most disturbing books I've ever read 🥴(horror, thriller, extreme horror)
Vložit
- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
- Like and subscribe if you enjoyed this video! :)
Instagram: peyton.bookinhand
TikTok: bookinhand_
Buy me a book from my wish list :) www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls...
Goodreads: / peyton-bookinhand
00:00 INTRO
02:08 Book 1
04:18 Book 2
06:10 Book 3
08:21 Book 4
11:52 Book 5
14:14 Book 6
16:18 Book 7
18:50 Book 8
20:19 Book 9
22:03 Book 10
23:49 Book 11
25:40 Book 12
27:33 OUTRO
That ending to Tender is the Flesh SHOCKED me. The part that shocked me the most was when Marcos was taking an investor on a tour of the plant.
I appreciate so much the fact that you weed out violence against animals and women ❤
I keep coming back to the fact that Nutting (Tampa) just wrote child abuse fantasy porn. I don’t know why it was ever given so much attention, it seems to be clearly written for, uh, pleasure, and I really don’t understand why it’s being sold so openly. I don’t know anything about Nutting, but I do hope she’s been investigated. This is legal only by a loophole and may not be a happy story, but seems primarily designed for the enjoyment of those with abusive preferences. Also the cover art is revolting, we all know what it is supposed to imply, and it glorifies abuse.
I agree 100000% I know she has more novels out too 😳
I really liked Come Closer. Also your lipstick is fire.
Thank you!! NARS Star woman 💫
i absolutely loved come closer!! such a great creepy read.
Great list! A bunch of lists like this tend to repeat the same set of books, but you add a bunch I haven't heard of which is cool, thanks!
I dont read a lot of horror but youtube decided that this video was for me and i'm very glad it did. The amount of small booktube channels of such great quality is crazy, subbed
Thank you! I appreciate it ! 🤗
I've been trying to get into more horror and this was suggested to me so I'm very happy
such a refreshing video from my usual book bubble! and about the books I wouldn't normally read but now I want to!🥰
the extra appeal is the little fluffy dog nose at the bottom of the screen haha
Yes! She is the sweetest ❤️🤗
I've read Come Closer & Tender is the Flesh and liked both.
I don't think I've heard of your other recommendations.
Nice list! I now have some new additions to my TBR list! Thanks! 😀
Happy to see a horror/disturbing books video! 😈 it's not the most disturbing book I've ever read but based on some content you mentioned here, I think you could really love Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid. The most disturbing book I've ever read was probably Zola by D.E. McLusky, very much intentional gross out splatterpunk/extreme horror. Not a great book by any means but very effective in what it set out to do, so props to it for that.
I LOVED Juniper and Thorn, probably one of my favorites I've read so far this year! I have not read Zola yet! ill add it to the list - I've seen the cheese cover lol
Zola is........awful. It's gross for gross sake, which is fine I guess but it's just terribly written on top of that.
This video was my sign to finally read Penpal! I got Exquisite Corpse a few weeks ago, and only made it about 10 pages in. I've never been so revolted by a book before and I've just full stopped.
I have exquisite corpse on my kindle- maybe I'll read that during that extreme horror vlog lol I hope you like penpal!!
Penpal's amazing
I came across this video by chance and I really enjoyed it. So many 'most disturbing books' videos are the same books over and over, which I understand, but they're not offering anything new to add to my tbr list. There were some different ones here that I'm so excited to read, so thank you for that! Throw a cute dachshund into the mix and you got a new sub from me, lol.
Same, I’ve read only 2 from the list, so I have a new tbr I am starting asap, idk what but something about disturbing books gets me reading them asap.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it :)
Girl, your makeup is gorgeous and, don’t take this the wrong way, you are beautiful. Just saying, us woman need to support each other and appreciate another woman’s beauty.
Awww thank you so much !! I appreciate it 🥲❤️
I fully agree with everything in that comment 🤩
Thank you for the recommendations, had not heard about most of these. I am more the Shirley Jackson psychological horror type of reader. Have ordered Naomi’s Room and Come Closer; wanted to start with something “milder” before going to extremes. Highly agree that any type of animal abuse is a big trigger, and no, after seeing your charming miniature Doxie, I can’t blame you for feeling that way.
Thank you! ❤️🐶
Finally a list that doesn’t include the usual suspects…The Girl Next Door et al. Come Closer and Tender Is The Flesh is officially on my TBR list. You’ve a new subscriber.
none of the horror I've picked up lately has actually been scary so I'm very interested to check these out :) thank u!!!
I hope you get scared by at least one ! 👹❤️🤘🏼
Totally off topic but your wedding ring is stunning! Is the stone a tanzanite? Love your book content too, i subbed!📚
PS I have wanted to read Naomi's Room for so long! I have read one book by Aycliff and it was The Lost, it was so good, one of the creepiest books I've ever read!
Thank you so much! It's a sapphire :)
That was the first one I read too!! Sooo good and creepy !
I loved Penpal too! It gets mixed reviews, but I found it to be really scary. The ending😳
I loved Still Missing and you're the first person I've seen talk about it.
It was so good!! So underrated. I liked it so much more than Pretty Girls
First Day of Spring!! One of my top books ever.
oh yay! I never see anyone talk about it and its a solid horrific read LOL
Agree with everything you said about Naomi's Room. Read that book back in the late 90s when i was about 11 or 12, & so far no other book has ever managed to leave me feeling as terrified as that book did. I've also read Jonathan Aycliff's other books The Matrix & The Vanishment, & they were both really unsettling as well.
The other book I've read by him was The Lost 😳 I read that around 11 or 12 too and I was so scared ! I need to check out more of his work!
@@bookinhand_ -He certainly knew how to scare the reader. Hope you enjoy the rest of his work.
I will be adding most of these to my TBR, except I refuse to read Tampa. I loved the writing in Come Closer and Woom was the first truly disturbing book that I read. I recently read The Woods are Dark by Richard Laymon and even though there were so many dusturbing things in that book, I could not stop reading and finished it in one day.
@@meganclemons9604 Laymon is intimidating to me! Maybe I'll try again one day !
Oh I got some great recs from this. 😈 Earthlings had me mouth open gaping at the ending haha.
same, I was so shocked, I read it over Christmas and felt like it was all I could think about haha
Earthlings threw me for a lopp lol. Tender is the Flesh was one of my favorites last year. Tampa made my physically ill and I couldn’t finish it.
I just read this from this specific video (Earthlings) and MY BRAIN IS LEAKING OUT OF MY EARS. Where did that ending come from!?!?
10/10, buying a physical ASAP so I can re-read and annotate.
Woom is the only book I gave 5 stars for, THE writing, story telling and how smooth it flows is top notch 🤩
Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry was disturbing, but not in a way you’d think, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then there’s Off Season by Jack Ketchum.
Kudos to you for actually finishing Tampa, I read 2 chapters before I gave up not because of the content but the writing, it’s like it mimics a male teacher preying on female students, the book or the main character had no personality.
Off season is on my list for sure ! It sounds right up my alley 😂 I did like saving Noah, it was so sad and upsetting and same, it stuck with me for a bit after I finished it
No other book, ever, has affected me the way Saving Noah did.
laws of the skies sounds like the troop by nick cutter.
Tender is the Flesh is such a fantastic commentary on race, class, and the dehumanization and commodification of people under capitalism. To me, it is so much more than "meat industry bad"
I’m not a horror movie person. But I love horror books! 📚 ❤
I can recommend Notice by Heather Lewis. Just recently republished. Not for the faint of heart. Great stream!
Yes! That is on my list- nervous but intrigued to read it 😅
So glad Earthlings was in this roundup :')
So good !
Great reviews! 👍 😈
Thank you! 😈🤘🏼
Naomis Room is one of my favourite books of all time. I've read it so many times
It's soooo good!!
The Girl Nextdoor by Jack Ketchum got under my skin. It did exactly what it set out to do and I'm never reading it again.
I'm so scared of that one 🫣 the true crime case is brutal enough
Hi Peyton , i highly recommend " Flowers in the attic" by V.C Andrews. It tells the story of four children being locked up in theyr grandparents attic for many years and theyr fight to survive. Maybe not in the extreme horror genre , but a book you will never forget.
I read it when I was wayyyy too young lol I would like to revisit.. I think? 🥴
The second one was awful.
@@bookinhand_I read that in Jr. High I think
I don’t know if you’ve got it already (hi, new subscriber here) but I want to recommend Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. I loved it but it’s so weird/disturbing/horrifying I am scared of recommending to people normally as I’d worry what they think of me.
@@antiagarcia7495 now I'm intrigued 😂👀
Could you please tell me where to get those fantastic earrings? Thank you for all the disturbing recommendations.
Amazon - triple hoop earrings, they come in different sizes- thank you! ❤️
Earthlingsssss one of my favourite reads of this year thus far and it was so f***d up but I liked it a lot 🤣
Same!! I couldn't stop thinking about it!
My favorite book and the most disturbing I've ever read was A Little Life by Hannya... I forget her last name, but I'm sure it is easy to find.
Yes, very upsetting 😭
Chevy Stevens is one of my favorite authors!! I have read every book she has written and Still Missing was the first book that introduced me to Chevy Stevens. I recommend Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens.
Yay!! I definitely want to read more from her !
Tender: Loved it. Earthlings: not so much. Still Missing: at the library. Bloom: very good. A Botanical Daughter: up next.
Hawk Mountain (Conner Habib): most disturbing book I've read.
Great content.
Thank you! I appreciate it! I've been eyeing Hawk Mountain and Bloom!
Locate a copy of “I have no mouth and must scream”. SF short story from ? 1970s? Harlen Ellison. Ellison was once mad at his publisher and sent him a dead animal like 3rd class mail which sat in mailroom.
Oh damn 😶 that is on my list for sure !
there is a French author, Romain Sardou, who's written one of my favorite books but now that I've tried to find the English translation - there is none... it is called No One Will Get Away, and if you ever come across it I think you'll enjoy it! It's a detective story but I was impressed with the level of detail and knowledge that's been put into the plot
I also tried to read another book of his several years ago, Forgive Us Our Sins, but I couldn't pass a couple of chapters - it was too disturbing!
Oooo I'm intrigued 👀👀
When I think disturbing books, these two come to mind: Hell by Judith Sonnet and Nipples That Spit by Malika Micucci. I shudder just thinking about those two. Thanks for the list!
Adding to this list! I tried No one rides for free by Judith sonnet and made it 20 pages in before tapping out 😂🫣
Wonderful, Wonderful Times by Elfriede Jelinek. Her work is amazing, difficult to read and stomach for many, but she has an interesting way of FORCING Austria to be accountable for its part in WWII. She also wrote The Piano Teacher, and funnily enough, she worked as a piano teacher after the same conservatory, whilst living with her mother.
I've seen the movie! I had no idea it was a book or the authors similarities 😳😳
Oh dear I hope she didn't sleep in the same bed as her. That movie was disturbing
Great list. I would not have included Penpal on it though.
@@shocker147 disturbing to me ! 🤗
If you enjoyed Penpal, you should read (if you haven't already!) Borrasca and Feed The Pig
I haven't 👀👀 adding to the list !
Come Closer is my favorite horror novel! I wish I could read it for the first time again. I haven't read A Mouthful of Air but I saw the movie with Amanda Seyfried and Finn Wittrock and was equally gut punched. I had never heard of it, I was just flipping channels and it was on HBO so I watched it a year or two ago. I thought about it for weeks.
I think I'm the only person who didn't enjoy Penpal.
I'm finding out it's a very divided book lol ! I am too scared to watch the movie of mouthful of air 🫣
@bookinhand_ Amanda is wonderful in it but the end 😭
I did not expect it!
Fun Fact: there's a documentary called Earthlings that is downright unwatchable at times. It goes into detail on why most people decide to stop eating meat if that tells you anything ❤ Cows is the scariest or most disturbing book I've read. Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis is a close second.
I think I'm way too intimidated to read Cows 🫣
@@bookinhand_ it's so gross dude. Like I know sometimes it's the icky stuff that peaks my interest but that book....the violence in it is just unnecessary at times. In fact, the story is pretty good, all things considered, but some pages I could barely get through.
Ive read a lot of things… Tampa is one I could NOT stomach and get through…. I made it like 3/4 chapters in and thats enough
I wish I would have throw it away after that much into it
I wanna find a book that shocks me, still not found one yet, maybe one day
lol I can so relate re eating while cannibalism is going on. I have never understood why emergency cannibalism of already-dead people is so scandalous, but I had to skip even your warning about puppies.
I understand!! ❤️❤️❤️
😈 I recently listened to This Little Family by Inès Bayard. Ooph, that one was dark😳 Great list 👍
Added to the list! 🤘🏼
At the risk of sounding like a really old fart, there’s a lot of great ghost story writers BUT not so much in the 20th century (unless you subscribe to the theory that Shirley Jackson is writing about ghosts in several works like Hangsaman, which is her fictional version of what happened to that Vermont girl in the 60s who disappeared into the AT). “Turn of the Screw” is no good as a movie but oooof Mr James (Henry? Or William?) can write! Also, “cosmic horror” is mostly ghost stories, but ya gotta ignore Lovecraft in the genre. He can’t write very well. You want to read LeFanu, Machen, some Bierce (read all the Bierce, but some is satire, plus his actual bio is wild), and maybe deMaupassant but he’s mostly just depressing. The ghosts of Machen are fleeting glimpses beyond the veil - not big bulky things like cthulu but wispy snippets and it’s 95% vibes. If you don’t mind slowing down, plot is not always the strength here, sometimes just a tiny tiny bit more than nothing happens. I am a fast reader, my love of Machen hurts me a bit. You have to read and reread but to this day, the opening images, so richly detailed in a way that usually drives me bonkers, of The Great God Pan are seared in my mind. Machen is my fave, once properly digested, which for me has meant re-reading thru my life, 10+ times over, lives in one’s mind forever. There’s something about cosmic horror ghosts that is 100x as terrifying as sad drowned historical figure ghosts, like we are getting snippets of truth from a universe we cannot understand literally. We aren’t, it’s important to underscore that none of this is true lol, but the writing gives it life in a way that no other genre does. I personally can’t stand the classics like Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush’s version is perfection itself tho, the plot requires less than 5 mins), but some people love a ghost on the moors… (England is so small yet was chock full of lonely windswept moors in 1885)
Tampa is easily the most disturbing book I have ever read. I have never physically cringed so hard in my life.
sounds like First Day of Spring was inspired by the life of Mary Bell
Yes! Thought the same thing 🫣😳🥴
I read Tender is the Flesh in its original Spanish and I was pissed throughout the whole thing. The ending kinda surprised me but not really because the whole book is, in my opinion and among other things, an allegory to Argentinian’s obsession with carnism (?) so I was y expecting a happy ending.
Edit: I also read it around the time I watch this masterful video essay czcams.com/video/roRD4F9pg5s/video.htmlsi=LltB1IBt930oiZkn and I just gotta recommend it because boy it helped me process the grieving from that book lmao
Oh cool! Thank you for sending my way!
This video deserves a thumbs up for the dog alone! 😍
If I can give some criticism (which is meant as a hopefully constructive one): I didn't appreciate the spoilery nature. When you opened the presentation of the first book with saying "none of them make it out alive" basically in the first sentence, I got nervous. I've read Woom so I knew what it was about and after listening to that segment I basically skipped through the video just to see the authors and titles. 😕
Sorry about that! But, I will say that the synopsis contains that exact phrase, you know going in that it turns out that way. I'll try to call out any spoilerly nature in the future 👍🏼
@@bookinhand_ Yes, blurbs can be quite spoilery, too! I usually don't read those because of that reason! 😅
Or what I do is that I might read a little of the blurb and put it on my list of interest but if I end up buying the book, I won't read the blurb anymore and by the time I pick up the book I might have forgotten it.
Anyway, it was just a suggestion. I'm quite allergic to spoilers so other people might mind less. And I'm aware that it can be very difficult to decide what to say and not say in a book review.
I _did_ put this one on my list after all. 😉
@@bookinhand_ So, I just looked up the product page for the book at the publisher Coach House Books, and I saw that they seem to market the book based on that one. They only use a few sentences to describe the book and the two sentences that give specifics about the plot are: "Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones head into the woods on a camping trip. None of them make it out alive."
So please let me apologize. The blame clearly lies with the publisher's marketing, not you!
I have not read any of these books, I don't think I will. thanks for the warning! 🤢
I really enjoyed woom
American psycho was disturbing imo. The girl next door also disturbing.
I agree on American psycho! I think I'm way too intimidated to read the girl next door, the true crime case is enough for me.
I tried to read The Abuse of Ashley Collins by Jon Athan but it was too much. It needed to be a lot less. Like so much less. Way too disturbing. I was like nope. I cannot finish this. Books by the writer of Fight Club are full of bodily fluids. Too many. One has to read then wearing gloves.
It's not a disturbing book, just this scene in Women of Brewster Place involving a man's head and a brick and just the description of it. Eeeeek
Also your dog is cute and i love him and his cute nose
The black farm 😶
The troop 😮
@@KaizenGraves I had to put the troop down, can't do it !! 🐢
@@bookinhand_ I LOVED it, it was so dang creepy and nasty, right up my alley, had be audibly saying eww over and over
@@KaizenGraves 😂😂
You should check out Brainwyrms by Allison Rumfitt! It's the absolute grossest, funniest, and erotic critique of British transphobia you will ever read. 10/10 recommend.
Oh hell yeah! Say no more ! Added to the TBR !
A disturbing & gross book I'm reading at the moment is 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade. Mucho trigger warnings.
@@richardmoore6078 oh god- I saw the movie in college, never again LOL
@@bookinhand_ The movie is just inspired on the book. The book is so much worse.
Tampa sounds like American Beauty, not American Psycho? 🤔
I can see that
Tampa is based on a real case from Florida, and seems like a writing exercise to me, like "what could this teacher have possibly been thinking?" and then just running with it. My problem with the book isn't its disturbing content, it's the tonal shifts. It doesn't know if it wants to be truly dark or darkly comical, and so ends up giving you whiplash until it goes completely off the rails into absurdity at the end.
😈
Read a lotta fucked up shit, but Man Down by Roger Smith is one that really left me starring into space for a while... It's a thriller, though. Meat by Joseph D'Lacey's another one I can highly recommend - sick shit, but very well written. Latest crazy one I read was The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias - definitely a What The Fuck one.
I've been eyeing The Devil takes you home! I'll add the others to the list ! Thank you! 😈
@@bookinhand_ My pleasure. ✌️
The law of the skies was legitimately the worst book I’ve ever read solely because no child thinks the way the kids did in that book. Idk if it’s because of the translation or if young French children are all secretly mentally 12+ lol but the further along I got the more pissed I got because even the most messed up violent 6 year old does not have the capacity to think about things the way the antagonist Enzo did. Genuinely could have enjoyed it if they made the kids even as young as 10 but there is nothing anyone could say to make me think any 6 year olds process things the way a number of these fictional children did.
Totally agree! The way the prose would flip to them waxing poetic from the pov of the 6 yr olds- I died 😂
Most disturbing book I've read is Let's Go Play at the Adams' (1974) by Mendal Johnson. But your violence against women filter might rule it out.
@@henrytjernlund that is on my radar to do a paperbacks from hell vlog but yeah I've heard it's rough :/
@@bookinhand_ it is bleak. But some readers miss that the story works on more than one level which makes it even more disturbing.
Fun fact: Let's Go Play at the Adams was inspired by the same case as The Girl Next Door. Although Ketchum wrote closer to the actual case, Johnson's is more fictionalized.
@@AWCMCultMovies Actually this seems to be one of those "facts" that get repeated so often that people assume it's true. (illusory truth effect.) Those who have done a deeper dive say that there is no direct evidence that the Sylvia Likens true crime case was a significant inspiration for LGPatA.
@@henrytjernlund Well, there's no direct evidence about much of anything related to Mendal W. Johnson, even all the stuff about his supposed 3 unpublished works and his two marriages and two kids. It's pretty obvious from the story, though. Unless one of those kids steps up to deny it, I think it's pretty plain on its face.
For me its got to be the short story by the late Howard Waldrop. "Horror, we got". It perfectly illustrated why pc and cencorship...usual do the opposite of what they are intending to do.
The ending of Tender Is the Flesh was so predictable to me, it always surprises me when people say it shocked them. I feel like the whole novel was so clearly building up to it, I didn't expect it to end any other way. Maybe that's also why I was a bit underwhelmed by it. A lot of the things that I felt were supposed to be shocking weren't that shocking to me. Maybe I'm too much of a cynic, idk. I didn't dislike it, but I also wouldn't rate it as highly as I've seen many people do. The Laws of the Skies sounds interesting, the vibe (gross, kids) sounds a bit like The Trop by Nick Cutter, which is one of my favorite books. I love body horror done well.
I agree. I hated that book and I regret giving my time to it.
Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker and The Oath by Frank Peretti. Eyes Wide Open is about a sane main protagonist that gets stuck in a mental ward where everyone gaslights her into thinking she is crazy. (It will make you start to wonder if you are loosing it too while reading.) It is a THICK book. The Oath is a creature story set in this weird, cultish rural town. It gets disturbing the more the main character finds out what is actually going on. Both are christian books, BUT VERY good horror stories. I recommend it if you want to stay up all night.
Oh damn- thank you! I'll have to check out !
Dekker and Peretti are christian authors who camouflage their work as "genre" but write nothing but christian dramas. I don't read them (read one of each years ago and that was more than enough). In my experience, horror that depends on a christian angle is not scary because without the faith/delusion element, an apparently nightmarish scenario crumbles into inanity. I remember reading The Exorcist and then watching the movie: meh times two. When you don't believe in god or pazuzu, there's very little left to scare you in that universe, except for the pea soup
@@sid1gen If you read my comment before, that is why I mentioned the books were both christian... I said that for a reason... I am just saying out of all the christian genre, these stories are still disturbing because one will literally make you think you are going insane, and the other book the cult-like people themselves are very messed up. Yes, there is a christian message, but it is still something that disturbed me when I read them. Horror depends on the person and what truly gets under your skin. For example, possession films are overdone and boring to me. How common is it to see someone get possessed? Not very. You can easily detach from the story being told. Eyes Wide Open has two sane people get stuck in a mental asylum, and are constantly being diagnosed as crazy or insane. I felt like I was in there right there with the main characters. There is constant gaslighting that I literally had to take breaks from the book because it got in my head a LOT. (worst feeling) The theme of psychologists verses the individual is realistic. There are several real stories of psychologists only caring for money, and not the actual mental health of the patient. Some could very well diagnose you with a mental disorder you don't actually have for an easy paycheck. This can happen, and it is terrifying when it does. The story shoves that reality in your face. Like I said earlier, there are different types of horror for everyone. If this isn't your type of tea, don't drink it.
@@dr.crowsworld I've read one book by Dekker, _Three._
It's a thriller with a twist or two that 'm not going to give away but the premise is that the main character is threatened by a psychopath. The problem is that Dekker's faith apparently prevents him from using proper swears so his psychopath killer uses cuss words like an 8-year-old. Now, I don't need my books to be filled with dirty language but I also don't have a problem with that, especially if it fits in the narrative. Here, the narrative demanded dirty language which was substituted by "clean" language to not damage the frail psyches of Christian readers, it seems.
If your readers aren't mature enough to handle swear words, fine, but then write another story, or write it in a different way. But don't put in these ridiculous kindergarten swears in it.
as some one named Naomi the mispronunciation drives me nuts. (NAA-Oh-MEE) if that helps. lol great book recs tho
Thanks! Probs doesn't help with my accent ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
😈
😈
😈