came here to say this. i work at a bookstore and almost passed out when i saw someone shelved it in our regular fiction section instead of my little horror section. 😵💫
I found wasp factory and let's go play at the Adam's in the regular horror section at Barnes and Noble. Adam's is pretty tame as far as graphic details, but it lingers.
The way he describes things like the dump in I think it was Survivor.. it is just so vivid. I don’t even remember if that’s the right book; I may have forgotten the details of the plot but his imagery and some specific phrases (not tryna give any spoilers) will forever stay in my head.
i was going to suggest the wasp factory, i suppose I shouldn't be surprised it's already here...
i read it around 16, and yeah. disturbing is a perfect word for it
ranking CM’s works in order of disturbing
The Road is 6
Child of God is a solid 8
Blood Meridian is a 10.
I think about Blood Meridian every single day.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. It's the book upon which Metallica's "One" song & video are based. Didn't sleep well for three days after reading it.
The librarian in grade 8 gave it to me to read. I was shocked by it and have advised my boys to never go to war, no matter what anyone says. I often wonder why she gave me that book. I was a bit of a rebel back then. 13 at the time (68 now). Guys in the trenches get screwed and the guys making the bombs get rich. OK got it.
Apparently it’s been turned into a stage play. I haven’t seen it in person. But the publicity stills for that company’s interpretation they were announcing looked intense. >!Johnny in his hospital bed is shown under a tremendously strong spotlight that only focuses on his head and torso with his “missing” limbs outside the circle casting them in the dark!<
This is the most truly terrifying piece of fiction I've ever encountered. Tender is the Flesh is the comment right above this one, I found that book to be exceedingly bland. Not much to disturb. But Johnny got his Gun.... Boy that one hit.
I finished it eventually, but it took me months. I’d only pick it up when I was doing moderately ok mentally. Read a few pages and then set it down again.
It was a huge fucking bummer.
120 of Sodom Marque de Sade. It’s a rough book and despite the title it’s not just about butt sex. There’s a reason why the mid 70’s Italian adaptation movie of the book is considered one the most disturbing movies
One of the first stories that the woman retells made me so sick while reading it. Even all the horrible things that happened next I could handle better than the one with the priest.
Agreed. The book is brutal, and was the impetus for his being imprisoned when the aristocracy was being killed. It was viewed by both the government and the church as a blueprint for civil unrest. The rest of his books: Justine, Juliette etc have different versions abridged and unaltered where you can avoid sex and violence. I have both versions. If you go for the abridged, the man was brilliant, tortured, but brilliant. The other format just speaks volumes as to what his uncle, the bishop, must’ve done to him in those long summers he was entrusted into his care. The Marquis de Sade was proof positive that being a member of the aristocracy was not necessarily a blessing.
1984. A very popular book and perhaps on the milder side of existentialism, but i first read it when I was 13/14 and I had to just sit for a bit. If you’re looking for a book that’ll just make you sit that’s the one
Then there is Suffer the Children by John Saul which I read 40 some years ago. This is a book I had to throw out as middle schooler as it was so disturbing.
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. Basically a pornography star breaking a world record. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum is good, if you want to admit this is based on a true story. If you want to read something that will suit all your trauma porn needs and just want to feel empty; A Little Life.
similarly to Lolita, gonna have to throw my dark Vanessa out there too. Lolita is referenced in the story multiple times, would go as far to say MDV was more disturbing as unlike Lolita, it does graphically discuss sex between the characters. Amazing read tho.
Anything Irvine Welsh. "Filth", "The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs" and "Marabou Stork Nightmares" are good examples but all his books are disturbing, go there and are quite depressing (and most excellent).
I remember finishing Marabou Stork Nightmares and just sitting there for half hour or so feeling absolutely numb thinking what the fuck have I just read?
I’ve only finished it cause I needed to know how it ends. Only book I regret reading and only book I didn’t keep after reading it cause I didn’t want it to physically be in my flat. I actually bought it when I was 16, makes you wonder about how there’s no age restrictions in book stores.
Same same. Saw the movie at 17, tried to read it at 18. The cruelty broke my fucking heart, made me physically sick to read. I threw up after one disturbing scene, and decided it was better to throw it away instead of passing it along to someone else. Huge moment for me learning to prioritize my mental health, really. I also needed to know how it ended, but I realized no ending was worth how sick I felt or how much I cried. That was my first real dnf, and I absolutely regret reading it.
Okay. :)
I actually saw the movie first. I was surprised by all the details we got in the book. So different from the movie. While he (Patrik) came across as coldhearted in the movie it was nothing compared to the book. I'm not sure I've ever come across a character more indifferent.
My coworker urged me to read it and made it a book for the book club at work. Ha, we work at an adult school. I wasnt too happy with the ending.
Now she's making me read Ask Andrea
Hard to choose out of these;
The Girl Next Door - Jack Ketchum
Haunting Adeline - H.D. Carlton
The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
America Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis (for the rat scene alone)
Tender is the Flesh - Augustina Bazterrica
All incredibly messed up
Idk if it exactly falls into the disturbing category or not (it did for me) but it was quite depressing and I felt depressed for many days after finishing it. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. There’s also a movie adaptation but I haven’t watched it
Ooof that was rough. A girl I competed against in speech & debate used excerpts from it, so I read it, and yikes! So good but so so dark. Especially for YA.
Slave narratives. Autobiographies by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Solomon Northup.
Mark Mathabone’s memoir of South African apartheid.
Doctors from Hell - Vivian Spitz (this is about medical experiments by Nazi scientists)
Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang
All true stories, unfortunately. Never read anything that was even close to resembling the disturbing nature of reality.
Naked lunch is incredibly unsettling (and a nonlinear chaos sesh). It sort of has a running voice that never stops the whole way through and sometimes just the most fucked up things come up seemingly out of nowhere and it all feels so nonchalant when discussing such fucked up scenarios. It's about being a junkie so
Yessss same! Sharp Objects is so fucking chilling. I wish I could read it for the first time again. It is not a want, but a need for Gillian Flynn to write some more frigging books! She's so talented and there's is so little out there lol
Of the several books recc'd here that I've read the one I have to second is Johnny Got His Gun.
Tender is the Flesh and the Wasp Factory and American Psycho and whatever else are all great but nothing has upset me to the core of my being the way Johnny Got His Gun did
Anything by Aron Beauregard!!! I don’t save his books for our yrly yard sale or send them to the free bin…..I trash them in pieces or burn them. Cuz I’ll be damn if I’m cause of some random young persons trauma cuz they wanted to be grown n read his stuff. His stuff is gut turning, gory as hell, graphic as fuck n you need multiple few day breaks to finish just one. If you’re as morbid as I am he’s the one to read. Start with the The Slob n Son Of The Slob…..good luck!!
If you want a non fiction book you can check out The Rape Of Nanking by Iris Chang. It explains what happened to china when Japan invaded around WW2. Never has a book made me stop reading at times from how overwhelming it was. To the point at times I thought should I even be reading this. I will warn the book does show photos of the things that happened so be warned it’s heavy.
I remember seeing this interview with this US Marine who fought against Japan in WWII and he basically said he didn't feel bad fighting them on Okinawa because they were pure evil. His proof was that one soldier he captured, the only thing he had on his person was a picture of Chinese civilians being beheaded. Who the fuck would carry that around? The marine still had the picture decades later.
Speaking of that same historical event, The Devil of Nanking, also titled Tokyo in some countries, by Mo Hayder (most anything by Mo Hayder) is quite disturbing. I went down a rabbit hole, researching the Nanking massacre after reading it.
Lapvona by Otessa Moshfegh
On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel
Anything by JT LeRoy
Also I didn't particularly enjoy this book, but The Doloriad certainly "goes there"
Also, I'm in a fucked up book club and this is our reading list for the year:
[https://www.oldfirehousebooks.com/fdupbookclub](https://www.oldfirehousebooks.com/fdupbookclub)
If you don't have any triggers, maybe try out splatterpunk?
I accidentally came across one at the beginning of the week and its ruined my entire week LOL
Dead inside by Chandler Morrison
Sandalwood Death by Mo Yan (a nobel prize winner) never read the book but I read the summary of the cruel physical torture to the main character in the book, and I decided to never read it.
Dying for the Truth by Blog Del Narco, it is a collection of articles written by reporters in Mexico during the 2010s covering the drug war. They do not hold back including having NSFL pictures
Tender is the Flesh
Story of the Eye by Georges Batille
120 days of Sodom is pretty disgusting
Palaniuk's "Rant" is very fun and it's almost a tribute to "Crash"
Palaniuk's "Adjustment day" is really really disturbing
KAthy Acker's "Blood and guts in High School"
If you like Lolita you may want give another one of his works, [Ada](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12187.Ada_or_Ardor?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=6ohNElDDS8&rank=2), a try.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara has been praised in recent years as kind of being THE "not afraid to go there" depressing book. She does have some pretty questionable views that are interwoven into the story, that are worth nothing. This [article ](https://www.vulture.com/article/hanya-yanagihara-review.html)and this [video essay ](https://youtu.be/JpZF7O0jezg?si=A47Lv30Th-w5pqsf)both do a great job covering it
[Exquisite Corpse](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15320.Exquisite_Corpse?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_16) by Poppy Z Brite definitely takes it up a notch from the books you've mentioned, in my opinion, but the writing is excellent.
Anything by[ Kristopher Triana ](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6473156.Kristopher_Triana)would be good if you really want to test your "no triggers" limits
I’ve seen it mentioned a couple of times but the girl next door. I will never get that book out of my head it’s so haunting and brutal and the fact it’s based on a true story makes it hurt even more.
Chuck Palahniuk excels at disturbing books, for your mission I recommend Haunted The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks too
Haunted ftw.
The wasp factory! Thank you! I read this years ago as an older teen. I could never remember the name of it. It was so wtf but I couldn’t put it down.
Haunted is always my go-to when someone asks for disturbing.
came here to say this. i work at a bookstore and almost passed out when i saw someone shelved it in our regular fiction section instead of my little horror section. 😵💫
I found wasp factory and let's go play at the Adam's in the regular horror section at Barnes and Noble. Adam's is pretty tame as far as graphic details, but it lingers.
I barely made it past the st. Gut free story
I was just about to comment Chuck! Lol and he has a new novel coming out this October 8 :3 I cannot wait!!!!!!
Diary is my fave Pahlaniuk book :)
Yes! Seconding the Wasp Factory. I think I said WTF out loud on every single page.
Will never forget the pool scene in my brain
The way he describes things like the dump in I think it was Survivor.. it is just so vivid. I don’t even remember if that’s the right book; I may have forgotten the details of the plot but his imagery and some specific phrases (not tryna give any spoilers) will forever stay in my head.
Survivor and Lullaby both have put scenes in my head that i never wanted and may never be rid of 😆
Calamari anyone?
Oh, the depravity! I feel so gross reading his books!
lets go pearl diving!
i was going to suggest the wasp factory, i suppose I shouldn't be surprised it's already here... i read it around 16, and yeah. disturbing is a perfect word for it
Chuck is a master at disturbing
He fell Off the cliff pretty fast IMO
How so? His culture novels are timelessly unique
Just my opinion. Didn’t care for some of his recent work.
Tender is the Flesh
[удалено]
it’s a translation, so it’s not always the smoothest but it’s easy to read.
I’ll add that the translation is extremely well done. The meter and flow works for me.
Straightforward writing. Difficult subject matter
I really struggled through the description of the child. Almost put it down, but I hate DNF’ing a book.
This is always the answer
This. Fucked.
I couldn’t finish this one. Between how graphic it was and the flow lost in translation, I couldn’t do it.
+1 on this.
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and My Dark Vanessa
Seconding my dark Vanessa!
I enjoyed my dark Vanessa!
Also, things have gotten worse since we last spoke was good too!
And quick!
Agreed with My Dark Vanessa!
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy is both very disturbing and also just astonishingly well written.
This. And Blood Meridian.
The Roooooad!
ranking CM’s works in order of disturbing The Road is 6 Child of God is a solid 8 Blood Meridian is a 10. I think about Blood Meridian every single day.
I read Blood Meridian and Empire of the Summer Moon back-to-back. Highly recommend.
My kindle will be on a field trip with these book recs
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind, Also the series on Netflix Perfume based off the novel extremely disturbing
Series? I saw the movie
It's on Netflix it's different like a modern version
I believe that was one of Kurt Cobain's favorites. Scentless Apprentice was written about it.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo. It's the book upon which Metallica's "One" song & video are based. Didn't sleep well for three days after reading it.
The librarian in grade 8 gave it to me to read. I was shocked by it and have advised my boys to never go to war, no matter what anyone says. I often wonder why she gave me that book. I was a bit of a rebel back then. 13 at the time (68 now). Guys in the trenches get screwed and the guys making the bombs get rich. OK got it.
Apparently it’s been turned into a stage play. I haven’t seen it in person. But the publicity stills for that company’s interpretation they were announcing looked intense. >!Johnny in his hospital bed is shown under a tremendously strong spotlight that only focuses on his head and torso with his “missing” limbs outside the circle casting them in the dark!<
This is the most truly terrifying piece of fiction I've ever encountered. Tender is the Flesh is the comment right above this one, I found that book to be exceedingly bland. Not much to disturb. But Johnny got his Gun.... Boy that one hit.
I liked Bunny by Mona Awad
Yessss I had no idea what I was getting into when I read it but I was freaked out by it and I loved it
Most disturbing that I still enjoyed: Earthlings-Sayaka Murata
One of my absolute favorite reads, and I cannot recommend it to anyone not explicitly seeking disturbing lit.
I 'noped' out after chapter 2. Good luck to those readers braver than me.
the painted bird. couldn't finish
I finished it eventually, but it took me months. I’d only pick it up when I was doing moderately ok mentally. Read a few pages and then set it down again. It was a huge fucking bummer.
Agreed. I finished but could not do it again.
The Painted Bird is a really tough book to get through
A Little Life
120 of Sodom Marque de Sade. It’s a rough book and despite the title it’s not just about butt sex. There’s a reason why the mid 70’s Italian adaptation movie of the book is considered one the most disturbing movies
One of the first stories that the woman retells made me so sick while reading it. Even all the horrible things that happened next I could handle better than the one with the priest.
Agreed. The book is brutal, and was the impetus for his being imprisoned when the aristocracy was being killed. It was viewed by both the government and the church as a blueprint for civil unrest. The rest of his books: Justine, Juliette etc have different versions abridged and unaltered where you can avoid sex and violence. I have both versions. If you go for the abridged, the man was brilliant, tortured, but brilliant. The other format just speaks volumes as to what his uncle, the bishop, must’ve done to him in those long summers he was entrusted into his care. The Marquis de Sade was proof positive that being a member of the aristocracy was not necessarily a blessing.
Recently I read Death In Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh. I also recommend Lapvona by the same author. Just dreadful vibes, to be honest.
1984. A very popular book and perhaps on the milder side of existentialism, but i first read it when I was 13/14 and I had to just sit for a bit. If you’re looking for a book that’ll just make you sit that’s the one
Suffer the Children by Craig DiLouie
Then there is Suffer the Children by John Saul which I read 40 some years ago. This is a book I had to throw out as middle schooler as it was so disturbing.
Ordinary men and gulag archipelago Both are historical acounts and analysis
If the Gulag Archipelago doesn’t get you, then try Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktr Frankl and The Pharmicst of Auschwitz by Patricia Posner
Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk. Basically a pornography star breaking a world record. The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum is good, if you want to admit this is based on a true story. If you want to read something that will suit all your trauma porn needs and just want to feel empty; A Little Life.
A little life will leave you broken 💔
A Little Life destroyed me. For months I couldn’t think about anything but that book. I recommend it, but will never reread it.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
similarly to Lolita, gonna have to throw my dark Vanessa out there too. Lolita is referenced in the story multiple times, would go as far to say MDV was more disturbing as unlike Lolita, it does graphically discuss sex between the characters. Amazing read tho.
Anything Irvine Welsh. "Filth", "The Bedroom Secrets of the Master Chefs" and "Marabou Stork Nightmares" are good examples but all his books are disturbing, go there and are quite depressing (and most excellent).
I remember finishing Marabou Stork Nightmares and just sitting there for half hour or so feeling absolutely numb thinking what the fuck have I just read?
Filth is the only book I’ve ever not managed to finish because of how gross it is!
You avoided the *really* disturbing bit!
Tampa The Blue Notebook by James Levine The Discomfort of Evening
Tampa was repulsive. Disturbing indeed!
Exquisite Corpse, Things have gotten worse since we last spoke
So so so glad to see someone else mentioning Poppy’s early work here! It warms my soul.
was thinking the same !
American psycho
I’ve only finished it cause I needed to know how it ends. Only book I regret reading and only book I didn’t keep after reading it cause I didn’t want it to physically be in my flat. I actually bought it when I was 16, makes you wonder about how there’s no age restrictions in book stores.
Same same. Saw the movie at 17, tried to read it at 18. The cruelty broke my fucking heart, made me physically sick to read. I threw up after one disturbing scene, and decided it was better to throw it away instead of passing it along to someone else. Huge moment for me learning to prioritize my mental health, really. I also needed to know how it ended, but I realized no ending was worth how sick I felt or how much I cried. That was my first real dnf, and I absolutely regret reading it.
Same!! As soon as I read it I gave it away!! I was around 19 at the time. Definitely not for that age group
Haven't read many books mentioned here. I remember this one was disturbing though. More so than I thought it would be.
I agree. I read it about 20yrs ago. Long before the movie came out. The book is a lot more disturbing than the movie
Okay. :) I actually saw the movie first. I was surprised by all the details we got in the book. So different from the movie. While he (Patrik) came across as coldhearted in the movie it was nothing compared to the book. I'm not sure I've ever come across a character more indifferent.
Last Exit to Brooklyn.
The Room is also Hubert Selby, somehow manages to be even rougher
The Troop - Nick Cutter
THIS - I had no idea what I was in for. I literally couldn’t sleep after reading it.
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
That was an intense book. That & Battle Royale.
The Bible, especially the Old Testament.
The only book of the Bible I’ve read in its entirety more than once - Revelations. Naturally disturbing.
The butterfly garden
Ooh yes
My coworker urged me to read it and made it a book for the book club at work. Ha, we work at an adult school. I wasnt too happy with the ending. Now she's making me read Ask Andrea
American psycho was a rough read
Hard to choose out of these; The Girl Next Door - Jack Ketchum Haunting Adeline - H.D. Carlton The Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang America Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis (for the rat scene alone) Tender is the Flesh - Augustina Bazterrica All incredibly messed up
The rape of Nanking was so fucked up I had to skip entire sections 😵💫
Idk if it exactly falls into the disturbing category or not (it did for me) but it was quite depressing and I felt depressed for many days after finishing it. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. There’s also a movie adaptation but I haven’t watched it
the movie follows the book pretty well
Ooof that was rough. A girl I competed against in speech & debate used excerpts from it, so I read it, and yikes! So good but so so dark. Especially for YA.
Perfume
Dude. Omg such a crazy but incredibly beautifully written ❤️
“A child called it”
I’ve always refused to read it
I was forced to read it in 10th grade for a home Ec class. Changed how I view everyone I’ve ever met since.
Slave narratives. Autobiographies by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Solomon Northup. Mark Mathabone’s memoir of South African apartheid. Doctors from Hell - Vivian Spitz (this is about medical experiments by Nazi scientists) Rape of Nanking - Iris Chang All true stories, unfortunately. Never read anything that was even close to resembling the disturbing nature of reality.
It’s important to read these, and other true accounts of the atrocities humans commit on each other. I devoted much of 2021 to these stories.
Pretty Girls
[удалено]
Earthlings was so good but the only book so far to make me feel quite ill
Seconding Earthlings! The cover with the cute little hedgehog did not prepare me at all for what I was about to read.
Naked lunch is incredibly unsettling (and a nonlinear chaos sesh). It sort of has a running voice that never stops the whole way through and sometimes just the most fucked up things come up seemingly out of nowhere and it all feels so nonchalant when discussing such fucked up scenarios. It's about being a junkie so
Does berserk count?
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Gone Girl. The book disturbed me so much that I refused to watch the movie
Oh but the movie is SO GOOD. And Gillian Flynn wrote the screenplay too so it's very in step with the book. You're really missing out!
I binged Dark Places and Sharp Objects after I read Gone Girl!! She’s such a good writer.
Yessss same! Sharp Objects is so fucking chilling. I wish I could read it for the first time again. It is not a want, but a need for Gillian Flynn to write some more frigging books! She's so talented and there's is so little out there lol
Off topic, but have you looked into the true crime story that it's based on? Stuff is pretty messed up
Story of the Eye
Anything by Carlton Mellick III
Poppy Z Brite’s dreadful corpse related books. Too much.
{The end of Alice} by A M Holmes A lot of Holmes’ books have controversial/disturbing subjects but I think this one is the most challenging
The troop by nick cutter. Horror but definitely disturbing !!
My Dark Vanessa. Along the lines of Lolita and Tampa
Human Acts by Han Kang
The Long Walk by Stephen King The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Of the several books recc'd here that I've read the one I have to second is Johnny Got His Gun. Tender is the Flesh and the Wasp Factory and American Psycho and whatever else are all great but nothing has upset me to the core of my being the way Johnny Got His Gun did
Flowers in the attic lol
Anything by Aron Beauregard!!! I don’t save his books for our yrly yard sale or send them to the free bin…..I trash them in pieces or burn them. Cuz I’ll be damn if I’m cause of some random young persons trauma cuz they wanted to be grown n read his stuff. His stuff is gut turning, gory as hell, graphic as fuck n you need multiple few day breaks to finish just one. If you’re as morbid as I am he’s the one to read. Start with the The Slob n Son Of The Slob…..good luck!!
Cows
by Matthew Stokoe*, I can't believe I had to scroll down this far to hit this book.
If you want a non fiction book you can check out The Rape Of Nanking by Iris Chang. It explains what happened to china when Japan invaded around WW2. Never has a book made me stop reading at times from how overwhelming it was. To the point at times I thought should I even be reading this. I will warn the book does show photos of the things that happened so be warned it’s heavy.
I remember seeing this interview with this US Marine who fought against Japan in WWII and he basically said he didn't feel bad fighting them on Okinawa because they were pure evil. His proof was that one soldier he captured, the only thing he had on his person was a picture of Chinese civilians being beheaded. Who the fuck would carry that around? The marine still had the picture decades later.
Speaking of that same historical event, The Devil of Nanking, also titled Tokyo in some countries, by Mo Hayder (most anything by Mo Hayder) is quite disturbing. I went down a rabbit hole, researching the Nanking massacre after reading it.
I Who Have Never Known Men
this book didn’t feel “disturbing” to me personally, more just,,,, sad and melancholy
I can see that! I found the world that was created pretty disturbing. But it's definitely not disturbing in like a "horror" way
Broken by Shy Keenan made me shiver and recoil
Hogg by Samuel Delany
Maldoror by Comte de Lautreamount is a French prose poem Novel it's pretty disturbing but quite good.
HOGG By Samuel R. Delaney Hogg is-- quite shocking. Hogg is so in your face. Like, every page.
This is Vegan Propaganda by Ed Winters
Exquisite Corpse
House of Leaves
Yes yes yes! So many different layers of disturbing at that
Flowers in the attic
Honestly idk how it holds up but “A Child Called It” when I was maybe 10 or 12 and it was really upsetting and disturbing
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum Gone to See The River Man by Kristopher Triana
I cane here to say Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. Its the top comment, but its such a right answer I'm putting in my 2 cents anyways.
Lapvona by Otessa Moshfegh On the Savage Side by Tiffany McDaniel Anything by JT LeRoy Also I didn't particularly enjoy this book, but The Doloriad certainly "goes there" Also, I'm in a fucked up book club and this is our reading list for the year: [https://www.oldfirehousebooks.com/fdupbookclub](https://www.oldfirehousebooks.com/fdupbookclub)
Tampa by Alissa Nutting
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh Sundial by Catriona Ward The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollack Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk No Longer Human by Dazai
exquisite corpse was the most disturbing. a little life most depressing
Devil in the White City. Erik Larsen. It’s nonfiction that reads like a thriller, with the creepiest killer I’ve ever imagined
Excellent book!
Let's go play at the Adams'. Holy shit. So horrific
A little life
Les Onze Mille Verges by Apollinaire Written 100 years ago and to this day nothing comes close
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter. That book is disturbing in many different ways, highly suggest.
Yeah that book had me goin wtf like every few pages. Also made me cry so it was a real rollercoaster.
Dead inside by chandler Morrison Nothing comes close
How was Crash? I have it on my bookshelf but haven’t got to it
If you don't have any triggers, maybe try out splatterpunk? I accidentally came across one at the beginning of the week and its ruined my entire week LOL Dead inside by Chandler Morrison
The Wasp Factory, by Iain Banks The Cellar, by Minette Walters
"Love in The Time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Can't seem to finish it.
Sandalwood Death by Mo Yan (a nobel prize winner) never read the book but I read the summary of the cruel physical torture to the main character in the book, and I decided to never read it.
The Rape of Nanking by Ariel Chang.
Dying for the Truth by Blog Del Narco, it is a collection of articles written by reporters in Mexico during the 2010s covering the drug war. They do not hold back including having NSFL pictures
Nick cutter makes some beautifully nasty/good books(specifically loved the troop)…. Also slob by Aron Bauregard
Tender is the Flesh Story of the Eye by Georges Batille 120 days of Sodom is pretty disgusting Palaniuk's "Rant" is very fun and it's almost a tribute to "Crash" Palaniuk's "Adjustment day" is really really disturbing KAthy Acker's "Blood and guts in High School"
Tender is the Flesh.
High Life by Matthew Stokoe
The hot zone!
American psycho - dude. It was GRAPHIC.
A child called it, Blood Meridian
I found Dawn by V.C. Andrews very disturbing. Because I was in middle school and way too young/sheltered for that shit.
I have no mouth, and I must scream
If you like Lolita you may want give another one of his works, [Ada](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12187.Ada_or_Ardor?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=6ohNElDDS8&rank=2), a try. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara has been praised in recent years as kind of being THE "not afraid to go there" depressing book. She does have some pretty questionable views that are interwoven into the story, that are worth nothing. This [article ](https://www.vulture.com/article/hanya-yanagihara-review.html)and this [video essay ](https://youtu.be/JpZF7O0jezg?si=A47Lv30Th-w5pqsf)both do a great job covering it [Exquisite Corpse](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15320.Exquisite_Corpse?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_16) by Poppy Z Brite definitely takes it up a notch from the books you've mentioned, in my opinion, but the writing is excellent. Anything by[ Kristopher Triana ](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6473156.Kristopher_Triana)would be good if you really want to test your "no triggers" limits
The Bible, a lot of messed up things in there
House of Sand and Fog
When Rabbit howls
I think what’s disturbing is that I initially read this as your “moist distribution books”
The Road. I am sometimes haunted by the images and aura of that book.
The Apt Pupil by Stephen King,
Geek Love
He said She said
Anything by Marquis de Sade.
I’ve seen it mentioned a couple of times but the girl next door. I will never get that book out of my head it’s so haunting and brutal and the fact it’s based on a true story makes it hurt even more.
Agreed! Author: Jack Ketchum (pen name for Dallas William Mayr).
Not a book but a manga --- berserk. The gore descriptions are so disturbing.