The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

Clive Barker’s work has informed my understanding of body horror more than anyone, and The Hellbound Heart, in particular, exemplifies the gorgeous way gore, pleasure, pain and divinity are cross-layered in his writing.

Soft Fruit In The Sun by Oliver Zarandi

One of the most original and interesting collections I’ve read in a long time. The body horror in this book is funny, tender, emotive and unlike anything I’ve come across before.

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

This is the only book I’ve ever read where I put it down because I found it too upsetting. After thinking about why I did that, I picked it back up. This book is a triumph. It goes beyond what is deemed both acceptable to give a voice to, and what I thought possible in writing.

The Doloriad by Missouri Williams

As a genre, body horror is frequently concerned with the breaking down of boundaries, both bodily and societal. The Doloriad is a book centered around the breaking down of structures. Time, place, taboo, individuality and bodies are all shifting and collapsing in a way that evokes deep unease, with cerebral and bodily disintegration, leading the reader to a place that is unknown and terrifying. 

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

To call Blood Meridian body horror is possibly a stretch, and probably not the term the author would have used for himself. However, when considering the brutalism of bodies, the violation and degradation of physical forms, I always come back to McCarthy’s work. Much of his writing explores the darkness of the human heart, our savagery and our sadism. Blood Meridian reaches depths of cruelty that left me stunned. When I think about violence, I think about this novel.

Rose Keating & So Mayer, Edinburgh Futures Institute, 10 August, 6.30pm; main picture: Christopher Orpen.