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Joined: 4/25/2013
Posts: 3
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There is no Horror Genre here, so I'm posting this here. So, speaking in terms of Thriller novels with murders or torture, how much gore is too much?
I've written a thriller, and it deals with a serial killer, so there are scenes of violence, murder, and a little torture. I do go into details here, because they do play a role in the bigger picture.
But my question is, how much is too much?
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Joined: 4/25/2013
Posts: 17
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I am a firm believer that you can never have too much of a good thing ... and blood in thriller and horror stories is a good thing.
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Joined: 4/24/2013
Posts: 18
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I've read some relentlessly graphic horror novels, most of them in my teens when I would have been too young to watch a film version of the books I was reading. I'm all for gore in the horror genre and the crime genre too. The only thing I draw the line at is animal cruelty. Dan Brown wrote a book where the opening scene involved the villain throwing a dog sled team out of the back of an aircraft. I shut the book and have never picked up one of his novels since. It was gratuitous and totally not needed.
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Joined: 4/24/2013
Posts: 14
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Hmmm...as a reader, I tend to say go for it. If something becomes too graphic for me, I tend to skip over it to continue with the novel. I remember slapping my hands over my eyes a couple of times when I read American Psycho (a million years ago.) LOL.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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The gore doesn't bother me, but there is a point where the emotional and psychological trauma to the characters gets to me.
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Don't hold back. Never too much. You want to stir the emotions of the reader. In Night Surf, Stephen King described the burning flesh of a man--who had been strung up and set on fire by a group of young kids--as smelling like "sweet Chinese pork." And, I did almost puke in my mouth, and I did not eat dinner. But, I totally jumped off the bed and was like "That's what I'm feckin' talking about."
Oddly, I hate gore in film. The films today simply pull somebody's limbs off just to be pulling somebody's limbs off. I think you are right, Kim, if it plays a role in the plot and/or is integral in setting the mood, tone, developing the characters, there is no limit.
Not everyone is going to like what you write, and no matter how much hate mail you get saying what a sick freak you are, you shouldn't let up. Stephen King wouldn't have it any other way.
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