r/erotichorror

I read dark romance, but it's not really the kind of thing I look for anymore. Hence here for the recs.

Hey. So I'm an avid reader of DR and even horror. The main issue with the genre are the standard "romance" rules being applied to it. For example the requirement of a 'happy' ending. Then making things palatable for the readers and not showing the ugly, gritty realism of rape and violence.

I'm sick of the romantisized versions and the female characters developing a syndrome aka being delusional after for that HEA. Female characters having mind breaking orgasms during rape (Orgasm is realistic but not the kind that happens in here) Rapists being "gentle." No fear, or if present, it disappears quickly. Or the bad, dangerous man just softens and redeems.

I want a truly dangerous male character (abuser) and a female character who at least recognises that she is in pain, hurt, wounded etc. Trauma bonding is very realistic, but it doesn't imply complete delusion.

I would definitely prefer M/F dynamics. Rape, violence, etc, I read everything. My post belongs in the "horror" genre according to DR readers (I still don't understand why but anyways. Maybe because it's too extreme) so please recommend something if you can. I want an author who doesn't flinch from cruelty. Who doesn't water down the things in order to make the story land.

A kind of ending I've been wanting to read is where the MMC is so mentally ill that even after he wins, he cannot just think. So maybe he just kills her out of madness and then himself. It's very vague and not a strict requirement, but it's something I've been wanting to read.

  Smoke is in the air, and I no longer care! The man said as he stands in the wreckage of his own making, bathing in the blood of everyone he cared for. The people HE killed, THEY cared for him maybe even loved him. They had a future, they had hope and faith  in the world, though him? He was nihilistic and unforgiving, he hated the world as a kid....His parents fought and yelled nightly, and three separate times they tried killing themselves... Three separate times, once his father and his mother attempted twice while being high off pain meds.
  Though Despite they're flaws they stayed for HIM. They loved him with every bit they could, But what did he do, when he was at the reunion? He brutally killed everyone there, all family and friends of his, and that's only the beginning of what he did. He disfigured and ate some of the bodies, and to the others he did, well something so disgusting I don't wish to talk about it, so I implore you plz, do not let this man go free, he DOES not deserve it... And With that your honor, I am done. The man says as he sits back down, the smell of burt hair and skin starting to fill his nose. He jolts up only for the courtroom to fade away around him and the scorched faces of his family and friends surrounds him, as he starts to come back to reality and out of his head as he remembers what he's doing.
 Then he says to himself this is wrong, why did I do this!? as his emotions start to dull down and his hatred for the people that forced him to stay on this earth, that wouldn't let him die even though he wanted to only became something worse.  He then reclaims his non caring additude and says Oh yeah I forgot it's all about perspective. therfore nothing and everything means the world of a difference in life. you just have to choose. As he starts to pour more lighter fluid on the bodies and light them ablaze watching closely as the faces peel and burn away. After all is said and done, he gets the bones and ash and mix it into acid before he starts his plan of living his life how HE wants and ends it WHEN he wants with no remorse.

So, I'm looking for some recs on EH. Anything goes, but nothing with space or children.
I don't even know if such audiobooks exist. I do know there are single narrated once, and maybe dual, but I've never come across duet ones.

I'm okay with any genre, but not sci-fi with space elements. Fantasy, contemportary, historic, whatever. xD
No triggers whatsoever!

Edit: No MM, no omegaverse and no aliens. <3

And if you don't have any audiobook recs, I ask for novella recs of 200 pages or less. <3

As the title says, I'm looking for darker than dark, most pitch black books. Be it fantasy, splatterpunk, horrormance, traumamance or whatever else you can think of. As long as it's dark, I NEED IT!

I've read Leigh Rivers, Dylan Page (didn't like this one), The Darkness Beyond the Daisies (wasn't a fan either), Lauren Biel, H.D. Carlton, Now You See Him and more.

Duet narration only or graphic audio/dramatized audio. Absolutely no single or dual narration.

Anytime I try looking for werewolf smut, it's always like... not scary at all. I don't want "packs" or for the werewolf guy to like "protect" the heroine. I want scary, non-con, spooky ooky werewolf boy doing very bad things. Can anyone provide me a fix, please? If not... got any vampire stuff to recommend of the same variety?

Hello,

I am the author of work called Until You Yield on AO3. My genre perception of the work has always been a dark psychological romance however I had some readers commenting it resembled errotic horror more - and hence my post here. You may find it here.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/79594166/chapters/208843611

The initial setup is rather dark romance oriented though it descends into psychological and some physical cruelty rather quickly and particularly during the captivity section.

The premise is: a power couple of London tech, running an international enterprise, married. However beneath the facade of polish and sophistication there lies a dead, abusive marriage and corporate fraud.

The female protagonist, starved for affection, engages in something extra marital (though not physically), her husband finds out and all hell breaks lose.

I would be very interested if you'd agree with the assessment of this approaching "erotic horror". Thank you to everyone giving it a go.

i keep running into stories that get all their erotic charge from danger/captivity/obsession and then, the second love has to become real, quietly make her reinterpret the danger as care. so the ending doesnt actually integrate the horror, it admits the horror was costume lol

im way more interested in love or tenderness becoming real while her fear stays *correct*. she can want him and still know exactly what he is. he can know her intimately without that somehow proving hes benevolent. the relationship changes without cleaning up the machinery that made it.

what actually pulls this off for you? book/movie/story recs welcome but im also curious about the line itself—when does sustained fear deepen the erotic thing and when does it just make the relationship feel dead?

Hey! I started writing because I felt there was a huge gap in the genre for Indian female characters and typical Indian settings. The more I read DR, the more disappointed I felt with a lot of things. One day, I just thought to start scribbling the words and from there I couldn't look back.

Anyways. Below are my original works. Slow builds, all of them. These stories are set in India with Indian characters and contain heavy themes of Rape/Non-con and violence between the main characters. I don't really think my works just fall into the DR category; I think they are also horror. Hence I use both the tags accordingly.

Pianos and Plushies

Summary:

In books and movies, when a man kneels before a woman, it is an act of submission or romance. But as Raj Singhania knelt there, he didn't look like he was submitting. He didn't look romantic.

What is this? Why is he looking at me like I’m food?

“Pari, I imagined you in this the second I saw it on my screen.” His voice had shifted into something else—low and rhythmic, like he was reciting a prayer.

He arranged one last pleat near her waist, his fingers lingering on the tuck, and then he stood up. His hands moved to her pallu, his knuckles brushing her chest as he set it.

“I didn’t know that you would look this breathtaking,” he whispered, his eyes dark as they traced the line of her throat. “You look like a golden, crystalline dream.”

He leaned in closer, his shadow eclipsing her under the bright store lights. The smell of the smoke and that sweetness on his breath was all she could breathe.

“I’ve always had a weakness for sweets, but you—” He paused, his gaze dropping to her lips before returning to her eyes. “You look like you were made to be dissolved. Like if I were to reach out and take what I wanted, there would be nothing left of you but a lingering taste on my tongue.”

A Twenty-One Year Drought

Summary:

"I’ve been waiting twenty-one years for someone like you to walk into my life. Twenty-one years of rotting in a tomb. Do you have any idea how thirsty a man gets? How the throat burns when you’re drinking scotch just to survive?

You’re here to be my rain.

You’re the interest on my pain.

Don’t turn away. Sir is talking to his Bird."

A workplace is supposed to be safe. A married man is supposed to be safe. A girl who dreams about designing Barbie houses and pink buildings is supposed to stay untouched by danger.

But life rarely works the way it's supposed to.

The Pink Tote (This is my first ever work. A hot mess indeed but I'm satisfied that it's my mess haha.)

Summary:

To him, she’s a disruption, an eyesore in pink.

Plus-size, shy, anxious, and innocent, Preeti doesn’t belong in the path of ruthless Arjun Malhotra.

She doesn’t cross it on purpose. She doesn’t do anything to earn his attention. But he targets her anyway and even he doesn’t know why.

Preeti has unleashed something dangerous. Something she will never escape and she remains completely oblivious to it.

When men like Arjun Malhotra fall in love, they do not become dangerous to themselves. They become dangerous to everyone else, especially the one they choose to keep.

These are all WIPs. I feel like I've developed a specific niche for myself regarding the basic traits of my characters and I really look forward to explore them. All of these will have a "HEA" and the bad guy wins, of course. But it's not clean and sunshine and roses. FMCs don't stop getting scared. MMCs don't redeem themselves. The love and violence always exist together. There is no softening of the dudes, if anything they just get worse with love.

One point which seldom bothers me are the FMCs getting "delusional" after some point in most of the DR to reach that satisfactory Happy ending. In my work, that doesn't happen. It's a bit complicated to explain, but isn't trauma complicated in itself?

Usually, I don't post about my works like this, but I've been in this sub for a while now and thought maybe my stories could be something y'all could be interested in :) 🩷