Ancient Horror History Unearthed: Torture Tomb by C. Dean Andersson REVIEWED

When we think about horror authors who tend to push the envelope on lurid subject matter that sometimes borders on distasteful, but remains well written, authors like Laymon, Lee and Ketchum tend to be the first names to pop up.

I have read a lot of all of those authors, and of what I read, this here, Torture Tomb, knocks distasteful out of the park.

In hindsight, I am reading a book called Torture Tomb. What the hell did I expect?

I love gore and brutality in my horror novels, even more if they go that extra mile and turn it up to 11. But this, kinda just left me feeling... dirty.

The story deals with a young woman searching for her sister, of whom she is having horrifying nightmares of being tortured. She seeks the help of a former lover turned novelist, who turns her on to a coven to help find the sibling. There's some supernatural interference, but they find her (chuckled a bit at the fact the sister's name is Bernice Sanders)...in the Torture Tomb, a man-made underground cave where women are kidnapped, tortured, raped and eventually murdered on camera for snuff films directed by a mafia boss with a family secret that's both vague and convoluted beyond my understanding.

There's a lot of good stuff here, great opportunities for things to be fleshed out, namely the supernatural ongoings, but they aren't. Instead, we have full chapters dedicated to the abuse and torture of two women. It's cruel and depressing at times.

Maybe it's my line of work or just my personal morality, not sure, but reading ten pages of a vivid description of a woman's brutal torture, sexual violation and degradation is a tough pill to swallow. And this happens about 10 times in the book, whole chapters dedicated to such.

The Girl Next Door, Jack Ketchum's classic, is one of my favorite books ever, which deals with similar material, but it's done with some level of humanity and heart. Here, it's incredibly detached. The lack of characterization feeds that uncomfortable feeling to the brim. It's just gratuitous, leaving the reader feeling like their reading something they shouldn't be. Hell, it often feels like the author shouldn't have wrote it. There's a voyeuristic quality to the cruelty displayed that just left me unsettled.

The book isn't particularly bad, I found myself begging for a release of the victims and a vengeance of equal or greater brutality. Unfortunately, that never comes, with a few gusts of witchy air and ghostly lightning bolts taking our villains out.

Frankly, after all the awful shit these guys do for 300 pages, I wanted them to be decimated in ways that the victims had been. That doesn't happen.

The book is a bit of a collectors item, given the level of buzz around it's level of violence at the time of it's release. I'd say it's worth a read, but not worth the hundreds of dollars I've seen it go for on Amazon.

I would recommend it to those with strong stomachs and weak morality. Curiosity seekers, If you'd like to see how depraved horror fiction can get, here's your answer.

I hear that Raw Pain Max, the author's follow up puts a woman in the torturer's role, which after reading this I'd like to see some level of vengeance fulfilled for womanhood in general..

3/5.