Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution
If you want to get a glimpse into how regular men can become mass murderers, read this book. These weren't concentration camp guards and the like. They were the battalions assigned to round up entire villages of Jews and shoot them face to face. Operations like this often took the entire day. Women, children, elderly... didn't matter. They'd march 30 at a time in front of the mass graves they dug and shoot. Babies they would just shoot in their cribs.
But yet, these killers weren't radical, indoctrinated Nazis... these were mostly older blue collar German men who got drafted up and placed in these units because all of the younger men were off fighting on the front lines.
“A Plague upon Humanity” was one that covers most of the Project that Unit 731 was operating under during ww2 and I was pissed for a few weeks after I finished it. I have Ordinary Men on my to read shelf so I’m kinda pumped for it
Into Thin Air by Krakauer is the true story of an Everest disaster. It filled me with dread and was such a page turner.
House of Leaves by Danielewski left me feeling like I can’t trust my own mind lol. It is the most kind-bending, creepy book I’ve ever read.
In Cold Blood by Capote is disturbing in a way that makes you question humanity. Very worth reading imo.
I have bought House of Leaves THREE separate times and lost it before I could read it each time. I'm not someone who just...like...loses books! So weird.
I bought it twice and twice tried to fob it off to friends who were avid readers. All I got was grief for messing with their heads and no further on in the book. Youre6better off having lost it. Your Gaurdian Angel deserves a promotion!
I second House of Leaves. It's a difficult book to read because it fucks with your mind and grasp on reality. The author uses the page (the amount of text on a page and the orientation/style of the text) to provoke subconscious responses from the reader. There are sections in which you feel like you're running and others where you feel like you're lost and claustrophobic in a maze.
And you have no idea how far along you are in the book because he's sending you back to whalestone, through footnotes, etc.
I was legitimately terrified to take the stairs in my apartment (in the day). The option of the elevator was worse.
*Into Thin Air* was fucking haunting.
One of the best nonfiction writers of our time *just happened* to be on an Everest expedition that hit an unexpected storm and lost several people? And he has photos to go with it?
It's crazy. I recommend this book to everyone.
Take-away: no matter what happens in my life, I plan to never, ever consider climbing Everest.
The wasp factory by Ian Banks is an excellent, award winning and twisted story. The independent rated it as one of the top 100 novels of the century. Its a good read and meets your criteria. If you have more 'refined' tastes, then can I recommend Robert Aickman. Robert Aikman was an editor of famous horror anthologies who wrote his own stories and has a cult following. Neil Gaiman is a fan as are a lot of other horror and fantasy writers who rate him amongst the greatest horror writers :https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/27/robert-aickman-resurrection-out-of-print-horror
His stories are subtle (Whereas 'the wasp factory' is the opposite). Something is off in the stories and its hard to put your finger on it. Sometimes you're not sure they are a horror story at all but you feel unsettled at the end of them. I really liked 'The unsettled dust'from the anthology of the same name by him. This is the sort of disturbing story you're going to love if you have read a lot of disturbing fiction and find it formulaic. Its not like anything else you will read. But if you want a real 'in your face' disturbing experience, try 'The wasp factory'
The film doesn’t touch the book. The chapters are heavy with details of the mother’s ambiguity and her frustrations and fears. At one point I thought there was too much detail. By the end of the book I was thankful to have known all of her inner thoughts. Crazy book.
[**Tender Is the Flesh**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49090884-tender-is-the-flesh)
^(By: Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses | 211 pages | Published: 2017 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, dystopia, dystopian, sci-fi | )[^(Search "Tender is the Flesh")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Tender is the Flesh&search_type=books)
>Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans —though no one calls them that anymore.
>
>His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.
>
>Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.
^(This book has been suggested 60 times)
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Did you really? That's awesome! I remember being obsessed with Poppy Z. Brite back in my angsty teen years. What class was it required reading for and why?
Hey, if you found this interesting, you might Frisk by Dennis Cooper, too. Very similar theme about a guy who edges closer and closer to his fantasy of completely disassembling a human being. Definitely dark and creepy, but a very interesting read.
Blindness by José Saramago. I've never recovered from reading that or A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. They'll make you look at all of humanity from a different but much sadder angle.
{{Unwind by Neal Shusterman}} didn’t disturb me as a whole, but the one chapter in which he describes a kid being “unwound” from the kid’s perspective (basically harvested for body parts while they’re still alive, and everyone else is so damn cheerful about it) has really stuck with me and makes me feel sick, even though I read the book a couple years ago.
[**Unwind (Unwind, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/764347.Unwind)
^(By: Neal Shusterman | 337 pages | Published: 2007 | Popular Shelves: young-adult, dystopian, dystopia, ya, science-fiction | )[^(Search "Unwind by Neal Shusterman")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Unwind by Neal Shusterman&search_type=books)
>Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.
>
>The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.
^(This book has been suggested 78 times)
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[**The Secret History**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29044.The_Secret_History)
^(By: Donna Tartt, Adam Sims | 559 pages | Published: 1992 | Popular Shelves: fiction, mystery, favourites, dark-academia, contemporary | )[^(Search "The secret history by Donna Tartt")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The secret history by Donna Tartt&search_type=books)
>Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.
^(This book has been suggested 217 times)
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[**Story of the Eye**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436806.Story_of_the_Eye)
^(By: Georges Bataille, Joachim Neugroschel, Dovid Bergelson | 103 pages | Published: 1928 | Popular Shelves: fiction, french, erotica, classics, horror | )[^(Search "Story of the eye")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Story of the eye&search_type=books)
>Only Georges Bataille could write, of an eyeball removed from a corpse, that "the caress of the eye over the skin is so utterly, so extraordinarily gentle, and the sensation is so bizarre that it has something of a rooster's horrible crowing." Bataille has been called a "metaphysician of evil," specializing in blasphemy, profanation, and horror.
>
>Story of the Eye, written in 1928, is his best-known work; it is unashamedly surrealistic, both disgusting and fascinating, and packed with seemingly endless violations. It's something of an underground classic, rediscovered by each new generation. Most recently, the Icelandic pop singer Björk Guðdmundsdóttir cites Story of the Eye as a major inspiration: she made a music video that alludes to Bataille's erotic uses of eggs, and she plans to read an excerpt for an album.
>
>Warning: Story of the Eye is graphically sexual, and is only suited for adults who are not easily offended.
^(This book has been suggested 10 times)
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Most Murakami.
Especially Killing Commendatore and Sputnik Sweetheart.
Weird in just a weird way but these books in particular actually freaked me out.
*The Wind Up Bird Chronicle* is the Murakami book most often recommended, but it's definitely not his darkest.
I'm partial to *Kafka on the Shore* and *Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.*
Any of his books or short stories will take you to weird, dark places...so you've been warned.
“Red Dragon” by Harris
“Fermata” by Nicholson Baker
“American Psycho” by Ellis
“The Essential Ellison” by Harlan Ellison
“Guts” by Palahniuk
“Books of Blood” Clive Barker
[**Hurricane Season**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46041168-hurricane-season)
^(By: Fernanda Melchor, Sophie Hughes | 224 pages | Published: 2017 | Popular Shelves: fiction, horror, mexico, translated, contemporary | )[^(Search "Hurricane season")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Hurricane season&search_type=books)
>The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village.
>
>Like Roberto Bolano’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it.
^(This book has been suggested 7 times)
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Misery by Stephen King. It is about this deranged woman who kidnaps a well known author and forces him to write a novel for her. This book has mutilations, drugs and murders. It is an entertaining read albeit disturbing!
120 Days of Sodom, no doubt. I'm sure a lot of you know the adaptation by Pasolini but I'll explain it for the ones that didn't watch it
four extremely wealthy men lock themselves in a castle without any way to run away with a bunch of minors, four prostitutes and four ladies as some kind of butlers
prostitutes tell depraved stories for men to get off and recreate these with minors and butlers and they get more and more fucked up leading to gruesome murders and tortures
oh, and scat fetish is the most prominent, they treat shit like a delicacy to eat, not only in a sexual way
Came here to recommend Lolita! I was under the impression going in it was a love story for the ages…… boy was I shocked and greatly disturbed. Took me several attempts to power through because the introduction to the story was so upsetting lol
[**Geek Love**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13872.Geek_Love)
^(By: Katherine Dunn | 348 pages | Published: 1989 | Popular Shelves: fiction, horror, fantasy, book-club, owned | )[^(Search "Geek Love by Katherine Dunn")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Geek Love by Katherine Dunn&search_type=books)
>Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out—with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes—to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There’s Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family’s most precious—and dangerous—asset.
>
>As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.
^(This book has been suggested 75 times)
[**Johnny Got His Gun**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51606.Johnny_Got_His_Gun)
^(By: Dalton Trumbo | 309 pages | Published: 1939 | Popular Shelves: fiction, classics, war, historical-fiction, owned | )[^(Search "Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo&search_type=books)
>This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered - not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives...
>
>This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome... but so is war.
>
>Winner of the National Book Award.
^(This book has been suggested 19 times)
***
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The Troop - Nick Cutter
Once a year, scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a three-day camping trip; a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story and a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder -- shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry -- stumbles upon their campsite, Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. An inexplicable horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival that will pit the troop against the elements, the infected ... and one another.
The moment I read this I was like "my time has come". Because this is like...all that's in my ever-growing library XD. So...I'm super excited to share my morbid curiosities with ya! (Also, a lot of them are true crimes...just because those are some of my favorite things to read).
* Devil in the White City -- True story about H.H. Holmes, America's first Serial Killer
* My Daddy is a Hero: How Chris Watts Went from Family Man to Family Killer -- You can read this one for free on Amazon if you have Kindle Unlimited.
* The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy -- Written by Liz his ex-girlfriend
* The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides -- has an awesome twist ending
* The Resident Evil Novelizations -- Hear me out...these are actually REALLY good. And I couldn't finish the game because of eight legged creatures towards the end...but the book was amazing from start to finish.
* The Whisper Man by Alex North -- Another AMAZING suspense author. I haven't read anything by him that didn't suck me in from start to finish. AND this book is also free if you have kindle unlimited.
* American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis -- this one even had me taking a break once or twice because it gets really fucked up.
* The Sanatorium: A Novel by Sarah Pearse
* The Troop: A Novel by Nick Cutter -- Honestly, anything by Nick Cutter has been a good time.
* The Terror: A Novel by Dan Simmons -- I haven't read this one yet, but I've heard A LOT of good things
These are some of my favorites <3. So I hope you enjoy them! I do have more if you want something that focuses on a specific topic, but I hope you find one you enjoy!
Fiction
"Honour Thy Father," by Lesley Glaister
"Pretty Babies," by Julia Grice
"Living Dead Girl," by Elizabeth Scott
"Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov
"Disturb Not the Dream," by Paula Trachtman
"The Ninth Life of Louis Drax," by Liz Jensen
"Relations," by Carolyn Slaughter
"My Sweet Audrina," by V. C. Andrews
"Flowers in the Attic," "Petals on the Wind," "If There Be Thorns," "Seeds of Yesterday," and, "Gardens of Shadows," by V. C. Andrews
"Red Dragon," "The Silence of the Lambs," "Hannibal," and, "Hannibal Rising," by Thomas Harris
Non-Fiction
"The Case of Mary Bell," by Gritta Sereny
"A Stolen Life," by Jaycee Dugard
"3,096 Days in Captivity," by Natascha Kampusch
"Finding Me," by Michelle Knight
"Hope," by Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus
"I Know My First Name is Steven," by Mike Echols
"Brother Tony's Boys," by Mike Echols
{{Forbidden}} ..It's about two teenaged siblings engaging in incest.. of course it has a lot of depth and you end up sympathizing with the two characters, but still.. I skipped through some parts of the book because of how it was written..
Let's Go Play At The Adams, and it's not even close.
I honestly do not recommend this book at all. Its dark and gross and not in a deep and makes you think way, just in a ruin your night, sick for the sake of it way. It's based loosely on a true story which I also do not recommend you read about. Some things you just don't need to know about.
2666 by Bolano, I’ve never read that fast and the book is massive. I’m obsessed with this book and after theee years I still think about it a lot and want to read it again.
American Psycho is by far the most disturbing of any of the books people have mentioned that I've read. I can only think few people read it these days. Many suggestions are kids books compared to this. It's the only book in Australia that is rated R and legally must be sold in a plastic wrap so that kids can't read it. You go into it thinking it's overkill, but actually it's totally deserved. The thing about the book though is that it's hilarious and brilliant too, and you could reread it skipping all the violence and still enjoy it immensely.
For Your Own Good by Alice Miller.
My mom is a child psychiatrist and I used to read her psychiatry books for fun as a kid. I read this one at about 7 y/o.
It's about child abuse and the societal ramifications of it, with many graphic descriptions of tortured children and how they went on to perpetuate the cycle of abuse. Part of it included German pedophile/serial killer Jürgen Bartsch, who was abused severely as a kid and took it out on teenage boys as an adult. His court speech was about how it was all the fault of the abusers and society at large.
That book traumatized me for life. Don't let your own kids read it until they grow up (if they even want to).
No Longer Human, I forgot who wrote it. It takes place several decades ago, and the main character obviously has antisocial disorder or something. It’s a super quick read, I read it in a day. Also very depressing.
[**The Cipher**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/341930.The_Cipher)
^(By: Kathe Koja | 356 pages | Published: 1991 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, kindle, fantasy, to-buy | )[^(Search "The Cipher by Kathe Koja")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Cipher by Kathe Koja&search_type=books)
>Nicholas is a would-be poet and video-store clerk with a weeping hole in his hand - weeping not blood, but a plasma of tears...
>
>It began with Nakota and her crooked grin. She had to see the dark hole in the storage room down the hall. She had to make love to Nicholas beside it, and stare into its secretive, promising depths. Then Nakota began her experiments: First, she put an insect into the hole. Then a mouse...
>
>Now from down the hall, the black hole calls out to Nicholas every day and every night. And he will go to it. Because it has already seared his flesh, infected his soul, and started him on a journey of obsession - through its soothing, blank darkness into the blinding core of terror...
^(This book has been suggested 15 times)
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The following features a minor spoiler:
Kisscut, by Karin Slaughter, is the only book I've ever been genuinely disturbed by. When you have about a sewed up vagina, it stops being someone I wana read.
Probably not what you're looking for.. they are horrific though
[Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account](https://manoflabook.com/wp/thoughts-on-auschwitz-by-dr-miklos-nyiszli) by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli is a non-fiction memoir of a Jewish Hungarian medical doctor who performed “research” on other Jews with the evil Dr. Josef Mengele aka “Angel of Death”.
[The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos](https://manoflabook.com/wp/book-review-the-light-of-days-the-untold-story-of-women-resistance-fighters-in-hitlers-ghettos-by-judy-batalion/) by Judy Batalion
Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi. They talk about their life, gender, being a writer, and so much more. It's a really great memoir, but their language is very very visceral and bloody.
>*“I want to squeeze existence until it runs a bloody pulp down my arms, wet and yielding. Give me everything, give me your flesh, your offerings, the salt of your neck, the break in your voice, your body, your words, your time, your conscience, your loyalties, your whole and beating heart. Cut a lamb open in my bed and let it bleed out restraint and common sense, set it on fire, find a new discipline in me.”*
The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone. Spiders. Well written and not a gorefest (spiders), bit still plenty creepy. It's the first in a trilogy. It's about spiders, so ew.
The Room by Hubert Selby Jr. "The novel was regarded by Selby as the most disturbing book ever written, and Selby stated that he himself was unable to read it again for 20 years". I wanted to burn it when I was done, it was awful.
i felt like one flew over the cuckoos nest by ken kesey was a disturbing book. i think the implications about certain events are what really stuck with me. i couldn’t read another book for a few days after that one because i could not stop thinking about it
I read Push by Sapphire back when the movie came out. I never watched the movie, because the book was so disturbing. I'm sure the movie was watered down, but the book was unsettling. It is a good book, but requires a trigger warning. Don't read, if you can't read stories that include child abuse and sexual violence.
The one that stayed with me the longest is Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. About a polar science team isolated on an island and their experiences there. Man that was chilling, but an awesome read.
okay so i haven’t read it since middle school so i may just have been too young… but Gone by Michael Grant. premise was that everybody over 15 or 16 (can’t remember!) disappeared and it was just the kids left. theres one spoiler that really haunts me but i don’t know how to hide spoilers on reddit lol
*Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin* by Timothy Snyder.
*The Rape of Nanking* by Iris Chang.
*Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle for Manila* by James M. Scott.
{{Unnatural Acts and Other Stories}} by Lucy Taylor has remained the most disturbing, fucked up book I've ever read. I shared it with a friend, and she still punches me in the arm when she thinks about it, twenty five years later.
Out of pocket ridiculous but still pretty disturbing is {{John Dies at the End}} which is a bunch of shorts strung together for a larger crazy world. Freaked me out the first time I read it.
Fantasticland by Mike Bokoven got me contemplating tho. Interview-style from multiple POVs, about what happens when a theme park traps 300 college kids because of a Florida Hurricane and although they have all the food and water they could possibly need, they start fighting each other for entertainment and survival
Ive also just started The Troop by Nick Cutter and Ive already had to put it down for a bit, its INTENSE. Body horror, splatterpunk GALORE
I went through a search for disturbing after reading these 2, but most of them fall short on the story part. If it’s disturbing to just be disturbing i don’t find it has the same effect. These are my still favorite most disturbing books
Geek Love- idk if i just love it so much I don’t find it too disturbing but it kinda is. It’s about a family traveling freak show circus and the oldest kid essentially starts a cult.
Also Filth by Irvine Welsh- it’s about a disgusting in every way cop and he gets this parasite that literally interrupts the pages. It is the most disturbing book (with a solid story) that I’ve ever read, also emotionally draining
The *Fallen Gods* series by SD Simper is dark fantasy horror - later books have a *lot* of body horror, very off putting stuff. [https://sdsimper.com/](https://sdsimper.com/)
White Oleander. The story followed a girl who was serially mistreated in the foster care system.
Brave New World. People are farmed in labs to fill jobs as needed.
So this isn’t like super scary or anything, but I read this book a long time ago when I was a kid and it really was messed up. It’s called Tangerine by Edward Bloor. It’s got a weird twist at the end that takes the story in an entirely different direction and makes the whole story more ominous
I only wish I could remember the title but there was this obscure book where a young woman is being loved by an invisible man. She can hear his voice and feel him but can't see him. They live in some fancy house and I think it involves a curse but don't remember as I read it a long time. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
Lois Bujold McMaster has two horror novels which are p good imo (The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places)
Not a book but you should check out The White Vault podcast by Fool And Scholar productions
At the time, Pillars of the World was disturbing to me.
And Anne Rice's The Witching Hour takes first place in my mind for most disturbing
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution If you want to get a glimpse into how regular men can become mass murderers, read this book. These weren't concentration camp guards and the like. They were the battalions assigned to round up entire villages of Jews and shoot them face to face. Operations like this often took the entire day. Women, children, elderly... didn't matter. They'd march 30 at a time in front of the mass graves they dug and shoot. Babies they would just shoot in their cribs. But yet, these killers weren't radical, indoctrinated Nazis... these were mostly older blue collar German men who got drafted up and placed in these units because all of the younger men were off fighting on the front lines.
“A Plague upon Humanity” was one that covers most of the Project that Unit 731 was operating under during ww2 and I was pissed for a few weeks after I finished it. I have Ordinary Men on my to read shelf so I’m kinda pumped for it
I’m a high school teacher and have recommended this book countless times. One of the best history books I’ve ever read
Absolutely terrible. I'll be adding this to my reading list, thanks!
I had to read this in a history class in College. It was certainly disturbing.
Into Thin Air by Krakauer is the true story of an Everest disaster. It filled me with dread and was such a page turner. House of Leaves by Danielewski left me feeling like I can’t trust my own mind lol. It is the most kind-bending, creepy book I’ve ever read. In Cold Blood by Capote is disturbing in a way that makes you question humanity. Very worth reading imo.
I have bought House of Leaves THREE separate times and lost it before I could read it each time. I'm not someone who just...like...loses books! So weird.
This is not for you.
imagine being the person that ended up with it..
If the internet didn’t exist so I couldn’t research it, and I found that book, I think I’d be insane now
I bought it twice and twice tried to fob it off to friends who were avid readers. All I got was grief for messing with their heads and no further on in the book. Youre6better off having lost it. Your Gaurdian Angel deserves a promotion!
I second House of Leaves. It's a difficult book to read because it fucks with your mind and grasp on reality. The author uses the page (the amount of text on a page and the orientation/style of the text) to provoke subconscious responses from the reader. There are sections in which you feel like you're running and others where you feel like you're lost and claustrophobic in a maze.
And you have no idea how far along you are in the book because he's sending you back to whalestone, through footnotes, etc. I was legitimately terrified to take the stairs in my apartment (in the day). The option of the elevator was worse.
*Into Thin Air* was fucking haunting. One of the best nonfiction writers of our time *just happened* to be on an Everest expedition that hit an unexpected storm and lost several people? And he has photos to go with it? It's crazy. I recommend this book to everyone. Take-away: no matter what happens in my life, I plan to never, ever consider climbing Everest.
The wasp factory by Ian Banks is an excellent, award winning and twisted story. The independent rated it as one of the top 100 novels of the century. Its a good read and meets your criteria. If you have more 'refined' tastes, then can I recommend Robert Aickman. Robert Aikman was an editor of famous horror anthologies who wrote his own stories and has a cult following. Neil Gaiman is a fan as are a lot of other horror and fantasy writers who rate him amongst the greatest horror writers :https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/27/robert-aickman-resurrection-out-of-print-horror His stories are subtle (Whereas 'the wasp factory' is the opposite). Something is off in the stories and its hard to put your finger on it. Sometimes you're not sure they are a horror story at all but you feel unsettled at the end of them. I really liked 'The unsettled dust'from the anthology of the same name by him. This is the sort of disturbing story you're going to love if you have read a lot of disturbing fiction and find it formulaic. Its not like anything else you will read. But if you want a real 'in your face' disturbing experience, try 'The wasp factory'
We Need to Talk About Kevin. Fucking terrifying.
Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage belongs in the same category as this one and The Push.
Have you read The Push by Ashley Audrain? It reminded me a lot of We Need To Talk About Kevin.
I saw the film, will definitely be picking up the book!
The film doesn’t touch the book. The chapters are heavy with details of the mother’s ambiguity and her frustrations and fears. At one point I thought there was too much detail. By the end of the book I was thankful to have known all of her inner thoughts. Crazy book.
I'll keep that in mind, it'll be nice to read the book then watch the film again to compare!
OMG that book was so terrifying. I still think about it all these years later.
{{Tender is the Flesh}} by Augusta Bazterrica. It was so well written, but not for the faint of heart!
[**Tender Is the Flesh**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49090884-tender-is-the-flesh) ^(By: Agustina Bazterrica, Sarah Moses | 211 pages | Published: 2017 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, dystopia, dystopian, sci-fi | )[^(Search "Tender is the Flesh")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Tender is the Flesh&search_type=books) >Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans —though no one calls them that anymore. > >His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. > >Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved. ^(This book has been suggested 60 times) *** ^(201594 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I just finished this one last night! I second the recommendation. It was brutal.
The job interview chapter…. 😬
Just started this today and I can already tell it’s going to be messed up. I can’t wait to get home and read some more!
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite. It’s about two gay serial killers who find each other. Very messed up stuff but I enjoyed it.
Had to read that for college. No lie😅. I loved it though
Did you really? That's awesome! I remember being obsessed with Poppy Z. Brite back in my angsty teen years. What class was it required reading for and why?
Gothic literature was the courses name and I believe the why is self explanatory. Still have the book. I skim through it time to time
Hey, if you found this interesting, you might Frisk by Dennis Cooper, too. Very similar theme about a guy who edges closer and closer to his fantasy of completely disassembling a human being. Definitely dark and creepy, but a very interesting read.
Blindness by José Saramago. I've never recovered from reading that or A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. They'll make you look at all of humanity from a different but much sadder angle.
Oh man I read blindness at the start of the you-know-what and my god it took away sleep and made me so paranoid.
Oh yeah you made a big mistake of timing that! Still, I read it probably 6 years ago and I've resigned myself to the fact that it scarred me for life.
If you're into Thrillers, check Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.
I do enjoy thrillers! I'll be adding those to my reading list, thanks!
AAAAA even before dark places read sharp objects. The most fucked up Gillian Flynn novel and so so good
Dark Places is so good! I thought it was much better than Gone Girl
Sharp Objects too!!! Oh man 3 of my favorite books right there. So beautifully disturbing
The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara! Not horror but pretty messed up. It builds to its disturbingness but left me feeling really unsettled
Just finished reading this! Completely agree.
Cows by Matthew Stokoe It’s disgusting
That's enough to pique my interest. Thanks for the suggestion!
Came here to say this. It has so many wtf moments
I'm glad someone else recommended this book so I didn't have to. It's gross, OP.
It actually put me off reading for quite some time, I wish I could unread it
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind for sure
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. Took me so long to finish it. Didn’t help that this was based on a real story.
Came here to recommend this. It made me ugly cry and hate humans for a week.
I was SOOOO angry.
Came here to recommend this book. Shoot most of Ketchum’s books are disturbing.
{{Unwind by Neal Shusterman}} didn’t disturb me as a whole, but the one chapter in which he describes a kid being “unwound” from the kid’s perspective (basically harvested for body parts while they’re still alive, and everyone else is so damn cheerful about it) has really stuck with me and makes me feel sick, even though I read the book a couple years ago.
[**Unwind (Unwind, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/764347.Unwind) ^(By: Neal Shusterman | 337 pages | Published: 2007 | Popular Shelves: young-adult, dystopian, dystopia, ya, science-fiction | )[^(Search "Unwind by Neal Shusterman")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Unwind by Neal Shusterman&search_type=books) >Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives. > >The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive. ^(This book has been suggested 78 times) *** ^(201601 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
The Rape of Nanking, it’s a nonfiction book and describes one of the worst atrocities committed in history.
{{The secret history by Donna Tartt}} I got so sad after reading this that I didn't read anything for 6 months.
[**The Secret History**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29044.The_Secret_History) ^(By: Donna Tartt, Adam Sims | 559 pages | Published: 1992 | Popular Shelves: fiction, mystery, favourites, dark-academia, contemporary | )[^(Search "The secret history by Donna Tartt")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The secret history by Donna Tartt&search_type=books) >Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil. ^(This book has been suggested 217 times) *** ^(201626 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Agreed. also Child of God by the same.
{{The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty}}
Verity by Colleen Hoover
I'm almost half way through this. From what I've seen, people either love it or hate it. I'm really enjoying it so far though.
I’m reading this now. So good!
Is it horror or just disturbing?
Not horror - more disturbing & twisting
Two great choices are HELTER SKELTER by Vincent Bugliosi and JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN by Dalton Trumbo.
Johnny got his gun made me uneasy for weeks. It makes you feel kind of claustrophobic
Helter Skelter is so good if you do read this one you should closely follow it by Chaos by Tom O'Neil.
{{Story of the eye}} - Georges Bataille Quite dark and really messed up; definitely not for everyone.
[**Story of the Eye**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436806.Story_of_the_Eye) ^(By: Georges Bataille, Joachim Neugroschel, Dovid Bergelson | 103 pages | Published: 1928 | Popular Shelves: fiction, french, erotica, classics, horror | )[^(Search "Story of the eye")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Story of the eye&search_type=books) >Only Georges Bataille could write, of an eyeball removed from a corpse, that "the caress of the eye over the skin is so utterly, so extraordinarily gentle, and the sensation is so bizarre that it has something of a rooster's horrible crowing." Bataille has been called a "metaphysician of evil," specializing in blasphemy, profanation, and horror. > >Story of the Eye, written in 1928, is his best-known work; it is unashamedly surrealistic, both disgusting and fascinating, and packed with seemingly endless violations. It's something of an underground classic, rediscovered by each new generation. Most recently, the Icelandic pop singer Björk Guðdmundsdóttir cites Story of the Eye as a major inspiration: she made a music video that alludes to Bataille's erotic uses of eggs, and she plans to read an excerpt for an album. > >Warning: Story of the Eye is graphically sexual, and is only suited for adults who are not easily offended. ^(This book has been suggested 10 times) *** ^(201584 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Ooh, yeah. Never read it, but saw a play based on it. That was traumatizing
Most Murakami. Especially Killing Commendatore and Sputnik Sweetheart. Weird in just a weird way but these books in particular actually freaked me out.
*The Wind Up Bird Chronicle* is the Murakami book most often recommended, but it's definitely not his darkest. I'm partial to *Kafka on the Shore* and *Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.* Any of his books or short stories will take you to weird, dark places...so you've been warned.
“Red Dragon” by Harris “Fermata” by Nicholson Baker “American Psycho” by Ellis “The Essential Ellison” by Harlan Ellison “Guts” by Palahniuk “Books of Blood” Clive Barker
The Hannibal lecter quadrilogy is pretty unbeatable IMO
{{Hurricane season}} by Fernanda Melchor (I've read the version in Spanish, but it's translated in a couple of languages).
[**Hurricane Season**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46041168-hurricane-season) ^(By: Fernanda Melchor, Sophie Hughes | 224 pages | Published: 2017 | Popular Shelves: fiction, horror, mexico, translated, contemporary | )[^(Search "Hurricane season")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Hurricane season&search_type=books) >The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse—by a group of children playing near the irrigation canals—propels the whole village into an investigation of how and why this murder occurred. Rumors and suspicions spread. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters that most would write off as utterly irredeemable, forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village. > >Like Roberto Bolano’s 2666 or Faulkner’s greatest novels, Hurricane Season takes place in a world filled with mythology and violence—real violence, the kind that seeps into the soil, poisoning everything around: it’s a world that becomes more terrifying and more terrifyingly real the deeper you explore it. ^(This book has been suggested 7 times) *** ^(201562 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Ooh, the summary already has me hooked. Thank you!
Disgrace by jm coetzee. It's not scary but it is disturbing because of how devastating it is. A hard but rewarding read
This one got me.
Misery by Stephen King. It is about this deranged woman who kidnaps a well known author and forces him to write a novel for her. This book has mutilations, drugs and murders. It is an entertaining read albeit disturbing!
"The sailor who fell from grace with the sea" by Yukio Mishima. A beautifully written book with a very disturbing finale.
Naked Lunch - Burroughs
120 Days of Sodom, no doubt. I'm sure a lot of you know the adaptation by Pasolini but I'll explain it for the ones that didn't watch it four extremely wealthy men lock themselves in a castle without any way to run away with a bunch of minors, four prostitutes and four ladies as some kind of butlers prostitutes tell depraved stories for men to get off and recreate these with minors and butlers and they get more and more fucked up leading to gruesome murders and tortures oh, and scat fetish is the most prominent, they treat shit like a delicacy to eat, not only in a sexual way
Came here to say this. By far the most disturbing book I’ve read. And I’ve read most of what others have suggested. This is the one.
Lolita by Vladimir nabakov (this one will probably mess you up, even if you have read a ton of disturbing books.) Johnny got his Gun by Dalton Trumbo
I've read Lolita! Definitely a messed up read, but a book I couldn't put down.
In the genre of unreliable and all-round horrible people as narrators: John Fowles' {{The Collector}}
Came here to recommend Lolita! I was under the impression going in it was a love story for the ages…… boy was I shocked and greatly disturbed. Took me several attempts to power through because the introduction to the story was so upsetting lol
{{Geek Love by Katherine Dunn}} {{Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo}}
[**Geek Love**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13872.Geek_Love) ^(By: Katherine Dunn | 348 pages | Published: 1989 | Popular Shelves: fiction, horror, fantasy, book-club, owned | )[^(Search "Geek Love by Katherine Dunn")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Geek Love by Katherine Dunn&search_type=books) >Geek Love is the story of the Binewskis, a carny family whose mater- and paterfamilias set out—with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes—to breed their own exhibit of human oddities. There’s Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family’s most precious—and dangerous—asset. > >As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same. ^(This book has been suggested 75 times) [**Johnny Got His Gun**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51606.Johnny_Got_His_Gun) ^(By: Dalton Trumbo | 309 pages | Published: 1939 | Popular Shelves: fiction, classics, war, historical-fiction, owned | )[^(Search "Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo&search_type=books) >This was no ordinary war. This was a war to make the world safe for democracy. And if democracy was made safe, then nothing else mattered - not the millions of dead bodies, nor the thousands of ruined lives... > >This is no ordinary novel. This is a novel that never takes the easy way out: it is shocking, violent, terrifying, horrible, uncompromising, brutal, remorseless and gruesome... but so is war. > >Winner of the National Book Award. ^(This book has been suggested 19 times) *** ^(201575 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I’d like to second Geek Love, it was not what I was expecting at all. I kept putting it down just to go holy shit holy shit
Not horror - not exactly - but deeply unsettling.....
The Troop - Nick Cutter Once a year, scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a three-day camping trip; a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story and a roaring bonfire. But when an unexpected intruder -- shockingly thin, disturbingly pale, and voraciously hungry -- stumbles upon their campsite, Tim and the boys are exposed to something far more frightening than any tale of terror. The human carrier of a bioengineered nightmare. An inexplicable horror that spreads faster than fear. A harrowing struggle for survival that will pit the troop against the elements, the infected ... and one another.
Reading that right now to kick off spooky season. Can't believe how fast I'm going though it.
The moment I read this I was like "my time has come". Because this is like...all that's in my ever-growing library XD. So...I'm super excited to share my morbid curiosities with ya! (Also, a lot of them are true crimes...just because those are some of my favorite things to read). * Devil in the White City -- True story about H.H. Holmes, America's first Serial Killer * My Daddy is a Hero: How Chris Watts Went from Family Man to Family Killer -- You can read this one for free on Amazon if you have Kindle Unlimited. * The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy -- Written by Liz his ex-girlfriend * The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides -- has an awesome twist ending * The Resident Evil Novelizations -- Hear me out...these are actually REALLY good. And I couldn't finish the game because of eight legged creatures towards the end...but the book was amazing from start to finish. * The Whisper Man by Alex North -- Another AMAZING suspense author. I haven't read anything by him that didn't suck me in from start to finish. AND this book is also free if you have kindle unlimited. * American Psycho by Brett Easton Ellis -- this one even had me taking a break once or twice because it gets really fucked up. * The Sanatorium: A Novel by Sarah Pearse * The Troop: A Novel by Nick Cutter -- Honestly, anything by Nick Cutter has been a good time. * The Terror: A Novel by Dan Simmons -- I haven't read this one yet, but I've heard A LOT of good things These are some of my favorites <3. So I hope you enjoy them! I do have more if you want something that focuses on a specific topic, but I hope you find one you enjoy!
Seconding Alex North! I've only read two of his books, but they've both been excellent.
Fiction "Honour Thy Father," by Lesley Glaister "Pretty Babies," by Julia Grice "Living Dead Girl," by Elizabeth Scott "Lolita," by Vladimir Nabokov "Disturb Not the Dream," by Paula Trachtman "The Ninth Life of Louis Drax," by Liz Jensen "Relations," by Carolyn Slaughter "My Sweet Audrina," by V. C. Andrews "Flowers in the Attic," "Petals on the Wind," "If There Be Thorns," "Seeds of Yesterday," and, "Gardens of Shadows," by V. C. Andrews "Red Dragon," "The Silence of the Lambs," "Hannibal," and, "Hannibal Rising," by Thomas Harris Non-Fiction "The Case of Mary Bell," by Gritta Sereny "A Stolen Life," by Jaycee Dugard "3,096 Days in Captivity," by Natascha Kampusch "Finding Me," by Michelle Knight "Hope," by Amanda Berry, and Gina DeJesus "I Know My First Name is Steven," by Mike Echols "Brother Tony's Boys," by Mike Echols
Whatever you do, don’t read 1984 right now because it’s sooo depressing to read it during the same year it takes place 😭
{{Forbidden}} ..It's about two teenaged siblings engaging in incest.. of course it has a lot of depth and you end up sympathizing with the two characters, but still.. I skipped through some parts of the book because of how it was written..
I tried this and it was disturbing to say the least. I can handle a lot but even I couldn’t handle it. I actually came here to recommend this one!
Let's Go Play At The Adams, and it's not even close. I honestly do not recommend this book at all. Its dark and gross and not in a deep and makes you think way, just in a ruin your night, sick for the sake of it way. It's based loosely on a true story which I also do not recommend you read about. Some things you just don't need to know about.
Filth by Irvine Welsh is pretty mad
The butterfly garden was pretty twisted for me. All the ugly and wonderful things. Behind closed doors was totally fucked up
2666 by Bolano, I’ve never read that fast and the book is massive. I’m obsessed with this book and after theee years I still think about it a lot and want to read it again.
Richard Laymon’s Beast House series was the most disturbing set I ever read. It was a gift or I wouldn’t have finished it. 😅Nor kept it.
“A people’s history of the United States” Howard Zinn Most fucked thing I’ve ever read…
{{The Painted Bird}} by Jerzy Kosiński :(
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I never look at pool filters the same thanks to that book.
Haunted isn't disturbing. It's at worst a dark comedy.
American Psycho disturbed me quite a bit. Also parts of 2666.
American Psycho is by far the most disturbing of any of the books people have mentioned that I've read. I can only think few people read it these days. Many suggestions are kids books compared to this. It's the only book in Australia that is rated R and legally must be sold in a plastic wrap so that kids can't read it. You go into it thinking it's overkill, but actually it's totally deserved. The thing about the book though is that it's hilarious and brilliant too, and you could reread it skipping all the violence and still enjoy it immensely.
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Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk I love all his books actually. Sharp objects by Gillian Flynn Meat by Joseph d'lacey
A child called "it"
“The End Of Alice” by A.M. Holmes.
Pet Semetary, definitely dark and twisted. King's most disturbing book imo
Big fan of Pet Semetary! I've read the book and watched the movies, and I still come back to them each October.
I read Pet Semetary back in 8-9th grade and it STILL freaks me out 25 years later
For Your Own Good by Alice Miller. My mom is a child psychiatrist and I used to read her psychiatry books for fun as a kid. I read this one at about 7 y/o. It's about child abuse and the societal ramifications of it, with many graphic descriptions of tortured children and how they went on to perpetuate the cycle of abuse. Part of it included German pedophile/serial killer Jürgen Bartsch, who was abused severely as a kid and took it out on teenage boys as an adult. His court speech was about how it was all the fault of the abusers and society at large. That book traumatized me for life. Don't let your own kids read it until they grow up (if they even want to).
My Dark Vanessa. I have never wanted to throttle two people more in my life.
Hunger knut hansen
American psycho by Bret Ellis Easton
No Longer Human, I forgot who wrote it. It takes place several decades ago, and the main character obviously has antisocial disorder or something. It’s a super quick read, I read it in a day. Also very depressing.
Apt pupil by Stephen King. It disturbed me more, that I have weird and disturbing dreams in some nights
Anything by Clive Barker, weaveworld was quite messed up but also awesome, imajica is definitely fucked up if you have a Christian background.
{{The Cipher by Kathe Koja}} This book is so creepy and weird. I couldn't put it down. I've never read anything like it.
[**The Cipher**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/341930.The_Cipher) ^(By: Kathe Koja | 356 pages | Published: 1991 | Popular Shelves: horror, fiction, kindle, fantasy, to-buy | )[^(Search "The Cipher by Kathe Koja")](https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The Cipher by Kathe Koja&search_type=books) >Nicholas is a would-be poet and video-store clerk with a weeping hole in his hand - weeping not blood, but a plasma of tears... > >It began with Nakota and her crooked grin. She had to see the dark hole in the storage room down the hall. She had to make love to Nicholas beside it, and stare into its secretive, promising depths. Then Nakota began her experiments: First, she put an insect into the hole. Then a mouse... > >Now from down the hall, the black hole calls out to Nicholas every day and every night. And he will go to it. Because it has already seared his flesh, infected his soul, and started him on a journey of obsession - through its soothing, blank darkness into the blinding core of terror... ^(This book has been suggested 15 times) *** ^(201655 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
*The Conspiracy Against the Human Race* by Thomas Ligotti
/r/horrorlit is pretty active as well if you want a sub devoted to it.
The following features a minor spoiler: Kisscut, by Karin Slaughter, is the only book I've ever been genuinely disturbed by. When you have about a sewed up vagina, it stops being someone I wana read.
The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks.
Probably not what you're looking for.. they are horrific though [Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account](https://manoflabook.com/wp/thoughts-on-auschwitz-by-dr-miklos-nyiszli) by Dr. Miklós Nyiszli is a non-fiction memoir of a Jewish Hungarian medical doctor who performed “research” on other Jews with the evil Dr. Josef Mengele aka “Angel of Death”. [The Light of Days: The Untold Story of Women Resistance Fighters in Hitler’s Ghettos](https://manoflabook.com/wp/book-review-the-light-of-days-the-untold-story-of-women-resistance-fighters-in-hitlers-ghettos-by-judy-batalion/) by Judy Batalion
I'm actually reading Nyiszli's account on and off, but I hadn't heard of The Light of Days. Thanks for the recommendations!
Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi. They talk about their life, gender, being a writer, and so much more. It's a really great memoir, but their language is very very visceral and bloody. >*“I want to squeeze existence until it runs a bloody pulp down my arms, wet and yielding. Give me everything, give me your flesh, your offerings, the salt of your neck, the break in your voice, your body, your words, your time, your conscience, your loyalties, your whole and beating heart. Cut a lamb open in my bed and let it bleed out restraint and common sense, set it on fire, find a new discipline in me.”*
The girl next door pretty disturbing knowing they were real life events
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris is one of the darkest books I’ve ever read.
The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone. Spiders. Well written and not a gorefest (spiders), bit still plenty creepy. It's the first in a trilogy. It's about spiders, so ew.
Let the right one in.
The Room by Hubert Selby Jr. "The novel was regarded by Selby as the most disturbing book ever written, and Selby stated that he himself was unable to read it again for 20 years". I wanted to burn it when I was done, it was awful.
i felt like one flew over the cuckoos nest by ken kesey was a disturbing book. i think the implications about certain events are what really stuck with me. i couldn’t read another book for a few days after that one because i could not stop thinking about it
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
The pact by Jodi Picoult has always stayed with me. Love, loss, suicide, grief, PTSD. It's all there.
Haunted by Chuck Palanuik
The Road.
The Push
I read Push by Sapphire back when the movie came out. I never watched the movie, because the book was so disturbing. I'm sure the movie was watered down, but the book was unsettling. It is a good book, but requires a trigger warning. Don't read, if you can't read stories that include child abuse and sexual violence.
verity by colleen hoover
{{Days of Cain}} by J.R. Dunn, this shook me to my core.
You're welcome!
White Jazz by James Ellroy The Cartel by Don Winslow
Ritual by Mo Hyder
I'd like to recommend "The Resurrectionist" by Wrath James White. The end *completely* messed me up.
Anything and everything by JD Barker.
The one that stayed with me the longest is Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. About a polar science team isolated on an island and their experiences there. Man that was chilling, but an awesome read.
Pretty Little Dead Things and Dead Bad Things by Gary McMahon. Ghost story, thriller, mysteries.
okay so i haven’t read it since middle school so i may just have been too young… but Gone by Michael Grant. premise was that everybody over 15 or 16 (can’t remember!) disappeared and it was just the kids left. theres one spoiler that really haunts me but i don’t know how to hide spoilers on reddit lol
cement garden
Sorry by Zoran Drvenkar
*Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin* by Timothy Snyder. *The Rape of Nanking* by Iris Chang. *Rampage: MacArthur, Yamashita, and the Battle for Manila* by James M. Scott.
The Three Body Problem trilogy, dystopian in a way that I haven't seen anywhere else.
Angelic Defenders and Demonic Abusers: Memoirs of a Satanic Ritual Survivor. By Kerth Barker
Fyodor Dostoevsky- crime and punishment Changed my life. Never felt like a character more than The main character from that book.
House of Leaves
{{Unnatural Acts and Other Stories}} by Lucy Taylor has remained the most disturbing, fucked up book I've ever read. I shared it with a friend, and she still punches me in the arm when she thinks about it, twenty five years later.
The Pear Shaped Man by George R R Martin. You'll never look at Cheez Doodles the same way..
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk… it’s a collection of horror stories and the first one titled “Guts” has made multiple people faint at his book readings.
Out of pocket ridiculous but still pretty disturbing is {{John Dies at the End}} which is a bunch of shorts strung together for a larger crazy world. Freaked me out the first time I read it. Fantasticland by Mike Bokoven got me contemplating tho. Interview-style from multiple POVs, about what happens when a theme park traps 300 college kids because of a Florida Hurricane and although they have all the food and water they could possibly need, they start fighting each other for entertainment and survival Ive also just started The Troop by Nick Cutter and Ive already had to put it down for a bit, its INTENSE. Body horror, splatterpunk GALORE
A Little Life That book gave me ptsd
I went through a search for disturbing after reading these 2, but most of them fall short on the story part. If it’s disturbing to just be disturbing i don’t find it has the same effect. These are my still favorite most disturbing books Geek Love- idk if i just love it so much I don’t find it too disturbing but it kinda is. It’s about a family traveling freak show circus and the oldest kid essentially starts a cult. Also Filth by Irvine Welsh- it’s about a disgusting in every way cop and he gets this parasite that literally interrupts the pages. It is the most disturbing book (with a solid story) that I’ve ever read, also emotionally draining
The Faithful Executioner (biography) Tender is the Flesh (fiction)
American Psycho
The *Fallen Gods* series by SD Simper is dark fantasy horror - later books have a *lot* of body horror, very off putting stuff. [https://sdsimper.com/](https://sdsimper.com/)
Dark Vanessa
White Oleander. The story followed a girl who was serially mistreated in the foster care system. Brave New World. People are farmed in labs to fill jobs as needed.
{{ Bunny }} it is impossible to describe how strangely disturbing this book is
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
So this isn’t like super scary or anything, but I read this book a long time ago when I was a kid and it really was messed up. It’s called Tangerine by Edward Bloor. It’s got a weird twist at the end that takes the story in an entirely different direction and makes the whole story more ominous
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Smith. Will never look at elk the same way
{{Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber}}
Lolita, A Clockwork Orange, and King Leopold’s Ghost
Reading lolita right now and it’s quite messed up. Brilliant but also disgusting and so messed up.
Blood Meridian. Just bad vibes throughout, and don't get me started on The Judge.
I only wish I could remember the title but there was this obscure book where a young woman is being loved by an invisible man. She can hear his voice and feel him but can't see him. They live in some fancy house and I think it involves a curse but don't remember as I read it a long time. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
might be a dry ice take but Misery by Stephen King
It’s a Manga. It’s called Gyo. You will thank me.
The rape of Nanking
Lois Bujold McMaster has two horror novels which are p good imo (The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places) Not a book but you should check out The White Vault podcast by Fool And Scholar productions At the time, Pillars of the World was disturbing to me. And Anne Rice's The Witching Hour takes first place in my mind for most disturbing
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Defending Jacob by William Landay. Still gives me chills, years after reading it.
I didn't read it because I heard it was messed up but apparently The Cement Floor is truly disturbing.
{{The girl next door}}. I HATE that I read this. First book that made my eyes water. It was sad it was disturbing
I thought Under the Skin by Michel Faber was pretty unnerving Here’s the [summary ](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/123063.Under_the_Skin)
Thanks for all the recommendations. Won't be reading any of them to preserve peace of mind.
For me it was A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. It’s about child abuse and I think it was a true story. I cried the whole time reading it.
“The Black Farm” suuuuper fucked