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Disturbing Books
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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Following on from the horror films thread, I'd love some book recommendations because sometimes our imaginations can conjure up worse images than a cinematic director can show on a screen.
American Psycho, there's a scene that isn't in the film. I had to take a 5 minute break after reading that bit.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (now Billy Martin)
Guts by Chuck Palahnuik (you can read this online, it's one of his short stories) |
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By *opinovMan
over a year ago
Point Nemo, Cumbria |
Not really horror, but I can recommend 'The Cement Garden' by Ian McEwan and 'The Wasp Factory' by Ian Banks for their strength of narrative and memorable mental images. They're quite short stories but definitely pack a punch. |
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For truly disturbing it’s not really the horror genre you should look to
Try
My sweet audrina
Flowers in the attic
Girl with the dragon tattoo
Before I go to sleep
Beloved
The lovely bones
And that’s just the fictional ones.
|
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"An oldie but a goody..'the rats',I think by James Herbert ."
I used to devour James Herbert books, as a youngster. "Sepulchre" gave me the heebie jeebies as I recall, there was one scene in particular but I'm fucked if I can remember what it was. |
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There’s a book called Night Work by Thomas Glavinic, I’ll quote from the back of the book….
An ordinary man wakes up on an ordinary day, to find that he’s the only living creature in the city.
I won’t spoil it as it’s a great read and a unique idea for a book.
The Terror by Dan Simmons, that’s based on the Franklin expedition. A big hefty read, cold artic conditions with men being hunted by something.
And I’ll finish on a classic, as the first chapter is absolutely terrifying and the book totally different from the film. Peter Benchley, Jaws.
Some great recommendations on this thread.  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Definitely recommend The wasp factory mentioned above.
House of Leaves by Mark Danelewski is one of the best. I made the mistake of reading it in an ebook. Hard copy would have made the experience even better.
Also recommend Full Dark, No stars by Stephen King. Collection of four stories which are pretty dark. |
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Anything by JG Ballard is going to sit on the spectrum from mildly unsettling to seriously disturbing.
I've never read Crash, which is probably his most infamous novel but High Rise is a brilliant demonstration of the flimsy border between utopias and dystopias.
Try Philip K Dick's sci- fi too, which constantly questions the nature of reality. |
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By *rHotNottsMan
over a year ago
Dubai & Nottingham |
"The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks "
This was the first Ian Banks novel I ever read- great book.
I don’t read horror, I prefer the directors/producers imagery. Just watched Darren Aronofskys mother! I don’t know if there’s a book or not but it would be an interesting read, the film was good but text would really suit this kind of film |
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Agree with many of these.
The whole of haunted by Chuck Palanuick is very dark. As was snuff and pygmy.
Most of Bret Easton Ellis is very violent and quite hard to read.
A lot of the ww1 books or specific memoirs about Russian gulags, the cultural revolution, north Korea etc are heartbreaking in the horrors that happened. |
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"Following on from the horror films thread, I'd love some book recommendations because sometimes our imaginations can conjure up worse images than a cinematic director can show on a screen.
American Psycho, there's a scene that isn't in the film. I had to take a 5 minute break after reading that bit.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (now Billy Martin)
Guts by Chuck Palahnuik (you can read this online, it's one of his short stories) "
You have me intrigued by American Psycho now. I will have to find a copy |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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Adding the ones I've not read to my list. Thanks all.
I've read a few Philip K Dick already.
I believe Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was the basis for Blade Runner.
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"The First Day of Spring - Nancy Tucker
If you read it, please do self care for 2 weeks. Its very bleak "
Ohh this was only 99p on kindle right now. I've just bought it |
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James Herbert could completely freak me out when I was younger.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is haunting.
As is the Kite Runner, in parts.
A couple of scenes in The Girl in the Dragon Tattoo for me so angry!
K
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"The First Day of Spring - Nancy Tucker
If you read it, please do self care for 2 weeks. Its very bleak
Ohh this was only 99p on kindle right now. I've just bought it "
It is hands down one of the best written things I've ever read... But it is very harrowing and relentless...
Let me know how you got on with it.. I gave it 20 out of 10  |
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By *ack688Man
over a year ago
abruzzo Italy (and UK) |
"Not a horror, but 'A Little Life' by Hanya Yanagihara was disturbing in a different way. It left me reeling; I certainly couldn't read it again, as brilliant as it was."
I really wasn’t all that taken by this book, it certainly lived up to its warning of ‘abuse porn’, and I don’t have a problem with dark difficult books but I just didn’t connect with any of the characters, the writing style wasn’t great, having to give three examples of everything she was trying to explain and having single sentences that were half a page long that just rambled senselessly just annoyed me. I wasn’t a fan. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Following on from the horror films thread, I'd love some book recommendations because sometimes our imaginations can conjure up worse images than a cinematic director can show on a screen.
American Psycho, there's a scene that isn't in the film. I had to take a 5 minute break after reading that bit.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (now Billy Martin)
Guts by Chuck Palahnuik (you can read this online, it's one of his short stories) "
Does involve a towl rail and a hungry rat? |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"Anything by JG Ballard is going to sit on the spectrum from mildly unsettling to seriously disturbing.
I've never read Crash, which is probably his most infamous novel but High Rise is a brilliant demonstration of the flimsy border between utopias and dystopias.
Try Philip K Dick's sci- fi too, which constantly questions the nature of reality."
I loved High Rise. Good recommendation for anyone else who hasn't read it |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Does involve a towl rail and a hungry rat?
Yes, I don't remember the rail but the rats... even thinking about it now makes me cringe. "
I think he burns her with acid that shoves the hollow towl rail up there yikes |
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"Sleepers "
My favourite book by my favourite author. I’ve been a huge fan of Lorenzo since the first time I read that book. Highly recommend his other books too. I was actually going to comment on this with ‘Apaches’ because there’s some stuff in that which is just horrific.
C x |
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"For truly disturbing it’s not really the horror genre you should look to
Try
My sweet audrina
Flowers in the attic
Girl with the dragon tattoo
Before I go to sleep
Beloved
The lovely bones
And that’s just the fictional ones.
"
‘Flowers In The Attic’ and ‘The Lovely Bones’ are both amazing but soul destroying.
C x |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"
Guts by Chuck Palahnuik (you can read this online, it's one of his short stories) "
Haunted (the book Guts comes from) is amazing. The most disturbing story in it is about the "unsuitable" police doll. |
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"Not a horror, but 'A Little Life' by Hanya Yanagihara was disturbing in a different way. It left me reeling; I certainly couldn't read it again, as brilliant as it was.
I really wasn’t all that taken by this book, it certainly lived up to its warning of ‘abuse porn’, and I don’t have a problem with dark difficult books but I just didn’t connect with any of the characters, the writing style wasn’t great, having to give three examples of everything she was trying to explain and having single sentences that were half a page long that just rambled senselessly just annoyed me. I wasn’t a fan."
Ha, get off that fence, mate. "Abuse porn" is particularly harsh, I think, but we'll just have to agree to disagree! |
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By *ister CMan
over a year ago
liverpool |
Yeonmi Park - in order to live.
Terrifying insight in to North Korea.
Anecdotally mesmerising speaker and spectacular insight into the workings of socialism and communism.
Also...
Escape from Camp 14.
Both are true... not wot works of fiction and both best avoided if you don't want to expose yourself to what real people to to real people.
Theyre both shocking and disturbing.
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"For truly disturbing it’s not really the horror genre you should look to
Try
My sweet audrina
Flowers in the attic
Girl with the dragon tattoo
Before I go to sleep
Beloved
The lovely bones
And that’s just the fictional ones.
‘Flowers In The Attic’ and ‘The Lovely Bones’ are both amazing but soul destroying.
C x"
Which is why I thought they fit the brief well, what’s even more disturbing is that the flowers in the attic books were inspired by true events I think happened somewhere in New England? But actually worse than what happens in the 1st book. |
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When Rabbit Howls is deeply disturbing.
As a child I read Watership Down and Plague Dogs, both left me reeling, because of the subject matter. Re read as an adult and had pretty much the same effect.
Henning Mankell novels. First read Faceless Killers when I was in hospital and needed something to read, so grabbed a second hand book from the hospital shop…really disturbing, then read more of his books, all excellent.
They are fiction (bar When Rabbit Howls) but full of the horrors that people can do, and the effects of their actions.
For horror, check out The Castle of Otranto, and the gothic novels of that era xx |
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The Last One at the Party by Bethany Clift.
It's not particularly gory (though it has its moments), just an unsettling end of the world type novel. There are a few chapters that have really stayed with me. |
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By *arkjackMan
over a year ago
West Cork |
"I suppose The Road is as bad as things can get. A man and a boy trudging through ash in half light in a post-apocalyptic world."
I think what distinguishes it from the other books listed here is that The Road, book and movie, both felt real, as a real possibility. |
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Recent posts have reminded me of another that really disturbed in reading as a child - z for Zachariah - bear in mind also I was an 80’s kid and the threat of nuclear war apocalypse felt very real! |
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By *arkjackMan
over a year ago
West Cork |
"read the bible its probably on of the most disturbing books .. some very weird stuff in it . "
Remember that one time a woman got (edit by Fab) by a bunch of men who cut up her body and shipped the parts off to their home towns? Or the one where when you win a war you dhould keep your promises to burn your children alive?
Bronze Age world, bronze age book, bronze age morals.
It's interesting how moderns think they are edgy when we come from a past where crime let alone sex crime was not a concept. |
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By *ack688Man
over a year ago
abruzzo Italy (and UK) |
"Not a horror, but 'A Little Life' by Hanya Yanagihara was disturbing in a different way. It left me reeling; I certainly couldn't read it again, as brilliant as it was.
I really wasn’t all that taken by this book, it certainly lived up to its warning of ‘abuse porn’, and I don’t have a problem with dark difficult books but I just didn’t connect with any of the characters, the writing style wasn’t great, having to give three examples of everything she was trying to explain and having single sentences that were half a page long that just rambled senselessly just annoyed me. I wasn’t a fan.
Ha, get off that fence, mate. "Abuse porn" is particularly harsh, I think, but we'll just have to agree to disagree!"
Yep, that’s fair, it wouldn’t do to all like the same things. |
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By *tooveMan
over a year ago
belfast |
"Following on from the horror films thread, I'd love some book recommendations because sometimes our imaginations can conjure up worse images than a cinematic director can show on a screen.
American Psycho, there's a scene that isn't in the film. I had to take a 5 minute break after reading that bit.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (now Billy Martin)
Guts by Chuck Palahnuik (you can read this online, it's one of his short stories)
You have me intrigued by American Psycho now. I will have to find a copy"
It's a hard read. Boring as fuck in parts. Really really really boring. |
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"Following on from the horror films thread, I'd love some book recommendations because sometimes our imaginations can conjure up worse images than a cinematic director can show on a screen.
American Psycho, there's a scene that isn't in the film. I had to take a 5 minute break after reading that bit.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (now Billy Martin)
Guts by Chuck Palahnuik (you can read this online, it's one of his short stories)
You have me intrigued by American Psycho now. I will have to find a copy
It's a hard read. Boring as fuck in parts. Really really really boring. "
Some of the stylistic tics such as listing all the designer clothes being worn do get a bit tiresome even if he manages to mostly hit the targets of the satire.
I can certainly understand that it may leave some people cold but I find it hilarious (and quotable) |
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By *rlandoMan
over a year ago
Lincolnshire |
"what went wrong with America and how we can fix it" , written in 2011, I read 3/4 through and put it down for for a year before I could finish it , so upsetting .... worse than any horror novel ! |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"The First Day of Spring - Nancy Tucker
If you read it, please do self care for 2 weeks. Its very bleak
Ohh this was only 99p on kindle right now. I've just bought it
It is hands down one of the best written things I've ever read... But it is very harrowing and relentless...
Let me know how you got on with it.. I gave it 20 out of 10 "
I've finished it this morning. I cried, my emotions were are all over the place. Such a gut-wrenching read. I couldn't stop feeling sorry for her, despite all she done. Beautifully written too considering the subject matter. Thanks for recommending and you are right, totally need the self care now! |
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"I have read a couple of Richard Laymon's books I found them pretty disturbing"
Beast House - Richard Laymon
The Getaway - Jim Thompson (the ending in the kingdom of El Ray).
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr
The Uninhabitable Earth - David Wallace-Wells: what climate change has in store for us, no matter what we do to combat it. |
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"Following on from the horror films thread, I'd love some book recommendations because sometimes our imaginations can conjure up worse images than a cinematic director can show on a screen.
American Psycho, there's a scene that isn't in the film. I had to take a 5 minute break after reading that bit.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (now Billy Martin)
Guts by Chuck Palahnuik (you can read this online, it's one of his short stories) "
hey OP
Not sure if anyone else Rec'ed John Connolly to you but he is a must if your looking for a shock read, every dead thing (his first has some shock backdrop reading from the get go,
Soon to be a TV series from what i hear. |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"I have read a couple of Richard Laymon's books I found them pretty disturbing, I think I saw him described somewhere once as Stephen King without a conscience!
I agree,
His books are disturbing "
Yes I've read a few of his.
I think it was The Cellar that I read first when I was a fairly young teen. I remember thinking he seems to talk about this monster's giant penis a lot  |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
|
"I've read most of these suggested. Maybe I read too much 
Is that even possible?"
Not in my eyes. Books are my favourite escapism.
I did once have a boyfriend who complained I read too much though.
Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions, don't wanna clog up the thread replying to all but I am adding all these to my 'to read' list on StoryGraph. |
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"I think it was The Cellar that I read first when I was a fairly young teen. I remember thinking he seems to talk about this monster's giant penis a lot "
The Cellar! That was the one I was thinking of, the one before Beast House.
Here's another: I Was Dora Suarez - Derek Raymond.
So sickening that his publisher, Secker & Warburg, refused to publish it. The Times reviewer described it as: "a book full of coagulating disgust and compassion for the world’s contamination, disease and mutilation"
If that's not five-star I dunno what is.
PS: If you can work out what the killer is doing to his dick with that wheel torture contraption... keep it to yourself. |
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By *arcosaMan
over a year ago
London |
I'm very old school where good ghost stories are concerned. I'd put the likes of Ambrose Bierce, M.R. James, Robert W Chambers, Lord Dunsany and, of course, H.P. Lovecraft over the majority of modern writers.
Disturbing doesn't have to be in your face, sometimes it's the subtle implications of what's suggested within the story that holds the real horror.
"We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." |
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Many great books have already been mentioned...House of Leaves, Wasp Factory, Story of the Eye, 120 Days...especially sections 3 and 4.
I'd add Blood Meridian - The Judge is one of the most terrifying characters in fiction, and he isn't wholly fictitious. And a short story - I Have No Mouth Yet I Must Scream. And anything by MR James or early Lovecraft. |
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By *inaTitzTV/TS
over a year ago
Titz Towers, North Notts |
Ordinary Men, which is an historical study of a German police battalion that went ahead and took part in atrocities during the war.
What makes it so disturbing is that these were ordinary guys, people's dads, husbands and sons. Not nazis or even adherents of the regime. It shows just how easily ordinary people will comply. |
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"I have read a couple of Richard Laymon's books I found them pretty disturbing, I think I saw him described somewhere once as Stephen King without a conscience!
I agree,
His books are disturbing
Yes I've read a few of his.
I think it was The Cellar that I read first when I was a fairly young teen. I remember thinking he seems to talk about this monster's giant penis a lot "
Richard Layman is great, disturbing wise he has nothing on Shaun Hutson. Slugs was the vilest. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"The First Day of Spring - Nancy Tucker
If you read it, please do self care for 2 weeks. Its very bleak
Ohh this was only 99p on kindle right now. I've just bought it
It is hands down one of the best written things I've ever read... But it is very harrowing and relentless...
Let me know how you got on with it.. I gave it 20 out of 10
I've finished it this morning. I cried, my emotions were are all over the place. Such a gut-wrenching read. I couldn't stop feeling sorry for her, despite all she done. Beautifully written too considering the subject matter. Thanks for recommending and you are right, totally need the self care now! "
Oh i just noticed your reply! Sorry!
You had the same reaction as me and 6 other people who have read it 
Hope you are feeling brighter. It's a brilliant, but very hard read x |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Anything by Stephen King "
I would agree with anything before his accident. Since then I struggle to enjoy his books. It feels differant. So differant that I have wkndered if maybe Tabitha now does his writing for him |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
|
"For truly disturbing it’s not really the horror genre you should look to
Try
My sweet audrina
Flowers in the attic
Girl with the dragon tattoo
Before I go to sleep
Beloved
The lovely bones
And that’s just the fictional ones.
"
Ooooh, The lovely bones!!! Not read that in years! Excellent book!
One disturbing but amazing book for me is The Perfume, in the original German language. I've read both the original and the English translation and the translation doesn't do the book any justice.
J |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Rats by James Herbert
Try Slugs by Shaun Hutson
Great minds!!!"
I love Shaun Hutson but alot of people dont really know of him these days.
Some very disturbing books |
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By *arcosaMan
over a year ago
London |
"Ordinary Men, which is an historical study of a German police battalion that went ahead and took part in atrocities during the war.
What makes it so disturbing is that these were ordinary guys, people's dads, husbands and sons. Not nazis or even adherents of the regime. It shows just how easily ordinary people will comply."
Sounds fascinating. I have a kind of morbid fascination for that type of human behaviour. Incidents such as the Unit 731 experiments,the conduct of the Dirlewanger Brigade or the relatively more recent My Lai or even Jonestown. The Milgram experiments and the very famous Stanford Prison Experiment showed how people are capable of doing the most awful things if an authority figure gives them permission and is willing to take responsibility.
It's not what they did that fascinates me but why they carried out these atrocities. Anyway I'll certainly look for this book. |
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"Following on from the horror films thread, I'd love some book recommendations because sometimes our imaginations can conjure up worse images than a cinematic director can show on a screen.
American Psycho, there's a scene that isn't in the film. I had to take a 5 minute break after reading that bit.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite (now Billy Martin)
Guts by Chuck Palahnuik (you can read this online, it's one of his short stories) "
American Psycho is the only book I've ever had to put down in disgust. I get why it has to be so extreme, and Brett Eston-Ellis is a gifted writer but I cannot do anything pertaining to violence to animals. |
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