Torture Novels

[milamber]

I've been watching a lot of torture movies lately - Saw, Hostel, Wrong Turn, The Hills Have Eyes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Descent, Black Sheep, The Breed, Wolf Creek, 28 Days Later etc.

I'd like to read some novels or short stories in the gory horror genre but I usually stick to fantasy so I don't know where to start.

Any recommendations?

[Hazel]

Judging from your taste in films, (the ones you listed aren't all of the torture genre BTW), I would immediately recommend Shaun Hutson to you. Anything by him really. You may like to try Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, or moving on to authors like Ryu Murakami or Natsuo Kirino.

Honestly though, if you want a book parallel to those kind of films, the nearest you'll get is Shaun Hutson.

Welcome to BGO milamber.

[Viccie]

I don't want to tread on any toes here but have to ask - Why does anyone like reading or watching stories about torture? Terror, horror, suspense fine though not necessarily to my taste but inflicting pain? Yeuch.

[Hazel]

I like horror flicks, some 'torture' included if it's clever, but I'd be hard pushed to explain why. Primal interest in the darker sides of life, I guess. I will never watch Wolf Creek again though - that disturbed me for months.

[MisterHobgoblin]

You might try (and I hasten to add that I've not read it myself) L'Histoire d'O. But torture really isn't my thing.

You may find more help on specialist websites.

[Flingo]

You may find more help on specialist websites.Naughty Mr HG.
http://www.clipartof.com/images/emoticons/xsmall2/727_smiley_whipping_a_whip.gif

[r3nu4l]

You might try (and I hasten to add that I've not read it myself) L'Histoire d'O. But torture really isn't my thing.


The story of O is a good choice but more about the eroticism of torture. The OP seems to enjoy the thoughts of violence rather than eroticism? I know it's a fine line but there is a difference.

milamber, what about some of the crime novels? In some of Karin Slaughters' novels the torture of other people is described quite graphically?

I enjoy some pretty graphic scenes in novels but only if they are described well. I don't like violence if it's just thrown in there for the sake of it. For me there has to be some meaning or importance attached. I think Hazel has nailed it, if I'm asked 'Why?' I like it I can't explain. I don't seek out these books but I enjoy them when I read them.

By the way, milamber, am I right in thinking you are a boardsie? :)

[MisterHobgoblin]

Naughty Mr HG.
http://www.clipartof.com/images/emoticons/xsmall2/727_smiley_whipping_a_whip.gif
Flingo is an anagram of "I flog N".

[Phoebus]

What about the torture scene is Casino Royale, by Flemming of course?


Phoebus

[halloween_john]

American Psycho has some pretty graphic torture scenes

[Colinj]

Shaun Hutson is the best UK "Torture" author. Richard Laymon in the US is good too

[Tyler]

The only torture novel I have read was 'Geralds Game' by Stephen King.

It is torture, but you may find it a bit boring, compared to what your taste is.

Summary of the book:

Jesse Burlingame and her husband want to be alone and go up to there cabin out in the isolated mountains. Gerald and Jesse play a game, and Jesse ends up handcuffed to the bedpost. In a violent outburst, Jesse kicks Gerald out of self defense-- still stuc to the bed-post. He lays dead on the floor, and Jesse must survive all that the mountains-- and hell, can throw at her while she is tied to the bed, fighting for survival.

I found it sort of disturbing, but a fairly good read.

[Hazel]

Gerald's Game isn't really a 'torture' novel in the sense that milamber means. No one is inflicting cruel pain on the wife to get off on it. She's basically alone trying to get out of her predicament.

[bambi211]

The subject of torture is only good on movies but not in literature except that it was a true account of a person who's present when the torture happened.

[Colinj]

What about Edgar allan Poe. some of his works are rather tortuous

[Calliope]

Val McDermid has some torture scenes so grusome I had to read with my eyes closed.

One of her books is called 'The Mermaids Singing'. I picked it up because of the Prufrock reference and think, generally, I'll stick to TS Eliot.

[megustaleer]

Val McDermid has some torture scenes so grusome I had to read with my eyes closed.
:lmao:

[Hazel]

Val McDermid has some torture scenes so grusome I had to read with my eyes closed.

One of her books is called 'The Mermaids Singing'. A friend recommended this book to me years ago, and I loved it - I still regard it as one of the best crime novels I have read. However, a short foray into her other works convinced me that TMS was a one off.

[snickers]

I don't want to tread on any toes here but have to ask - Why does anyone like reading or watching stories about torture? Terror, horror, suspense fine though not necessarily to my taste but inflicting pain? Yeuch.
because we can, and get away with it!!and we wouldnt want to do anything like this in real life.BOOKS ARE PURE ESCAPEISM sorrry if if i diidnt spell that right,its txtin that dus it

[Necrophagia]

Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door - some pretty extream torture in this book & The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade is Sadistic