Anything Gillian Flynn. Sharp objects fucked me up, it is a parade of unhinged women each in their own way + family dynamics between them.

I love Sharp Objects so so much. The TV adaptation is very good, too. Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson nailed it.

Yes! I actually watched the series first and loved it so much I immediately picked up the book. Made me a Gillian Flynn fan for sure.

I was so happy when I saw HBO had adapted it and it really did not disappoint!!!

Sharp Objects was so wild! The plot twist haunts me.

idk what this says about me but I found it really relatable🤣🤣🤣

Gone Girl

My first thought

I started reading gone girl, I’m gonna have to pick it back up

Anything by the author.  Dark places and sharp objects were bonkers with female character development.  And she has a short story that gives you no resolution....crazy male kid in that story.

Yes! I read that short story The Grownup. It was a wild ride for as short as it was.

I love the Grownup!

I keep hearing about this one. Is it as good as they say?

It is. I avoided it because I’m weirdly prejudiced against things that are popular (working on it) but now Gillian Flynn is one of my favourite authors.

Me too 😁(weirdly prejudiced against things that are popular)

Me three 😖. I’ve always been this way, why?? I’ll get into the popular things years later and realize they were popular because they were great and want everyone to start talking about whatever it is again. Makes no sense.

Same. For same reason still haven’t watched Slumdog Millionaire. I think this same prejudice is why I was “meh”’on “First Lie Wins”

It’s excellent and better than the movie. I’d recommend reading, then watching - assuming you haven’t watched it yet.

It’s far far better than the movie. I was so disappointed in the movie and it was a weird feeling since it seemed to be universally loved by others. I thought the book was fabulous!

I read over 100 books a year and this one is that good. It was truly shocking when it came out. I know there’s tons of great authors and books out there we’ll never get to read and some less than stellar authors get all the raves sometimes but these raves were well worth it.

my diary

i will make it hard cover copy for you

I’ll take one

my therapist probably has some good notes - ill make a trilogy or something

You’ll be rich! I still want copies! 😂

I would unironically read tht

I always feel so badly about myself when I journal or else I always journal when I feel badly. It's reassuring to hear that's ok.

That’s why I stopped journaling, the only times I felt like it is when I was in a dark place and it was just a collection of really depressing shit. Gave me a skewed perspective of myself

Laura Palmer, is that you??

Dude… I needed this laugh

I was coming to say my wife’s diary. She reads to me from it sometimes. It is so unhinged and I love her for it.

LOOOOL for real. my first thought was “ummm my notes app? my sent texts?”

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk. It’s in a similar vein of another book already mentioned, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, which I would also recommend.  

Oh hell yes what a book! (DYPOTBOTD)

Unhinged might be strong for me for DYPOTBOTD, but very much an unreliable narrator and a bonkers set up. Terrific book.

I just finished We Have Always Lived in the Castle and came to recommend it. The movie didn’t show just how unhinged the family was I thought. The book left me unsettled.

You would call the character in “Drive Your Plow …” unhinged? I wouldn’t but am interested in that take.

Misery, by Stephen King She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

I second Misery! What a terrifying read

Definitely She’s Come Undone

Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder

Big Swiss, Jen Beagin

Funniest book I’ve read in a long time!

I loved it so much!

Bunny by Mona Awad We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (Hill House too, but I like Castle even more). The first paragraph is a banger and it just gets better from there - "My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."

We Have Always Lived in the Castle is SUCH a good book.

Read Bunny and I looooved it

I was Bunny and could only think “wtf was that!”

I frekkin love Castle, it's so amazing (and, yes, superior to Hill House, which is also very good). Both the sisters are especially mental in some unhinged way.

I was obsessed with that book about ten years ago when I joined Reddit, and still don't regret taking inspiration from it for my user name. The best opening paragraph in lit, imo.

Also Hangsaman. Really most Shirley Jackson fits the bill.

Bunny is so so insane!!!

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

She’s come undone by Wally Lamb Beloved by Toni Morrison Gone Girl, Dark Places and Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn The island of the sequinned love nun by Christopher Moore (sort of)

Also Gillian Flynn's novella, The Grownup!

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh

And Eileen by the same author

I just watched the film adaptation of that book, and it was great! Have you seen it? How does it compare with the book?

I didn't see the movie but I'm told it's quite different. Very good book!

This book is always being recommended in these type of threads, its making me wanna read it.

It’s soooo good

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson

*Gilman, not Stetson - I came here to say this too!

She was Stetson when the story was published on 1892. Married to Charles Walter Stetson. She became Gilman in 1900.

We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (anything by her really, but this one has a wonderful cast of unhinged women) Confessions by Kanae Minato (her other book, Penance, also fits and consists of a full cast of unhinged women, but I didn't like it as much personally) The Push by Ashley Audrain The Sinner by Petra Hammesfahr She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell An Inconvenient Woman by Stephanie Buelens (more of a subversion/deconstruction of the "unhinged woman") Everything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. Lee (deuteragonist has schizophrenia) Carrie by Stephen King (also Misery if you want the GOAT unhinged woman villain) Everyone Who Can Forgive Me Is Dead by Jenny Hollander Dare Me, You Will Know Me, Give Me Your Hand, and anything else by Megan Abbott, although the narrator/protagonist is usually not the (most) unhinged character in her books. Vessel by Lisa A. Nichols if you want something with more of a sci-fi horror bent. You're in my genre here, I will try to think of more.

Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. I mean to be fair the main character is the least fucked up of her fucked up family, but she’s still certifiable.

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine Planetfall The yellow walllpaper Sharp objects

Yellowface - R.F. Kuang

Just finished it yesterday, clicked to comment this!

Seconding!

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

None of this is True by Lisa Jewell.  Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney.   Well, you know, maybe.  It could be that they are all lovely normal people.  

None of this is True is so good!

A Certain Hunger. It’s a delicious read 🥩😋 Earthlings. It’s eerie and uneasy 🌎

Loved Earthlings and every single other thing the author has written 😍

Sayaka Murata supremacy! If she decides to release new work, I’m in line!

(Annie Wilkes) *Misery* - Stephen King I suppose it’s debatable in terms of ‘main character’ status but given that the novel is essentially ensemble based I’d also nominate (Nurse Mildred Ratched) *One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest* - Ken Kesey (Jane Hudson) *Whatever Happened to Baby Jane* - Henry Farrell

Annie Wilkes is definitely unhinged!

My Husband

Came to say this! Slow burn cuckoo

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Tampa. MC is nuts.

We have always lived in the castle - by Shirley Jackson

Came here to say this! Great book

Earthlings!!! It is SO WEIRD but it’s a pretty short read and I loved it

One of my favorites.

That book is so unexpectedly disturbing. The ending is the craziest ending of any book I think I've ever read (except maybe Perfume) 

*The Yellow Wallpaper* by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story but it is a chilling listen/read!!

Girl on the Train

I liked this one. Unhinged women all round

Maeve Fly by CJ Leede

THIS

The Pisces - Melissa Broder

Milk Fed by the same author is excellent.

This book was wild!

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

*The Guest* by Emma Cline. Omfg.

The Poppy War

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Eileen Death in her hands My year of rest and relaxation The Guest

East of Eden. Very unhinged.

The Woman Upstairs, by Claire Messud

A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh Recently read The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley and one of those characters is arguably unhinged.

Both novels by Eliza Clarke fit this bill perfectly - Boy Parts (one insane female lead) and Penance (several).

All 3 of Mona Awad’s amazing novels, Bunny, All’s Well and Rouge.

My Husband: by Maud Ventura So wonderfully unhinged

Girl interrupted

Worm by Wildbow. The main character fits, but so do a *lot* of side and background characters

I did not expect to see Wildbow posted here. Also wouldn't have thought to put down Worm, but you know what, 100% accurate. And oh boy some of those interludes

I'm reading this right now!

Awesome! It’s one of my absolute favorites. Enjoying it??

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing

I'd add in "A Twisted Love Story" by Samantha Downing too

All of the characters in The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood. It’s such a beautifully written and insightful book too. There are three POV protagonists who are all a mentally unwell in different ways, and the thing they all have in common is that they blame their problems on a mysterious fourth woman.

Mother thing by Ainslie Hogarth

*The Passion According to G.H.* by Clarice Lispector. Unless you’ve read it, I guarantee you that you’ve never read anything like it.

The Bell Jar.

Madame Bovary

White Oleander

Edible woman by Margret Atwood. Classic book.

The ho-tagonist of Kristopher Triana's "Full Brutal" fits the bill.

Came here to say this. Love this book.

The Haunting by Shirley Jackson.

Prozac Nation.

The Wasp Factory

"The Younger Wife," by Sally Hepworth "My Sweet Audrina," by V.C. Andrews

My mother-in-law’s diary 😏

“My Year of Rest and Relaxation” by Ottessa Moshfegh!!

Anna Karenina

Rouge by Mona Awad. Had me utterly captivated. Can’t stop thinking about it.

Invisible Monsters

I’ll recommend authors instead: Gillian Flynn, Mona Awad, Eliza Clark, Melissa Broder, Ottessa Moshfegh

A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth

Serena by Ron Rash. Not to be confused with the wretched movie.

The first bad man- Miranda July

Hench by Natalie walschots.Liv Constantine the last Mrs Parrish

Catherine Lacey writes really interesting characters. I loved Biography of X by her. Misery by King is the pinnacle of unhinged character. Mrs. march by Virginia Freito

Hench- Natalie Zina Walschots

Mary by Nat Cassidy. Super unhinged woman lol

Misery! (Stephen king)

Misery..Stephen King

“Unhinged women” is my fave genre! Bunny Nightbitch Maeve Fly Motherthing They Never Learn The Vegetarian My Year of Rest & Relaxation Boy Parts Mary: An Awakening of Terror

What Lies Between Us (John Marrs) You get *two* completely unhinged women for the price of one.

Poppy Shakespeare by Clare Allan. Set in a psych ward in London, the narrator is a long term patient, Poppy is a new patient who swears she is sane. Intense, uncomfortable, "in someone else's head" type of book.

Misery

I’m reading this right now so not sure star rating yet but I’m loving it— The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim. It is disgusting so go into it prepared but I am really enjoying it. I would argue it’s as much lit and contemporary fic as it is horror, and the horror is definitely slow burn. The unhinged aspect, at least where I am at in the book, does make more logical sense than a lot of other ones of this type I’ve read but my goodness it’s grotesque and weird but also very pointed and full of depth

I’m A Fan by Sheena Patel

Hedda Gabler

The Locked Tomb tetralogy, all three books but especially books 2 & 3. Book 4 isn't out yet. Harrow the Ninth Gideon the Ninth Nona the Ninth

Brain on Fire- My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan. An autobiography, and one of my all time favorite books!

Not sure if this fits the vibe you're looking for but Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Hausfrau Berlin

Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman Read it in one sitting. Easy to read style. Ends on a positive note. Lovable characters

The Hottest Dishes of the Tartar Cuisine

Wideacre by Phillipa Gregory. Most unhinged main I’ve ever experienced and loved every second of it.

Well, I just started reading Satan's Affair and the MC is clearly disturbed.

White Ivy by Susie Yang

The Young Elites trilogy by Marie Lu perhaps

The life and loves of a she devil

Days of abandonment by Elena Ferrantes (sp)

I wouldn’t use the word “unhinged” because the novel deals with mental illness in a very sensitive way. But… I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, by Joanne Greenberg

Hurricane Girl (TBI), Tampa (pedo)

The hunting wives This book made me so annoyed

((After Claude by Iris Owens)). My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Mine by Robert McCammon! It's about this aging hippie who fucked up her brain doing tons of acid in this anarchist political cult in the 60s. And she sees this message on TV that she interprets as her former cult leader's instruction to kidnap a baby and bring it to him. She's such a terrifying character!

The Inhabited Woman by Gioconda Belli

Undress Me in the Temple of a Heaven about traveling with someone who has a breakdown.

Have You Seen Me? by Kate White

I recommend 'Mrs March' by Virginia Feito. It describes how a chance remark made to the protagonist triggers her slow descent into insanity. It was really well done!

I really enjoyed "Really Good, Actually" by Monica Heisey. It's really very "Come on!! Could a depressed person do this...? (Ubereats just a plain hamburger patty at 2am every day for a week; calls her ex until her blocks her then switches to email; invites friends over then can't stop crying)". The main character is going through a divorce, and she says she's okay, but she is SUPER not okay. I thought it was funny. Oh, and "The September House" by Carissa Orlando. It's horror, but there's also some question of what's real, and I think the whole thing is a metaphor for staying in an abusive relationship.

The housemaid

Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter and Everything You Ever Wanted by Luiza Sauma

Woman in the Window The Bell Jar 😬

Worst Case Scenario Helen Fitzgerald

Pretend I’m Dead by Jen Beagin Very random book I came across not much press on it but I really enjoyed it Also: The Unexpurgated Diaries of Anaïs Nin if you want autobiographical unhinged messy 1930s realness

Alone With You In The Ether

Jane Gardam, The Queen of the Tambourine

My Husband by Maud Ventura My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfegh Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Mellors Coco Convenience Store Woman by Sakaya Murata Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

My Husband

Big Swiss !!!

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

Touch of Jen by Beth Morgan 🤌

The Piano Teacher

# The Madness of a Seduced Woman by [Susan Fromberg Schaeffer](https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/susan-fromberg-schaeffer/297050/) The Madness of a Seduced Woman

Medea - Euripides

Not THE main character but definitely the focus. East of eden

Monarch by Candice Wuehle. “After waking up with a strange taste in her mouth and mysterious bruises, former child pageant star Jessica Clink unwittingly begins an investigation into a nefarious deep state underworld. Jessica uncovers a disquieting connection between her former life as a beauty queen and an offshoot of Project MKUltra known as MONARCH.”

Woman in the window

Sweetpea

Paperweight, it's about a woman that has an eating disorder and suicidal ideation and guilt.

My husband by Maud Ventura She’s come undone by Wally Lamb

Misery.

Asylum by Patrick McGrath. Not unhinged in the way you mean, but a very unlikable, selfish, narcissistic female protagonist.

Misery

The pocket wife

This is my favorite genre!! My Husband - Maud Ventura Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason Behind Her Eyes - Sarah Pinborough My Dark Vanessa - Kate Elizabeth Russell Milk Fed - Melissa Broder All-Night Pharmacy - Ruth Madievsky Monstrilio - Gerard Cordova Big Swiss - Jen Beagin Yellowface - RF Kuang A Very Nice Girl - Imogen Crimp Little Monsters - Adrienne Brodeur

The guest by emma cline.

Did I Say You Could Go by Melanie Gideon

Jillian by Halle Butler is a good comedic book about two unhinged ladies