The article discusses Jack Ketchum’s popular horror novel "The Girl Next Door" in the context of the new cinematic genre of “torture porn.” Torture porn movies, as defined by Steve Jones (2011: 8), are horrors which “centralise abduction, binding, imprisonment, and torture (mental or physical).” Though originally used as a term of abuse, nowadays the term “torture porn” is treated by many film critics as a perfectly neutral critical category. Jones argues that, contrary to popular belief, torture porn movies are means of examining complex moral issues, in particular the concept of justice. The analysis demonstrates that Ketchum uses the figure of witness in a similar way in which it is used in torture porn movies, namely to introduce moral ambiguity to a seemingly obvious ethical situation of torture. It also shows, however, that Ketchum crafts his narrative in such a way as to produce the kind of horror that will meet his readers’ expectations and secure commercial success.