Splatterpunk Vs. Extreme

And why you should give Broth House a chance!

It seems in the indie horror community there is a sort of ongoing debate over splatterpunk versus extreme. Are they the same? What’s the difference? Writers better than I have elucidated on this—Judith Sonnet and Wrath James White are two that come to mind immediately. I don’t want to rehash that in too much detail. What I will say is that yes, there is a difference. To boil it down into something easily digestible, extreme horror’s objective is to go hard, gross out, disgust, and shed as much blood, limbs, and flesh as possible. Whereas splatterpunk doesn’t shy from the violence and bloodshed, there is a sociological point to the story. The splatter is there, but don’t forget the punk.

Personally, I hate how music—particularly heavy metal—and horror fiction has been put into a series of categories and sub-genres. I find it irritating but I also kind of get it. I’m not the biggest reader of extreme horror despite being the author of Disco Rice and Eat Shit and Die. I don’t really like death metal either. I don’t mind those flavors in the soup, I just don’t want the entire soup that one note. But often you can tell what you’re getting based on the cover art or the band or author, so is there really a need for distinctive subgenres? Maybe. I’m sure it’s very helpful for some readers.

So anyway, my novel Broth House is a splatterpunk story. I like to think of it as just horror, but a lot of people call it extreme and though it has those flavors here and there, it’s a lot more than that. The book happens to be on sale right now for just $.99 as a part of a BookBub deal. The sale will not last long, so jump on it. Look at the blurb on the ad below and note the mention of ominous atmosphere. This book is not gore for gore’s sake!

I like the idea of extreme as more of a seasoning, though I have certainly written some stories—collected in Sick! Sick! Sick!—and a few books that fit nicely in that category. Many of my books get labeled as such unfairly, in my opinion. Even Baby Fights is more of a splatterpunk story than it is extreme.

So I suggest grabbing Broth House while it is on sale and giving it a read. See if you can make the distinction between the two subgenres of extreme horror and splatterpunk. I would love to hear what you think.