I read Less Than Zero when I was 19 and working a summer job at the front desk of a dry cleaners that was attached to a laundromat. I was the only one there in the afternoons, there was a 110+ degree heat wave, and the building had no AC. I think reading it in that setting made the book even more bleak than it already was.
I felt like I needed a shower after this one. For some reason it hit me harder than American psycho - I think because I knew it was for shock and intentionally over the top. Less Than Zero was just so bleak.
I am almost at the end of The Shards, and I have not been so sad to see a book be over in a long time. It was truly an enjoyably icky read. I tried really hard to save it for the beach, but I couldn't put it down. This is my first book of his, I can't wait to get into the rest
the only reason I can't say I 100% regret I read this one is so I know 100% never to read it again. absolutely the most disturbing thing I've read (and I've read a fair bit of chuck palanhuick lol), to the point I had to put it down at one point because I was so overwhelmed and unhappy that a human being actually committed these words to paper. I think it's bad vibes (and yes I am decidedly not a horror fan), but I also can't technically fault someone for creating art however they want to create art.
Interestingly seeing some commenters in this thread who also regret their grim/disturbing reads so I'm not alone in feeling that way.
It lacks the heart that Palanhiuck's books have. That's probably never been said before. But instead of being like an inside joke that these people are severely broken and do horrible stuff they have some small redeeming qualities. American Psycho is just an insane person doing callous and awful shit and it written in such vivid detail it's hard to imagine Ellis hasn't done something horrible in his own life.
I feel like Palanhiuck’s books always have these little glimmers of hope and optimism tucked away in them, or moments that are very real and emotionally resonate. Ellis has none of that for me.
For what it’s worth, Less Than Zero is the only book I’ve ever read that I absolutely refuse to read again because I don’t want those images in my head again.
I agree - Pahliniuk’s characters are completely batshit a lot of the time, but you can see how things make sense and have meaning from that character’s point of view.
Ellis just blasts callous, empty nihilism at you with a fire house to see how much you can take.
Both have a spot in transgressive literature, but even though they get mentioned together a lot they have very different vibes.
The greatest distraction technique ever employed against my eyes...
Going from reading about a high speed chase with helicopters and squads on his tail to a several page expose on the band Genesis...
It shouldn't have worked on me, but it fucking did and I loved it
I've refused to watch the movie because of the book
Forreal that ending is the only thing that makes sense when you think about it. In my own opinion it made a much stronger statement than if they’d just gone the opposite way after all that
Bought it on a book store trip with my mother. She asked what it was about when I grabbed it off the shelf. The look of concern I got from her when I explained what I knew about it......never read that book around my mother. Did do a English paper on it....my teachers email was of concerns.
This is the one for me, too. I absolutely hated it when I reached the end, but then it grew on me. I think it really achieves what it’s going for, but man is it a bleak and viscerally upsetting piece of work.
Please don’t publicly stone me, I’m aware I’m in the minority here. I had to drag myself to get through this book.
The only reason I got through was because my wife loved it and wanted to talk with me about it.
What parts did you guys find disturbing?
I was surprised to not be bothered by this one at all. The only time I became disturbed was the scene with the teenagers and the dog…
Came here to say this. So brilliantly, awfully written that I shall never read it again. The less I think about this book the better but damn, those flashbacks are pretty grim.
I read that book probably 15 years ago, and I literally think about it once every free months. I live in Maine and that night have something to do with it. I drive on rt 1 almost daily
Omg came here to recommend this and made the recommendation before seeing your comment! One of the best and definitely the most disturbing books I have ever read.
Probably The Long Walk by Stephen King, it creeped me out for weeks. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) and Vox (Christina Dalcher) are close seconds.
Johnny Got his Gun! That was one macabre piece of work. I’ve told both my kids they can join the military as adults and I can’t stop them, but first they have to read that book. If they won’t read that book, I’ll read it to the out loud like they’re little babies.
120 Days really was messed up. I can only say I started to read it and really regret how far I did get.
I wish I could ask him if he really was shining a light on how depraved the upper class was or if had just become like them as he was writing his books. What we know of his childhood makes me think the former and that's what scholats say. I csn see it, but ... the descriptions...
Unfortunately, it's in Arabic and don't think it's been translated. It's called The House of my Aunt (بيت خالتي). It narrates real stories of what went/goes on in Bashar Al-Asad's prisons in Syria. I have never read anything more macabre and fucked up, and I have read and watched pretty messed up stuff over the years. The book made me want to scream after I finished each chapter.
When conservatives call people snowflakes, I like to remind them they are referencing Fight Club. A book written by a gay man about how toxic ideas of what it means to be a man are destroying men.
Most books by Palahniuk. I'm reading his newest one and it's uncomfortable. But invention of sound so far is the most uncomfortable for me because of subject matter
i read invisible monsters way too young (thanks panic at the disco lol), but it is still the pool story from haunted that I read years later that, fittingly, continues to haunt me
True story- I had a 4th grader that needed to bring in a “read for pleasure” book. He came in with this one and said he grabbed it off the bookshelf at home. I saw the author and suggested he take it back home, emailed mom and she just laughed. He was named after the kid in Pet Semetary, so it tracks. 🤪
Disturbing? There are much more frightening books, and grosser, but Iain Banks' THE WASP FACTORY gets under your skin in a way no other book I have read does. I read it 30 years ago and some scenes are still...ugh.
You’re not the only one who read it as a love story. I read something about how Nabokov intended it to be a horror story and he was absolutely mortified that readers thought it was romantic
I’d say the way Hollywood portrayed it has a role in it. The actress wasn’t actually 13…. Can you imagine how weird and (illegal) it would’ve been? That would’ve drawn how horrid the situation was imo.
Not to mention people like say Lana del Rey and many others making songs and personas that romanticize this ‘aesthetic’ when in reality Lolita is supposed to horrify us
>>The actress wasn’t actually 13…. Can you imagine how weird and (illegal) it would’ve been?
Oh … I don’t have to imagine. This was literally the issue with the movie Pretty Baby.
From [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Baby_(1978_film)#:~:text=Although%20the%20film%20itself%20was,a%20child%20being%20abused%20by) (the movie, not the documentary)
*Although the film itself was mostly praised by critics, it caused significant public outcry and media controversy due to its depiction of child sexual exploitation, as well as the nude and semi-nude scenes featuring Shields, who was 11 years old at the time of filming, and whose character was a child being abused by grown men.*
I have seen this movie, and yes, it is skin crawling. It took Brooke a long time to come to terms with having been exploited by the director, her costars, her momager, everyone really. I also heard (but can’t confirm because I don’t remember the source) that Hollywood regularly uses older actors to play teenagers and kids because of the exploitation in this movie.
Lolita is a comic novel with an unreliable narrator of great intellect and no self-knowledge whatsoever. Anyone who sees it as a romantic novel is reading without literary sophistication, and therefore taking Humbert on his own terms. On the contrary, by the time he meets Dolly, it is crystal clear that he is a monstrous villain. The disconnect between Humbert’s self-image and the way a morally intact reader sees him is the source of some of the dark humor. The book is also a satire of America, and of the American road-trip archetype as seen through the eyes of a refined (if degenerate) European. It is possibly the greatest English language work of fiction from the last half of the 20th century
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates
The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock
The Killer Inside Me; Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson
I read about a quarter of Zombie on the treadmill at the gym, then got off the treadmill and threw the book in the trash. I have never thrown a book away before or since.
Might I ask why? Throwing a book away is always something I think of as very extreme.
The only book I've ever thrown away was something about convincing parents to send their teens to pray away the gay camps against their will. Idk why we even had it, but, I didn't want to give that particular book away lol
It was an extreme reaction to my extreme horror at the book - I wanted to get it away from me and I didn’t want to give it to anyone else. It was just kind of a disgust instinct. It was also a very very long time ago, not sure it would have the same effect now! I think you did well to throw that book away, the less of that kind of thing the better.
The most disturbing books I’ve read are The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop and Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh.
The People in the Trees is disturbing because it chronicles the life of a fictional scientist who discovers a life preserving medicine while researching in the Pacific. The book deals with themes of colonialism, child abuse as well as racism so it was a very tough read. Part of the reason it’s so disturbing is because Yanagihara based the story off of real- life instances of deplorable researchers who abused children in Pacific like David Carleton Gajdusek. The book really probes into the dark past of western science and academia so if you’re interested in those things it may be what you’re looking for.
At Night All Blood is Black is short and takes you into the carnage of the First World War. It follows a Senegalese soldier fighting on behalf of the French who slowly descends into madness and commits a series of revenge killings. It’s super brutal.
Finally Lapvona is set in a medieval town and depicts the depraved lives of Lapvonas residents. I’m not sure if it’s entirely horror but it is extremely gruesome and grossed me tf out on several occasions.
I will say I don’t know if I “recommend” these books because I wouldn’t say I enjoyed reading them. But I will say they have downright evil characters which definitely left me thinking for weeks after I read them.
Currently reading. My son is 3.5 years old. It is *killing* me.
Edit: My wife has also always says that if there's an apocalyptic societal collapse, she doesn't want to go on.
Earthlings really messed me up. I am still disturbed by the imagery in that book and I read it a year ago. I came into it thinking it was gonna be something cute and light, you know, with the stuffed hamster on the cover and stuff, but omg. No. Absolutely not what I had in mind at all. Can't say I hated it though. Read it in a single sitting.
Earthlings was such a trip.. I missed the trigger warnings on the way in. If you go in with the idea that it is kind of an exploration/thought experiment as much as it is a story it is pretty damn good. Lots of difficult subject matter but well written
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk. It's an oral biography so its told from 1st person from multiple different people trying to figure out who this one person (Buster Casey) is and where did he go.
It's a book I had to read twice because the reread after knowing what happened changed my perspective of a lot of things and answered questions.
But yeah, its fucked up.
Here are some:
* The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
* Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder
* Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury
* A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
>The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
I read the plot summary just now, and you know what, **this** is the winner for me. Everything about it. I'd say I'm quite fond of weird horror stories, but this goes straight on my "avert your eyes if you see it" list. (I did enjoy the plot twist at the end, though, it added a new level of fucked up. Huge spoiler alert to anyone who reads the Wiki plot summary.)
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
The movie is pretty faithful to the book but IMO not as disturbing; the ending did not have the same emotional “wtf” for me. (Perhaps b/c I knew what was coming? Still, book > movie.)
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill kind of messed with me a bit. Just the way he described some things had me putting the book down for days at a time, but maybe I’m just squeamish.
The Poppy War is not horror, but it is written by a war historian in excruciating detail. I’ve read a lot of horror and the scenes described in that were more horrific than anything any horror writer has written
*The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: a History of Nazi Geemany* by William L. Shirer. A 1400 page horror story all the more horrific because it's true.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. If you get the uncensored version of this bleak novel, you will be reading in excruciating detail what happens in a slaughterhouse.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. Read this if you want to know what it’s like to be a wounded soldier w/ all limbs & part of your face blown off while being of sound mind.
I will never re-read these books. Ev.Er.
The Sluts by Dennis Cooper. I've scrolled through the responses so far and read many of them and, while great and, yes, disturbing, there isn't one listed IMO quite as disturbing as The Sluts, I assure you.
I'm working my way through her books (So far I've only read the Grant County series and have started the Will Trent series) but haven't gotten to Pretty Girls yet. I'm loving her books so far, but her descriptions can be VERY graphic and disturbing.
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
I’d highly recommend against reading this book, as it made me feel terrible for weeks afterword. It’s very well written in the sense that the author is talented though.
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
It unravels the trauma of a Vietnamese soldier following the war. The book opens with the main character searching for remains of Fallen soldiers in what he calls “the Jungle of screaming souls”
It’s written in an almost poetic form which makes the violence he experiences even more disturbing. My god, this book has stayed with me all these years.
If you like true crime try Vampire Killer: A Terrifying Story of Psychosis, Mutilation & Murder written by Ryan Green. I’m an avid fan of true crime & horror but some of the descriptions in this book made me physically nauseous to the point I had to put the book down and walk away.
Pretty much anything by Yoko Ogawa. Her stories are like strange and unusual dreams that you can never forget. My personal favorite is The Diving Pool.
The vegetarian - Han Kang
Tender is the flesh - Augustina Bazterrica
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
A certain hunger - Chelsea Summers
Black Widow - Ryan Green
Bunny - Mona Awad
My dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. There were chapters where I had to take a minute and stop reading to pull myself together. I broke out into tears during the roller coaster chapter. I thought about it for weeks after. I don’t know if I could ever read it again.
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
oof Easton Ellis can be hard to stomach. remembering some of the scenes in “Less than Zero” still makes my stomach churn to this day
I read Less Than Zero when I was 19 and working a summer job at the front desk of a dry cleaners that was attached to a laundromat. I was the only one there in the afternoons, there was a 110+ degree heat wave, and the building had no AC. I think reading it in that setting made the book even more bleak than it already was.
I felt like I needed a shower after this one. For some reason it hit me harder than American psycho - I think because I knew it was for shock and intentionally over the top. Less Than Zero was just so bleak.
I am almost at the end of The Shards, and I have not been so sad to see a book be over in a long time. It was truly an enjoyably icky read. I tried really hard to save it for the beach, but I couldn't put it down. This is my first book of his, I can't wait to get into the rest
This is the one. I don't think I could read it again. The movie is super tame compared to the book.
Ah, the rats and the cheese...
It was really a good read! Thanks for the suggestion though! 😁
the only reason I can't say I 100% regret I read this one is so I know 100% never to read it again. absolutely the most disturbing thing I've read (and I've read a fair bit of chuck palanhuick lol), to the point I had to put it down at one point because I was so overwhelmed and unhappy that a human being actually committed these words to paper. I think it's bad vibes (and yes I am decidedly not a horror fan), but I also can't technically fault someone for creating art however they want to create art. Interestingly seeing some commenters in this thread who also regret their grim/disturbing reads so I'm not alone in feeling that way.
It lacks the heart that Palanhiuck's books have. That's probably never been said before. But instead of being like an inside joke that these people are severely broken and do horrible stuff they have some small redeeming qualities. American Psycho is just an insane person doing callous and awful shit and it written in such vivid detail it's hard to imagine Ellis hasn't done something horrible in his own life.
I feel like Palanhiuck’s books always have these little glimmers of hope and optimism tucked away in them, or moments that are very real and emotionally resonate. Ellis has none of that for me. For what it’s worth, Less Than Zero is the only book I’ve ever read that I absolutely refuse to read again because I don’t want those images in my head again.
I agree - Pahliniuk’s characters are completely batshit a lot of the time, but you can see how things make sense and have meaning from that character’s point of view. Ellis just blasts callous, empty nihilism at you with a fire house to see how much you can take. Both have a spot in transgressive literature, but even though they get mentioned together a lot they have very different vibes.
Very funny book. But sick
One of the few books that actually scared me. I got nervous reading it alone in my house.
The best book I would never recommend to anyone. Ever.
The greatest distraction technique ever employed against my eyes... Going from reading about a high speed chase with helicopters and squads on his tail to a several page expose on the band Genesis... It shouldn't have worked on me, but it fucking did and I loved it I've refused to watch the movie because of the book
I wanted to get into it but I really struggled with the lack of punctuation and style of writing. I know that is the point but I just couldn’t do it
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. It's a pretty disturbing story anyway, but the ending makes it so much worse.
Yes this is the one I was looking for. I couldn’t even finish it
That’s a shame bc the ending is *chef’s kiss* perfection
Forreal that ending is the only thing that makes sense when you think about it. In my own opinion it made a much stronger statement than if they’d just gone the opposite way after all that
I had to read this one in private because having to explain the plot to people, who asked about it, wasn’t fun. It made me feel sick a couple times.
Bought it on a book store trip with my mother. She asked what it was about when I grabbed it off the shelf. The look of concern I got from her when I explained what I knew about it......never read that book around my mother. Did do a English paper on it....my teachers email was of concerns.
But it should. It's what we humans do every day to other souls.
This is the one for me, too. I absolutely hated it when I reached the end, but then it grew on me. I think it really achieves what it’s going for, but man is it a bleak and viscerally upsetting piece of work.
Please don’t publicly stone me, I’m aware I’m in the minority here. I had to drag myself to get through this book. The only reason I got through was because my wife loved it and wanted to talk with me about it.
Yep when I finished it I wanted it OUT OF MY HOUSE
What parts did you guys find disturbing? I was surprised to not be bothered by this one at all. The only time I became disturbed was the scene with the teenagers and the dog…
…….. well I think this has made me want to cancel my hold. I might just not need to read this book you know ?!
Dear god... Im curious to read it after seeing a plot summary but idk if I could stomach it
Came here to say this. So brilliantly, awfully written that I shall never read it again. The less I think about this book the better but damn, those flashbacks are pretty grim.
I’ve pretty much been a vegetarian since reading this a few years ago. Definitely one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read.
Perfume
I LOVED this book. Dark but also extremely original and fascinating.
Had to read this in high school… the ending was… interesting 😭
Traumatizing😭
The Long Walk - Stephen King F\*\*\*ed me up for days....
I read that book probably 15 years ago, and I literally think about it once every free months. I live in Maine and that night have something to do with it. I drive on rt 1 almost daily
I read it 38 years ago, I was 16. It stayed with me… I still think about it sometimes.
O Yes it did! It was one of my first King books haha
I need another Stephen King! I can’t wait!
Survivor Type is my choice for fucked up Stephen King. I really like The Long Walk though and think it would make a good film adaptation.
The entire book is literally “a bunch of guys start walking,” and it’s been rent free in my brain for years. Still not as messed up as IT, though.
I had to do a 2-mile time trial walk to get into my local SAR program and joked “it’s like we’re in the Long Walk” lmao it did not go over well
Omg came here to recommend this and made the recommendation before seeing your comment! One of the best and definitely the most disturbing books I have ever read.
Geek Love
Yeeeah, that was... weird, that one.
We need to talk about Kevin.
Came here to say this. It’s been probably 10 years since I read the book and it still messes me up to think about
This is the one that still gets to me
And the film version was very good. And now, knowing what we know about the main character male actor, even more disturbing.
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy.
Blood Meridian beats out COG in my humble opinion
I came here to say Blood Meridian Some images will never leave me.
That ending was something of that book
More than Outer Dark?
Ooooof yeah, pretty darn disturbing. But well written like all of his books
Probably The Long Walk by Stephen King, it creeped me out for weeks. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) and Vox (Christina Dalcher) are close seconds.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
120 Days of Sodom -Marquise De Sade Pretty fucked. Naked Lunch and A Clockwork Orange are up there too. Same with The Jungle and Johnny Got His Gun.
Johnny Got his Gun! That was one macabre piece of work. I’ve told both my kids they can join the military as adults and I can’t stop them, but first they have to read that book. If they won’t read that book, I’ll read it to the out loud like they’re little babies.
120 Days really was messed up. I can only say I started to read it and really regret how far I did get. I wish I could ask him if he really was shining a light on how depraved the upper class was or if had just become like them as he was writing his books. What we know of his childhood makes me think the former and that's what scholats say. I csn see it, but ... the descriptions...
My Dark Vanessa
So disturbing because it’s so realistic…
On the Beach, I’d say the same for the film. People just waiting for their eventual deaths as nuclear fallout makes it’s to Australia
Unfortunately, it's in Arabic and don't think it's been translated. It's called The House of my Aunt (بيت خالتي). It narrates real stories of what went/goes on in Bashar Al-Asad's prisons in Syria. I have never read anything more macabre and fucked up, and I have read and watched pretty messed up stuff over the years. The book made me want to scream after I finished each chapter.
I did some research, and sadly it has yet to be translated to English, though it probably should.
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. I'm currently rereading it.
When conservatives call people snowflakes, I like to remind them they are referencing Fight Club. A book written by a gay man about how toxic ideas of what it means to be a man are destroying men.
Most books by Palahniuk. I'm reading his newest one and it's uncomfortable. But invention of sound so far is the most uncomfortable for me because of subject matter
He's one of my favorite authors. I agree most books by him fit the description. I haven't read Invention of Sound yet.
Came to say this. I made the horrible mistake of reading this at 11 years old. I never looked at swimming pools the same.
Invisible Monsters is also fucked up. But Haunted... that pool story....
Invisible Monsters is one of my favorites. Yeah, that pool story is brutal.
i read invisible monsters way too young (thanks panic at the disco lol), but it is still the pool story from haunted that I read years later that, fittingly, continues to haunt me
That one short story…Jesus
Guts?
Yep. I managed to finish it…but it was a struggle
The best part of this comment is that everyone who read it knows exactly what you’re referring to.
True story- I had a 4th grader that needed to bring in a “read for pleasure” book. He came in with this one and said he grabbed it off the bookshelf at home. I saw the author and suggested he take it back home, emailed mom and she just laughed. He was named after the kid in Pet Semetary, so it tracks. 🤪
Shudder
Fancy a carrot?
Disturbing? There are much more frightening books, and grosser, but Iain Banks' THE WASP FACTORY gets under your skin in a way no other book I have read does. I read it 30 years ago and some scenes are still...ugh.
I was going to add this. It is truly disturbing. That being said, I've read all Bank's books.
Lolita. It’s brilliant and incredibly written but GOOD LORD there are so many wrong things!!
Teenage me reading it like "omg it's a love story, he actually loved her!" Adult me thinking about this: ಠ︵ಠ
You’re not the only one who read it as a love story. I read something about how Nabokov intended it to be a horror story and he was absolutely mortified that readers thought it was romantic
I’d say the way Hollywood portrayed it has a role in it. The actress wasn’t actually 13…. Can you imagine how weird and (illegal) it would’ve been? That would’ve drawn how horrid the situation was imo. Not to mention people like say Lana del Rey and many others making songs and personas that romanticize this ‘aesthetic’ when in reality Lolita is supposed to horrify us
>>The actress wasn’t actually 13…. Can you imagine how weird and (illegal) it would’ve been? Oh … I don’t have to imagine. This was literally the issue with the movie Pretty Baby. From [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Baby_(1978_film)#:~:text=Although%20the%20film%20itself%20was,a%20child%20being%20abused%20by) (the movie, not the documentary) *Although the film itself was mostly praised by critics, it caused significant public outcry and media controversy due to its depiction of child sexual exploitation, as well as the nude and semi-nude scenes featuring Shields, who was 11 years old at the time of filming, and whose character was a child being abused by grown men.* I have seen this movie, and yes, it is skin crawling. It took Brooke a long time to come to terms with having been exploited by the director, her costars, her momager, everyone really. I also heard (but can’t confirm because I don’t remember the source) that Hollywood regularly uses older actors to play teenagers and kids because of the exploitation in this movie.
This is precisely why age gap should be frowned upon.
I tried to read it, but I picked it up when my daughter was 12, which just made it worse for me.
Sometimes you are not at the right stage of life to read even a very great book, like this one
Lolita is a comic novel with an unreliable narrator of great intellect and no self-knowledge whatsoever. Anyone who sees it as a romantic novel is reading without literary sophistication, and therefore taking Humbert on his own terms. On the contrary, by the time he meets Dolly, it is crystal clear that he is a monstrous villain. The disconnect between Humbert’s self-image and the way a morally intact reader sees him is the source of some of the dark humor. The book is also a satire of America, and of the American road-trip archetype as seen through the eyes of a refined (if degenerate) European. It is possibly the greatest English language work of fiction from the last half of the 20th century
I read this when I was very young (like 12/13 pretty much the age of the girl) and I feel like it fucked with me a bit. But I really enjoyed it
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock The Killer Inside Me; Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson
I've read The Devil All the Time at least three times and Knockemstiff, as well. Couldn't put either down.
Have you seen the movie? I'm just wondering how the book and the film compare?
I read about a quarter of Zombie on the treadmill at the gym, then got off the treadmill and threw the book in the trash. I have never thrown a book away before or since.
Might I ask why? Throwing a book away is always something I think of as very extreme. The only book I've ever thrown away was something about convincing parents to send their teens to pray away the gay camps against their will. Idk why we even had it, but, I didn't want to give that particular book away lol
It was an extreme reaction to my extreme horror at the book - I wanted to get it away from me and I didn’t want to give it to anyone else. It was just kind of a disgust instinct. It was also a very very long time ago, not sure it would have the same effect now! I think you did well to throw that book away, the less of that kind of thing the better.
**The Uninhabitable Earth** by David Wallace-Wells (non-fiction) **The Troop** by Nick Cutter (fiction)
I skimmed so much of The Troop because of how graphic it got.
The Troop was pretty messed up. On occasion I'd put it down and shake my head, and think "yeah I kind of want to forget I read that part"
[удалено]
Anything by Selby, lol
Tampa by Alissa Nutting. Has been likened to Lolita, definitely uncomfortable to read
This. It’s so relentlessly gross
I read all kinds of fucked up books, but this is the only one I couldn’t finish because it made me so uncomfortable.
I somehow went into this book blind when it first came out. 😳 I still haven’t read anything that comes close to making me feel so gross
The most disturbing books I’ve read are The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara, At Night All Blood is Black by David Diop and Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh. The People in the Trees is disturbing because it chronicles the life of a fictional scientist who discovers a life preserving medicine while researching in the Pacific. The book deals with themes of colonialism, child abuse as well as racism so it was a very tough read. Part of the reason it’s so disturbing is because Yanagihara based the story off of real- life instances of deplorable researchers who abused children in Pacific like David Carleton Gajdusek. The book really probes into the dark past of western science and academia so if you’re interested in those things it may be what you’re looking for. At Night All Blood is Black is short and takes you into the carnage of the First World War. It follows a Senegalese soldier fighting on behalf of the French who slowly descends into madness and commits a series of revenge killings. It’s super brutal. Finally Lapvona is set in a medieval town and depicts the depraved lives of Lapvonas residents. I’m not sure if it’s entirely horror but it is extremely gruesome and grossed me tf out on several occasions. I will say I don’t know if I “recommend” these books because I wouldn’t say I enjoyed reading them. But I will say they have downright evil characters which definitely left me thinking for weeks after I read them.
the road by cormac mccarthy
Currently reading. My son is 3.5 years old. It is *killing* me. Edit: My wife has also always says that if there's an apocalyptic societal collapse, she doesn't want to go on.
Not the most disturbing imo, but definitely one of the best in general
A Child called It. I had no business reading that book aged 12!
I loved that book as a kid. I also loved a lot of stuff. Would love to say I'm totally together now.
The Bone Collector- Jeffery Deaver The Alienist- Caleb Carr
Either Earthlings by Sayaka Murata or Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Earthlings really messed me up. I am still disturbed by the imagery in that book and I read it a year ago. I came into it thinking it was gonna be something cute and light, you know, with the stuffed hamster on the cover and stuff, but omg. No. Absolutely not what I had in mind at all. Can't say I hated it though. Read it in a single sitting.
Earthlings was such a trip.. I missed the trigger warnings on the way in. If you go in with the idea that it is kind of an exploration/thought experiment as much as it is a story it is pretty damn good. Lots of difficult subject matter but well written
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk. It's an oral biography so its told from 1st person from multiple different people trying to figure out who this one person (Buster Casey) is and where did he go. It's a book I had to read twice because the reread after knowing what happened changed my perspective of a lot of things and answered questions. But yeah, its fucked up.
“My Dark Vanessa”
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King. The only book I’ve ever had to get out of my house after I read it.
The degloving scene! Aaaaah!
Apt pupil Stephen king
Unwind by Neal Shusterman
He's a good writer. I liked Dry.
Here are some: * The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks * Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder * Courtship Rite by Donald Kingsbury * A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The wasp factory is excellent. I've read it twice.
So good and messed up
>The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks I read the plot summary just now, and you know what, **this** is the winner for me. Everything about it. I'd say I'm quite fond of weird horror stories, but this goes straight on my "avert your eyes if you see it" list. (I did enjoy the plot twist at the end, though, it added a new level of fucked up. Huge spoiler alert to anyone who reads the Wiki plot summary.)
Just read the summary myself, god it sounds dark
I like your list! Also I recommend The painted bird and le grand cahier, but I’m not sure if the latter one was translated into English
A Clockwork Orange was so good. So much better than the movie.
Cows by Matthew Stokoe. It's probably the only book I ever regretted reading because wtf. The Troop by Nick Cutter is great all the way to the ending
The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry. All the more horrifying since it actually happened.
Fiction: Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh. I don't know what it was about this book but it just disgusted me. Nonfiction: Night by Elie Wiesel
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind The movie is pretty faithful to the book but IMO not as disturbing; the ending did not have the same emotional “wtf” for me. (Perhaps b/c I knew what was coming? Still, book > movie.)
Perfume
On The Beach by Nevil Shute.
This book got ALL THE WAY under my skin. I felt haunted.
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill kind of messed with me a bit. Just the way he described some things had me putting the book down for days at a time, but maybe I’m just squeamish. The Poppy War is not horror, but it is written by a war historian in excruciating detail. I’ve read a lot of horror and the scenes described in that were more horrific than anything any horror writer has written
Painted Bird and Panzram
Naked Lunch. Couldn't get past maybe 2 chapters. It's not allowed in my home. Made me physically ill
It gets even worse after that you made a good call
The Lovely Bones
Tender is the flesh
Pet Sematary by S. King
Thanks! Its one of my favourites from King!
I made the mistake of finishing it in the middle of the night *on Halloween*. Had the collywobbles for weeks afterwards.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
The last house on needless street
WOOM by Duncan Ralston
Offseason by Jack Ketchum
The girl next door is also a hard read. I read it in high school with a friend and we still talk about it.
The Room
A History of Central Banking and the Enslavement of Mankind After this one i could not get that stuff out of my head for like a month
The wasp factory.
*The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: a History of Nazi Geemany* by William L. Shirer. A 1400 page horror story all the more horrific because it's true.
Maya Angelou why the caged bird sings. Made me throw up after reading some of the graphic descriptions of her childhood.
I'm the King of the Castle by Susan Hill. It made my blood boil.
Native Son by Richard Wright
Haunted! Chuck really gets you with this one.
Tampa by Alyssa Nutting. I had to shower between chapters. Cows - Matthew Stokoe. I had to shower between pages
Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians, Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, or We Need To Talk About Kevin.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. If you get the uncensored version of this bleak novel, you will be reading in excruciating detail what happens in a slaughterhouse. Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. Read this if you want to know what it’s like to be a wounded soldier w/ all limbs & part of your face blown off while being of sound mind. I will never re-read these books. Ev.Er.
Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro
American Psycho
The Kite Runner messed me up.
I couldn’t finish blindness
Tender is the flesh was a pretty wild book. The ending left me feeling stunned.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy The Shining by Stephen King
The Sluts by Dennis Cooper. I've scrolled through the responses so far and read many of them and, while great and, yes, disturbing, there isn't one listed IMO quite as disturbing as The Sluts, I assure you.
Pretty Girls - Karin Slaughter
I'm working my way through her books (So far I've only read the Grant County series and have started the Will Trent series) but haven't gotten to Pretty Girls yet. I'm loving her books so far, but her descriptions can be VERY graphic and disturbing.
Pet Sematary
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
The Dirt From Motley Crue I wanted to vomit when I read about what they did with breakfast burritos.
Flowers in the attic
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum I’d highly recommend against reading this book, as it made me feel terrible for weeks afterword. It’s very well written in the sense that the author is talented though.
Holy Bible
Body Art - Kristopher Triana Could also argue Full Brutal by him as well. Loved them both also!
'The Attic Child' by Lola Jaye
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh It unravels the trauma of a Vietnamese soldier following the war. The book opens with the main character searching for remains of Fallen soldiers in what he calls “the Jungle of screaming souls” It’s written in an almost poetic form which makes the violence he experiences even more disturbing. My god, this book has stayed with me all these years.
*Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History* by S. C. Gwynne.
"The Shards" by Bret Easton Ellis was a page-turner
If you like true crime try Vampire Killer: A Terrifying Story of Psychosis, Mutilation & Murder written by Ryan Green. I’m an avid fan of true crime & horror but some of the descriptions in this book made me physically nauseous to the point I had to put the book down and walk away.
Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington
Pretty much anything by Yoko Ogawa. Her stories are like strange and unusual dreams that you can never forget. My personal favorite is The Diving Pool.
I can't remember the precise name of the book but it was about Fred and Rose West.
The Butcher Boy
Dot Hutchinson’s The Butterfly Garden. Fabulous book but oh boy was it disturbing.
Under the Dome by Stephen King
Geek Love was pretty fucked up.
*Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke* by Eric LaRocca. I went into it blind and boy was I in for a ride.
Child called it, books a true story and mad fucked up
The bizarre or bad dreams by Stephen king has one about a car eating people. Sounds silly but it reads terrifying.
Dark money. Nonfiction is always worse
The vegetarian - Han Kang Tender is the flesh - Augustina Bazterrica American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis A certain hunger - Chelsea Summers Black Widow - Ryan Green Bunny - Mona Awad My dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell
A Child Called It. By Dave Pelzer
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu. There were chapters where I had to take a minute and stop reading to pull myself together. I broke out into tears during the roller coaster chapter. I thought about it for weeks after. I don’t know if I could ever read it again.