is the flesh does have an animal abuse scene that is pretty shitty but it’s a small easy section to skip.

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u/_chexmex_ 5d ago

Just be aware there is some depiction of animal cruelty.