Pure Evil

by Kristopher Triana

A collection of the most extreme horror stories from Splatterpunk Award-Winning author Kristopher Triana, author of "Gone to See the River Man" and 'Full Brutal."

PURE EVIL collects his most diabolical tales, some of which have never been published before, some which have been out of print for years. It also features a new introduction by the author and interior illustrations by Nick Justus.

Stories include:

Hammer Time
Goddess of Gallows
Snowblind
The Deepest Fake
Pictures of a Princess: A Fable
Bloody Mattress Blues
The Bitch
The feeding
Live Nude Horror
The Garden of Ethan
The Devouring
The Dollhouse
Dead End

Genres: Short Stories, Horror, Adult

260 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2025

About the author

Kristopher Triana is the author of Gone to See the River Man, Full Brutal, They All Died Screaming, Shepherd of the Black Sheep, Toxic Love, and more.

His fiction has appeared in countless magazines and anthologies and has been translated into multiple languages, drawing praise from Publisher's Weekly, Cemetery Dance, Rue Morgue, Scream, The Ginger Nuts of Horror and others.

Full Brutal won the Splatterpunk Award for Best Horror Novel of 2019, and Triana won the award again in 2022 for The Night Stockers, which he cowrote with Ryan Harding.

He lives in Connecticut.

Reviews

[Matty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sex, violence, and gore. Not for the faint of heart. A few stories will definitely stick with you for some time.

[Lia's Haunted Library · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title Pure Evil is fitting—this book is exactly that. While categorized as extreme horror, it also leans heavily into splatterpunk, delivering relentless brutality with underlying themes that linger long after the gore fades.

Almost every story has something to take away, proving that horror isn’t just about shock value—it can also be thought-provoking, disturbing, and, at times, painfully real.

Despite the blood-soaked pages, my favorite story in this collection had little to no gore at all—yet it tapped into one of my deepest fears. Each story has its own approach, and depending on the reader, some will feel outright horrifying, while others might be unsettling in a different way.

This collection tackles heavy themes, including suicide, beauty standards, religion, technology, violence, and more. It’s a brutal, unflinching look at the many faces of evil.

Individual ratings:

Hammer Time – 4/5
Goddess of Gallows – 4/5
Snowblind – 3/5
The Deepest Fake – 5/5
Pictures of a Princess: A Fable – 5/5
Bloody Mattress Blues – 4/5
The Bitch – 5/5
The Feeding – 5/5
Live Nude Horror – 5/5
The Garden of Ethan – 4/5
The Devouring – 4/5
Dollhouse – 5/5
Dead End – 4/5

Also, THE COVER AND THE SHIRT ARE AMAZING.

[Sidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

i wanted to like this more than i did. my personal opinion, only a handful of these felt like 'extreme' horror.

maybe I'm desensitized to a lot of the themes throughout this book....maybe...just maybe i need therapy???

the illustrations are nice, the one after live nude horror was wiiiiild though. 😂😂😂

the best stories in this collection were:

the deepest fake
the bitch
live nude horror
dollhouse

all other stories were eh for me. this is not for beginner horror fans this is a rainbow of trigger warnings, meaning every trigger warning under the sun is drizzled throughout this book. it is violent, sometimes bloody & disturbing.

[RoseDevoursBooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is like a teratoma tumor with teeth (a concept that will make sense after reading ‘The Garden of Ethan' 😉); it's disturbing, uncomfortable, and will implant itself in your brain, leaving mental scars that'll have you questioning whether the author is a genius or completely unhinged! Maybe a little bit of both? Either way, it’s a twisted compliment because Pure Evil brings the extreme horror heat that elicits both gasps of shock and admiration. Warning: This is NOT meant for the mainstream crowd, it’s chock FULL of gut-wrenching ultra-violence, including scenes of extreme sexual depravity that’ll leave you nauseated. Proceed with caution and a strong stomach!

Here are my ratings for each individual story, along with a warning label for those that are the most deranged and disturbing:

- Hammer Time - 5⭐️, A tool-obsessed artist employs an escort to assist him in finishing his magnum opus.

- Goddess of Gallows - 3.5⭐️ A man struggling with depression unknowingly receives an invitation to worship an ancient goddess named Ixtab. This one gets very kinky!

- Snowblind - 4.5⭐️ A brutal winter storm isolates a group of people in a cabin, but they soon discover they are not alone…

- The Deepest Fake: 5⭐️ When a new technology enables implanting a digital image of anyone's face onto your own, impersonation and stalking reach a disturbing new level.

- Pictures of a Princess: A Fable - 4⭐️ A man's childhood fascination with a Fairy Tale Princess evolves into an all-consuming infatuation when he meets an actress portraying Princess Abigail at a theme park.

- Bloody Mattress Blues - 4⭐️ A woman with a fetish for blood letting and fluid exchange finds a community that shares her passion…

- ⚠️The Bitch : 4.5⭐️ The most disturbing story in the collection, with a robbery that goes horribly wrong. It comes with numerous trigger warnings!

- The Feeding: 3.5⭐️ An elderly man becomes smitten with the enigmatic delivery girl who brings him delectable grinders.

- ⚠️Live Nude Horror Show: 5⭐️ - A man with an extreme fetish visits a brothel known as The Vault, which features women with unusual physical characteristics, in search of the perfect companion to fulfill his dark fantasies. This one is the most likely to induce nightmares, it’s gross, perverse and deranged - but it’s what makes it a standout piece in the collection!

- The Garden of Ethan: 5⭐️ A man becomes enslaved by his own Teratoma Tumor, which develops a life of its own… I LOVE this sort of Creature feature, body horror!

- ⚠️The Devouring: 4.5⭐️ When a man encounters a woman who shares his dark fantasies, he meets his perfect match. Snuff films and extreme fetishes! 👀

- The Dollhouse: 4.5⭐️ A creepy tale of vengeance featuring serial killers, ghosts, children and dolls!

- Dead End: 4⭐️ A serial killer is confronted with a reality that eerily resembles a sick Twilight Zone episode.

Triana's horror writing is clearly right up my alley. He consistently impresses me with his addictive, horrific, and mesmerizing storytelling, no matter how repulsive it gets! I also liked some of the illustrations throughout that depicted disturbing scenes, the one for ‘Live Nude Horror Show' was especially gross and just the right amount of wrong 😆

As mentioned in the introduction “𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐞. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐜𝐮𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐨 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬”, if this sounds like you, then this bloody masterpiece is a must-have for you!

*This book is exclusive to TRIANAHORROR.com due to its extreme content and will not be sold anywhere else*

[Honey Dy · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Mr. Triana promises 13 tales of extreme horror he isn’t exaggerating. These are, without a doubt, some of the most brutal, disturbing, gorefilled stories I have ever read, and that's saying a lot.

These stories made me feel absolutely gross. I caught myself scrunching my face in disgust—so much so that even my work colleagues asked what had me so disturbed. The sheer horror and depravity of these tales left me feeling repulsed by male anatomy and, for a moment, regretting that I was ever born female.

Below is the name of each tale, my overall rating, level of violence, blood, horror, and gore with the ratings based on the emoji:

🩸 minimal horror and gore
🤢 it's sick
🤮 it's fkn disgusting - check TW

Brief outline of stories in comments:

1. Hammer time 5⭐️ 🩸
2. Goddess of gallows 4.5⭐️🩸
3. Snowblind 4.5⭐️ 🩸
4. The Deepest Fake 5⭐️ 🩸
5. Pictures of a princess: A Fable 4⭐️🩸
6. Bloody Matress Blues 5⭐️ 🩸🤢
7. The Bitch 5⭐️ 🩸🩸🤮🤮🤮
8. The Feeding 4⭐️ 🩸
9. Live Nude Horror 5⭐️ 🩸🤮🤮
10. The Garden of Ethan 4.5⭐️🩸🤢
11. The Devouring 4⭐️🩸🤢🤮
12. Dollhouse 4.5⭐️ 🩸
13. Dead End 4⭐️🩸

They're all great stories and a lot of fun to read. But picking my faves, it's a bloody tough one because they're all fantastic and gory in their own little way.

I personally they would be Live Nude Horror & Bloody Mattress Blues needs to have their own full story (cos I couldn't get enough)

Thank you so much, Mr. Triana for writing these stories. It may have taken me some time to read them due to the superbowl today. My team lost today, but reading these stories was the best fun I've had, EVER! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For all those of you wondering, I got this special edition hard cover only from Trianas website due to the nature of its content, it was not released to general public. It's vile, it's gory, and it's Pure Evil.

[beach horrorreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

It lived up to its name, that’s for sure. Big fan of this author. Most of the stories in here stick with you. The book delivers. I can’t believe one guy came up with each of these shorts. Probably my faves were The Feeding, Live Nude Horror, The Devouring. Why not five stars? I dunno. Some of these are so unsettling that there needed to more story and less gory. The book and packaging are five stars. Excellent. Get it. Read it.

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Svårt när man blir lovad ~DET SJUKASTE SOM NÅGONSIN SKRIVIT….. Den var??? Evil men kanske inte så PURE EVIL som tex FULL BRUTAL va…. tog mig tiden å gjorde review på VARJE LITEN STORY. vsg (mest för migsjälv att minnas liksom typ varje review på goodreads men kul om man samtidigt kan motivera någon att läsa eller inte läsa nåt. OBS spoiler free typ)

Hammer time: queen of art. 3/5

Godess of gallows: kult förstod dock inte slutet #Dumb 2/5

Snowblindn: halvtrök?? att lova PURE EVIL? men känns inte som något hittills är ont påriktigt? due to ingen förklaring för the people. MEN kult twist på denna…. 3/5

The deepest fake: Känns som 1 avsnitt black mirror? obehaglig 3/5

Picture of a princess: lite maeve fly vibe due to disneyworld….annars rätt torr….2/5

Bloody Madress Blues: blood kinks är ju…. spännande….. 4/5

The Bitch: Här har vi pure evil. 2/5 men 5/5 revenge

The feeding: 5/5, sugen på mackor.

Live nude horror: Wtf…… 5/5

The Garden of Ethan: gross 5/5

the devouring: ……4/5

The doll house: död åt pedofiler 2/5 inte så underhållande men good for them.

Dead end: That took a turn jag inte trodde!!! 2/5 men 4/5 twist

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had one of the first Triana stories to genuinely make me shudder which was SO EXCITING!! No spoilers, but below is my ranking from favorite to least favorite

1) Dead End
2) Bloody Mattress Blues
3) Live Nude Horror
4) The Bitch
5) Goddess of Gallows
6) The Dollhouse
7) Pictures of a Princess: A Fable
8)The Garden of Ethan
9) The Devouring
10) The Feeding
11) The Deepest Fake
12) Hammer Time
13) Snowblind

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most disgusting things I’ve ever read

[Chandra Claypool (WhereTheReaderGrows) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Y’allllllll – when I tell you how disgustingly delicious these stories are… I promise you’re gonna eat them all right up! Side effects may include nausea, permanent wtf face, and an uncontrollable hunger for more.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

1. Hammer Time – an artist has an escort help him with his final work of art.
2. Goddess of Gallows – Pete is trying to find the best way to off himself. His friend John thinks he has a solution.
3. Snowblind – stuck in a Nor’Easter, a group of people find a lone cabin to shelter in but find the storm isn’t all that it seems.
4. The Deepest Fake – if you could wear someone’s face for a while, would you? And at what cost?
5. Pictures of a Princess: A Fable – a man obsessed with a princess since childhood, finally meets her at a theme park.
6. Bloody Mattress Blues – a woman obsessed with blood finds her people.
7. The Bitch – a robbery gone wrong in the most brutal of ways.
8. Feeder – delicious grinders delivered by the most beautiful creatures.
9. Live Nude Horror – come on an in and find your kink.
10. The Garden of Ethan – a man finds a growth on him that spirals out of control.
11. The Devouring – a man finds his perfect match and achieves his ultimate desire.
12. The Dollhouse – children, dolls, murder house.
13. Dead End – fate comes for everyone.

So hard to choose favorites but if I had to choose, I’d put Hammer Time, The Bitch, Live Nude Horror, The Garden of Ethan and The Devouring at the top! But they’re all amazing in their own debaucherous way. Jaw dropping, ball gagging, shivers up your backside FUN.

Also, 4 stars is typically my top rating for collections as anthologies as it's always a mixed bag for me. This one though is a strong 4.5!

[⋆｡‧˚ʚ Chantal ɞ˚‧｡⋆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was my introduction to extreme horror and wow, what a ride!

Each story was filled with horrifying and appalling acts that most human beings wouldn't partake in.

Although, some did end on a more good note. (depends on your view I suppose lol)

I admit there was one story I had to take breaks on because it's been my one trigger since childhood. I know I could've easily skipped it, but I wanted to see if I could get through it, despite how long it would take me. & I did it 👍🏽

I think after reading this book I would for sure seek out more in this genre!

My fave stories:

– Hammer Time
– The Bitch
– The Devouring

**My only critique was a comment a character made about Mexican maids in 'Live Nude Horror' that rubbed me the wrong way 😒**

[C.S. Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a break from reading for a bit, but after finishing it up, this is my favorite collection I’ve ever read. Haven’t read very many, but not a bad one in the bunch.

Here are my rankings

Hammer Time - 4/5
Goddess of Gallows - 4/5
Snowblind - 3/5
The Deepest Fake - 3/5
Pictures of a Princess: A Fable - 4/5
Bloody Mattress Blues - 3/5
The Bitch - 5/5
The Feeding - 5/5
Live Nude Horror - 5/5
The Garden of Ethan - 5/5
The Devouring - 3/5
Dollhouse - 4/5
Dead End - 5/5

TOP THREE

1. The Garden of Ethan
2. Live Nude Horror
3. The Bitch

[ChanaReadsHorror · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once again Kristopher Triana brings the heat. In this 13 short story collection we get some insane, crazy, disgusting and depraved storytelling. Some of the stories are being published for the 1st time and others have been seen in The Obituaries.
Each story is different and unique in what makes it stand out as a tale of extreme horror.
If you love short stories, horror, and can handle the depraved, this collection is for you.

[Amber Cassady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great collection. Most of the stories really worked for me. A few were just okay, but the ones that hit? They hit hard.

Favorites were Hammer Time, Live Nude Horror, The Doll House, and The Garden of Ethan. All of them had strong vibes, creepy moments, and stuck with me after I finished.

Even the ones I didn’t love (Goddess of Gallows, Snowblind) weren’t bad just not as strong.

If you like horror that’s intense, gory, and doesn’t hold back, this is worth checking out.

[Thomas Hobbs · Rating 5 out of 5]

13 mind blowing, short stories of pure evil. A lot of them are of splatterpunk variety. A few I had read before because I have read all of The Obituaries books. A few of my favorites include Snowblind, The Bitch, and The Feeding.

[Alison H · Rating 5 out of 5]

💖 I ate this shit up, shit it out, and ate it back up again 💖

[Ang Boone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm just not okay. Dollhouse was my favorite

[Jessica Mays · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was full of 13 fun short stories! a little of everything for the seasoned EH/SP reader. my favorites were Hammer Time, The Bitch, The Feeding, Live Nude Horror, Garden of Ethan.

[SeveredTherapy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vile. Disgusting. Everything I wanted from it.

Favorites: Bloody Mattress Blues, Snowblind, Live Nude Horror, and The Garden of Ethan.

[Gordon Cakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review can be found at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2564152/ep...

Overall, 4.32 out of 5 big, bearded weirdos.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most short story collections, there was some stuff that worked for me and some stuff that didn't! I think Kristopher Triana's narrative style is at its best in longer form works since in short stories there is more time to lull you into a sense of complacency before he blindsides you with his obligatory depravity and vile happenings on-page, but there were plenty of bangers in here, some of which made me think of Clive Barker's stories, which is always a good thing!

Best stories:

The Bitch
The Deepest Fake
Dead End