I just sat here and watched a feature-length booktube video and LOVED every minute of it. I’ve not come out unscathed. My tbr is bursting at the seams and im sure my wallet will suffer the consequences soon enough. This video was a masterpiece! And you say you would like your channel to be the go-to place for disturbing books… to me it already is and has been! This series is in my opinion the best thing on booktube rn!!! ❤️ thank you for your service, bro
❤️❤️❤️ Sorry for the TBR 😂 but your words mean so much to me, as you already know. I truly hope this compendium attracts more and more lovers of disturbing literature. If this is my sole legacy, I will die a happy man!
I can't believe i just found this series, i've been actively looking for this kind of contento for MONTHS. I LOVE your perspective, language and approach
The Mother Load! I can’t believe you’ve compiled this extensive list for our viewing pleasure. You are truly doing a unique and wonderful service here on Booktube! The only downside, to echo some other comments here, is that my TBR will suffer greatly. You really know how to raise intrigue about a book! You make me want to read everything you discuss.
Glad you enjoyed, Jeremy, and sorry about the TBR 😅 but if anything, now you’ll never lack reading material! And thank you, as always, for your beautiful and kind words. ❤️
I just want to tell you I appreciate you and your channel. I get so much out of it. I believe I'm quite a bit older than you, but I really look up to you because of your insightful grasp on literature and how you really penetrate into the heart of everything you discuss here. The way you articulate everything is just amazing. I have to gush about it. All of your content is such a joy to experience and I hope that I will be seeing you in my description box... forever!
Thank you so much, my friend, for these wonderful words, and for your continued support. I really appreciate it. Always love hearing that people are enjoying the videos! That’s what keeps this channel going. Don’t know what else to say, except, your presence here is truly cherished!
I have been binge watching your most disturbing book videos since stumbling upon you on RUclips. The detail you discuss the books with, and the absolutely articulate description of them is so enjoyable to watch
Hi Juan! I've been a long-time silent subscriber of this channel since I found it early this year. I want to thank you for all your amazing recommendations and for getting me back into reading in general. If you were to make a video on disturbing nonfiction, I might finally have a recommendation. I read "Night" from Elie Wiesel in eighth grade and it's stuck with me since. It's a memoir detailing his horrendous experience in the Holocaust and his time in Auschwitz. Super disturbing and beautifully written, and it's pretty short as well. It will surely stick with me for even more years to come.
I read this book in college for a class on Human Rights in Literature, and it absolutely demolished me. There’s brief and sudden glimpses and details told from such a straightforward voice, that they really make you reconsider what the experience of reading atrocities really is. All I will say is, you may be happy with what’s coming for part 7!
So happy to have you here! Always great hearing from now people who have watched my videos. I thank you for your time and for your comment. I keep hearing this about the TBR. Blame the viewers more! I keep it at five per video. They like to go crazy! 😂
Thought I was already subscribed omg🥺😩 ! Well now I am🥳 !!! I literally grabbed my notebook to write down most of these titles so that I can go buy them !!!!
❤❤❤ a little late to the party but just recently read about your book “Poking Holes” and then found out you have a RUclips channel. Have not been disappointed so far. And you’re a Swans fan, 🥲 I think I’ll make myself at home here. Can’t wait to read your book and to check out these recommendations. Thank you Juan.
Omg omg this makes me so happy! I really haven’t read anything or watched any RUclips videos in what feels like forever now probably since your fourth video on disturbing books came out just because of personal issues and stuff going on I feel like I haven’t been able to have the attention span but today I decided that it would probably be a lot of help if I started reading again so I started rereading one of my favorites tender is the flesh and I got about halfway through and I got all excited to start a new book and decided I should re-watch all your videos on disturbing books because I love your videos you always give a great summary and I’ve read so many books you’ve talked about and now a lot of them are my favorite books I’ve read. i’ve never been let down by your recommendations! But I’m so happy to see you have made more in this series and I’m excited to read the books you talk about and it made my day seeing you talk about Sarah in your video!
also one book that was recommend to me when I was in costa rica was the lonely mens island I really enjoy books about people that have went to jail and their experience and this one is actually a fictional book but about a real jail on an island off Costa Rica and based on events the author experienced there I think but I am having a really hard time finding where I can get the book is there any chance you have read it because I want to but I can't find it and I want to know if its worth still searching for
Good to hear you’re back here, and back to reading! It’s always an honor to hear that people get that spark to read from this channel. Always happy to hear it! We’re now up to part 6 for this series, and there’s more to come! And yes, Sarah is pretty great! Sadly, I have never heard of this book you mentioned, so I am not much help on that front. 😔
Hi-I’m a newer subscriber. Really loved this list and can’t wait to go back and check out the others you’ve done. For ones mentioned here, I’ve read What Lies Between Us and The Cipher and agree they both have disturbing parts to them.
Thank you so much for subscribing! Welcome to the channel! I’ve yet to explore John Marrs in any capacity, but I’m really excited to hopefully read The Cipher this month!
I am legend is a really disturbing book. The fact that the main character is trying not to lose not only his life but his identity is really creepy. Like imagine a world where you are inevitably going to succumb and you wake up every day not knowing if it’s the end or you get to see another morning. Keep up the amazing work brother!
It definitely is! There’s a sense of… I don’t know, “societal claustrophobia” in that book that is unbelievable. It felt like a suffocating novel to me.
hats off for making this amazing channel! your style is so articulate and for the first time i enjoyed listening to book reviews! i think your approach makes a lot of justice to the books themselves and also urges the listeners to think about the actual reading process (which is so rare nowadays, people just accumulate books, readings, trivia , whatever and do not stop to think of them) glad someone in the comments considers Kobo Abe disturbing . i also found a book particularly disturbing , The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat - Iran, written in the twenties - basically talks about death with such a devastating fascination that i found disturbing .there is the saying "clinging to dear life" well, this author writes about clinging to dear death, as a refuge, as a consolation. the book is mostly poetry , not much happens except decay and darkness and of course, death . another book that i found disturbing and calming at the same time is Samuel Becket's The Unnamable (also the whole trilogy , Moloy, Malone Dies and Unnamable) . reading it was like having a glimpse into dementia; i understood a little of the utter terror of not being able to understand/do something, anything and at the same time the peace of not being bothered anymore by this.... still i am not able to make much sense of it and it still haunts me. again, congrats for the amazing work that you do! i have a lot longer reading list now !
Well, congratulations for leaving a comment that legitimately made me a bit teary-eyed! I really am overwhelmed by all the kindness and support I have received on this channel. I’m happy to provide a platform where people can talk about literature from a more introspective approach. The Blind Owl was suggested to me before. I was already intrigued then, and I’m dying to read it now! Thank you for providing that final push. This Becket work, I have not read, but being familiar with his style, I can absolutely see what you’re describing. He really embodied that aspect of modernism concerned with the erosion of the “individual” and the thought process. I included his short novel, How It Is, in my “Weirdest Books” top 10, but I could equally call that one disturbing as well.
Maybe I haven't seen it yet in your videos yet but I have no mouth and I must scream is a top pick for me, I read it like 15 years ago and it always stuck with me, thanks for making a disturbing section, helps me add to my list of stuff to read!
LOL thank you! What a kind compliment. I did have a brief stint as a TA before dropping out of grad school. It was fun! Don’t know how good a job I did though.
I saw Jordaline’s review! I’m definitely intrigued. Sounds like it has much more to offer beyond the “killer kid” hijinks, which I appreciate! The summary reminded me a lot of one of the books I read in May, The Fifth Child.
I am not sure how I missed this in prior videos but I am a historian who works with some truly horrible source material. Sometimes my colleagues cry at work. I get emotional, but rarely about the violence, I even cried for a subject who died of TB, but never for violence. I keep thinking about these characters facing violence but cut off from its impact and emotional meaning...and while witnessing things historically is very different than IRL, I too am numb. I need to be more present to the horrors we study, otherwise we normalize the past as inevitable. I study events less than 200 years ago, it's way too early to stop feeling. This series has been very mind opening. I appreciate you doing the opposite of sensationalizing.
This comment truly means a lot to me. Part of the reason I do this is because, as a horror fan, I also am often appalled by how… dehumanizing the reading can become. That is why I love transgressive fiction: It brings calamity to the centrality of a human wound, and it can really shift perspectives that often feel so settled.
recently found your channel and am binging your content. i absolutely adore you & the way you speak about things. you’re insightful and open minded in a very refreshing way regarding disturbing media! sending all my love from ohio ❤️🖤
I’m so honored and happy you’ve enjoyed the content! It means a lot, truly. These are the kinds of comments that keep me going. I definitely think “disturbing” and “transgressive” fiction deserve bigger conversations here on Booktube, so I’m happy to provide them! Love received and reciprocated from California!
New here! Loving these list so much! Please do a list on disturbing manga!! I read my first junji ito short story collection over Christmas and absolutely fell in love. Would love more recommendation.
Another great video, thank you for your recommendations! I found Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea very disturbing. What is most disturbing to me about this book is that the perpetrators are a group of young boys, and the things they are capable of even at such a young age is really upsetting. I would highly recommend!
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea is actually one of my favorite novels! I definitely have to reel it into this series. Thanks for the comment! I’ll definitely be talking about Mishima in the next installment!
I just found your channel few days ago and I completely fell in love! I listen to you while working and it’s a real pleasure! Keep up the great work! In terms of my takes on disturbing books I have two titles that come up to my mind: - The Vegetarian by Han Kang - it has this eerie, uncomfortable vibe, strange story of woman who because of violent, bloody dreams stops eating meat. I had this book in my head weeks after I read this - also the way it’s written made it even more interesting - One of us by Åsne Seierstad - non-fiction about Anders Breiwik who in July of 2011 murdered 69 children/teens in a summer camp on Utoya island, and eight adults after a bomb attack in Oslo. Seierstad made this gargantuic amount of work in portraying Breivik and what lead to this massacre. I literally had to take breaks while reading, incredibly good book. Wishing you all best, take care!
So happy you found the channel! And I’m glad to provide a mild work diversion. That’s what I’m here for! 😂 I’ve heard of the Vegetarian before, and I’m definitely intrigued! One of Us sounds intriguing as well. I really want to make an installment of this series comprised of nonfiction books, so thank you! Wish you the best as well!
Of course I am watching this video and I don't mind you talking about Irvine Welsh at all. I agree with what you said about the "serious" intention of his books. On the other hand, I think Welsh spices up his art by adding dark humor because otherwise the subject matter would be too morose. Thank YOU for considering our recommendations. I am looking forward to a part 6. That book by Kenzaburo is amazing. If you like him I also recommended "The silent cry" (but this one is morose, incredibly disturbing, depressing and complex) and "Teach us to outgrow our madness" (a 4 short stories collection or "novellas" which are pretty diverse) There is something about Japanese literature that is so enticing. I also have read Kobo Abe and Mishima and they are superb too.
Thank you so much, my friend, for the ever so amazing recommendations you always leave in the comments! I was amazed by Marabou Stork Nightmares! I’ve also read Trainspotting and Filth, as I mentioned here, and he’s yet to disappoint! I agree there’s absolutely a dark humor in his works, but I guess I was speaking more to the fact that the majority of his audience seems to think that that’s all he has to offer. He is actually one of the most captivating writers who tackles the horrors of the human condition. Thanks again for pointing me to this book! And we’ll see how A Personal Matter goes! I agree. Japanese literature, especially their more contemporary classics, capture something so unnerving that I just can’t quite put into words. Mishima is a treasure! Kobo Abe will be resurfacing in this channel in the future!
I’m convinced! I hope to be starting it soon. I was going to tackle it for “Killer Kid” month but I ran out of time, but it is never too late! Thank you so much, Trish!
@@PlaguedbyVisions I'm not sure if you're a movie person, but although I hate watching movies, I actually saw We Need To Talk About Kevin before discovering it was a book. It was a phenomenal film too! :)
Hi! I adore your videos! Found your first entry in this series last night around 9. I've gotten this far already and it's only been 13 hours. 😅😅😅 You're so interesting and well spoken! Thank you for your reviews and recommendations. I was wondering if you would ever be interested in making a disturbing book list free of SA? I am an SA survivor and also really interested in reading some wild literature... I have found that it's at times extremely difficult to parse out which books will or will not be problematic for me. Maybe I'm not the only one? 😅 For anyone else with this issue, or honestly just for book lovers in general... Storygraph is a great app and does give trigger warnings for a lot of books! My to read list is on there and growing. Also I do hope you wound up reading The Troop... I recently finished it and it was so fun in the worst way. 😅 Sending love!!! 💜💜💜
Thank you so much for your comment! I completely understand where you are coming from. I am a survivor of child sexual abuse, and while I have not needed content warnings per se, I certainly prefer to avoid it when I know it’s probably not handled in the most sensitive way. I can tell you, from the books I have covered so far on this series: Against Nature Now You’re One of Us John Dollar Seeing Red The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich The Hole On the Beach Are free of such content. However, it’s been a while, so double-checking is always wise. And thank you so much for the resource on content warnings! I’ll definitely point viewers to that when asked. And yes, I will try my best to come up with such a list. Thank you for the suggestion!
@@PlaguedbyVisions Thank you so so much! I'm sorry that you have been through it too. It isn't easy. Sometimes it feels like it seeps into every aspect of life. 😅 I appreciate you going out of your way to list these. That is so lovely of you. 🥺💜 Thanks for your time and consideration! Please be well. 💜
using empathy for horror is an underrated concept! I found Confessions to be disturbing because of the constantly twisting sides to sympathize with that left me unsure at the end
The hot zone I chose from a summer reading list in high school and I still find myself thinking about at the age of 32. It's very graphic and startling.
I look forward to seeing more of this hopefully infinite list! One topic that always disturbs me is that of human cruelty to animals. Sometimes I can’t stomach reading about it at all (Watership Down was a no-go for me). However, one disturbing book on the subject that I genuinely love is George Saunders’ novella “Fox 8.” It’s written from the point of view of a fox whose home is destroyed by construction near a shopping mall, who has to navigate the human world in order to find a new place to live. Gut-wrenching, but also very funny and empathetic. I highly recommend everything Saunders has ever written, by the way.
Agh! It’s getting hard to keep up with you all! Fox 8 is something I want to talk about in a future video 😅 not a “disturbing books” installment, but perhaps you’ll still find the discussion compelling!
Great list. I read Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews because if you and boy what a disturbing piece...cut I enjoyed the stank left over. I also read The Day in the Life if Ivan D...and wow it was something fir sure. I have the Irvine Wells book but haven't read it. Might have to bump that up on my tbr. Thanks for sharing
Thank you so much! Harry Crews is definitely one of my favorite authors. I’m glad you enjoyed his work! Irvine Welsh is great when you realize that his humor and tragedy are inseparable. He really does a number on your emotions!
I'm new to this series, but what a great idea. More books to add to my list of stuff I want to read. Sometimes you just have to take as long as you need to get the video you want to make
Thanks, Steve! It’s definitely a strange and intriguing series we all collectively have going here. Glad you got to watch this! I know, I always feel bad just dropping a grotesquely long video on people’s sub boxes 😅 but I think, given the volume of books recommended, at least this once it was warranted!
Not a novel or short story collection but I’d consider ‘The Complete Plays of Sarah Kane’ a disturbing read. Any British drama/theatre student will be familiar with Kane because her final play ‘4.48 Psychosis’ is often taught and it’s probably what she’s remembered for most. But the other plays ‘Blasted’, ‘Cleansed’ and ‘Phaedra’s Love’ are each disturbing in their own right. Repeated depictions of and allusions to extreme violence, sexual assault, war crimes, incest, and cannibalism among other taboos or disturbing subject matter. EDIT** there’s another play in there called ‘Crave’
Very intriguing. Thank you so much! I had never fully considered the entirely new dimension of disturbing that theater and performance could add to a written work. Certainly, these works sound like they would be difficult and shocking pieces to perform and spectate. This is definitely being mentioned in the next installment!
Hearing you talk about 'To Train Up A Child' made me think of 'The Water Cure' by Sophie Mackintosh, which I read last year. It's a truly disturbing tale about a man that tries to shield his wife and daughters from the evils of men by sequestering them on an island, where he subjects them to cruel rituals to make them pure and strong. It was long-listed for the Booker prize, and definitely worth a read.
There’s definitely a lot of these books about “the other side of nurturing and protecting.” It’s such a creepy flip when authors pull it off well, so I’m definitely intrigued! Thanks, Dave! Don’t let Olive take you into an island. 😱
Hello Juan! Many thanks for the kind words i take them with great appreciation and happiness. You made my day for mentioning me in your awesome channel. I like what you did with the video it didnt feel long. To me it worked. Your the only youtuber who doesnt see their audience as a means but as an end. That will skyrocket you forward. The content in the video is amazing so many titles that are inviting. You got me sold on Evas Man and the Welsh novel. There are some sectors of people in the world that their environment shapes them instead of the opposite and that cannot be. And thank you for bringing into focus Castellanos Moya i bought La Diaspora from him. I havent been able to find Insensatez. Juan im currently reading Negative Space by Yeager to let you know if i liked it and next The Dice Man that is said to be a good transgressive novel you should look into. I was going to ask you if youve read Shutter Island cause is a great read better than the movie. Very creepy and atmospheric. This video is plethora of language, taste, humor, passion, knowledge and more. Much respect and care from Chris your friend from Puerto Rico.
Chris, thank you so much for this amazing comment! Honestly, audience interaction is the best part about RUclips for me. I don’t understand how some Booktubers can go without replying to comments! And yes, this list belongs to you all, not me. Certainly, so many wondrous things to explore. I have not read La Diaspora, but La diabla en el espejo and El asco are equally astounding novels by him. I do want to read Negative Space in the future, seeing as Amygdalatropolis really left me wanting more. Thank you so much for even more recommendations! They will go to the next installment, whenever that may be. Thanks so much for the amazing conversations, Chris!
Thank you! And Manfred says thank you as well. The Wasp Factory is an incredibly bizarre work-always have my reservations about recommending, but if you can look past grotesquery easily, then I say it’s a phenomenal book, with really salient messages about identity and the nature of violence. I really enjoyed reading it, but I was a teenager-who knows if it would survive a second reading nowadays.
Also, do give Andrews a chance. The books are better than the movies. Either make your first read Heaven, My Sweet Audrina, or Flowers in the Attic. Adding some of your suggestions to my TBR.
Yay! I love this series! I’m binging on some of your videos today, trying to catch up 😜 Congrats on getting ads! I recommend Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos, the psychological tension in the book, the harrowing mental abuse that the main character has to go through is horrific and will keep you glued to it. I want to make this one thing clear, because this comparison annoys me to no end: this is NOT a dark Harry Potter, I don’t care a writer said that! It’s highly inaccurate, misleading and personally I think it’s an insult to the authors. Now metaphysical , check! Dark, check! Somewhat disturbing , check! But most of all this is a little literary gem, I would even say it’s it’s own genre, the ending left me flabbergasted. The premise is a girl gets recruited against her will by a mysterious stranger to the Institute of Special technologies. If she refuses to attend, her family pays the price. We really don’t find out what this school really teaches until later in the book. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll stop here, but you won’t forget Sacha Samokhina’s trials for a long time.
Truly appreciate the binging! I have never heard of this book! Certainly thank you for clarifying this HP comparison-I would have probably dismissed it if I had read that about it. This sounds intense and inventive as hell. I’m definitely intrigued!
@@PlaguedbyVisions Thanks for replying, I hope you get the chance to check it out. I certainly saved a lot of books from this video in my Goodreads To Read feed! Thanks for doing this with your channel, I love it!
Hi Juan. I can highly recommend James Herbert. I've got all his books. "The Rats" is actually the first in a trilogy. The others being "Lair" and "Domain" respectively. Another disturbing author I recommend is Shaun Hutson. Richard Laymon is also a terrific read.
Thank you so much, Wayne! I’m definitely excited to get into Herbert’s work! And idk if you got to watch it, but in my May Wrap-Up, I finally talked about John Saul. I read Suffer the Children, and I thought it was a pretty solid book! Laymon’s been sitting untouched on my shelf for quite some time. His time approaches. I feel it. Never read Hutson, but I’ve seen the film adaptation of his novel, Slugs. It was something! 😂
@@PlaguedbyVisions Thanks for the reply. Disregard the Slugs movie. It's absolutely dreadful. Hutson himself actively discourages anyone from seeing it. There's a film called "Rats" based on James Herbert's novel that is also to be avoided at all costs though it's not nearly as awful as Slugs. I look forward to more of your content as always. Stay well mate.
Hey Juan...I love ur work & u can't believe how many books I read of your suggestions, I would love to see u talk about some of your fav movies I think this would be awesome,I am just suggesting that if u feel like doing it...thank u.
Thank you so much! I’m still wondering how to incorporate films into this channel. I love movies, and definitely want to do it! I might just take a detour into Plagued by (Actual) Visions!
Lots of great stuff here. I love these lists. I am slowly absorbing this video over a couple of days. Joe R. Lansdale is amazing! MKV introduced me to Lansdale, as he has so many great authors. I can't say that I've found much of his work disturbing, but maybe I have a high tolerance. They're definitely worth your time. His Hap and Leonard crime novels are particularly enjoyable. As a parent, I am terrified at the notion of reading 'Kevin'. In general, books or films with children in danger have a far different effect on me since I became a parent. VC Andrews I read in high school, oh so many years ago, so it's hard for me to comment on the quality. But some very bizarre, twisted things occur in those novels... This may have been covered in another list but Jerzy Kosinski's controversial novel 'The Painted Bird' certainly deserves a spot. It is the fictional story of a very young boy who ends up lost and wandering throughout Eastern Europe during World War II. Through his journey he witnesses and experiences horrible atrocities committed by residents of the villages he travels through. The abuse he endures is mostly as a result of his dark hair and olive skin color, which cause people to label him as a "Gypsy" or "Jew". It is a brutal coming of age story set during one of the world's most horrifying periods. It has been a long time since I've read it but as I recall, there is a beauty to the overall experience of the book, in spite of its disturbing content.
Thank you so much for watching, Justin! These are certainly videos that can’t be watched in one sitting. The Lansdale books have been ordered. You are the fifth person to concur that I should read his work. I feel like I’ve been truly missing out! I can understand the subject matter of children ringing different for you as a parent, which is why this list is so volatile, and my working thesis is that ANY BOOK can be disturbing, given the right conditions and mentality. We’ll see how far this goes! Agh, time to do more research. The Painted Bird was going to be my entry for a future installment, but it is yours to name now! I agree: Such a haunting, misery-ridden book, almost singular in its depictions of humanity. It reminded me a lot of the film, Come and See.
@@PlaguedbyVisions Please, I would rather hear you go in depth into Kosinski's novel rather than a passing overview in what I can only imagine will be another long list of books! I move to strike my recommendation from the record!
My stepdad was one of the parents that took “how to train a child” and put it into practice. For more context to people who haven’t heard of it before (I’m not worrying about spoilers bc it’s more of a manual than a story), the book is specifically for parents in certain extreme branches of Christianity (my stepdad was a Pentecostal but I think quiverfulls and a few other sects also use it) and it is HORRIFIC. It’s basically just a whole book of how to abuse your child and wife but written in language that makes it out to be an amazing, godly thing that every man should do to his family. One of the most visceral things they suggest is to throw children who can’t swim directly into pools or ponds to “teach them to be careful around water” by basically making sure they always associate it with a near death experience. They recommend what size of stick you should beat kids with based on their age, and talk about the 12” by 1/8” wooden switch they used to hit their 4 month old daughter to keep her away from stairs. They recommend yanking on the hair of newborn babies if they bite or suck too hard while nursing. They set out things as bait for their kids to get into just so they have an excuse to punish them basically bc “how can you train a child not to do something if you never punish them bc they never got the opportunity to do wrong” using the same logic behind the garden of Eden and original sim. It not only recommends but NECESSITATES children basically being constantly hit and yelled at 24/7 bc “training can never take breaks or it won’t work”. And it’s also predicated on the idea that women are “helpmates”, almost categorizing them as less human than men by telling them their ONLY purpose is to marry a man, keep house for him, pop out his kids, satisfy his physical needs, and support him completely while not having any life or aspirations outside the family, or any agency over your life or even your body. The only things women have control over are their children (until boys reach puberty then they basically outrank their mother in the family hierarchy) and the book pushes women to exert that control thru violence towards their children. I’m not sure if this is from the same book or a related one (yes, this is not a one off phenomenon) but they also talk about the boundaries of courtship and marriage, which includes things like “a girl is property of her father until she’s wed, when she becomes property of her husband” and “courtship should be supervised, wholesome, and brief. Women really should be married no later than 20”. In the community I lived in (small town where everyone went to the war church) most girls were married by 16 and had at least one child by 18. Women weren’t allowed to wear pants or cut their hair or wear makeup or even show ankles or shoulders. No western medicine either; there was an outbreak of E. Coli in the church nursery and my mom was the only person to even consider taking her baby to the hospital for it (and if you’re wondering it happened bc the Sunday school teacher was going from changing diapers to handing out snacks without washing her jars bc she didn’t believe in germs), and one time I got thrown out of te building bc I tried to tell a group of moms it wasn’t safe to rub menthol based oils on their babies (it causes respiratory distress and can literally kill them). They basically said I was blasphemous bc they claimed oils come from nature and god wouldn’t give us anything that was bad for us (if you don’t know, the big thing that differentiates Pentecostals from other Christian is the belief that god will protect them from venoms and poisons, sorta similar to Christian Science, ie we handled snakes) and they were none too happy when I pointed out that asbestos and anthrax also come from nature. I think this is honestly THE MOST UPSETTING book I’ve ever read, worse than any body horror or splatter punk or ero guro, bc in those works it’s nearly always a theoretical situation that it’s made abundantly clear you shouldn’t emulate. Like if you come out of Lolita thinking it’s ok to groom kids you completely missed the point of the book, but if you come out of Train Up thinking you should beat your kids, you’re just reading the text for what it is. And while there are books about true crime like The Girl Next Door that are horrific…. As awful as it was, only Silvia Lichens ever had to endure her specific brand of abuse, and it’s seen by everyone who looks at it for exactly that, abuse… thousands, potentially even millions of kids have been abused using this exact handbook, the people doing it see it not as harm but as an act of love, religious communities like the one I grew up in with hand out this book and shun those who don’t practice it, children who are raised this way often continue to raise their own children this way, and at least 3 children (tho honestly prob many more) have died due to the teachings of the book. Quite honestly Train Up is like a singe drop of poison that once introduced effects the whole family, community, and all their descendants for several generations.
Marabou stork nightmare has a similar premise to a concept album by my favorite band, the human equation by ayreon. It’s less explicitly violent but the themes are present judging from how you described it
Justin let me know about your taste for Lansdale. I want to read his books now! And of course, since you’re doing James Herbert-a-Thon, you’ve read the Fog! Thanks as always for the support, Sir Lord Vaughan.
I see some people found Let's Talk About Kevin disturbing. The only disturbing thing I found in this novel was the boredom of reading it. The ending was about as exciting as watching a documentary on soap making. Congratulations on your channel. Very interesting.
Ouch, some choice words on Shriver’s novel! I do find the subject matter it tackles important and calamitous enough to give it a look, but I totally understand if it’s just overrated-it happens all the time! But I believe in giving most things a fair chance.
Since you mention your love for manga/anime, do you also enjoy light novels, or maybe even visual novels? There are quite a few of extremely good ones. For example, Boogiepop series, there are 6 book availible in english, each of them can be read in like an hour. It's a disturbing-action, i would say, as opposed to horror. As for visual novels, I would highly recommend "The house in fata morgana", it recently broke records by becoming the hightest rated videogame on metacritic, very deservingly. It is so beautiful and, yes, disturbing and messed up. The other one is "Ciconia: when they cry", which is so painfully modern and horrifying, it literally made me scared of the future.
The only light novel I ever tried was the Bakemonogatari series. I wasn’t particularly a fan of the format, as it felt a little bit lacking in detail, but I’m not opposed to keep exploring! Now, visual novels: What a bizarre pandora’s box to open! To see what the method of “reading” would be like for those works, and note the experience as contrasting with conventional literature. That would definitely be an intriguing concept in and of itself! Thank you so much for the wonderful recommendations!
Holy shit, I am so honored and flattered by your praise. I think you might enjoy Joe R. Lansdale's body of work. He has a very dark sense of humor and the horror can often reach a level of absurdity that is funny one moment and unsettling the next. My favorites from him are under the weird west category (an awesome subgenre), particularly his run on Jonah Hex back when the title had been promoted to DC's mature line, Vertigo. As far as other disturbing books, I recently got a copy of And the Ass Saw the Angel, by Nick Cave. It's an excellent southern gothic which explores familial abuse, religious fanaticism, and societal persecution of "the other".
Thanks again for such compelling entries into the list! And you are now the third person to recommend Lansdale, so I guess I really ought to look into it! I love And the Ass Saw the Angel! Always difficult to find other people who have read it. It was gifted to me by a friend because I really love Nick Cave’s music, and I gotta say: His writing is phenomenal as well! Between this and M. Gira’s book, maybe there’s an entire installment of “Most Disturbing Books Written by Musicians.” 😂
I'd like to clarify two things really quickly. First, The Bell Jar (my favorite book ever) isn't about Plath's marriage, but the nervous breakdown she suffered in college. Second, The Collector (which I have a love/ hate relationship with) DOES NOT paint the kidnapper in a positive light. It's much the opposite. A lot of the book is a classist (and many would argue fascist) diatribe about how poor working class people can't be trusted with money. And that's what really sickens me about. With all of Fowles' pretentiousness and author insertion (the G.P. character), the victim feels like a spoilt brat and it's impossible to sympathize with her, even though we're supposed to. When she tries seducing her captor, only for him to fail to get an erection, then mocks him, saying he must be impotent and that's why he never rapes her, I nearly quit reading it. It turned my stomach and made me weep. I saw the film first and loved it, but Miranda's section of the book still infuriates me with all the "upper classes and the more refined of the bougoursie need to control society" spiel. Her character is much more tolerable in the film, and Terence Stamp is fantastic! Call me sick, but I do have sympathy for Freddie. Mind you, he is nothing like the criminals who allegedly were inspired by the book. He comes across more like a boy who can't differentiate his victim from the butterflies he keeps. And being sympathetic is different from being positive or heroic, especially when the author intended neither view of the character.
I can’t say much about The Collector since I haven’t read it, but I do look forward to seeing how exactly this treatment of a psychopath plays out! I think what I was trying to say regarding the Bell Jar (which becomes difficult when trying to cover such an avalanche of book suggestions lol) was that a big part of the circumstances that led to its composition was Plath’s separation from her husband.
I think it was the commenter who suggested it who described the book as being about her marriage. Though Plath was planning to write another novel inspired by her marital strife during her last months. There is a collection of her stories and essays, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, which has a few weird and creepy stories, as well as some pretty mundane stuff. But of course her poetry is the best! The subject matter varies, but some of it is extremely dark. I know Daddy and Lady Lazarus verbatim and they top the list for that kind of stuff. Thank you very much for replying! I recently found your channel and love it, even if I haven't read most of the books you've reviewed. I tried to write another comment earlier, but accidentally cancelled it. (Clumsy fingers.) I'm trying to get caught up with all your videos as well, though I'm only like half through. Part of me wants to comment on several of them. I don't know if that would be rude or not. However I will mention that you definitely should read The Other by Thomas Tryon! It's ten times better than the movie! Also, high fives for your praise of Kwaidan! That's the best Japanese horror film ever, in my opinion. So gorgeous and spellbinding! I wish more people would watch it!
I’m honestly a little nervous to bring this up as I don’t know what the consensus is on the book itself, this isn’t even a recommendation, and truth be told I’m a bit self conscious lol. But I wanted to bring up the Burn Journals by Brent Runyon. It’s a memoir surrounding his attempt to burn himself to death at 14. I know you’ve done more parts of this series after this, and this video is old, you might not even see this comment, and the book isn’t even disturbing, but it’s one that hit me at a particular time in my life that I think was the perfect moment to read it. It was one of my first exposures to a sort of candidness that, when I read it at 12 years old, did disturb me to some extent, particularly the scene in which he tries to light himself on fire. I think what really hit me about it was the utter despair that he expresses constantly, the memories that he recalls and the moments where he looks at himself in his self inflicted disfigurement and laments about the “normal” experiences he simply can’t have anymore, solely because of his own momentary decision stemming from his malaise at 14. (Huge grain of salt, this is all from memory and it’s probably not as good as it is in my head). I’m 23 now and I haven’t read it since I first picked it up those 11 or so years ago so I’m not sure it holds up, it’s probably got a very immature writing style. It’s a book that has really stayed with me through all the years though, and I think that has value. I just wanted to throw my voice out there into the discussion. I’m not really an avid reader and I really only know about disturbing stories through content like yours, and your videos (which I’ve been binging recently while I work overnights) have put a lot of books onto my radar that I intend on reading after my Cormac McCarthy binge I’m in the midst of. This channel has helped reignite my will to pick up reading again and given me a lot of works that sound like they would be emotionally resonant and powerful. Again, you might not even see this given how old the video is, but I wanted to say thank you, and I hope you’re doing well.
You talked about making a video about disturbing non-fiction books. In that category I would recommend a book by Lisa Carver that is untitled. It is about her difficult childhood with a crazy and abusive father. While the subject is dark I still think it was a very easy read since Carvers way of writing is so captivating. Whatever she writes about it always leads on to a hundred other things. Love all her books but this is her best I think. Thumbs up for Joe R Lansdale too, he is great.
This sounds fascinating! Sadly, I don’t think I can easily find this book you speak of. Or at least, eBay yielded no results, but I’ll certainly be on the lookout! And everyone seconding the recommendation of Lansdale has compelled me to buy one of his books!
Awwwww your fur baby is adorable. I have all the Cutter books and after finishing The Troop, I plan on knocking out the rest soon. Ito is amazing and I agree with Uzumaki. I'm not a manga fan, but Ito changed that. Oof, Survivor... That one was a kick to the goods. It is well written, there is a scene that shows the aftermath of a brutal rape that might cause you to toss the book.
I am really looking forward to reading Survivor! I haven’t had much luck with extreme horror in terms of appreciating its merits, but Survivor is my last attempt!
2 suggestions for your next video! 1. The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave, yes the same Nick Cave as in The Bad Seeds frontman. This book is just a … strange, sexually disconcerting one, with sexual arousal occurring at really horrid times and is basically written as an exploration of an extremely corrupt, narcissistic sex addict. Sprinkled with typically dark humour that Nick included in his music. Second one is History of A Drowning boy, the autobiography of serial killer Dennis Nilsen. This is horrific as it’s all real, and all written by Nilsen whilst in prison. He discusses his horrid crimes in detail, as well as what led him to do what he did. Possibly not for you as he does discuss CSA, but for anyone who can handle such things and is intrigued into the psychology of murderers, check it out! Brilliant videos, by the way!
I loved And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave! I did find his writing incredibly gripping and lucid. I’ll have to check this other work of his out! CSA bothers me primarily when it’s tacked on for added shock and edginess. When it is important and profound, as this seems to be, I feel compelled to do my duty in digesting these real-life experiences for added meaning to my own personal life. Thank you so much for these suggestions! They will surely be brought up in the next installment!
@@PlaguedbyVisions Ass saw the Angel is an incredible book, I always return to it! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed Nick’s literature too, he’s very very talented. And yes, I suppose you have a point as this wasn’t written to shock, it was the raw truth of Nilsen’s horrific crimes. Stay safe, man!
I love disturbing manga, read all of Junji Ito and its definitely worth rereading. I recommend the manga Goodnight Punpun, which is a totally different kind of disturbing but still a great read. It just carried a sense of discomfort, sadness, and dread that is really hard to replicate. It's been 4 years since I last read it and I still remember it randomly, calling back panels from the manga because they affected me so much. It's a much needed slow burn to get the effect it does. As far as disturbing nonfiction, I noticed the Rape of Nanking on the list and it reminded me of a book on the same subject, Unit 731: The Forgotten Asian Auschwitz. My introduction to transgressive literature began in school when we started learning about the Holocaust, I thought I was a really morbid person because I loved to read about the subject. It led down a rabbit hole of disturbing books, nonfiction and fiction, but it was pretty early on when I discovered Unit 731. As far as that particular subject goes there's also a pseudo-documentary on that military unit called Philosophy of a Knife, definitely check it out if you have 4 hours to burn
I’ve actually reviewed Goodnight Punpun on the channel before! It wasn’t my cup of tea towards the end, but I can only be in awe of the sheer brutality of it. I definitely need to do an installment on disturbing nonfiction, but (and this is so horrifying) there’s just SO MUCH to pick from. Did you ever watch Men Behind the Sun?
Love this series :D I realized today that I wasn't following you, sorry about that. I don't know if I saw all the videos, so I'm sorry if you already talked about this one. But did you read Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk? I went after info about To Train Up a Child and apparently, 3 children died because of it. I read somewhere that people with anxiety have a tendency of liking horror, true crime, disturbing stories because is a way of our comfort zone without actually leaving the confort zone.
Thank you so much for watching and subbing! Yes, I’ve read Haunted. You can see me talk about the infamous “Guts” in my video, Can a Book Kill You?, and the book in its entirety was an entry in my Top 10 Most Disgusting Books! If you’re interested :) That book is decidedly the most evil thing anyone has recommended. “Child-rearing” in general is one of the most bizarre literary genres. Messed up beyond belief. That very well could be an explanation! I do think these stories have therapeutic value to them-helping us confront our fears and unease, by way of stories that understand where all our fears and anxieties come from. Beautifully put by you!
@@PlaguedbyVisions I'll check the videos! I just remember a book, but I don't think it was translated to english or spanish. It's called Holocausto Brasileiro, and it's about this Brazilian mental asylum in the 80s. Over 60.000 people died there and the place was compared to a Nazi concentration camp. It's a non fiction story. The place was called Hospital Colônia de Barbacena .
As freakin' always, your videos make so perfectly my mealtimes and before bedtime! XD So great to see so many recommendations!!! Like you said, is so good to keep discovering literature. I always want to recommend books to you but you are so far ahead haha XD that I see it as a hopeless case. You know soooo much, my friend, that's why you are a perfect refuge for many of us. Of the few things I can recommend I'm sure you already checked out. PENPAL by Dathan Auerbach: what started as a creepypasta published on the internet in parts, was turned into one of the creepiest novels I've ever read, a true experience between anxiety and longing, an expertly handled atmosphere of childhood, loss and death, and an ending so devastating that will leave you remembering your own past and present in a nostalgic way. APPLE & KNIFE by Intan Paramaditha: short stories between horror myth, fairy tales and complete realism about the reality of the female body in today's world. The author could be one of the great voices of the disturbing that speak for women in a deeply honest way. A perfect example is the short story "Blood", I singled that out as one of the finest written stories I've ever encountered, a now-classic in my life. THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM by Jon Padgett: would it sound far-fetched to say that a book can be evil on its own? Well, by the time I finished reading this wonder of the insane, I felt that this book was capable of transforming you to evil in an authentic way. It's THAT good. A bunch of short stories on wickedness and possession like you've never read before, a jewel among jewels. I've read a book of short stories by Horacio Castellanos Moya and he's damn good, I hope to get a dive into Senselessness. I'm an obsessive fan of russian literature and definitely Solzhenitsyn is an absolute feast for me! I adore his work (not the person hahaha he became so messianic after his Nobel prize). Thanks again for an amazing video, mate! TAKE GOOD CARE AND A HUGE HUG! CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE VISIONS ;)
Whoa, thank you so much for this amazing comment! I agree-there is a community here, a group of us who really enjoy this sort of literature, which other Booktubers seldom explore. I love what we have going here! Of your recommendations, I’ve read Penpal (I actually followed the Creepypasta-the novel worked better than I expected) and The Secrets of Ventriloquism (hit or miss, but yes, some very daring and diabolical tales). I have NOT read Apple & Knife, but I’m definitely going to, if it’s sandwiched between these other two! Thank you so much for being here and watching my videos. Your presence in the comments is always cherished!
VC Andrews died in the middle of Writing Dark Angel her 5th novel. Dark Angel and everything after it was written by the prolific horror author Andrew Neiderman. And for Dean Koontz. The hype is real.
I watched Rene Laloux’s ‘Fantastic Planet’ last year (I think). Some could reasonably claim the animation is outdated but other than that I think the film’s excellent! Personally the animation doesn’t bother me and I think that it gives the film a unique quality. Those humanoid aliens (the Draags) are so reflective of humanity while being so unlike us at the same time. Seeing humans in the positions of which we have put other species on this planet is/was disturbing! P.s. Thanks for the recommendations (including you the fellow viewers)!
Fantastic Planet is definitely one of my favorite animated films! I do think you nailed it in terms of what’s so unsettling about it: The Draags are so monstrous and fearsome, and yet they are so because they reflect and recontextualize humanity so well! Thank you so much for watching, Kaylem! I’m glad you found some value in this video.
also I am so sorry if this is already mentioned but Penpal by Dathan Auerbach is surprisingly disturbing. It has a very disorienting format and a gut punching ending
It has indeed been recommended before, and I have read it! I followed it from its inception in r/nosleep, so even though I do think a lot of the book is a bit mediocre, it still holds a special place in my heart. ❤️
I've also read The Deep by Nick Cutter shortly after reading The Troop. Again another fantastic novel. Some parts gave me claustrophobia, the isolation, the immense pressure in the deepest part of the earth...cutter writes about Fear and paranoia and mental collapse pretty well. I thoroughly enjoy his books and I'm eager to read Little Heaven by him soon. I've heard it's better than his last two.
This is high praise! Now I’m curious to pick it up. I quite liked the Troop, but it didn’t blow me away or anything, yet I’m still willing to give the author another shot.
I read a book one time in middle school called Cry Silent Tears by Joe Peters. Definitely shouldn’t have read it that young and, admittedly, I don’t remember much about it but I do remember middle school me crying her eyes out. A Little Life is definitely disturbing and just downright depressing. I didn’t have the best time reading it but I think the writing is beautiful. Hanya Yanagihara’s ability to give genuine and specific imagery is incredible. And I felt connected to the main character on a personal level. Trigger Warnings galore, though!
Thank you so much for watching! I have never heard of that first book, but I definitely remember similar reading experiences as a younger person. Emotions certainly hit different back then. I keep hearing about A Little Life, and I’m definitely not opposed to trying it out! Masterful prose and deep emotion sounds like a winning combination.
My kindle has arrived so now I'm reading fanfics and writing down the books you recommended! I'm planning to download them later 26:05 Oh, I recognize this book (how to train up a child)! The youtuber Rachel Oates made a video talking about it, you should watch it. A disturbing book that was not written with the intent of being disturbing The authors, Michael and Debi Pearl, are deeply insane and you can't help but feel bad for their kids. Also the book was linked to the deaths of three children. Very unsettling
Hope you get to have a good time with your kindle! Happy to help with any needed recommendations. And yes, I have since looked into the story behind this book since I plan to talk about it in a future video. Quite the horror story!
"Flowers In the Attic" is pretty twisted (child abuse and incest being major themes), but if you really want a messed up VC Andrews book check out "My Sweet Audrina". Or then again, maybe don't. I'd also be interested in a disturbing nonfiction vid/series. I could recommend "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and "War Against the Weak." (The former discussing a particularly awful incident of the govt.'s mistreatment of indigenous Americans and the latter a history of eugenics and how it got popular with "intellectuals".) Keep up the good work! 🤩
Thank you so much! VC Andrews is definitely still someone I’d like to explore in the future. I’ve definitely heard the name over and over when it comes to more unsavory literature. Nonfiction disturbing books is definitely doable, and perhaps sadly, very prolific. I’ve seen the film adaptation of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and it was devastating. I’d definitely be interested in reading the book. War Against the Weak I’ve never read, but there is definitely a long and sick history between writers and eugenics that is indeed disturbing and baffling (Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Erskine Caldwell, etc.) Thank you for the suggestions and for watching!
There’s this obscure writer named Stephen King out there that writes the most disturbing books ever made (literally!) I’d be shocked if you’d ever heard of him. Anyways I recommend ‘It’ and ‘The Shining’ by said author. Both books have had a couple of film adaptations and they’re pretty fucked up! No shame if you haven’t heard of Stephen King or any of his work, they’re pretty damn obscure.
Stephen King, you say? I think I may have heard something about him from an onion site. I think a friend downloaded a PDF from his book using Tor, but that may be illegal in the US. Will have to check.
A Touch of Jen was pretty disturbing for me anyway it's a horror about this out-of-touch influencer and this couple who's obsessed with her. The reason I found it disturbing specifically was its accurate description of bulimia and the desperation for self-improvement. It's pretty weird and people seem to either love or hate it (I love it) and I like hearing others opinions on it
I recently read The Manchurian Candidate and found it to be quite disturbing. It also made me feel like today with modern technology we are getting closer to being able to do what they did in the book. Even though the book takes place in the fifties during the red scare I was reminded of parallels with today's politics in America. There is one thing that happens in this book that is so disturbing it wasn't featured in the original movie, or it's remake. I would definitely recommend The Manchurian Candidate.
I would say Stephen King's Rage is not by 2021 standards disturbing, but if you think when it was written, it was after what happened in Dallas in the 50s and the "I don't like Mondays" incident. It almost felt like his book was a warning. UPDATE BECAUSE I FORGOT: It's a biography, but Child Star by Shirley Temple is also disturbing, especially when you put down the book and see child star scandals with Nickelodeon, Disney and on social media platforms.
Thank you so much for these suggestions! They will most definitely be in the next installment! I read Stephen King’s rage when I was about 14, and I certainly could never have imagined back then how much such a story would continue to haunt me. I was a student at UCSB when the Elliot Rodger shooting happened, so that subject matter definitely hits close to home. My God, the “child star” world… I can’t imagine what a nightmare world it is. An Open Secret was an almost unbearable watch.
Whether or not A Child Called It is 100% factual doesn't really matter than much. The abuse described in the book, and significantly worse, has happened to likely millions of children. It is well-written and doesn't sugarcoat the kinds of horrors that broken humans can inflict on their own children and how invisible those children can be to the people that could help them.
I don’t disagree! I was gesturing more towards the idea of grief-making for the sake of shocking. There’s something about fictionalizing one’s life that has a particular edge of perversity to it. However, I do and will always agree that art can speak for itself as well.
@@PlaguedbyVisions oh I'm definitely not trying to argue with or undercut what you said about it, I agree. I personally think it's probably a case of an unreliable narrator considering David was a child when the abuse happened and he wrote it when he was much older. So it's likely somewhat sensationalized but he was certainly very badly abused.
Oh heck yeah I love Another. It’s kinda similar to Final Destination, and the anime has my all time favorite scene in all of anime (if not any type of show/movie lol). Some people think the gore is over the top, but i like it. Maybe that’s just the edgy teenage nostalgia in me that still makes me love it so much lol.
MANGA DISTURBING BOOKS PLEASE!!! I've dmed you a disturbing manga I'm planning to read hahaha... I'd also recommend a channel called The Anime Man, he does a lot of disturbing manga recommendations...
Thanks so much for the further specifics on this work! I tend to see this wavering line between disturbing and depressing (as with the Bell Jar and a few others). Perhaps it’s time for a Top 10 Most Depressing Books?
Yeah, if there was a book about the creation of man at the hands of a cruel god and featured child sacrifice, atrocity after atrocity, and it started some blood-soaked religion, it would be ghastly indeed!
Just watched a video about the Marabou Stork, which is animal expose to me via Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares, I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it if you enjoy pushing your ability to read through disturbing. edit: I didn't realise that I had to give you anything more, but I am calling in my MS as the reason I cannot write more, taken twenty minutes thus far.
Does anyone else have a disgustingly long and nearly impossible “to be read” list after subbing to this channel?
Thanks Juan!
It is my utmost pleasure 😎
YES! Going to my local bookstore with my GF today.... again. lol. THANKS FOR THE VIDEO!
u can translate that book
Yes. Its disturbing
YES to a disturbing manga/comic installment and YES to a disturbing nonfiction installment!!!
🤙🏽
Flicking open that "shade" fan took me out 😂
We do love to read after all.
"Times Arrow" by Martin Amis. About a man’s doppelgänger living his life backwards to its horrifying and shocking conclusion. What a ride.
I’ve never heard of this! I’m definitely checking it out. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
tell me he crawls back into his mom,
I just sat here and watched a feature-length booktube video and LOVED every minute of it. I’ve not come out unscathed. My tbr is bursting at the seams and im sure my wallet will suffer the consequences soon enough.
This video was a masterpiece! And you say you would like your channel to be the go-to place for disturbing books… to me it already is and has been! This series is in my opinion the best thing on booktube rn!!! ❤️ thank you for your service, bro
❤️❤️❤️ Sorry for the TBR 😂 but your words mean so much to me, as you already know. I truly hope this compendium attracts more and more lovers of disturbing literature. If this is my sole legacy, I will die a happy man!
Don't call me Shirley. The little drum sample in your intro always gets, 'Living dead girl' in my head like a mo fo. Well done, goo sir
Haha, yes! It’s originally from the Last House on the Left trailer.
I can't believe i just found this series, i've been actively looking for this kind of contento for MONTHS. I LOVE your perspective, language and approach
The Mother Load! I can’t believe you’ve compiled this extensive list for our viewing pleasure. You are truly doing a unique and wonderful service here on Booktube! The only downside, to echo some other comments here, is that my TBR will suffer greatly. You really know how to raise intrigue about a book! You make me want to read everything you discuss.
Glad you enjoyed, Jeremy, and sorry about the TBR 😅 but if anything, now you’ll never lack reading material!
And thank you, as always, for your beautiful and kind words. ❤️
I just want to tell you I appreciate you and your channel. I get so much out of it. I believe I'm quite a bit older than you, but I really look up to you because of your insightful grasp on literature and how you really penetrate into the heart of everything you discuss here. The way you articulate everything is just amazing. I have to gush about it. All of your content is such a joy to experience and I hope that I will be seeing you in my description box... forever!
Thank you so much, my friend, for these wonderful words, and for your continued support. I really appreciate it. Always love hearing that people are enjoying the videos! That’s what keeps this channel going. Don’t know what else to say, except, your presence here is truly cherished!
I have been binge watching your most disturbing book videos since stumbling upon you on RUclips. The detail you discuss the books with, and the absolutely articulate description of them is so enjoyable to watch
Oh, stop it!!! 🫣🫣🫣 Thank you so much! ❤️❤️❤️
Hi Juan! I've been a long-time silent subscriber of this channel since I found it early this year. I want to thank you for all your amazing recommendations and for getting me back into reading in general. If you were to make a video on disturbing nonfiction, I might finally have a recommendation. I read "Night" from Elie Wiesel in eighth grade and it's stuck with me since. It's a memoir detailing his horrendous experience in the Holocaust and his time in Auschwitz. Super disturbing and beautifully written, and it's pretty short as well. It will surely stick with me for even more years to come.
I read this book in college for a class on Human Rights in Literature, and it absolutely demolished me. There’s brief and sudden glimpses and details told from such a straightforward voice, that they really make you reconsider what the experience of reading atrocities really is. All I will say is, you may be happy with what’s coming for part 7!
So lucky to have toppled with your channel. Between you and the commenters my TBR is just absurd. Love it!
So happy to have you here! Always great hearing from now people who have watched my videos. I thank you for your time and for your comment. I keep hearing this about the TBR. Blame the viewers more! I keep it at five per video. They like to go crazy! 😂
Thought I was already subscribed omg🥺😩 ! Well now I am🥳 !!! I literally grabbed my notebook to write down most of these titles so that I can go buy them !!!!
Welcome, Anissa! So happy to hear you’ve found some of these titles intriguing and worthwhile. Hope the reading turns out well!
❤❤❤ a little late to the party but just recently read about your book “Poking Holes” and then found out you have a RUclips channel. Have not been disappointed so far. And you’re a Swans fan, 🥲 I think I’ll make myself at home here. Can’t wait to read your book and to check out these recommendations. Thank you Juan.
You are indeed home, and your incredible taste in music is also appreciated. ❤️
Omg omg this makes me so happy! I really haven’t read anything or watched any RUclips videos in what feels like forever now probably since your fourth video on disturbing books came out just because of personal issues and stuff going on I feel like I haven’t been able to have the attention span but today I decided that it would probably be a lot of help if I started reading again so I started rereading one of my favorites tender is the flesh and I got about halfway through and I got all excited to start a new book and decided I should re-watch all your videos on disturbing books because I love your videos you always give a great summary and I’ve read so many books you’ve talked about and now a lot of them are my favorite books I’ve read. i’ve never been let down by your recommendations! But I’m so happy to see you have made more in this series and I’m excited to read the books you talk about and it made my day seeing you talk about Sarah in your video!
also one book that was recommend to me when I was in costa rica was the lonely mens island I really enjoy books about people that have went to jail and their experience and this one is actually a fictional book but about a real jail on an island off Costa Rica and based on events the author experienced there I think but I am having a really hard time finding where I can get the book is there any chance you have read it because I want to but I can't find it and I want to know if its worth still searching for
Good to hear you’re back here, and back to reading! It’s always an honor to hear that people get that spark to read from this channel. Always happy to hear it! We’re now up to part 6 for this series, and there’s more to come! And yes, Sarah is pretty great!
Sadly, I have never heard of this book you mentioned, so I am not much help on that front. 😔
Hi-I’m a newer subscriber. Really loved this list and can’t wait to go back and check out the others you’ve done. For ones mentioned here, I’ve read What Lies Between Us and The Cipher and agree they both have disturbing parts to them.
Thank you so much for subscribing! Welcome to the channel! I’ve yet to explore John Marrs in any capacity, but I’m really excited to hopefully read The Cipher this month!
Let me get my drink and snack, we are in for a bumpy ride. Great list. Your top 5 sound very interesting.
Haha, yes, get nice and comfy for this wild ride! I hope you enjoy(ed) the video! Glad to hear you found my own picks intriguing!
I am legend is a really disturbing book. The fact that the main character is trying not to lose not only his life but his identity is really creepy. Like imagine a world where you are inevitably going to succumb and you wake up every day not knowing if it’s the end or you get to see another morning. Keep up the amazing work brother!
It definitely is! There’s a sense of… I don’t know, “societal claustrophobia” in that book that is unbelievable. It felt like a suffocating novel to me.
hats off for making this amazing channel! your style is so articulate and for the first time i enjoyed listening to book reviews! i think your approach makes a lot of justice to the books themselves and also urges the listeners to think about the actual reading process (which is so rare nowadays, people just accumulate books, readings, trivia , whatever and do not stop to think of them)
glad someone in the comments considers Kobo Abe disturbing . i also found a book particularly disturbing , The Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat - Iran, written in the twenties - basically talks about death with such a devastating fascination that i found disturbing .there is the saying "clinging to dear life" well, this author writes about clinging to dear death, as a refuge, as a consolation. the book is mostly poetry , not much happens except decay and darkness and of course, death . another book that i found disturbing and calming at the same time is Samuel Becket's The Unnamable (also the whole trilogy , Moloy, Malone Dies and Unnamable) . reading it was like having a glimpse into dementia; i understood a little of the utter terror of not being able to understand/do something, anything and at the same time the peace of not being bothered anymore by this.... still i am not able to make much sense of it and it still haunts me. again, congrats for the amazing work that you do! i have a lot longer reading list now !
Well, congratulations for leaving a comment that legitimately made me a bit teary-eyed! I really am overwhelmed by all the kindness and support I have received on this channel. I’m happy to provide a platform where people can talk about literature from a more introspective approach.
The Blind Owl was suggested to me before. I was already intrigued then, and I’m dying to read it now! Thank you for providing that final push.
This Becket work, I have not read, but being familiar with his style, I can absolutely see what you’re describing. He really embodied that aspect of modernism concerned with the erosion of the “individual” and the thought process. I included his short novel, How It Is, in my “Weirdest Books” top 10, but I could equally call that one disturbing as well.
Maybe I haven't seen it yet in your videos yet but I have no mouth and I must scream is a top pick for me, I read it like 15 years ago and it always stuck with me, thanks for making a disturbing section, helps me add to my list of stuff to read!
Thank you! Yes, that short story was quite impactful. Somehow, I haven’t mentioned it yet in this series. Nice catch! Thank you so much for watching!
Why do I feel like this guy would be just the best TA? My college lit classes lived and died by the TA and I would be stoked with this dude.
LOL thank you! What a kind compliment. I did have a brief stint as a TA before dropping out of grad school. It was fun! Don’t know how good a job I did though.
The Push is on my radar for some time now... I'll definitely read that this year. Jordaline also have read it and raved about the book!
I saw Jordaline’s review! I’m definitely intrigued. Sounds like it has much more to offer beyond the “killer kid” hijinks, which I appreciate! The summary reminded me a lot of one of the books I read in May, The Fifth Child.
Juan.. part 5?!?! I love you so fuckin much…
I love you too! I do this for you all!
I am not sure how I missed this in prior videos but I am a historian who works with some truly horrible source material. Sometimes my colleagues cry at work. I get emotional, but rarely about the violence, I even cried for a subject who died of TB, but never for violence. I keep thinking about these characters facing violence but cut off from its impact and emotional meaning...and while witnessing things historically is very different than IRL, I too am numb. I need to be more present to the horrors we study, otherwise we normalize the past as inevitable. I study events less than 200 years ago, it's way too early to stop feeling. This series has been very mind opening. I appreciate you doing the opposite of sensationalizing.
This comment truly means a lot to me. Part of the reason I do this is because, as a horror fan, I also am often appalled by how… dehumanizing the reading can become. That is why I love transgressive fiction: It brings calamity to the centrality of a human wound, and it can really shift perspectives that often feel so settled.
recently found your channel and am binging your content. i absolutely adore you & the way you speak about things. you’re insightful and open minded in a very refreshing way regarding disturbing media! sending all my love from ohio ❤️🖤
I’m so honored and happy you’ve enjoyed the content! It means a lot, truly. These are the kinds of comments that keep me going. I definitely think “disturbing” and “transgressive” fiction deserve bigger conversations here on Booktube, so I’m happy to provide them! Love received and reciprocated from California!
Yes! Your top most disturbing manga needs to be a video Juan my man 😂
It will definitely happen! Thanks for watching, Jake my man, my brosky, my homie. 🤙🏼
I've heard the Dumb House from a disturbing book recommendations video too and added it on my tbr, guess I'll be reading it this year
You’ll have to let me know how it is! It sounds very peculiar, and also it’s apparently based on Persian folklore?
New here! Loving these list so much! Please do a list on disturbing manga!! I read my first junji ito short story collection over Christmas and absolutely fell in love. Would love more recommendation.
Thank you so much! So happy you enjoyed! I’ll try my best, but it honestly seems like I need to read a lot more disturbing manga!
We love a good kitty before the depraved book recommendations!!!
Agreed. I’m not sure why we’re not seeing Manfred in every video.
Cats are excellent palate cleansers, but they are tricky to work with. Such divas!
@Dave, it’s because he’s so hard to catch! 😂
ADDED SO MANY BOOKS TO BY TBR! THANK YOU SO MUCH
Glad you got value out of this video! And Manfred says thank you! 😸
Been waiting all day to be able to watch this! Also, Olive said to tell Manfred not to worry… she was camera shy the first time too. 🐱 🐶 👊
Thanks, Dave! Manfred is not quite ready for stardom the way Olive was. 😂 But he might resurface, along with his older, even grumpier brother.
Another great video, thank you for your recommendations! I found Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea very disturbing. What is most disturbing to me about this book is that the perpetrators are a group of young boys, and the things they are capable of even at such a young age is really upsetting. I would highly recommend!
The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea is actually one of my favorite novels! I definitely have to reel it into this series. Thanks for the comment! I’ll definitely be talking about Mishima in the next installment!
I love the preshow cuteness.... very disarming ☆
Manfred is the gatekeeper of the disturbing and macabre. 😺
These longer videos are just awesome
Glad you think so, because I tend to go on and on. 😂
I just found your channel few days ago and I completely fell in love! I listen to you while working and it’s a real pleasure! Keep up the great work!
In terms of my takes on disturbing books I have two titles that come up to my mind:
- The Vegetarian by Han Kang - it has this eerie, uncomfortable vibe, strange story of woman who because of violent, bloody dreams stops eating meat. I had this book in my head weeks after I read this - also the way it’s written made it even more interesting
- One of us by Åsne Seierstad - non-fiction about Anders Breiwik who in July of 2011 murdered 69 children/teens in a summer camp on Utoya island, and eight adults after a bomb attack in Oslo. Seierstad made this gargantuic amount of work in portraying Breivik and what lead to this massacre. I literally had to take breaks while reading, incredibly good book.
Wishing you all best, take care!
So happy you found the channel! And I’m glad to provide a mild work diversion. That’s what I’m here for! 😂
I’ve heard of the Vegetarian before, and I’m definitely intrigued! One of Us sounds intriguing as well. I really want to make an installment of this series comprised of nonfiction books, so thank you! Wish you the best as well!
Of course I am watching this video and I don't mind you talking about Irvine Welsh at all. I agree with what you said about the "serious" intention of his books. On the other hand, I think Welsh spices up his art by adding dark humor because otherwise the subject matter would be too morose. Thank YOU for considering our recommendations.
I am looking forward to a part 6. That book by Kenzaburo is amazing. If you like him I also recommended "The silent cry" (but this one is morose, incredibly disturbing, depressing and complex) and "Teach us to outgrow our madness" (a 4 short stories collection or "novellas" which are pretty diverse) There is something about Japanese literature that is so enticing. I also have read Kobo Abe and Mishima and they are superb too.
Thank you so much, my friend, for the ever so amazing recommendations you always leave in the comments! I was amazed by Marabou Stork Nightmares! I’ve also read Trainspotting and Filth, as I mentioned here, and he’s yet to disappoint! I agree there’s absolutely a dark humor in his works, but I guess I was speaking more to the fact that the majority of his audience seems to think that that’s all he has to offer. He is actually one of the most captivating writers who tackles the horrors of the human condition. Thanks again for pointing me to this book!
And we’ll see how A Personal Matter goes! I agree. Japanese literature, especially their more contemporary classics, capture something so unnerving that I just can’t quite put into words. Mishima is a treasure! Kobo Abe will be resurfacing in this channel in the future!
Highly recommend reading We Need to Talk about Kevin. The theme of parenthood is the largest portion of the book.
I’m convinced! I hope to be starting it soon. I was going to tackle it for “Killer Kid” month but I ran out of time, but it is never too late! Thank you so much, Trish!
@@PlaguedbyVisions I'm not sure if you're a movie person, but although I hate watching movies, I actually saw We Need To Talk About Kevin before discovering it was a book. It was a phenomenal film too! :)
Hi! I adore your videos! Found your first entry in this series last night around 9. I've gotten this far already and it's only been 13 hours. 😅😅😅
You're so interesting and well spoken! Thank you for your reviews and recommendations.
I was wondering if you would ever be interested in making a disturbing book list free of SA? I am an SA survivor and also really interested in reading some wild literature... I have found that it's at times extremely difficult to parse out which books will or will not be problematic for me. Maybe I'm not the only one? 😅
For anyone else with this issue, or honestly just for book lovers in general... Storygraph is a great app and does give trigger warnings for a lot of books! My to read list is on there and growing.
Also I do hope you wound up reading The Troop... I recently finished it and it was so fun in the worst way. 😅
Sending love!!! 💜💜💜
Thank you so much for your comment! I completely understand where you are coming from. I am a survivor of child sexual abuse, and while I have not needed content warnings per se, I certainly prefer to avoid it when I know it’s probably not handled in the most sensitive way.
I can tell you, from the books I have covered so far on this series:
Against Nature
Now You’re One of Us
John Dollar
Seeing Red
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
The Hole
On the Beach
Are free of such content. However, it’s been a while, so double-checking is always wise. And thank you so much for the resource on content warnings! I’ll definitely point viewers to that when asked.
And yes, I will try my best to come up with such a list. Thank you for the suggestion!
@@PlaguedbyVisions Thank you so so much! I'm sorry that you have been through it too. It isn't easy. Sometimes it feels like it seeps into every aspect of life. 😅
I appreciate you going out of your way to list these. That is so lovely of you. 🥺💜 Thanks for your time and consideration! Please be well. 💜
using empathy for horror is an underrated concept! I found Confessions to be disturbing because of the constantly twisting sides to sympathize with that left me unsure at the end
Absolutely! The especially cruel authors recognize how they can use our humanity against us. 😂
The hot zone I chose from a summer reading list in high school and I still find myself thinking about at the age of 32. It's very graphic and startling.
I wouldn’t have known from just looking at the cover and premise. I’m definitely very interested!
Yes @@PlaguedbyVisions I read Hot Zone. It isvery disturbing
I look forward to seeing more of this hopefully infinite list!
One topic that always disturbs me is that of human cruelty to animals. Sometimes I can’t stomach reading about it at all (Watership Down was a no-go for me). However, one disturbing book on the subject that I genuinely love is George Saunders’ novella “Fox 8.” It’s written from the point of view of a fox whose home is destroyed by construction near a shopping mall, who has to navigate the human world in order to find a new place to live. Gut-wrenching, but also very funny and empathetic. I highly recommend everything Saunders has ever written, by the way.
Agh! It’s getting hard to keep up with you all! Fox 8 is something I want to talk about in a future video 😅 not a “disturbing books” installment, but perhaps you’ll still find the discussion compelling!
@@PlaguedbyVisions I’m sure I will! Literally someone just has to mention Saunders and I’m already compelled.
Great list. I read Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews because if you and boy what a disturbing piece...cut I enjoyed the stank left over. I also read The Day in the Life if Ivan D...and wow it was something fir sure. I have the Irvine Wells book but haven't read it. Might have to bump that up on my tbr. Thanks for sharing
Thank you so much! Harry Crews is definitely one of my favorite authors. I’m glad you enjoyed his work! Irvine Welsh is great when you realize that his humor and tragedy are inseparable. He really does a number on your emotions!
I'm new to this series, but what a great idea. More books to add to my list of stuff I want to read. Sometimes you just have to take as long as you need to get the video you want to make
Thanks, Steve! It’s definitely a strange and intriguing series we all collectively have going here. Glad you got to watch this! I know, I always feel bad just dropping a grotesquely long video on people’s sub boxes 😅 but I think, given the volume of books recommended, at least this once it was warranted!
Every time you make these videos, my Amazon wishlist gets longer...
I am so sorry, and you are so welcome! Glad you’ve enjoyed what you’ve found here!
Not a novel or short story collection but I’d consider ‘The Complete Plays of Sarah Kane’ a disturbing read. Any British drama/theatre student will be familiar with Kane because her final play ‘4.48 Psychosis’ is often taught and it’s probably what she’s remembered for most. But the other plays ‘Blasted’, ‘Cleansed’ and ‘Phaedra’s Love’ are each disturbing in their own right. Repeated depictions of and allusions to extreme violence, sexual assault, war crimes, incest, and cannibalism among other taboos or disturbing subject matter.
EDIT** there’s another play in there called ‘Crave’
Very intriguing. Thank you so much! I had never fully considered the entirely new dimension of disturbing that theater and performance could add to a written work. Certainly, these works sound like they would be difficult and shocking pieces to perform and spectate. This is definitely being mentioned in the next installment!
Hearing you talk about 'To Train Up A Child' made me think of 'The Water Cure' by Sophie Mackintosh, which I read last year. It's a truly disturbing tale about a man that tries to shield his wife and daughters from the evils of men by sequestering them on an island, where he subjects them to cruel rituals to make them pure and strong. It was long-listed for the Booker prize, and definitely worth a read.
There’s definitely a lot of these books about “the other side of nurturing and protecting.” It’s such a creepy flip when authors pull it off well, so I’m definitely intrigued! Thanks, Dave! Don’t let Olive take you into an island. 😱
@@PlaguedbyVisions 😂
Hello Juan! Many thanks for the kind words i take them with great appreciation and happiness. You made my day for mentioning me in your awesome channel. I like what you did with the video it didnt feel long. To me it worked. Your the only youtuber who doesnt see their audience as a means but as an end. That will skyrocket you forward. The content in the video is amazing so many titles that are inviting. You got me sold on Evas Man and the Welsh novel. There are some sectors of people in the world that their environment shapes them instead of the opposite and that cannot be. And thank you for bringing into focus Castellanos Moya i bought La Diaspora from him. I havent been able to find Insensatez.
Juan im currently reading Negative Space by Yeager to let you know if i liked it and next The Dice Man that is said to be a good transgressive novel you should look into. I was going to ask you if youve read Shutter Island cause is a great read better than the movie. Very creepy and atmospheric.
This video is plethora of language, taste, humor, passion, knowledge and more.
Much respect and care from Chris your friend from Puerto Rico.
Chris, thank you so much for this amazing comment! Honestly, audience interaction is the best part about RUclips for me. I don’t understand how some Booktubers can go without replying to comments! And yes, this list belongs to you all, not me. Certainly, so many wondrous things to explore.
I have not read La Diaspora, but La diabla en el espejo and El asco are equally astounding novels by him.
I do want to read Negative Space in the future, seeing as Amygdalatropolis really left me wanting more.
Thank you so much for even more recommendations! They will go to the next installment, whenever that may be. Thanks so much for the amazing conversations, Chris!
Aww, Manfred. A lot of great recommendations, some I've read and loved. Have you read The Wasp Factory? That was recommended to me recently.
Thank you! And Manfred says thank you as well. The Wasp Factory is an incredibly bizarre work-always have my reservations about recommending, but if you can look past grotesquery easily, then I say it’s a phenomenal book, with really salient messages about identity and the nature of violence. I really enjoyed reading it, but I was a teenager-who knows if it would survive a second reading nowadays.
Great video! My tbr just got longer!
So sorry and you are welcome!
Also, do give Andrews a chance. The books are better than the movies. Either make your first read Heaven, My Sweet Audrina, or Flowers in the Attic.
Adding some of your suggestions to my TBR.
I have since obtained a copy of Flowers in the Attic! I’m really looking forward to it!
Yay! I love this series! I’m binging on some of your videos today, trying to catch up 😜 Congrats on getting ads! I recommend Vita Nostra by the Dyachenkos, the psychological tension in the book, the harrowing mental abuse that the main character has to go through is horrific and will keep you glued to it. I want to make this one thing clear, because this comparison annoys me to no end: this is NOT a dark Harry Potter, I don’t care a writer said that! It’s highly inaccurate, misleading and personally I think it’s an insult to the authors. Now metaphysical , check! Dark, check! Somewhat disturbing , check! But most of all this is a little literary gem, I would even say it’s it’s own genre, the ending left me flabbergasted.
The premise is a girl gets recruited against her will by a mysterious stranger to the Institute of Special technologies. If she refuses to attend, her family pays the price. We really don’t find out what this school really teaches until later in the book. I don’t want to spoil it, so I’ll stop here, but you won’t forget Sacha Samokhina’s trials for a long time.
Truly appreciate the binging!
I have never heard of this book! Certainly thank you for clarifying this HP comparison-I would have probably dismissed it if I had read that about it. This sounds intense and inventive as hell. I’m definitely intrigued!
@@PlaguedbyVisions Thanks for replying, I hope you get the chance to check it out. I certainly saved a lot of books from this video in my Goodreads To Read feed! Thanks for doing this with your channel, I love it!
Hi Juan. I can highly recommend James Herbert. I've got all his books. "The Rats" is actually the first in a trilogy. The others being "Lair" and "Domain" respectively. Another disturbing author I recommend is Shaun Hutson. Richard Laymon is also a terrific read.
Thank you so much, Wayne! I’m definitely excited to get into Herbert’s work! And idk if you got to watch it, but in my May Wrap-Up, I finally talked about John Saul. I read Suffer the Children, and I thought it was a pretty solid book! Laymon’s been sitting untouched on my shelf for quite some time. His time approaches. I feel it. Never read Hutson, but I’ve seen the film adaptation of his novel, Slugs. It was something! 😂
@@PlaguedbyVisions Thanks for the reply. Disregard the Slugs movie. It's absolutely dreadful. Hutson himself actively discourages anyone from seeing it. There's a film called "Rats" based on James Herbert's novel that is also to be avoided at all costs though it's not nearly as awful as Slugs. I look forward to more of your content as always. Stay well mate.
Thank you so much! Haven’t seen Rats, but I know to steer clear now. Thanks for watching!
Survivor by Gonzalez is very well written and one of the most horrifying things that I have ever read.
I have my copy already! I’m ready to start it any day now!
Hey Juan...I love ur work & u can't believe how many books I read of your suggestions, I would love to see u talk about some of your fav movies I think this would be awesome,I am just suggesting that if u feel like doing it...thank u.
Thank you so much! I’m still wondering how to incorporate films into this channel. I love movies, and definitely want to do it! I might just take a detour into Plagued by (Actual) Visions!
Lots of great stuff here. I love these lists. I am slowly absorbing this video over a couple of days.
Joe R. Lansdale is amazing! MKV introduced me to Lansdale, as he has so many great authors. I can't say that I've found much of his work disturbing, but maybe I have a high tolerance. They're definitely worth your time. His Hap and Leonard crime novels are particularly enjoyable.
As a parent, I am terrified at the notion of reading 'Kevin'. In general, books or films with children in danger have a far different effect on me since I became a parent.
VC Andrews I read in high school, oh so many years ago, so it's hard for me to comment on the quality. But some very bizarre, twisted things occur in those novels...
This may have been covered in another list but Jerzy Kosinski's controversial novel 'The Painted Bird' certainly deserves a spot. It is the fictional story of a very young boy who ends up lost and wandering throughout Eastern Europe during World War II. Through his journey he witnesses and experiences horrible atrocities committed by residents of the villages he travels through. The abuse he endures is mostly as a result of his dark hair and olive skin color, which cause people to label him as a "Gypsy" or "Jew". It is a brutal coming of age story set during one of the world's most horrifying periods. It has been a long time since I've read it but as I recall, there is a beauty to the overall experience of the book, in spite of its disturbing content.
Thank you so much for watching, Justin! These are certainly videos that can’t be watched in one sitting.
The Lansdale books have been ordered. You are the fifth person to concur that I should read his work. I feel like I’ve been truly missing out!
I can understand the subject matter of children ringing different for you as a parent, which is why this list is so volatile, and my working thesis is that ANY BOOK can be disturbing, given the right conditions and mentality. We’ll see how far this goes!
Agh, time to do more research. The Painted Bird was going to be my entry for a future installment, but it is yours to name now! I agree: Such a haunting, misery-ridden book, almost singular in its depictions of humanity. It reminded me a lot of the film, Come and See.
@@PlaguedbyVisions Please, I would rather hear you go in depth into Kosinski's novel rather than a passing overview in what I can only imagine will be another long list of books! I move to strike my recommendation from the record!
I’m going to have to take this up to the Disturbing Committee, but I’m sure we can work something out without moving on to litigation.
Fairly new to this channel. Love these videos.
Thank you so much, Greg!
My stepdad was one of the parents that took “how to train a child” and put it into practice. For more context to people who haven’t heard of it before (I’m not worrying about spoilers bc it’s more of a manual than a story), the book is specifically for parents in certain extreme branches of Christianity (my stepdad was a Pentecostal but I think quiverfulls and a few other sects also use it) and it is HORRIFIC. It’s basically just a whole book of how to abuse your child and wife but written in language that makes it out to be an amazing, godly thing that every man should do to his family. One of the most visceral things they suggest is to throw children who can’t swim directly into pools or ponds to “teach them to be careful around water” by basically making sure they always associate it with a near death experience. They recommend what size of stick you should beat kids with based on their age, and talk about the 12” by 1/8” wooden switch they used to hit their 4 month old daughter to keep her away from stairs. They recommend yanking on the hair of newborn babies if they bite or suck too hard while nursing. They set out things as bait for their kids to get into just so they have an excuse to punish them basically bc “how can you train a child not to do something if you never punish them bc they never got the opportunity to do wrong” using the same logic behind the garden of Eden and original sim. It not only recommends but NECESSITATES children basically being constantly hit and yelled at 24/7 bc “training can never take breaks or it won’t work”. And it’s also predicated on the idea that women are “helpmates”, almost categorizing them as less human than men by telling them their ONLY purpose is to marry a man, keep house for him, pop out his kids, satisfy his physical needs, and support him completely while not having any life or aspirations outside the family, or any agency over your life or even your body. The only things women have control over are their children (until boys reach puberty then they basically outrank their mother in the family hierarchy) and the book pushes women to exert that control thru violence towards their children. I’m not sure if this is from the same book or a related one (yes, this is not a one off phenomenon) but they also talk about the boundaries of courtship and marriage, which includes things like “a girl is property of her father until she’s wed, when she becomes property of her husband” and “courtship should be supervised, wholesome, and brief. Women really should be married no later than 20”. In the community I lived in (small town where everyone went to the war church) most girls were married by 16 and had at least one child by 18. Women weren’t allowed to wear pants or cut their hair or wear makeup or even show ankles or shoulders. No western medicine either; there was an outbreak of E. Coli in the church nursery and my mom was the only person to even consider taking her baby to the hospital for it (and if you’re wondering it happened bc the Sunday school teacher was going from changing diapers to handing out snacks without washing her jars bc she didn’t believe in germs), and one time I got thrown out of te building bc I tried to tell a group of moms it wasn’t safe to rub menthol based oils on their babies (it causes respiratory distress and can literally kill them). They basically said I was blasphemous bc they claimed oils come from nature and god wouldn’t give us anything that was bad for us (if you don’t know, the big thing that differentiates Pentecostals from other Christian is the belief that god will protect them from venoms and poisons, sorta similar to Christian Science, ie we handled snakes) and they were none too happy when I pointed out that asbestos and anthrax also come from nature.
I think this is honestly THE MOST UPSETTING book I’ve ever read, worse than any body horror or splatter punk or ero guro, bc in those works it’s nearly always a theoretical situation that it’s made abundantly clear you shouldn’t emulate. Like if you come out of Lolita thinking it’s ok to groom kids you completely missed the point of the book, but if you come out of Train Up thinking you should beat your kids, you’re just reading the text for what it is. And while there are books about true crime like The Girl Next Door that are horrific…. As awful as it was, only Silvia Lichens ever had to endure her specific brand of abuse, and it’s seen by everyone who looks at it for exactly that, abuse… thousands, potentially even millions of kids have been abused using this exact handbook, the people doing it see it not as harm but as an act of love, religious communities like the one I grew up in with hand out this book and shun those who don’t practice it, children who are raised this way often continue to raise their own children this way, and at least 3 children (tho honestly prob many more) have died due to the teachings of the book. Quite honestly Train Up is like a singe drop of poison that once introduced effects the whole family, community, and all their descendants for several generations.
Marabou stork nightmare has a similar premise to a concept album by my favorite band, the human equation by ayreon. It’s less explicitly violent but the themes are present judging from how you described it
I can always count on you drawing these conclusions no one else ever would! Never heard of this band or album, but I’m obviously intrigued now.
@@PlaguedbyVisions yes I do, it’s a nightmare for my teachers.
The only books I’ve read in this whole video are The Drive-In and The Fog. Another Epic! Brilliant!
Justin let me know about your taste for Lansdale. I want to read his books now! And of course, since you’re doing James Herbert-a-Thon, you’ve read the Fog!
Thanks as always for the support, Sir Lord Vaughan.
Babe wake up, new plagued vid just dropped
When you wake up and get automatically plagued by visions 👌🏻
😂 all the love in the comments. I can’t ❤️
Juan , im new to your channel and i have to say I LOVE IT xx 😘
So sorry about my ultra late responses, but thank you!!! 🥰🥰🥰
I see some people found Let's Talk About Kevin disturbing. The only disturbing thing I found in this novel was the boredom of reading it. The ending was about as exciting as watching a documentary on soap making. Congratulations on your channel. Very interesting.
Ouch, some choice words on Shriver’s novel! I do find the subject matter it tackles important and calamitous enough to give it a look, but I totally understand if it’s just overrated-it happens all the time! But I believe in giving most things a fair chance.
You're lucky youtube doesn't have a comment dislike system
@@justanordinaryyoutubeguy3010 I mean, you CAN dislike comments, it just won’t show it. 🤣
Since you mention your love for manga/anime, do you also enjoy light novels, or maybe even visual novels? There are quite a few of extremely good ones. For example, Boogiepop series, there are 6 book availible in english, each of them can be read in like an hour. It's a disturbing-action, i would say, as opposed to horror.
As for visual novels, I would highly recommend "The house in fata morgana", it recently broke records by becoming the hightest rated videogame on metacritic, very deservingly. It is so beautiful and, yes, disturbing and messed up. The other one is "Ciconia: when they cry", which is so painfully modern and horrifying, it literally made me scared of the future.
The only light novel I ever tried was the Bakemonogatari series. I wasn’t particularly a fan of the format, as it felt a little bit lacking in detail, but I’m not opposed to keep exploring!
Now, visual novels: What a bizarre pandora’s box to open! To see what the method of “reading” would be like for those works, and note the experience as contrasting with conventional literature. That would definitely be an intriguing concept in and of itself! Thank you so much for the wonderful recommendations!
Holy shit, I am so honored and flattered by your praise. I think you might enjoy Joe R. Lansdale's body of work. He has a very dark sense of humor and the horror can often reach a level of absurdity that is funny one moment and unsettling the next. My favorites from him are under the weird west category (an awesome subgenre), particularly his run on Jonah Hex back when the title had been promoted to DC's mature line, Vertigo.
As far as other disturbing books, I recently got a copy of And the Ass Saw the Angel, by Nick Cave. It's an excellent southern gothic which explores familial abuse, religious fanaticism, and societal persecution of "the other".
Thanks again for such compelling entries into the list! And you are now the third person to recommend Lansdale, so I guess I really ought to look into it!
I love And the Ass Saw the Angel! Always difficult to find other people who have read it. It was gifted to me by a friend because I really love Nick Cave’s music, and I gotta say: His writing is phenomenal as well! Between this and M. Gira’s book, maybe there’s an entire installment of “Most Disturbing Books Written by Musicians.” 😂
I'd like to clarify two things really quickly. First, The Bell Jar (my favorite book ever) isn't about Plath's marriage, but the nervous breakdown she suffered in college. Second, The Collector (which I have a love/ hate relationship with) DOES NOT paint the kidnapper in a positive light. It's much the opposite. A lot of the book is a classist (and many would argue fascist) diatribe about how poor working class people can't be trusted with money. And that's what really sickens me about. With all of Fowles' pretentiousness and author insertion (the G.P. character), the victim feels like a spoilt brat and it's impossible to sympathize with her, even though we're supposed to. When she tries seducing her captor, only for him to fail to get an erection, then mocks him, saying he must be impotent and that's why he never rapes her, I nearly quit reading it. It turned my stomach and made me weep.
I saw the film first and loved it, but Miranda's section of the book still infuriates me with all the "upper classes and the more refined of the bougoursie need to control society" spiel. Her character is much more tolerable in the film, and Terence Stamp is fantastic! Call me sick, but I do have sympathy for Freddie. Mind you, he is nothing like the criminals who allegedly were inspired by the book. He comes across more like a boy who can't differentiate his victim from the butterflies he keeps. And being sympathetic is different from being positive or heroic, especially when the author intended neither view of the character.
I can’t say much about The Collector since I haven’t read it, but I do look forward to seeing how exactly this treatment of a psychopath plays out! I think what I was trying to say regarding the Bell Jar (which becomes difficult when trying to cover such an avalanche of book suggestions lol) was that a big part of the circumstances that led to its composition was Plath’s separation from her husband.
I think it was the commenter who suggested it who described the book as being about her marriage. Though Plath was planning to write another novel inspired by her marital strife during her last months. There is a collection of her stories and essays, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams, which has a few weird and creepy stories, as well as some pretty mundane stuff. But of course her poetry is the best! The subject matter varies, but some of it is extremely dark. I know Daddy and Lady Lazarus verbatim and they top the list for that kind of stuff.
Thank you very much for replying! I recently found your channel and love it, even if I haven't read most of the books you've reviewed. I tried to write another comment earlier, but accidentally cancelled it. (Clumsy fingers.) I'm trying to get caught up with all your videos as well, though I'm only like half through. Part of me wants to comment on several of them. I don't know if that would be rude or not. However I will mention that you definitely should read The Other by Thomas Tryon! It's ten times better than the movie! Also, high fives for your praise of Kwaidan! That's the best Japanese horror film ever, in my opinion. So gorgeous and spellbinding! I wish more people would watch it!
I’m honestly a little nervous to bring this up as I don’t know what the consensus is on the book itself, this isn’t even a recommendation, and truth be told I’m a bit self conscious lol. But I wanted to bring up the Burn Journals by Brent Runyon. It’s a memoir surrounding his attempt to burn himself to death at 14. I know you’ve done more parts of this series after this, and this video is old, you might not even see this comment, and the book isn’t even disturbing, but it’s one that hit me at a particular time in my life that I think was the perfect moment to read it.
It was one of my first exposures to a sort of candidness that, when I read it at 12 years old, did disturb me to some extent, particularly the scene in which he tries to light himself on fire. I think what really hit me about it was the utter despair that he expresses constantly, the memories that he recalls and the moments where he looks at himself in his self inflicted disfigurement and laments about the “normal” experiences he simply can’t have anymore, solely because of his own momentary decision stemming from his malaise at 14. (Huge grain of salt, this is all from memory and it’s probably not as good as it is in my head).
I’m 23 now and I haven’t read it since I first picked it up those 11 or so years ago so I’m not sure it holds up, it’s probably got a very immature writing style. It’s a book that has really stayed with me through all the years though, and I think that has value.
I just wanted to throw my voice out there into the discussion. I’m not really an avid reader and I really only know about disturbing stories through content like yours, and your videos (which I’ve been binging recently while I work overnights) have put a lot of books onto my radar that I intend on reading after my Cormac McCarthy binge I’m in the midst of. This channel has helped reignite my will to pick up reading again and given me a lot of works that sound like they would be emotionally resonant and powerful. Again, you might not even see this given how old the video is, but I wanted to say thank you, and I hope you’re doing well.
I read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" in high school. It's a hard read, but it was one of the best books that they assigned to us.
Absolutely, it’s so devastating, but as a work of art, it speaks so sublimely in a way few other books do.
You talked about making a video about disturbing non-fiction books. In that category I would recommend a book by Lisa Carver that is untitled. It is about her difficult childhood with a crazy and abusive father. While the subject is dark I still think it was a very easy read since Carvers way of writing is so captivating. Whatever she writes about it always leads on to a hundred other things. Love all her books but this is her best I think. Thumbs up for Joe R Lansdale too, he is great.
This sounds fascinating! Sadly, I don’t think I can easily find this book you speak of. Or at least, eBay yielded no results, but I’ll certainly be on the lookout!
And everyone seconding the recommendation of Lansdale has compelled me to buy one of his books!
Awwwww your fur baby is adorable. I have all the Cutter books and after finishing The Troop, I plan on knocking out the rest soon.
Ito is amazing and I agree with Uzumaki. I'm not a manga fan, but Ito changed that.
Oof, Survivor... That one was a kick to the goods. It is well written, there is a scene that shows the aftermath of a brutal rape that might cause you to toss the book.
I am really looking forward to reading Survivor! I haven’t had much luck with extreme horror in terms of appreciating its merits, but Survivor is my last attempt!
Oh shit. Here we go again.
I see a Tarkovsky fan here
@@cheers6043 THE GOAT
@@ClayWillah absolute king of cinematic poetry
Arkady Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic may or may not be appearing in a future top 10 🤭
I think I remember you saying you were writing something? How's that working out if so Mr. Juan
I’m doing NaNoWriMo! (National Novel Writing Month.) I’m ~35K words into my novel!
2 suggestions for your next video!
1. The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave, yes the same Nick Cave as in The Bad Seeds frontman. This book is just a … strange, sexually disconcerting one, with sexual arousal occurring at really horrid times and is basically written as an exploration of an extremely corrupt, narcissistic sex addict. Sprinkled with typically dark humour that Nick included in his music.
Second one is History of A Drowning boy, the autobiography of serial killer Dennis Nilsen. This is horrific as it’s all real, and all written by Nilsen whilst in prison. He discusses his horrid crimes in detail, as well as what led him to do what he did. Possibly not for you as he does discuss CSA, but for anyone who can handle such things and is intrigued into the psychology of murderers, check it out!
Brilliant videos, by the way!
I loved And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave! I did find his writing incredibly gripping and lucid. I’ll have to check this other work of his out!
CSA bothers me primarily when it’s tacked on for added shock and edginess. When it is important and profound, as this seems to be, I feel compelled to do my duty in digesting these real-life experiences for added meaning to my own personal life.
Thank you so much for these suggestions! They will surely be brought up in the next installment!
@@PlaguedbyVisions Ass saw the Angel is an incredible book, I always return to it! I’m glad you’ve enjoyed Nick’s literature too, he’s very very talented.
And yes, I suppose you have a point as this wasn’t written to shock, it was the raw truth of Nilsen’s horrific crimes. Stay safe, man!
I love disturbing manga, read all of Junji Ito and its definitely worth rereading. I recommend the manga Goodnight Punpun, which is a totally different kind of disturbing but still a great read. It just carried a sense of discomfort, sadness, and dread that is really hard to replicate. It's been 4 years since I last read it and I still remember it randomly, calling back panels from the manga because they affected me so much. It's a much needed slow burn to get the effect it does.
As far as disturbing nonfiction, I noticed the Rape of Nanking on the list and it reminded me of a book on the same subject, Unit 731: The Forgotten Asian Auschwitz. My introduction to transgressive literature began in school when we started learning about the Holocaust, I thought I was a really morbid person because I loved to read about the subject. It led down a rabbit hole of disturbing books, nonfiction and fiction, but it was pretty early on when I discovered Unit 731. As far as that particular subject goes there's also a pseudo-documentary on that military unit called Philosophy of a Knife, definitely check it out if you have 4 hours to burn
I’ve actually reviewed Goodnight Punpun on the channel before! It wasn’t my cup of tea towards the end, but I can only be in awe of the sheer brutality of it.
I definitely need to do an installment on disturbing nonfiction, but (and this is so horrifying) there’s just SO MUCH to pick from. Did you ever watch Men Behind the Sun?
Love this series :D I realized today that I wasn't following you, sorry about that. I don't know if I saw all the videos, so I'm sorry if you already talked about this one. But did you read Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk?
I went after info about To Train Up a Child and apparently, 3 children died because of it.
I read somewhere that people with anxiety have a tendency of liking horror, true crime, disturbing stories because is a way of our comfort zone without actually leaving the confort zone.
Thank you so much for watching and subbing! Yes, I’ve read Haunted. You can see me talk about the infamous “Guts” in my video, Can a Book Kill You?, and the book in its entirety was an entry in my Top 10 Most Disgusting Books! If you’re interested :)
That book is decidedly the most evil thing anyone has recommended. “Child-rearing” in general is one of the most bizarre literary genres. Messed up beyond belief.
That very well could be an explanation! I do think these stories have therapeutic value to them-helping us confront our fears and unease, by way of stories that understand where all our fears and anxieties come from. Beautifully put by you!
@@PlaguedbyVisions I'll check the videos! I just remember a book, but I don't think it was translated to english or spanish. It's called Holocausto Brasileiro, and it's about this Brazilian mental asylum in the 80s. Over 60.000 people died there and the place was compared to a Nazi concentration camp. It's a non fiction story. The place was called Hospital Colônia de Barbacena
.
Thank you so much! A nonfiction installment definitely has to happen now!
As freakin' always, your videos make so perfectly my mealtimes and before bedtime! XD So great to see so many recommendations!!! Like you said, is so good to keep discovering literature. I always want to recommend books to you but you are so far ahead haha XD that I see it as a hopeless case. You know soooo much, my friend, that's why you are a perfect refuge for many of us. Of the few things I can recommend I'm sure you already checked out.
PENPAL by Dathan Auerbach: what started as a creepypasta published on the internet in parts, was turned into one of the creepiest novels I've ever read, a true experience between anxiety and longing, an expertly handled atmosphere of childhood, loss and death, and an ending so devastating that will leave you remembering your own past and present in a nostalgic way.
APPLE & KNIFE by Intan Paramaditha: short stories between horror myth, fairy tales and complete realism about the reality of the female body in today's world. The author could be one of the great voices of the disturbing that speak for women in a deeply honest way. A perfect example is the short story "Blood", I singled that out as one of the finest written stories I've ever encountered, a now-classic in my life.
THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM by Jon Padgett: would it sound far-fetched to say that a book can be evil on its own? Well, by the time I finished reading this wonder of the insane, I felt that this book was capable of transforming you to evil in an authentic way. It's THAT good. A bunch of short stories on wickedness and possession like you've never read before, a jewel among jewels.
I've read a book of short stories by Horacio Castellanos Moya and he's damn good, I hope to get a dive into Senselessness. I'm an obsessive fan of russian literature and definitely Solzhenitsyn is an absolute feast for me! I adore his work (not the person hahaha he became so messianic after his Nobel prize).
Thanks again for an amazing video, mate! TAKE GOOD CARE AND A HUGE HUG! CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE VISIONS ;)
Whoa, thank you so much for this amazing comment! I agree-there is a community here, a group of us who really enjoy this sort of literature, which other Booktubers seldom explore. I love what we have going here!
Of your recommendations, I’ve read Penpal (I actually followed the Creepypasta-the novel worked better than I expected) and The Secrets of Ventriloquism (hit or miss, but yes, some very daring and diabolical tales). I have NOT read Apple & Knife, but I’m definitely going to, if it’s sandwiched between these other two!
Thank you so much for being here and watching my videos. Your presence in the comments is always cherished!
VC Andrews died in the middle of Writing Dark Angel her 5th novel. Dark Angel and everything after it was written by the prolific horror author Andrew Neiderman.
And for Dean Koontz. The hype is real.
I can’t believe I haven’t read a single VC Andrews book. Flowers in the Attic really sounds like something I’d enjoy!
Well hello Manfred you adorable grumpy fuuck ahahaha I love him . Thanks for all the hard work you put into these videos
Manfred is quite shy and mercurial. I have been unable to drag him into a video since lol.
I watched Rene Laloux’s ‘Fantastic Planet’ last year (I think). Some could reasonably claim the animation is outdated but other than that I think the film’s excellent! Personally the animation doesn’t bother me and I think that it gives the film a unique quality. Those humanoid aliens (the Draags) are so reflective of humanity while being so unlike us at the same time. Seeing humans in the positions of which we have put other species on this planet is/was disturbing! P.s. Thanks for the recommendations (including you the fellow viewers)!
Fantastic Planet is definitely one of my favorite animated films! I do think you nailed it in terms of what’s so unsettling about it: The Draags are so monstrous and fearsome, and yet they are so because they reflect and recontextualize humanity so well!
Thank you so much for watching, Kaylem! I’m glad you found some value in this video.
also I am so sorry if this is already mentioned but Penpal by Dathan Auerbach is surprisingly disturbing. It has a very disorienting format and a gut punching ending
It has indeed been recommended before, and I have read it! I followed it from its inception in r/nosleep, so even though I do think a lot of the book is a bit mediocre, it still holds a special place in my heart. ❤️
Juan is a Swans fan, so fuckin cool man
White Light from the Mouth of Infinity is one of my favorite albums of all time!
I've also read The Deep by Nick Cutter shortly after reading The Troop. Again another fantastic novel. Some parts gave me claustrophobia, the isolation, the immense pressure in the deepest part of the earth...cutter writes about Fear and paranoia and mental collapse pretty well. I thoroughly enjoy his books and I'm eager to read Little Heaven by him soon. I've heard it's better than his last two.
This is high praise! Now I’m curious to pick it up. I quite liked the Troop, but it didn’t blow me away or anything, yet I’m still willing to give the author another shot.
I am SO READY 😫🔥🔥
I knew you would be, Caleb. You are the honorary master of ceremonies in the comments section 🥰
I read a book one time in middle school called Cry Silent Tears by Joe Peters. Definitely shouldn’t have read it that young and, admittedly, I don’t remember much about it but I do remember middle school me crying her eyes out.
A Little Life is definitely disturbing and just downright depressing. I didn’t have the best time reading it but I think the writing is beautiful. Hanya Yanagihara’s ability to give genuine and specific imagery is incredible. And I felt connected to the main character on a personal level. Trigger Warnings galore, though!
Thank you so much for watching! I have never heard of that first book, but I definitely remember similar reading experiences as a younger person. Emotions certainly hit different back then.
I keep hearing about A Little Life, and I’m definitely not opposed to trying it out! Masterful prose and deep emotion sounds like a winning combination.
My kindle has arrived so now I'm reading fanfics and writing down the books you recommended! I'm planning to download them later
26:05 Oh, I recognize this book (how to train up a child)! The youtuber Rachel Oates made a video talking about it, you should watch it. A disturbing book that was not written with the intent of being disturbing
The authors, Michael and Debi Pearl, are deeply insane and you can't help but feel bad for their kids. Also the book was linked to the deaths of three children. Very unsettling
Hope you get to have a good time with your kindle! Happy to help with any needed recommendations. And yes, I have since looked into the story behind this book since I plan to talk about it in a future video. Quite the horror story!
"Flowers In the Attic" is pretty twisted (child abuse and incest being major themes), but if you really want a messed up VC Andrews book check out "My Sweet Audrina". Or then again, maybe don't.
I'd also be interested in a disturbing nonfiction vid/series. I could recommend "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" and "War Against the Weak." (The former discussing a particularly awful incident of the govt.'s mistreatment of indigenous Americans and the latter a history of eugenics and how it got popular with "intellectuals".)
Keep up the good work! 🤩
Thank you so much! VC Andrews is definitely still someone I’d like to explore in the future. I’ve definitely heard the name over and over when it comes to more unsavory literature.
Nonfiction disturbing books is definitely doable, and perhaps sadly, very prolific. I’ve seen the film adaptation of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, and it was devastating. I’d definitely be interested in reading the book. War Against the Weak I’ve never read, but there is definitely a long and sick history between writers and eugenics that is indeed disturbing and baffling (Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Erskine Caldwell, etc.)
Thank you for the suggestions and for watching!
Him: *puts cat in the camera*
Me: *HITS LIKE BUTTON ASAP*
Ah, good to know what gets the likes. 😈😂
There’s this obscure writer named Stephen King out there that writes the most disturbing books ever made (literally!) I’d be shocked if you’d ever heard of him.
Anyways I recommend ‘It’ and ‘The Shining’ by said author. Both books have had a couple of film adaptations and they’re pretty fucked up! No shame if you haven’t heard of Stephen King or any of his work, they’re pretty damn obscure.
Stephen King, you say? I think I may have heard something about him from an onion site. I think a friend downloaded a PDF from his book using Tor, but that may be illegal in the US. Will have to check.
Hot zone!!!! I had to read that in middle school and one dude threw up and another fainted, in class
What I would give to have been in that classroom.
A Touch of Jen was pretty disturbing for me anyway it's a horror about this out-of-touch influencer and this couple who's obsessed with her. The reason I found it disturbing specifically was its accurate description of bulimia and the desperation for self-improvement. It's pretty weird and people seem to either love or hate it (I love it) and I like hearing others opinions on it
I’ve never heard of this! Thank you so much for the recommendation. I’ll definitely keep it in my radar and will mention it in the next installment!
I recently read The Manchurian Candidate and found it to be quite disturbing. It also made me feel like today with modern technology we are getting closer to being able to do what they did in the book. Even though the book takes place in the fifties during the red scare I was reminded of parallels with today's politics in America. There is one thing that happens in this book that is so disturbing it wasn't featured in the original movie, or it's remake. I would definitely recommend The Manchurian Candidate.
I’m only aware of this story through cultural osmosis, but if it somehow packs a disturbing angle to it, then I most definitely have to read it!
I would say Stephen King's Rage is not by 2021 standards disturbing, but if you think when it was written, it was after what happened in Dallas in the 50s and the "I don't like Mondays" incident. It almost felt like his book was a warning.
UPDATE BECAUSE I FORGOT:
It's a biography, but Child Star by Shirley Temple is also disturbing, especially when you put down the book and see child star scandals with Nickelodeon, Disney and on social media platforms.
Thank you so much for these suggestions! They will most definitely be in the next installment! I read Stephen King’s rage when I was about 14, and I certainly could never have imagined back then how much such a story would continue to haunt me. I was a student at UCSB when the Elliot Rodger shooting happened, so that subject matter definitely hits close to home.
My God, the “child star” world… I can’t imagine what a nightmare world it is. An Open Secret was an almost unbearable watch.
Oh the book is so much better, regarding We Need to Talk about Kevin. The audiobook is fanfastic.
I’ve heard great things about the book! I’ll have to start it one of these days.
Whether or not A Child Called It is 100% factual doesn't really matter than much. The abuse described in the book, and significantly worse, has happened to likely millions of children. It is well-written and doesn't sugarcoat the kinds of horrors that broken humans can inflict on their own children and how invisible those children can be to the people that could help them.
I don’t disagree! I was gesturing more towards the idea of grief-making for the sake of shocking. There’s something about fictionalizing one’s life that has a particular edge of perversity to it. However, I do and will always agree that art can speak for itself as well.
@@PlaguedbyVisions oh I'm definitely not trying to argue with or undercut what you said about it, I agree. I personally think it's probably a case of an unreliable narrator considering David was a child when the abuse happened and he wrote it when he was much older. So it's likely somewhat sensationalized but he was certainly very badly abused.
If that is the case, then that is just absolutely depressing. I do hope I can eventually actually read the book so I can make my mind up about it!
We need to talk about Kevin was sad and disturbing. Felt bad for mom. Saw movie
I’ve yet to read the book, but yes, the film was brilliantly acted. Tilda Swinton is amazing!
Oh heck yeah I love Another. It’s kinda similar to Final Destination, and the anime has my all time favorite scene in all of anime (if not any type of show/movie lol). Some people think the gore is over the top, but i like it. Maybe that’s just the edgy teenage nostalgia in me that still makes me love it so much lol.
Sounds cool! I have definitely heard great things about it!
MANGA DISTURBING BOOKS PLEASE!!! I've dmed you a disturbing manga I'm planning to read hahaha... I'd also recommend a channel called The Anime Man, he does a lot of disturbing manga recommendations...
Thanks for the rec! I’ll check him out. And there’s definitely plenty of unexplored disturbingness in the realm of manga, so this might just happen!
White Oleander is definitely a great book, very emotional, but I wouldn't call it disturbing, it's more on a sad side. The movie is also pretty nice
Thanks so much for the further specifics on this work! I tend to see this wavering line between disturbing and depressing (as with the Bell Jar and a few others). Perhaps it’s time for a Top 10 Most Depressing Books?
If they made the movie Mother! Into a book, wow, that would be just disturbing 😳 😂
Yeah, if there was a book about the creation of man at the hands of a cruel god and featured child sacrifice, atrocity after atrocity, and it started some blood-soaked religion, it would be ghastly indeed!
@@PlaguedbyVisions I’m sure with the complexity of it though it would have to be a big book and probably would be a global phenomenon!
Just watched a video about the Marabou Stork, which is animal expose to me via Irvine Welsh's Marabou Stork Nightmares, I thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend it if you enjoy pushing your ability to read through disturbing.
edit:
I didn't realise that I had to give you anything more, but I am calling in my MS as the reason I cannot write more, taken twenty minutes thus far.
1hr 20 mins of PBV YES YES YES 😍
Had to come out and feed my people this morning ❤️ just kidding 😂 but I truly appreciate the excitement! I hope you enjoy it!