Hell? What an apt word to use. It’s a good one to start this post too as many weak-stomached folks would think the text written for this genre came by way of the devil himself. The transgressive style of writing challenges readers by crossing into places where common commercial fiction doesn’t normally go.
Topics of self-harm, abuse, sexual deviancy, etc — protagonists who break laws, regular codes of conduct, morals and social expectations, are common here.
From Wikipedia:
“Transgressive fiction is a genre of literature that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual or illicit ways.“
It allows writers to explore places, themes and human behaviours not normally written into fiction. Cliches are rare. Predictable outcomes are virtually non-existent.
My transgressive fiction journey started with the book below.
It took nine months to write and then twelve rewrites to get right. Eight years later, SEETHINGS went onto the market. That’s a few years ago now. Due to its success, I wrote two more transgressive novels and put them on Smashwords for readers to download and enjoy. The first one is now free (no catches) however if you’d like to provide a review for this narrow genre of mine (and the book), I’m on Goodreads and can be found via this link. Just follow the instructions and pop your review on the page provided.
I’ll see you in pages of my books shortly!