What is extreme horror?
Horror has been a popular genre for decades. The 1970’s saw the publication of the controversial book, The Exorcist, written by William Peter Blatty. The subsequent movie that was released based off of the book had warnings for movie goers. It was reported that people were experiencing fainting, vomiting and even heart attacks in the cinema. No wonder this title sparked a fascination in extreme horror, and by today’s standards The Exorcist seems pretty tame.
So, what is extreme horror today? Extreme horror is different from horror, traditional horror scares occur in the imagination of the reader, meaning that a lot of it is inferred. Whereas extreme horror depicts, in great detail, the gore, violence and explicit rape scenes. These books are disturbing and are not for the faint of heart. These are the kind of the books that will stick with you long after you’ve finished the last page (if you can make it that far). If you don’t mind being traumatized or think you can handle it, then dig into to these extreme horror books. You won’t long forget the horrors written in their pages.
*Books on this list are not suitable for anyone under the age of 18. If you have trigger warnings of any kind I would not recommend you read any of the books on this list. If you offend easy, stay away. If you have a weak stomach, do yourself a favor and read something else. You have been warned, proceed at your own risk.
Woom
by Duncan Ralston

Warning: this book contains graphic violence and sexuality most readers will find offensive.
“I believe pain lingers,” Angel said. “Do I believe in spirits? In the supernatural? Probably not.”
The Lonely Motel holds many dark secrets… and Room 6 just might possess the worst of them all.
Angel knows all about pain. His mother died in this room. He’s researched its history. Today he’s come back to end it, no matter the cost, once and for all.
Shyla, a plus-sized prostitute, thinks the stories Angel tells her can’t be true. Secrets so vile, you won’t want to let them inside you.
But the Lonely Motel doesn’t forget. It doesn’t forgive. And it always claims its victim.
Tender Is The Flesh
by Agustina Bazterrica
Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore.
His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.
Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.

Raised By A Killer Age 4
(Raised By A Killer Book #1)
by Sea Caummisar

The story of a daughter being raised by a single father, who happens to be a serial killer.
As the series progresses, Deicide will grow older.
In this thrilling first book, experience the sights, smells, and sounds through the eyes of four-year-old Deicide.
The formative years of any child’s life are crucial. In this time frame, she is curious and innocent.
With each book, Deicide will grow older, giving us an inside look at how her life has been affected due to her upbringing.
Warning: Graphic scenes that may disturb some readers
The Ruins
by Scott Smith
Trapped in the Mexican jungle, a group of friends stumble upon a creeping horror unlike anything they could ever imagine. Two young couples are on a lazy Mexican vacation–sun-drenched days, drunken nights, making friends with fellow tourists. When the brother of one of those friends disappears, they decide to venture into the jungle to look for him. What started out as a fun day-trip slowly spirals into a nightmare when they find an ancient ruins site . . . and the terrifying presence that lurks there.

Filth
by Irvine Welsh

With the Christmas season upon him, Detective Sergeant Bruce Robertson of Edinburgh’s finest is gearing up socially—kicking things off with a week of sex and drugs in Amsterdam.
There are some sizable flies in the ointment, though: a missing wife and child, a nagging cocaine habit, some painful below-the-belt eczema, and a string of demanding extramarital affairs. The last thing Robertson needs is a messy, racially fraught murder, even if it means overtime—and the opportunity to clinch the promotion he craves. Then there’s that nutritionally demanding (and psychologically acute) intestinal parasite in his gut. Yes, things are going badly for this utterly corrupt tribune of the law, but in an Irvine Welsh novel nothing is ever so bad that it can’t get a whole lot worse. . .
Jawbone
by Monica Ojeda
“Was desire something like being possessed by a nightmare?”
Fernanda and Annelise are so close they are practically sisters: a double image, inseparable. So how does Fernanda end up bound on the floor of a deserted cabin, held hostage by one of her teachers and estranged from Annelise?
When Fernanda, Annelise, and their friends from the Delta Bilingual Academy convene after school, Annelise leads them in thrilling but increasingly dangerous rituals to a rhinestoned, Dior-scented, drag-queen god of her own invention. Even more perilous is the secret Annelise and Fernanda share, rooted in a dare in which violence meets love. Meanwhile, their literature teacher Miss Clara, who is obsessed with imitating her dead mother, struggles to preserve her deteriorating sanity. Each day she edges nearer to a total break with reality.
Interweaving pop culture references and horror concepts drawn from from Herman Melville, H. P. Lovecraft, and anonymous “creepypastas,” Jawbone is an ominous, multivocal novel that explores the terror inherent in the pure potentiality of adolescence and the fine line between desire and fear.

Meat
by Joseph D’Lacey

Abyrne is a decaying town, trapped by an advancing wilderness. Its people depend on meat for their survival, meat supplied by the processing plant on the edge of town.
Meat is sanctified in Abyrne, a precious commodity eaten with devout solemnity by everyone except for a handful of people who won’t, who suspect that the town is evil, rotten to its core.
A feud smolders between the town’s religious and secular powers – whoever controls the meat supply controls everything,
But the townsfolk are hungry, they must be fed…
They must be fed.
The Only Good Indians
by Stephen Graham Jones
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.

The Troop
by Nick Cutter

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip—a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder stumbles upon their campsite—shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry—Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. A horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival with no escape from the elements, the infected…or one another.
Suffer The Children
by Craig DiLouie
A chilling tale of blood-hungry children who rise from the dead in this innovative spin on apocalyptic vampire fiction.
Suffer the Children presents a terrifying tale of apocalyptic fiction, as readers are introduced to Herod’s Syndrome, a devastating illness that suddenly and swiftly kills all young children across the globe. Soon, they return from the grave…and ask for blood. And with blood, they stop being dead. They continue to remain the children they once were…but only for a short time, as they need more blood to live. The average human body holds ten pints of blood, so the inevitable question for parents everywhere becomes: How far would you go to bring your child back?

Porn
by Matt Shaw

PORN tells the tragic tale of Victoria Sheldon – a young lady who wanted nothing more than to become an actress. With times being hard Victoria finds herself in the world of Adult Movie Industry where she soon carves a name for herself. Soon the offers are flowing in, as is the money, as she becomes more and more popular amongst the producers but then she meets him…A man with an offer she can’t refuse. A man who has other ideas about how pornographic films should be filmed. A man catering for a much, much darker audience.
WARNING: There is gore. There is bad language. There are scenes of a sexual nature. PORN is a violent tale of sex and revenge. It is intended for a mature audience only.
Playground
by Aron Beauregard
ONCE IN A LIFETIME
Three low-income families have been given a handsome retainer to join Geraldine Borden for a day at her cliffside estate. All the parents must do to collect the rest of their money is allow their children to test out the revolutionary playground equipment Geraldine has been working on for decades. But there’s a reason the structures in the bowels of her gothic castle have taken so long to develop—they were never meant to see the light of day.
When a band of dysfunctional children is suddenly thrust into a diabolical realm of violence, they must grow up instantly to have a chance at survival. Will they find a way to put their differences aside, or be swallowed up by the insidious architecture all around them?

Brother
by Ania Ahlborn

Brother follows a teenager determined to break from his family’s unconventional—and deeply disturbing—traditions.
Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked farmhouse miles from any road. The Morrows keep to themselves, and it’s served them well so far. When girls go missing off the side of the highway, the cops don’t knock on their door. Which is a good thing, seeing as to what’s buried in the Morrows’ backyard.
But nineteen-year-old Michael Morrow isn’t like the rest of his family. He doesn’t take pleasure in the screams that echo through the trees. Michael pines for normalcy, and he’s sure that someday he’ll see the world beyond West Virginia. When he meets Alice, a pretty girl working at a record shop in the small nearby town of Dahlia, he’s immediately smitten. For a moment, he nearly forgets about the monster he’s become. But his brother, Rebel, is all too eager to remind Michael of his place…
Find some other great book recommendations here:
- Home Sweet Nightmare: Thrilling Books About New Homes & Sinister Neighbors
- Discover The Chilling Delights: Essential Serial Killer Fiction Books To Keep You Gripped
- Embrace The Allure of Forbidden Passion: Dive Into Sensational Dark Romance Books
- Must-Read Dystopian Books That Will Keep You Hooked Till The End Of The World
- Cult Fiction Books To Feed Your Obsession
- Hot Vampire Romance Series To Read
- Thrilling Post Apocalyptic Zombie Books To Feed Your Obsession