Zombies! discussion

Ever read a book that disturbs you to the point you feel sick and can't read anymore but you're too invested? I want to push my writing boundaries but I'm afraid of them. I'm asking myself, would I let my semi-conservative folks read this? Hell. No. They would be shocked and probably afraid of what my brain conjured up.

Not just zombie gore....fitting other elements of things in a story such as survival, torture, the topic of rape, hygiene, sex etc. everything can be a topic in a story... Its human nature...But...the really really dark moments....

.... Is there ever a point where it's too much? Gone too far? And you lose interest because of it? How do you decide whether or not to push boundaries?

Is it safe to say my characters need to be older (mid twenties) if I'm targeting an older audience 20s to 30s?

My story = Definitely NOT in the YA section.

:) thanks, and if you give me your opinion thanks in advance, you are the awesome-sauce!

Interesting question.

I'm not easy to squick out - I can only recall two books that I stopped reading, and one was because it was offensive to my spiritual beliefs. The other one involved children, and as a parent, there are some places I don't need my brain going. It was very graphic and very disturbing and not what I expected.

I won't usually stop reading if I'm uncomfortable - but I do have a few lines.

There isn't much that disturbs me to the point that I feel ill. Art imitates life, and life isn't always pleasant. In fact, it's downright brutal sometimes.

I like to push the envelope. The worst review I've received so far was a 2-star on Amazon. The reviewer felt that the end "... was sooo wrong" and that I "went too far, way too far" It's my favorite review.

oh I reread your thread, you are THE author, not a reader/purchaser... my bad and my bad eyes.
I removed my previous comment.
Yet you really should tag any books which have the potential to offend a readers sense of decency with a firmly disclosure (in the books description) warning potential readers/reviewers what they will buying.
If you have rape, violence to a child, hate speech, gore, descriptive acts of violence (torture, murder), anti.. anything from religion to racism.
In short, you need to nail down in your books description what it contains so that you hit your target audience, and not end up getting someone really ticked off that they were not informed of your books potential to offend their sense of decency. Better safe then sorry.
Which is why I do not see the profitability of having such things in a book because even if I am in your target audience age, the more narrowly you write your characters (appealing wise) the less purchasers you will get.
Sure as an author you can write anything you want, but there is a price for adding graphic, gore, brutality, and so on in your work.

@ Ian. haha! thats awesome.

I think shock value has to be in the story to keep my interest. If I want to be different than what's been done (that I've read at least) and I want to stay interested in what I'm writing, I'm going to have to be ok with the decisions that face a much harsher reality.

If that cuts my audience to males only because of the more crude realities, then that's still half of the population, right? But it's a story about a girl, which I think would keep the females interested. How often is zombie fiction written by males?

Alisha wrote "...I think shock value has to be in the story to keep my interest. If I want to be different than what's been done (that I've read at least) and I want to stay interested inwhat I'm writing, I'm going to have to be ok with the decisions that face a much harsher reality.

If that cuts my audience to males only because of the more crude realities, then that's still half of the population, right? But it's a story about a girl, which I think would keep the females interested. How often is zombie fiction written by males? "


It's sounds like you've got it all settled then.
Good luck to you!