Hot Pot of Human Pieces by Ryan Dyer

Cover art by Christy Aldridge

A transgressive horror anthology soaked in satire, gore, and folklore, Hot Pot of Human Pieces serves up nine grotesque tales set across Asia. These stories stretch from the slums of Hong Kong to the porn booths of Tokyo, from Thai ghost witches to televised sex-death game shows. Infused with gallows humor, body horror, and cultural specificity, this is an unflinching buffet of human extremes.

Contents & Story Synopses

Cockroach Girl
In the claustrophobic slums of Hong Kong, a quiet woman’s transformation into something grotesque mirrors the decay around her. A slow-burn, metaphorical horror about infestation, shame, and survival in a city that devours its own.

The Forbidden City Cripple
Two street performers battle for sympathy and tips outside Beijing’s most famous tourist trap — by mutilating themselves in increasingly grotesque ways. A savage black comedy where poverty, performance, and ego bleed together. Literally.

Capsule
A man checks into an adult shop in Tokyo to watch a few pornographic films in a capsule. Soon, he finds that he’s trapped inside with nothing but the moans above and below to keep him company.

The Horny Witch With the Flying Head
A krasue — a floating head witch of Thai legend — just wants to suck... semen. A riotous folklore sex comedy featuring ghost rivalries, ladyboy shade, and one very unlucky biker.

Abandoned Hospital Crawl, 2:37 AM
A thrill-seeker breaks into a shuttered hospital in the dead of night. Something else is inside. Told in stripped-down, log-style prose, this is a bite-sized urban horror tale with surgical precision.

The Death Match
Mr. Depravity has a grudge against a new cocky wrestler and books a death match against him to finally shut him up.

The Pornographic DVD
A North Korean man just wants a moment of peace to masturbate to a burnt DVD from China with Japanese pornographic films on it. The Dear Leader is not having it.

Authorized Method
Mr. Sato steps into a room with two women waiting to give him a mysterious treatment. The outcome is a demonstration of sex and gore that is all authorized.

F*CK OR DIE!™
On live TV, socially isolated men must guess who’s a real woman — and who’s a sex robot. Guess wrong, and you die. A grotesque, darkly hilarious game show satire where misogyny, loneliness, and spectacle collide in a blood-soaked climax.
With a theme song you’ll never forget.