15 Splatterpunk Books for When You Need Hardcore Scares

Normally, horror relies on suggestions, implications, and suspense to build up the anxiety that makes your heart race. Take all of that away and you get splatterpunk—a horror subgenre that shows you everything there is to horror.

Known as a subgenre without limits, splatterpunk stories are often characterized by gory, violent, and often excessively graphic scenes. It is horror taken to the extreme, almost without regard to your level of tolerance for stomach-churning subjects.

Best Splatterpunk Books

Although the genre has declined in popularity, there are still many writers who include splatterpunk elements in their stories. Nowadays, people more often call it extreme or hardcore horror instead of splatterpunk.

I’ve assembled a list of splatterpunk books that best define the subject. I’ve included some classics as well as more modern examples. Check them out below!

1. Seeing Red by David J. Schow

This is a collection of short stories by the man who coined the term “splatterpunk.” One of the stories includes criminals being blinded and set in a maze filled with telepathic monsters. Being less time-consuming than a full novel, it’s a great way to see whether you’re suited for this genre.

2. The Woods are Dark by Richard Laymon

Two groups of people pass through a town and are captured and taken to the woods. There they meet the Krulls, a family of inbred savages who, for centuries, have demanded the nearby town to provide them with people for eating and breeding.

3. Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

Two serial killers enter into a relationship due to their mutual fixation on the “art” of murder. They set their eyes on a young, gay man, believing him to be the perfect subject of their desires.

4. The Light at the End by John Skip and Craig Spector

The subways of New York City are home to a terror that has claimed ten victims. The police are desperate to catch the killer but have little hope to do so. The killer isn’t human, and it’s up to a gang of misfits to deal with this unholy evil.

5. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami

In a totalitarian Japan, school children are regularly kidnapped and forced to kill each other for entertainment. The game ends when only one person is left alive. Many die from naivety and terror while others embrace their darker sides and let loose, settling petty arguments and grudges with excessive force.

6. Succulent Prey by Wrath James White

Fifteen years ago, Joseph Miles was able to escape from the clutches of a serial killer with a cannibalistic streak. Now Joseph fears that the incident has inflicted him with a disease that’s slowly turning him into a killer—one who’s about to take a bite out of the woman he loves.

7. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum

Two teenage girls are left in their aunt’s care after their parent’s sudden death. Everything starts out fine, but as their aunt’s mental state slowly deteriorates, the girls experience increasingly violent abuse from her and her children.

8. The Rising by Brian Keene

Jim Thurmond is hiding away from the zombie apocalypse, alone and distraught. An unexpected call from his son turns his thoughts from suicide into rescue. But before he can reunite with his son, he must first battle his way through undead hordes and the worsening evils of men.

9. The Bighead by Edward Lee

Two city girls take a trip to visit one of their aunts in the countryside. Unfortunately, the mutant Bighead is raging all over the backwoods, brutalizing anyone he sees—and now he’s got his sights on them.

10. Survivor by J.F. Gonzales

It was supposed to be a romantic getaway but a curious case of road rage ends up with Lisa kidnapped and her husband arrested. Her abductors aren’t looking for ransom, though: they’re planning to torture and murder her in the most gruesome way possible for profit.

11. The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas

Two friends reunite and catch up on lost time by shooting beer cans in the mountains. A woman’s scream leads them to a nightmare they could never imagine. Now a sadistic killer’s hell-bent on making them his next victims.

12. In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

Kenji is a “nightlife” tour guide, leading foreigners around the red light district of Tokyo. He takes up a new client whose suspicious and often bizarre behavior leads Kenji to a horrible conclusion: that he’s in the company of the man responsible for all the gruesome murders recently happening in the city.

13. The Cipher by Kathe Koja

Nichola and his friend Nakota discover a black hole in an abandoned part of his apartment building. They name it the “funhole” and anything they drop in it comes back rearranged. Their fascination soon turns into an obsession as their experiments slowly escalate.

14. The Killing Kind by Bryan Smith

Ordinary guy Rob has no idea what he’s getting into when he gets carjacked by super sexy, goth girl Roxie—who also happens to be a psychopathic killer. She’s gearing up for a murder spree as they follow a gang of teenagers off to party at the beach.

15. The Books of Blood by Clive Barker

Books of Blood is an anthological series concerning a fake psychic who is possessed by supernatural beings. They carve stories into his skin, creating a literal book of blood. One of its more gruesome stories is “The Midnight Meat Train” where an unsuspecting man is forced to butcher innocents and feed the secret rulers of New York City.

Reading Splatterpunk Books

Splatterpunk isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (it’s definitely not mine), but our curiosity about the dark and gory seems to draw us to this genre. It makes you feel alive and lets you face the anxieties of life and death from a safe place.

Splatterpunk largely exists to disturb you. If you’re sensitive to topics such as cannibalism, torture, and explicit gore, tread lightly with this genre.

But more than its shock factor is its pursuit to address society’s ills without pulling punches. Splatterpunk authors let us explore the dark sides of humanity, underlying their narratives with a question: What would you do in these kinds of situations?

Have you read any splatterpunk novels? Share your experience in the comments below!

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