I loved Tender is the Flesh and am looking for a similar reading experience. What I’d love to find is a book with a juicy concept (a world where people eat human meat, a mother finds out her son is a murderer), without going too far into the fantasy/sci-fi realm. I want to stay pretty rooted in a version of my reality with strong, believable characters and good writing. I love being disturbed, horrified, etc, so come at me with anything that’s brutal/ depressing. I can take it!
I tend not to like historical fiction, but will consider if y’all feel it’s the right book for me!
Nothing that’s *too* male focused please.
THANK YOU!
by Immediate_Cellist_47
6 Comments
> a mother finds out her son is a murderer
In this vein, “My Sister, the Serial Killer” by Oyinkan Braithwaite is about a woman slowly getting roped into her sister’s serial killing ways.
*Lolita* is the peak of this probably, and one of the earlier examples of going far beyond what was common at the time. *Tampa* is a more modern take that’s way more graphic and in your face about it, while also being from a woman’s POV instead.
*You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine* is disturbing in a different way, it’s about paranoia and cults and feeling like consumerist society is eating you up. This one’s less like in your face disturbing and more about just the mental illness vibes that can be very “real” to some readers.
Have you read “Geek Love” by Katherine Dunn? It’s about a family of circus freaks, who initially seem disturbing-but-functional and eventually spiral into full on batshittery. Some limited speculative fiction elements.
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers!!
The Vegetarian.
The Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. It’s a similar situation to The Handmaid’s Tale but from an Indigenous perspective.