Books like Succulent Prey

To set the record straight, I do not love this book. I still haven’t come to a decision if I even like it. It isn’t the “best” book on my list, yet it is the most disturbing. And it is a must-read.

A warning, though. It’s a book that you won’t be able to stop and you’ll likely feel very guilty for even reading it. It dives into human behaviors that we don’t want to think about and surely would not intentionally want to take part in. I’ve a question for you: Is there a limit to what you would do to another human being if others were doing it too? How confident are you in your answer? The worse part about this novel is that it is based on a true story.

Two of the top voices in extreme horror fiction unite to create a surreal road trip to hell. Loosely based on the crimes of the Zodiac Killer, as well as several other serial killers, Duet for the Devil pushes all possible boundaries and stands as a monumental achievement in Extreme Horror. Featuring hundreds of pages of brutality and disturbing criminal behavior, the book is not one to be forgotten.

This is the best book written by Gonzalez, who recently passed away. It is the extreme and brutal tale of a woman who is abducted for the purpose of being put into a snuff film. The action is ferocious and brutal and the lead character is extremely strong, so much more than just another victim. I felt for her and cheered for her when her character fights back against the evil men hellbent on torturing and killing her.

The Groomer by Jonathan Athan is a heart-wrenching tale of true evil. It tells the story of a sleazy murderer and producer of child snuff films. At times the book was too much for me and I ended up having a good cry after one of the characters is exposed to some purely evil horror. An amazing and powerful book about the nature of evil.

This book about a sadistic serial killer hunting women near Puget Sound, Washington made me check in the closet and under the bed. It was graphic and terrifying, and I simply couldn't stop reading it. An oddly paired detective duo, the easy, natural banter makes Kendall Stark and Josh Anderson believable right from the start. I fell in love with this book the more Kendall came to life through great descriptions of her caring but humanly flawed character. The addition of Pathologist Birdy Waterman as a second strong female character left me feeling that together these women meant business. This book frightened me enough to look over my shoulder when I think I’m alone.

This book blew my mind when I first read it. In my opinion, it is one of the most visceral, scary, and under-rated serial killer novels of all time. Published in 1986 in the midst of America’s much-hyped real and fictional serial killer ‘epidemic,’ Killer on the Road stands out as a first-person serial-killer narrative, as well as putting forward a new kind of character (for the 1980s) – the homosexual serial murderer. In this novel, Ellroy delves into the phenomenon of motiveless serial murder from the perspective of the killer on a subversive journey through a hellish suburban America. From the prologue to the epilogue the reader is presented an interior world-view saturated with violence and nightmarish insights into the psychopathology of a disturbed killer. 

I’m ending with this unorthodox double feature (think Godzilla v. Kong) because girls who kill put a twist on the theme of this list. What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and everything nice. But maybe they’re a little less nice when boys are boys.

A feminist reimagining of March’s classic 1950s novel has Claude Daigle perhaps deserving of his fate at Rhoda Penmark’s hands. What if he tormented and taunted her, and she took revenge? While the daughter in Stage’s contemporary novel walks a very narrow line that kept me unsure the whole time… the guessing was delicious. Is Hanna evil? Or misunderstood? Is her mom, Suzette, going to get her due? Or is she going insane? 

For over a century, there’s been a mystery about the identity of one of the most notorious female serial killers of the twentieth century, Belle Gunness. Did she die in a fire, or did she fake her death and escape?

Schechter’s book-length study leaves no stone unturned. If anyone could fully address this mystery, I knew he could. He’s a foremost authority on true crime. For me, any book he writes is a must-read.

Although I knew this story well, Schechter brought more to it than I’d seen before. I was fascinated with the details of the reports from mental health experts, including criminal anthropologist Cesare Lombroso. He spotted Belle’s “super intelligence for doing evil,” making her “more terrible than any male criminal.” I found this page-turner to be both meticulous and gripping.

This book marks the start of an amazing trilogy set in modern-day New York. The story follows Marie, a cop on the trail of a serial killer, and Nessa, a woman trapped in an abusive marriage who becomes intrigued by witchcraft. As their lives unfold, it becomes clear that neither of them are who they think they are. Instead, they are eternal lovers, cursed to reincarnate endlessly, experiencing brief moments of happiness before tragedy inevitably strikes.

One of the standout aspects of the story is its use of familiar tropes, especially the theme of rejecting identities imposed by others and reclaiming one’s own destiny. The narrative begins in a gritty, realistic setting but gradually expands into a wider fantasy universe, which adds depth and intrigue. The shift from grounded realism to an epic fantasy backdrop is seamless and elevates the story to another level.

The romance was particularly compelling, focusing… show more.

Now these two main characters, both “villains,” are refreshingly human. When the evil archeologist in Raiders of the Lost Ark tells Indy that it would only take a small push to move him out of the light, this is the kind of thing he meant. For the woman in the story, being bad is an almost understandable way to cope with the particular situation she faces (that we’ve all faced). For the man, he’s been in the dark for a long time, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t need love. A serial killer/black comedy/love story about a hired killer and an inspired killer. Is it a match made in Heaven, or Hell?