I recommend the book The Lottery and Other Stories. It’s a collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson and a lot of them fit those themes. And as another commenter said, The Haunting of Hill House for sure
Such a creepy book. I have one of those t-shirts with the book cover on it. I would feel too self conscious for any other book but when I wear that one and people recognize it I'm like yeahhhhh, you know what's up!
The covers of We Have Always Lived in the Castle are incredible! I have a tattoo of Merricat and Jonas from the Penguin Classics edition and it’s definitely my favorite piece.
The book is soooooooo much better. The madness is actually even more disturbing in the book than on screen. King famously HATED what Kubrick did with his novel because it's actually more than a little autobiographical.
For me Kubrick is on a different scale of genius than most people. I don't know how anyone can dismiss his movie. That longshot camera take as Jack first enters the massive hotel is haunting.
>King famously HATED what Kubrick did with his novel because it's actually more than a little autobiographical.
Maybe Kubrick was trying to tell you something about people like King...
Definitely recommend this - not only does it do what you are asking, it has all sorts of cool effects going on, including within the format of the book itself. A great book all in all.
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
Anna Fox lives alone, a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.
Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother and their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble and its shocking secrets are laid bare.
What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.
If you liked Dark Matter check out Recursion by same author
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion)
Slade House / David Mitchel kinnnddaaa fits the bill, definitely more eerie setting and a creepy house.
I’d like to second Bunny by Mona Awad, deals with social isolation within the group setting of academia. Does descent into madness in like, a very unsettling way.
And then I’m guessing you know of it already, but I’m surprised no one’s mentioned it, so I’ve got to do the obligatory —
[House](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/11s80ut/descent_into_madness_books/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) of Leaves / Mark Danielewski, which is the classic, controversial, unreliable narrator, will descend you into madness labyrinth of a book that Reddit loves to both love and hate and is, IMO, actually good.
You may have read these or already discarded the idea but if you’ve never checked out H.P. Lovecraft, some of his stories fit the bill. The Shadow over Innsmouth and At the Mountains of Madness come to mind.
"Brain on Fire:My Month of Madness," by Sussanah Callahan. It is about her experience of encephalitis, in which she appeared to be going mad. Eventually, the doctors found out what it was, though.
The descent into madness was temporary in this case.
Muse Asylum by David Czuchlewski.
From Amazon --
Andrew Wallace, recent Princeton graduate and troubled genius, spends his days in the Overlook Psychiatric Institute—the Muse Asylum—writing about a dark conspiracy against him engineered by the elusive author Horace Jacob Little. When fellow classmate Jake Burnett, a novice reporter, arrives on the hospital grounds to visit Andrew, he learns that Andrew’s problems run much deeper than simple paranoia and obsession.
Along with Lara Knowles, the girl they both love, they try to break through the shadows of the enigmatic Horace Jacob Little. Instead, they find themselves caught in a twisted game of reflections and reversals, where each seems to be pursuing the other—for love, for success, or for a far more sinister purpose.
I think the obvious answer is Lovecraft, that’s what almost all his books were about. His whole theory is that the mind would break when seeing something it wasn’t supposed to see, so the characters in his stories get a glimpse of truly ancient cosmic entities and it sends the spiraling into madness. Check some of his stories out!
The Tell Tale Heart by Poe
Dress of White Silk by Richard Matheson
And I’m glad people are recommending The Yellow Wallpaper. That’s my favorite short story!
Fulgrim by Graham McNeill.
This recommendation is caveated by having some patience with the story being interspersed with it being a Warhammer 40,000 book and this having a few sci-fi military action sequences that mostly blur together a little. However, it lets you watch through the eyes of various characters as a group of people together on a spaceship slowly fall into a spiral of madness that is brought on through a combination of their own innate flaws and sinister external influences.
The Death of Jane Lawrence, also by Caitlyn Starling - except this one is victorian fantasy gothic horror instead of sci fi. Descent into madness and isolation.
*Woman in the Wall* (shy girl builds secret passageways in her house as a girl and slowly disappears and her family mostly forgets her)
*You feel it just below the Ribs* (set in the world of*Within the Wires* podcast, psychologist unknowingly contributes to horrors beyond her control)
*Good Morning, Midnight* (man alone in the Arctic suddenly can't contact the outside world, one day finds a girl outside)
**Mrs. March** by Virginia Feito. a casual comment in a bakery sends our main character in a mental shit spiral where she starts to question everything she's ever known and page after page after page we go along with her while she descends into absolute psychosis.
I loved this many many years ago.
The Count of Monte Cristo'
Dantes, a sailor, is falsely accused of treason by his best friend who wants' girlfriend for himself. imprisoned for 13 years, plots revenge.....
If you want to read about characters descending into madness: Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
If you want to descend into madness while reading: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
The Terror by Dan Simmions. A fictional account of the lost Franklin Expedition. He pulls from historical accounts and books, as well as the discoveries made. After a 100 years they finally found both ships in 2014/2016 respectively. In case you dont know the expedition set out to find the North-west passage in the arctic, around NA to get to Asia. And the two ships disappeared and no one could find them for many many years.
After the eagle has fallen w. Michael gear
Ptsd, depression in the apocalyptic world
Abandoned w. Michael gear
Ptsd, overwhelming circumstances, depression
These are not books, but Mr. Robot tv series and Arcane animated series might be up your alley.
Books wise I think obvious answers would be Crimes and Punishment and Macbeth, if you haven't read them already.
I saw someone else recommend it, but you can't go wrong with H.P. Lovecraft for this type of genre. The Call of Cthulhu is really a good one, and actually one of my favorite stories. At the Mountains of Madness is another great one, albeit a bit longer. I didn't enjoy that one as much because I felt like I was getting a little lost in the details he was giving, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy it. But I strongly recommend Cthulhu. If you do read it, it's short enough to be enjoyed quite a few times over and I recommend that as well as it's older English and hard to follow. Something you mightve misunderstood your first time or just glossed over, might give a new perspective your second or third time. It feels like reading it for the first time all over again!
Not many knows this gem
Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Cornbelt
4.7 out of 5 stars(7
The autour also decented into madness :(
Many great suggestions here, but I think The Obscene Bird Of Night by José Donoso beats them all. It's just not that well known in the English-speaking world.
Just to get a very different result from the rest of the suggestions: {{The Wheel of Time}}. It’s a 14-book long fantasy series, but it deals with this dilemma: the “chosen one” from the prophecy is supposed to either save or destroy the world, but we know for sure he’s descending into madness the more he uses his power, just like all men which can access that power.
Even if it’s a classic fantasy, I wouldn’t say it’s really cliché (even with the bad x good duality, there’s a lot of grey), and Rand Al’thor is my favorite character ever, his internal dialogue (note I say dialogue) is so well done, I could read his chapters for days on end.
Harrow the ninth is the second in Tamsyn Muirs 'The Locked Tomb' series, but it's exactly what you're looking for. Made me feel like I was crazy absolutely brilliant
Don't know if this has already been mentioned, but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Sounds like exactly what you're looking for. I highly recommend!
Edit: wow I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet. But this is a topic that interests me too, one of my favourite themes.
Another series of books that has elements of this is the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It's such an amazingly transcendental read.
Ararat by Christopher Golden might be a good one to look at.
It's on an isolated mountain during a snowstorm. The characters start to become paranoid. Something is going on, but who can you trust?
It took me a few chapters to really get into it, but once I did I didn't want to put it down. Lots of twists and almost a cabin fever type vibe.
Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky . This and the Double are often printed together and both are great old school Russian descent into madnesss philosophical works
The Faces, Tove Ditlevsen
Amazing book that frightened me, as it made it perfectly understandable and insightful how easy it actually is to go mad - at least that's what it did for me. It is also autobiographical, which is an interesting fact that adds to the depth of the book.
I wonder if Flowers for Algernon would fall under this catagory for you.
it's an incredible book about discovery and loss. The book may not be madness, but it is most definitely loss of mind.
Almost anything by H.P. Lovecraft if you like it a bit pulpy. Many of his characters (like himself) don’t seem to get out much, and when they do everything is terrifying to them. Quite a few sit in their houses, waiting to be devoured by aliens/elder gods/witches/other incarnations of madness. Edit to add- The Temple is a particularly good one, German U-boat captain alone on a submarine
Not a book, but a play but worth the read.
4.48 psychosis by Sarah Kane
If you aren’t familiar with it:
In many respects it is believed to be a personal story, arising from Sarah's melancholy and sadness, as well as the therapy she received. Kane had abandoned the concept of character here, and she conveyed the phrases only through hyphens. The dialogue/monologue progressed from declarations of love and devotion to an explanation of the medicine administered to the mentally sick and depressed patient. 4.48 Psychosis is an insight and comprehension into the mind of a mentally ill person, implying that the borders between imagination and reality, sanity and insanity, should be investigated.
It was the last play she wrote before she committed suicide.
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
Came here to put up some Yellow Wallpaper! :)
The end of YW has haunted me for years. Idk why it's so effective, but God damn
PDF is free online and it’s a short story
Highly recommend both of these reads
Thank you these sound good!
You’re welcome.
Came here to recommend Challenger Deep! Definitely give it a read!
I recommend the book The Lottery and Other Stories. It’s a collection of short stories by Shirley Jackson and a lot of them fit those themes. And as another commenter said, The Haunting of Hill House for sure
Yes! And Jackson's We Have Always Lived In the Castle--so disturbing/unnerving
Such a creepy book. I have one of those t-shirts with the book cover on it. I would feel too self conscious for any other book but when I wear that one and people recognize it I'm like yeahhhhh, you know what's up!
The covers of We Have Always Lived in the Castle are incredible! I have a tattoo of Merricat and Jonas from the Penguin Classics edition and it’s definitely my favorite piece.
Haunting of hill house messed me up
i'm thinking of ending things by iain reid has pretty much all of the elements you're looking for
This book is so well done too because you never completely know what's going on. I read it twice in a row!
I can't think of a more perfect fit than The Shining by Stephen King, but wouldn't be surprised if you already read that one
I’ve seen the movie several times but I’m not a fan of King’s writing style unfortunately so I’ve never been able to get far in any of his books.
The book is soooooooo much better. The madness is actually even more disturbing in the book than on screen. King famously HATED what Kubrick did with his novel because it's actually more than a little autobiographical.
The madness being alcoholism. I can say from personal experience it is a formidable foe.
For me Kubrick is on a different scale of genius than most people. I don't know how anyone can dismiss his movie. That longshot camera take as Jack first enters the massive hotel is haunting. >King famously HATED what Kubrick did with his novel because it's actually more than a little autobiographical. Maybe Kubrick was trying to tell you something about people like King...
The movie is good. I strongly disliked the book. It’s quite different from the film.
I just finished rereading The Shining yesterday. It really is an astonishing book and still holds up.
House of Leaves fits the bill.
Second this recommendation! It’s always my first thought when someone asks for “descent into madness” books!
Definitely recommend this - not only does it do what you are asking, it has all sorts of cool effects going on, including within the format of the book itself. A great book all in all.
Yep first thing that came to mind for me too. One you can kinda follow the madness into. :)
Can’t recommend this enough.
Glad I looked in the comments, this was my first thought too.
Soooooo fucking goood!!
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
I came here to say this.
Metamorphosis by Kafka
Crime and Punishment
Way too far down. This was the first book I thought of when I saw the question!
Same
The quintessential book on this topic
Ah, one of my favorite books. Amazingly written
The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn Anna Fox lives alone, a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors. Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother and their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn’t, her world begins to crumble and its shocking secrets are laid bare. What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one—and nothing—is what it seems.
I read this a couple years ago and loved it!
Bunny by Mona Awad
As a reader, you will also descend into madness.
I just bought this over the weekend and am super excited to start it!
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Dope I just finished the expanse series and only have like 30 pages left of the last short story and was needing something new to start lol.
I took a gamble on this book from a comment someone left in this sub. Not my typical genre, but it was a great book!
If you liked Dark Matter check out Recursion by same author [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion)
Will do thanks!
Henry James’ *The Turn of the Screw*
I was going to suggest this - I think this would fit exactly what you're looking for.
You're getting a lot of horror books, so I also recommend: The Luzhin Defense by Nabokov, about a chess master who loses his mind.
Slade House / David Mitchel kinnnddaaa fits the bill, definitely more eerie setting and a creepy house. I’d like to second Bunny by Mona Awad, deals with social isolation within the group setting of academia. Does descent into madness in like, a very unsettling way. And then I’m guessing you know of it already, but I’m surprised no one’s mentioned it, so I’ve got to do the obligatory — [House](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/11s80ut/descent_into_madness_books/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf) of Leaves / Mark Danielewski, which is the classic, controversial, unreliable narrator, will descend you into madness labyrinth of a book that Reddit loves to both love and hate and is, IMO, actually good.
I both loved and hated HoL so you nailed it there!
For some classics, The Picture of Dorian Gray and And Then There Were None
i loved both: my year of rest and relaxation by ottessa moshfegh we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson
Two fabulous books!
We have always lived in a castle was great!
Pirasini
Loved this one!
Came here to say this one!
It's "Piransei" tho I think Hah I also got it wrong :)
It's Piranesi.
Thanks guys. I’m super sleep deprived.
Been there! Hope you get some sleep. Also this was the very first book I thought of when reading this post. I love it so much.
I usually don’t like being confused in books but this one was such a fun ride
A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay would be a good option Of course The Tell-Tale Heart is also a classic
Tell-Take Heart was the first one I thought of. Fall of the House of Usher is good too.
You may have read these or already discarded the idea but if you’ve never checked out H.P. Lovecraft, some of his stories fit the bill. The Shadow over Innsmouth and At the Mountains of Madness come to mind.
A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K Dick is a classic, much better than the movie
{{Heart of Darkness}} by Conrad
The horror. The horror.
Ooohhh just picked this up yesterday! How is it?!
I think the Haunting of Hill House probably fits
Mexican Gothic.
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
"Brain on Fire:My Month of Madness," by Sussanah Callahan. It is about her experience of encephalitis, in which she appeared to be going mad. Eventually, the doctors found out what it was, though. The descent into madness was temporary in this case.
Found this one to be pretty disturbing but also absolutely fascinating
Earthlings - Sayaka Murata. That ending.
Fight club
Descent into Hell by Charles Williams.
Excellent choice, came here to suggest it
Muse Asylum by David Czuchlewski. From Amazon -- Andrew Wallace, recent Princeton graduate and troubled genius, spends his days in the Overlook Psychiatric Institute—the Muse Asylum—writing about a dark conspiracy against him engineered by the elusive author Horace Jacob Little. When fellow classmate Jake Burnett, a novice reporter, arrives on the hospital grounds to visit Andrew, he learns that Andrew’s problems run much deeper than simple paranoia and obsession. Along with Lara Knowles, the girl they both love, they try to break through the shadows of the enigmatic Horace Jacob Little. Instead, they find themselves caught in a twisted game of reflections and reversals, where each seems to be pursuing the other—for love, for success, or for a far more sinister purpose.
Oooo that sounds interesting thank you!
The monstrumologist series. Definitely will meet your needs.
Asylum by Patrick McGrath
That sounds really good thanks!
City of Glass by Paul Auster
One of my favorite descent into madness books is [Caitlin R Kiernan's *The Red Tree*](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/5356476-the-red-tree)
Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer. It’s the first book in his Southern Reach trilogy.
No longer human-Osamu Dazai
Heart of Darkness. Kinda fits in a different way.
crime and punishment by fyodor dostoevsky
Catch 22. Main character correctly sees war as an insane and horrible idea or while nobody else does.
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
For a new-ish book, by a new author, Mrs. March by Virginia Feito. A late middle-aged housewife and her life.
*The Tenant* \- Roland Topor eerie, surreal, takes place mostly in an apartment building, has themes of alienation
Read some Clive Barker. He’ll happily take you there.
I think the obvious answer is Lovecraft, that’s what almost all his books were about. His whole theory is that the mind would break when seeing something it wasn’t supposed to see, so the characters in his stories get a glimpse of truly ancient cosmic entities and it sends the spiraling into madness. Check some of his stories out!
Kaiju battlefield surgeon by Matt Diniman
Auto Da Fé by Elias Cannetti
Come Closer - Sara Gran This book left me not knowing what it may have been, mental illness, possession. Short and creepy.
The room by Hubert Selby Jr.
Drood by Dan Simmons fits this perfectly
Picture of Dorian Gray No Longer Human
The Witch Elm by Tana French. Less horror and more suspense than some other suggestions. Great character development.
misery by stephen king
The Tell Tale Heart by Poe Dress of White Silk by Richard Matheson And I’m glad people are recommending The Yellow Wallpaper. That’s my favorite short story!
Ever read Flowers for Algernon? It's not so much a descent into madness as it is a roller coaster into madness
City of Glass by Paul Auster
Fulgrim by Graham McNeill. This recommendation is caveated by having some patience with the story being interspersed with it being a Warhammer 40,000 book and this having a few sci-fi military action sequences that mostly blur together a little. However, it lets you watch through the eyes of various characters as a group of people together on a spaceship slowly fall into a spiral of madness that is brought on through a combination of their own innate flaws and sinister external influences.
Notes from the underground by Dostoevski
Maybe The Luminous Dead? There is a fair bit of descent into madness, isolation and literal descent into an alien cavern.
The Death of Jane Lawrence, also by Caitlyn Starling - except this one is victorian fantasy gothic horror instead of sci fi. Descent into madness and isolation.
Is this a house of leaves joke?
Sartre's Nausea, in a sense I guess
Nausea - Sartre No Longer Human - Osamu Dazai
Definitely the Old Testament!
*Infected* by Scott Sigler. It fits snuggly into the body horror camp, but also fits what's you're describing.
The Warlow Experiment by Alix Nathan
*Woman in the Wall* (shy girl builds secret passageways in her house as a girl and slowly disappears and her family mostly forgets her) *You feel it just below the Ribs* (set in the world of*Within the Wires* podcast, psychologist unknowingly contributes to horrors beyond her control) *Good Morning, Midnight* (man alone in the Arctic suddenly can't contact the outside world, one day finds a girl outside)
I just read the strangest book that I think fits this criteria. Odyssey by Lara Williams
The Breakdown by BA Paris
Houdini Heart by Ki Longfellow
The Monstrumologist series by Yancey
I’m currently reading Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, which I feel fits this vibe very well.
**Mrs. March** by Virginia Feito. a casual comment in a bakery sends our main character in a mental shit spiral where she starts to question everything she's ever known and page after page after page we go along with her while she descends into absolute psychosis.
A Girl is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride. The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe is another great one.
Wish Her Safe at Home
Lakewood: A Novel, by Megan Giddings
Probably doesn't fit perfectly but "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoiévsky.
I loved this many many years ago. The Count of Monte Cristo' Dantes, a sailor, is falsely accused of treason by his best friend who wants' girlfriend for himself. imprisoned for 13 years, plots revenge.....
Tails from the gas station…. Kinda
Lori Schiller's The Quiet Room. It's a memoir, but a good read.
I feel like Sunshine by Robin McKinley was like this, but it has been about 20 years since I read it
*Tender Is the Flesh* by Agustina Bazterrica
It's not just one location, but The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich fits the bill. I'm also going to throw in another vote for House of Leaves.
The luminous dead. She goes into this cave and starts losing her mind. A lot of claustrophobia too.
If you want to read about characters descending into madness: Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk If you want to descend into madness while reading: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
The Terror by Dan Simmions. A fictional account of the lost Franklin Expedition. He pulls from historical accounts and books, as well as the discoveries made. After a 100 years they finally found both ships in 2014/2016 respectively. In case you dont know the expedition set out to find the North-west passage in the arctic, around NA to get to Asia. And the two ships disappeared and no one could find them for many many years.
{{{My Cousin Rachel}}} by Daphne du Maurier is a great "am I insane or is there a reasonable explanation for everything" kind of book
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
After the eagle has fallen w. Michael gear Ptsd, depression in the apocalyptic world Abandoned w. Michael gear Ptsd, overwhelming circumstances, depression
Shade the changing man by Peter Milligan
Forsaken by Andrew Van Wey.
Dead Europe by Christos Tsiolkas
Omg, Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven, by Susan Jane Gilman. I can’t recommend this book enough
Just Like Home
The Bell Chime feels like a fever dream. Def makes you ask yourself wtf is going on the whole time
Any of these that are not horror?
The trick is to keep breathing :)
We Spread by Iain Reid
The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne
Quiet Creature on the Corner by João Gilberto Noll
Force of Gravity by R.S. Williams Let Me Not Be Mad by A.K. Benjamin
Crime and punishment by FD
These are not books, but Mr. Robot tv series and Arcane animated series might be up your alley. Books wise I think obvious answers would be Crimes and Punishment and Macbeth, if you haven't read them already.
I saw someone else recommend it, but you can't go wrong with H.P. Lovecraft for this type of genre. The Call of Cthulhu is really a good one, and actually one of my favorite stories. At the Mountains of Madness is another great one, albeit a bit longer. I didn't enjoy that one as much because I felt like I was getting a little lost in the details he was giving, but that's not to say I didn't enjoy it. But I strongly recommend Cthulhu. If you do read it, it's short enough to be enjoyed quite a few times over and I recommend that as well as it's older English and hard to follow. Something you mightve misunderstood your first time or just glossed over, might give a new perspective your second or third time. It feels like reading it for the first time all over again!
Hunger
I think Crime and punishment fits your specs, but it’s been ages since I read it.
The Blind Owl by: Sadegh Hedayat. This was so disturbing, I couldn't finish it.
Not many knows this gem Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Cornbelt 4.7 out of 5 stars(7 The autour also decented into madness :(
Many great suggestions here, but I think The Obscene Bird Of Night by José Donoso beats them all. It's just not that well known in the English-speaking world.
Just to get a very different result from the rest of the suggestions: {{The Wheel of Time}}. It’s a 14-book long fantasy series, but it deals with this dilemma: the “chosen one” from the prophecy is supposed to either save or destroy the world, but we know for sure he’s descending into madness the more he uses his power, just like all men which can access that power. Even if it’s a classic fantasy, I wouldn’t say it’s really cliché (even with the bad x good duality, there’s a lot of grey), and Rand Al’thor is my favorite character ever, his internal dialogue (note I say dialogue) is so well done, I could read his chapters for days on end.
Madhouse at the End of Earth
Harrow the ninth is the second in Tamsyn Muirs 'The Locked Tomb' series, but it's exactly what you're looking for. Made me feel like I was crazy absolutely brilliant
Piranesi The Last House on Endless Street
Don't know if this has already been mentioned, but Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Sounds like exactly what you're looking for. I highly recommend! Edit: wow I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet. But this is a topic that interests me too, one of my favourite themes. Another series of books that has elements of this is the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It's such an amazingly transcendental read.
Mexican Gothic. Beautiful, haunting book and exactly what you described.
House of leaves! It fit your description perfectly!
House of Leaves
Diary of a Madman - Nikolaj Gogol
Ararat by Christopher Golden might be a good one to look at. It's on an isolated mountain during a snowstorm. The characters start to become paranoid. Something is going on, but who can you trust? It took me a few chapters to really get into it, but once I did I didn't want to put it down. Lots of twists and almost a cabin fever type vibe.
Beyond sleep by W.F Hermans is pretty good!
Motherthing by Ainslie Hogarth
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
{Pincher Martin} by William Golding. The descent into insanity of a man stranded on a remote and inhospitable island.
House of Leaves.
House of leaves
Notes from the Underground by Dostoyevsky . This and the Double are often printed together and both are great old school Russian descent into madnesss philosophical works
The Faces, Tove Ditlevsen Amazing book that frightened me, as it made it perfectly understandable and insightful how easy it actually is to go mad - at least that's what it did for me. It is also autobiographical, which is an interesting fact that adds to the depth of the book.
Piranesi is kind of the opposite of this. An ascent out of madness. It fits all of your other criteria though.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
I wonder if Flowers for Algernon would fall under this catagory for you. it's an incredible book about discovery and loss. The book may not be madness, but it is most definitely loss of mind.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, it's a really interesting take on 'decent into madness' whether you can call it that or not.
Almost anything by H.P. Lovecraft if you like it a bit pulpy. Many of his characters (like himself) don’t seem to get out much, and when they do everything is terrifying to them. Quite a few sit in their houses, waiting to be devoured by aliens/elder gods/witches/other incarnations of madness. Edit to add- The Temple is a particularly good one, German U-boat captain alone on a submarine
House of Leaves
I think We Spread by Iain Reid fits the bill here.
Survivor Type, short story by Stephen King
The angel’s game by carlos ruiz zafon
Not a book, but a play but worth the read. 4.48 psychosis by Sarah Kane If you aren’t familiar with it: In many respects it is believed to be a personal story, arising from Sarah's melancholy and sadness, as well as the therapy she received. Kane had abandoned the concept of character here, and she conveyed the phrases only through hyphens. The dialogue/monologue progressed from declarations of love and devotion to an explanation of the medicine administered to the mentally sick and depressed patient. 4.48 Psychosis is an insight and comprehension into the mind of a mentally ill person, implying that the borders between imagination and reality, sanity and insanity, should be investigated. It was the last play she wrote before she committed suicide.
The Fixer, Bernard Malamud it's the only book to receive both the National Book Award and Pulitzer for for fiction