My "Worst Nightmare" Is Reading This Book

We went to book expo the last week of May and I'm now working my way through some new books. Unfortunately, the first one I picked to read was "Worst Nightmares." What a disgusting waste of time.

I should explain that I generally like horror and "out-there" fiction. When I read, I'm generally looking to be entertained, not some great literary masterpiece. I like Stephen King, and I hate pretentious readers who turn their nose up at anything that isn't "literary" enough for them. So it's not like I had a high bar for this book - be moderately well-written and entertain me. Unfortunately, the only thing the book had going for itself was a mildly interesting premise - writer has writer-block, a mysterious stranger hands him a horror book (about a serial killer who kills people by fulfilling their worst nightmares) that has potential and then apparently "dies." Writer prints book as his own and then finds out it wasn't fiction. Not too complex, but interesting enough. Problem is, it's written in a style that is only slightly above torture porn. The deaths are gruesome, but not very probable. What the torturer is able to do is outlandish and illogical - and the big twist in the end (an Agatha Christie "Aha" like moment) doesn't hold together with the rest of the story. Add to that there isn't one likeable character and that the "hero" (the plagarizing author who doesn't want to go to the police) is dumb as a bag of rocks, and ...well, let's just say, unless you like torture for the sake of torture, leave this nighmare of a book on the shelf.