In the end only darkness by Monica O'Rourke

Extreme horror is a genre that I don't often read, I am not sure if I will enjoy, I am not sure if I want to enjoy and I am nor sure if I will find the experience at all pleasant. “In the end only darkness” is a brutal read and involves themes of torture and rape where everyday death is just a normal occurrence. That said I often question why I read particular books and how I judge what is good bad or indifferent? and indeed if I am entertained by a book whatever the subject that has to be a good thing. This book is a collection of short stories, dealing with the aforementioned themes, and as such (as I often find) some of these stories I will enjoy and some I will find instantly forgettable. There were a few gems here where I could honestly say the readers might question his own morals; “Oral Mohel” is a rather unusual and novel way for a "circumcision" to be performed (the clue being in the title) It certainly held my attention and was both an enjoyable and painful experience to read."An experiment in Human Nature" is a very difficult story of torture in the extreme but Mz O'Rourke concludes the story in a most satisfactory manner. "Feeding Desire with Jack Fisher" will most certainly test the human "prejudice" and what you think of as normal behaviour will be sorely tested in this (what I considered) a fun read and prob one of the highlights of the book .......

"For Diana, being thin was about as far away as Europe and not nearly as attainable. Folds of flesh covered a frame that, after worms and maggots someday feasted on her corpse, would prove to be of medium bone structure; meaning she would never be dainty or petite no matter what here weight; nor on the flipside would she ever try out for women's rugby....Diana being bed-ridden because of her rather rotund body had little else to do all day and night other than to watch television-and eat....Diana lived in a studio and spent her life sprawled on a pullout sofa that hadn’t been in its original position in half a decade. The sheet beneath her wet and stained flesh was filthy with crumbs and feces smears that she couldn’t quite reach to wipe away. The sheets hadn’t been changed in months”....
So this very obese lady has a constant relationship with food until the day Jack Fisher arrives and Diana is then able to combine her love of food with her new found interest in sex under the helpful guidance of Mr Fisher. So this story may question what we feel is right and proper in a world consumed by the perfect shape and the perfect body. It is an uncomfortable yet enjoyable rump and kept me reading irrespective of the subject matter There is also a great sadness to this story and a very unexpected ending.....is that not what reading is about? enjoyment and escape from the ordinary?

“The rest of Larry” provides one of the lighter moments in this dark collection. Larry awakens to find that he was not so much a person but a torso...”A skeletal torso at that, most of the meat having rotted off the bones or been picked clean by scavengers. He’d been chopped in half, that much was obvious. Parts of the blade were still imbedded in a rib bone From the base of the ribcage down, he was..well, in the immortal words of Gertude Stein, There was not there, there. Nothing but flapping tissue and shredded tatters of shirt.” Larry needs answers and he finds them in the hands of his wife and lover....a great story concluded expertly
I am certainly glad I read this book as the collection had some thoughtful and great stories that certainly made in impression on what I felt was morally correct.