You have the exact energy of someone who just found a dead body in the woods and is waaaay too excited to tell me every single disgusting detail except where you found it. (complementary)
Discourse over an author not being the same sexuality as their characters is dumb. As long as the writer knew what they were doing and not just being homophobic for 100 pages; let people write characters that are diverse dammit!!
I think the worst thing about “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” is the fact that the idea of something like giving someone absolute control over something like your bank account and willingly doing whatever they want or else you’re fucked should be absolutely terrifying, but none of those aspects of the relationship actually come into play. And the entire payoff of the setup to the story is a tapeworm.
“Portraying lesbians as abusive is negative towards the community!!! You can’t do that!!” Lesbians who have escaped abusive and toxic relationships and who want support: 👁️👄👁️
One of my favorite books is Catcher in the Rye. I know it's the favorite book of serial killers and school shooters but it's a beautiful book about a teenage boy who is spiraling and desperately needs help after something traumatic happens in his life. It's a screwed up book. I sat there reading it as a teenager and realized that before I got on medication to help balance my pain which was making me depressed, I had Holden's thoughts. It was upsetting. But it felt like someone understood me and understood that like Holden, I needed help. Holden's narration is unreliable and I can't trust how he sees it but in his state of mind, that's his personal truth and how he sees it due to depression, anxiety, and various other problems he's suffering under. That doesn't mean I'm going to go "ugh the world sucks" and do something violent. I do find that the world tends to hurt the most vulnerable first but we can also do things to help them when we pay attention and offer kindness. Enjoying "dark" subjects isn't a horrible thing. When we decide to write/consume things irresponsibly and ignore there are very real people who have to endure these things and go through them, we're not being great people. We're trying to pretend that bad things are "imaginary" and they can't happen to us. It's like I try to remind people about "fairy tales". They have quite a lot of truth in them. Children won't magically come to life from bones in the fireplace but children were murdered for inheritance money or due to their families starving... and it's not make believe. Evil "step parents" were less step and more parent. Bad things exist and will find us the second we pretend we're safe. Don't pretend that depression can't get you; it will and it has you on speed dial. Don't pretend that these horrible things can't happen. They might be rare but your chances are never zero. And sometimes reading them is the way to cope. To have a fantasy is sometimes to indulge for a moment... Because again, rare does not mean impossible. For those of us who have suffered terrible things, it becomes a disservice to those who do the "head in the ground" purity culture. What we went through was very real. I'd rather a writer get it right than insist it never happened. I am real. These subjects are real. Rare... but not impossible.
Whoa. "Don't pretend that depression can't get you; it will and it has you on speed dial." 🤯 Babe, you're so real for this and goddamn I'd love to put that line on a shitty mug. I'd cherish that mf 😂
For anyone interested in stuff that talks more about media literacy, I highly recommend Lolita Podcast! It talks about Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita super comprehensively, including diving into why bad faith interpretations of it are so popular, the history of its many adaptations and how they relate to abuse prevalent in Hollywood and Broadway and news media, while still leaving space for understandable criticism of both the novel and its author. Lolita is one of my favorite novels and I think talking about it opens the door for frank and necessary conversations about abuse and the inherent value of children’s lives.
I didn’t listened to this podcast but I did watch an essay video by Final Girl Studios and it enlightened me of how misleading popular Lolita is. I forgot what version it is but the director of that movie had a relationship with the casted Lolita and that is actually what the book is trying to tell sadly.
I’m a crime scene and biohazard cleaner. I love my job intensely. My family thinks it’s the most disgusting, awful thing and never ever wanna hear about any of it. Other people wanna hear it all. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t LIKE the subject matter of sewerslide and moider and gore. I love the physical labor, the constant monitoring of my surroundings and emotions, being around hardcore situations, helping people through an awful time, and intensive white glove cleaning. I love your description of being able to love a type of media and not enjoy the subject matter. I’ve never been able to describe why I like seeing and hearing about horrific stories, art, and media, but still being disgusted and needing to cover my eyes at times lol
Genuinely, thank you so much for your service. My partner had to clean his brother’s apartment HIMSELF after that brother had been dead for at least a week. The labor that you do helps to shield people who are already deep in their grief from some of the most visceral and distressing parts of life. Thank you so much for offering that comfort to grieving families.
im curious, is there something specific you have to study in order to do that job? im planning on studying mortuary sciences (specifically to be a mortician), so im very curious
i appreciate you picking relatively lesser known titles! i feel like most people go for the classics like the wasp factory, 120 days of sodom, etc... i'm excited to see what other Fricked Up books people suggest in the comments
Omg thank you for this, I was very intrigued by the cover and title of _"Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,"_ but couldn't actually learn anything from the reviews I read. And now I know that *drumroll* I'm probably not gonna read it because based off your review it might not be worth it. This is gonna be a deadly series!!!
As someone whose favourite play is Medea, I completely get how annoying it is for other people to think that liking a piece of media means you endorse the content. I don't think it's cool to murder your children :/
Look if my husband cheated on me with a younger woman after forcing me to murder my brother and then also kill the children of his enemies??? i might have also gotten the zoomies
Zoe's fantasy sounds a lot like me in my toxic phase as like 16 when my boyfriend called me "Daddy" in front of his parents 😭 it was awful for both of us we were toxic and I'm so glad I left him and found a therapist. But it seems like a story I can relate to.
One of my favorite books I read last year was Dennis Cooper's The Sluts (2004). Definitely disturbing, but a really beautifully written and fascinating rabbit hole into the world of sexual extremism, the power of anonymity, the problems of idolization, and an examination of the personas we form and the roles we perform both in real life and online.
I love this series of reading disturbing books! I can't wait to see more episodes and see what you find! You should definitely read a book called "Found." by Todd Rigney! It's only 136 pages, it's a very short but intriguing read that I highly recommend! It's a really interesting and disturbing book about a 10 year old protagonist who loves horror movies who finds out his older brother is a serial killer who keeps heads in his closet. The story has really good characters and development with an absolutely bat-shit ending! I think you might really like it!
I have seen "Things Have Gotten Worse.." suggested occasionally on reddit and have been a bit curious about it. I appreciate you taking the time to actually review the book as opposed to just saying that it "was very jarring" and "greatly disturbed you".
I wish i had more friends like you. you're so well reflected and add interesting conversation to books/topics i love hearing about and getting your input. irl i don't share my hobbies anymore bc it's so taxing to deal with the dying art of media literacy and spoon feeding morality 101. thank you for making these videos, they make me feel so much less alone.
I literally lost a friend because I said I thought it was okay to write or read about incest sometimes and stories that involve incest can be interesting. It’s so refreshing to find people who can understand that consuming media about dark topics doesn’t mean you condone that behavior or want to “normalize” the fucked up stuff you read about.
OK, so it's not as disturbing as the ones you talk about here, but I really highly recommend The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Holy shit Jules, it's brutal and beautiful-- there's an elk-headed woman and she is intent on revenge. Also Jones' book My Heart is a Chainsaw, which is about a slasher fanatic and her use of her incredible knowledge of horror film stories to navigate what seems to be a "slasher cycle" starting in her home town. She finds a final girl and tries to help build her up to beat the slasher, but she's still trying to figure out who or what the slasher will be while the supposed final girl sees her as a girl who needs to be rescued. I was just all over the place while reading it-- equal parts "I see myself here and I hate it" and "wait what the heck is this actually happening" OK I love you bye bye
Major tw but a personal connection to Dead Inside; As a victim of CSA with multiple offenders the dialogue often reminds me of the different kinds of offenders there are and their thoughts etc. I guess it makes sense since pedophilia and necrophilia are both paraphilias and seen in similar ways. But I've met the ones who are determined that their desire to cause harm is 'just another sexuality there's so may of [them]' (gross). The ones who have decided to dedicate their entire lives to hiding that they're predators and this don't have families, high up careers, etc. I've been around apologetic offenders who say they're sorry and they'll never do anything bad again. The ones who want to protect their jobs and families and cry and say they wish they could help me (but never did). I've witnessed an argument about how it's 'too far' or how they 'may as well embrace who [they] are' and the similarities I've seen in the books dialogue has always been hair raising.
I really appreciated your bit on the liking books with "suspect" topics -- I cannot stand people who freak out or demonize someone who likes books that explore topics like that. Lolita is one of my favorite books and it does not mean that I condone what happens in it lol.
Love seeing in depth horror reviews that go beyond "wow, that was weird". I would love to hear what you think about Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, or even some of his other novellas from In a Glass Darkly. I particularly liked the writing and themes in Carmilla (and also lesbian vampires), and I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
Yeah! I plan on making this series focused around smaller, lesser known titles rather than the famous disturbing ones (like American Psycho, Lolita etc). I'd love to work with some indie authors and give their work some support
I have a recommendation! Penpal was pretty disturbing and distressing for me, of course not as much as these ones (I was able to read it with my mom relatively comfortably), but the build up still makes my stomach churn, and I’d still consider it very disturbing. I’d love to see you review it :]
I just had UA-cam recomend this video. I've seen countless videos about disturbing horror, including those two. But I'm honestly kind of glad to see someone actually talking about them. Like if anything this video could have been twice as long, and I feel like I would have loved it. Especially since, as you said, the majority of the videos just talk about it being disturbing. They just mention a few gory moments. For some, that's all it needs. Like Woom, while a great book, isn't exactly all that deep. It's just a lot of shock factor. But then I hear people actually discuss books like Dead Inside, and I think it's great. Also the brief rant about how liking these things in the books is different from liking them in real life. Over all I'm sold and gonna watch more videos. Also, I haven't read Dead Inside yet(I only really discovered extreme horror maybe a year ago), but agree with all the points on Things Have Only Gotten Worse. Over all great book. Loved everything about it. But it needed to be a bit longer and build up more. Some of the jumps were a bit of a hindrance to the shock value.
I’m gonna be honest I really loved the titular story in “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” because as someone who has been in controlling relationships like that the fear comes from how quickly they can convince you to do horrible things. To me it made sense that the second task was so huge especially since it ended up being something that made the MC “feel powerful” because that illusion of empowerment is such an important part of that control. I also understood the random rabbit story and shit cause it’s so reminiscent of a controlling person trying to bond through trauma and be like “I’m too fucked up you should leave me” every five seconds. But also I get how the author could have eased someone else who hadn’t experienced something like that into the narrative. I feel if he had spent more time establishing the MCs mindset before she started seeing the other person it would have made a lot more sense but the cat log email thing didn’t really allow for that. Kinda funny I just recommended this book to my sibling right before seeing that you’d made a video on it 😅
This was such a refreshing review on Things Have Gotten Worse. I read it myself and was so disappointed that other reviewers only wanted to focus on the taboo aspects of the story and how disturbing it was. I really respect and appreciate your voice on this. I love how you focus on actual literary elements relevant to the quality of the work. You are the reviewer I've been looking for! 🖤
Loving this series already! And thank you so much for saying that just because you like something, doesn't mean that you condone the actions lol. It's such a basic thing but a lot of people don't get how someone can like something that has something in it that they disagree with. I love pretty much anything disturbing and it's sad that I can never talk about those things because it's seen as taboo. Looking forward to future videos!
I have so many recommendations omg. Cows by Matthew Stokoe, Off Season by Jack Ketchum, Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter and Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk are all magnificent!
I absolutely love your content and having someone as interested in these things as I am with actual intelligence who can break down topics like this! You’re awesome keep being you!
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński is my vote/recommendation. When we had our holocaust units in 6th grade my dad gave me this book to read alongside of the required reading. He said something about "people focused on Hitler, but everybody was a monster waiting for an excuse." I'll just copy a summary/blurb: "1939, a six-year-old boy is sent-by his anti-Nazi parents to a remote village in Poland where they believe he will be safe. Things happen, however, and the boy is left to roam the Polish countryside, trying to stay alive, looking for food, shelter, and a principle of Justice to accomodate what he sees people do to each other and to him. To the blond, blue-eyed peasants in his part of the country, the swarthy, darkeyed boy who speaks the dialect of the educated class is either Jew, gypsy, vampire, or devil. They fear him and they fear what the Germans will do to them if he is found among them, So he must keep moving. In doing so over a period of years, he observes every Conceivable variation on the theme of horror, sadism, and bestiatity. A cockold miller gouges out the eyes of a ploughboy with the back of a spoon. He loses his voice in a pile of human excrement, almost freezes to death underneath-a frozen lake, and is 'hung by his Wrists atop a vicious dog..." " The novel proper, without tidying-up, is purely and simply a panoply of horror, expertly wrought and disgusting. There is no more parable or symbolism here than there was at Buchenwald. Jerzy is a brilliant writer, but let the reader beware. It's very hard to take."
I read this last night and felt very much the same way as you. I read it after Be My Friend by Mique Watson because it has a similar mixed media vibe, but way more disturbing
One classic book that is disturbing by design - to show you the horrors of racism and generational trauma as well as how it's dealt with I'm African American communities - is 'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison. Warnings are; racism, dysfunctional families, abusive families (especially parents), bullying, physical assault, sexual assault and rape of both adult and child characters and miscarriage. It's the story of three little girls, all black growing up in the 70s as well as their families. Pecola Breedlove, an 11 year old and her family's dysfunction is a huge plot point.
I've been called transphobic for liking Silence of the Lambs. I am trans. I really appreciate you talking about how enjoying a certain type of media doesn't mean you support the subject matter. (Not to mention the text directly calls out people that hold transphobic views because of people like Buffalo Bill, but that's besides the point)
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno, on the shorter side, I don't think the official synopsis represents it super well. Just a relentless story about grief
I completely agree with your discussion on taboo subject matter. I personally have a limit to what I can really stand, but more power to the people who are willing to talk about the stuff people like to push to the side.
I really appreciate this series, as an enjoyer of disturbing fiction I rarely get to have discussions about what I read and this kinda fills that void. I just finished Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite and I really recommend it, whilst it is disturbing it's also very tender and sweet, it's also extremely gay, like it's more about being gay than it is about being a necrophiliac.
Ooh, any plans for anything by Thomas Ligotti in this series? The weird 'is he a real person or is this stephen king Doing a Bit Again' thing surrounding him is fun as heck and his actual work is some good creepy shit.
thank you for your review of dead inside !! so far it's the only of the books you've recommended that i have found in my library's e-book catalog. so i checked it out and finished it in the same evening! (it's actually the first book i've finished in Uhh A Long Time so thank you Double!) [ spoilers for DEAD INSIDE below ] i really enjoyed it!! i agree that the narrator's voice was gripping and often comedic just because of what a fuckin edgelord this guy is. some of my favorite moments were when he freaked out and got anxious about social interactions (specially him getting anxious standing in helen's house and thinking about being Perceived in the restaurant) because it enforces that he needs to perceive his strangeness as a strength because, in reality, it isn't. the single funniest line in the book for me was: "I have commenced small talk." just so indicative of his voice -- and the moments when he speaks to the audience, like, sir? To You, there is no audience. For You, no one is hearing or seeing or reading this. he's just.....like that, even (especially? only?) when there's no one there to observe him. i agree that the "twist" was predictable; when helen said "my.....i got someone to fix [the car]" i was like Ah, she's married. so when the guy shows up at the bar, i agree it's super easy to put two and two together. oh! i also really enjoyed the theme of addiction. you get to see how helen's addictions coalesce around and because of this one particular guy, culminating in the final scene of the book. there's this idea in the book that you should "die doing what you love," showcased primary through the girl the MC talks to as she's dying -- she seems, to the MC at least, at peace with, even happy with, her dying the way she did. but this is contrasted with helen, who, in my opinion, does not die doing what she loved, but because she needed to be loved and could not live with herself after what she knew "had" to be done. like she's high out of her mind, she's sobbing when she tells the narrator the baby is dead -- she doesn't even get the satisfaction of having sex with the MC while still alive. in a way, her death is death by overdose, like the "junkies" the paramedics talked about earlier on. also!! if you're still reading the comments on this vid, i have a question for ya!! (or if anyone else would like to share their opinion go ahead !) : do you think the narrator dies or goes to jail at the end of the book?
0:01 is that shirt from that one book/serries where the guy starts seeing spirals everywhere and he goes insane and dies and the people turns to snails and ger cannibalized and the girl's face caves in?
If you like manga you should read Feeding Lamb! It’s kinda like both books combined. A one sided gay relationship where one person takes advantage of the other and murders/cannibalizes people who get in the way.
Pls pls review Mother Thing if you have the chance! Ik this video is old but I feel like you might possibly like the book- it’s not extremely disturbing? But the twist ending is really good in my opinion and idk I’ve just never read a book like it
I love problematique media, taboo can at times bring out strong emotions and if an author can bring strong ideas to the table alongside that, the impact can be quite profound. Some of my favorite works I have a weird “I hate the subject matter so much but I really enjoy how it was presented and I love the ideas it wants to play with.” love/hate relationship with some media. Especially things like horror and eroge (adult visual novels) sure, a lot of horror and ero is shock and shlock but sometimes they bury a nugget of something really intriguing in these things. Anyways yea, thanks for giving these a fair shake, dead inside sounds interesting.
I have a copy of “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” that has two other short stories and the story after the story you’re talking about has the kid who murdered his little brother as one of the characters
Jules please review 'the tulip touch' by anne fine!! it's a british children/ya book that i read when i was around 10 and then again and again until now that chronicles the friendship of two young girls. it seriously is haunting and dark and it rocks
I love books about taboo subject matter, it is interesting since I have been part of certain taboo cultures myself (no, nothing crazy like the characters in these books mentioned by Jules) but hint, I am an old school goth, as in real goth from the 80s not what millenials think is goth, that being said this review was dope and I plan to read both books. Great video, jules
@@julesdapper5584 I was going to suggest Invisible by James Patterson and David Ellis, protagonist can be annoying but the real focal point of the book is the “villain” of the story. You get to know the villain through “Graham Sessions” which are small chapters that are like intermissions to the original story. A bit long and defininitly has its flaws but reading it until the end is definitely worth it.
14:09 as a consumer of disturbing media I couldn’t agree more. It’s something I’ve tried to explain to so many people and they just don’t seen to get it it normally unless they themselves also “enjoy” (use that word loosely lol) it. I was talking to a few friends about how I think Lolita is a good book and one of them genuinely didn’t understand that you’re supposed to be disgusted by the narrative and that it’s is social criticism
I read Things Have Gotten Worse and while it was too much for me I 100% agree with your criticisms. The story went way too fast, it was far too short, we needed more time to watch Zoey manipulate Agnes into doing these horrible things, we needed more reason as to *why* Agnes was so willing. Yes Agnes is established as a lonely woman who's desperate for affection, and the money motive helps, but the fact Zoey is able to go from getting her to do this little harmless act of exhibitionism to killing a salamander is bizarre and unbelievable. Maybe if Agnes confided these gorey instances she mentions excite her or something later in the story or we saw Zoey lovebomb Agnes then withdraw until she agreed to do what she said, or some combination of both. A slow build would also lend far better to Zoey's retroactive horror at what she's made Agnes do. That she got so caught up in the amount of power Agnes has allowed her to have and was just searching for the next thrill without actually considering the consequences. Then we reach the climax where Agnes actually gives herself a tapeworm (or some other horrific thing if the tapeworm doesn't work for you) and is talking about the effects it's having on her. Zoey crashes from this high realizing what she's done and she's never gone this far or tried to make someone do this, even in her darkest fantasies. She begs Agnes to go to the doctor and get help, but it's far too late for that now because Agnes is too broken and Zoey has no one to blame but herself. Side note: fuck people who dislike this book (or any book really) for having "problematic queer rep" or whatever, I'd argue the whole thesis of the story is "is your loneliness really worse than having someone with no regard for your wellbeing?" And that's just as common in queer relationships as it is in straight ones. One of my favourite queer books is Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Bright and tiktok would explode over the amount of murder, rape, cannibalism, and Problematic Queer Rep it contains.
One of the funniest things about the book is that it takes place in 1982, but the intro takes place in 1960, and the killer is stated to be 38, meaning that in the intro he was 16 and had a wife, two children- one of which is like 6 or 7- and owned a home dkfbdkvbsmcbs
I wish I read the first book as a lonely gay teenager in like 2010 because it would have saved me the trouble of finding out that being gay does not make people inherently good lmao I ignored so many red flags and had a lot of Not Good things happen because I was desperate for a community, or even just one person, who understood me. Anyways I read The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones and The Troop by Nick Cutter recently and they're both bangers that you might like maybe
1:36 KITTTTYYYYYY!!!! they kinda look like the stray I and my family have been feeding/taking care of but she's really skinny, I actually saw her for the first time in days this morning
The Beauty - Aliya Whiteley Apesh*t - Carlton Mellick III Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay The Black Farm books - Elias Witherow The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine - Lindsey Fitzharris I'd say anything by Edward Lee, but those have yet to cause any... lingering discomfort, dread, horror. Crossed vol. 1 (Comic) - Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. Never got around to reading the others, but I may hunt down the David Lapham volumes some day.
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk crosses many taboos, but it's more a collection of short stories with a frame than a novel. Setting aside that it was lost on some people that Fight Club was supposed to be satire and not a model to emulate. I think some of his other novels like Diary and Lullaby loosely qualify as horror and have some disturbing moments, but I don't think deeply disturbing like Haunted although I may be desensitized.
thank you for making this video, it was really interesting (as always) i found out about the first book through tiktok and the reviews were pretty much useless, and the ones that actually "talked" about the writting just said it was bad, no explanation no examples. i'm looking forward to episode 2 :)
You might have rekindled my desire to read with this series, and if so, thank you :) I used to read a lot of horror, moved to literature, then philosophy, then lost my love for it. Can't wait for a few recommendations! Edit: Also, the rabbit joke was good. I snorted.
I know you were asking for scary books, but once you're in the mood to make another Dapper History, I suggest looking into the serial killer Leonarda Cianciulli. Very weird and disturbing story. (Also I feel like you could make a cooking princess joke out of it because you're a very talented writer.) Many regards.
just read dead inside in one sitting, and i totally agree with the ending being so stupid. things started kinda falling off around 60% through the book and it's such a shame bc i really was enjoying it! glad i got to read it though.
I have no mouth and I must scream is great, definitely a different type of horror than these 2 books being a scifi horror but Id still recommend checking it out if you havent already
I know of some books that could work: - dracula, prince of many faces (non fiction about vlad the impaler) - we need to talk about Kevin - The Trial by Franz Kafka - Hell House And Finally, The Southern Book club's guide to slaying vampires (warning: this book gets dark real fast)
I just started my horror reading journey and so far the two books that got to me the most have been "No one Rides for Free" by Judith Sonnet and then "Zola" by D.E. McCluskey. Both involve a lot of body horror which I don't particularly enjoy so it got to me. I didn't even make it past page 34 in Zola. It was just so foul, I rather stay ignorant to what else happens in that story.
I have a masters in art therapy and one thing that I took away from my education was how much humans need a way to express or work through taboo things. There is even research about how kids throughout time and cultures will find a way to play guns. It makes adults super uncomfortable, but it actually helps kids work through their anxiety and fear about these horrible things we have present in our day and age.
I feel like I did this book justice in my review. It is my first review. Zola is best read mostly blind which is why I didn't go into the EXTREME stuff. Would you read it based off of this? I finished reading Zola today, and it was beautiful. The first half of this book prior to the first murder was solid asf. Actually felt pretty grounded in reality. Like some people actually do get stuck in horrible relationships like that. The whole cheese thing was weird, but nothing to outlandish. The second half is vile and HILARIOUS. It gets so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. The book never has a dull moment, and although it is EXTREME, it kinda feels like a polished turd. Yes, it's absurd, but it's not annoying, and try hard. And yeah, this book will consume your life for the short time it's with you cause it's written to keep you glued to the pages, which is great
I loved your commentary over these books ^_^!! I'm currently reading Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, and it would be cool to see your take on it!
you should definitely review yellow by the man himself beauragard, its one of his best books and the villains are so interesting. its my personal favorite book of his
I agree with the conversations and thoughts being the best part of Dead Inside. I love when we get to see the insight behind these fucked-up individuals. Then the ending really disappointed me. I get it, but if he wanted to make ig bleak and hopeless, I feel like it could have been more believable
You are not literate. Please do not lie to people on the internet
delete your account.
Based
Unbased
It's *literally* the worst betrayal you can enact upon someone.
And you are??
You have the exact energy of someone who just found a dead body in the woods and is waaaay too excited to tell me every single disgusting detail except where you found it. (complementary)
This, with a pinch of Danny Gonzalez
Discourse over an author not being the same sexuality as their characters is dumb. As long as the writer knew what they were doing and not just being homophobic for 100 pages; let people write characters that are diverse dammit!!
Stephen King consulted his wife a lot while writing Carrie. Open dialogue with someone who has lived the life of your character is key!
Any relationship can be abusive no matter the sexuality
I think people were mainly upset about the fact he didn't do any research into the different forms of gay reproduction and just assumed stuff.
"I hate the mindset that liking a piece of media means that you have to like the subject matter" THANK YOU!!! I wish more people felt that way!!!
I think the worst thing about “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” is the fact that the idea of something like giving someone absolute control over something like your bank account and willingly doing whatever they want or else you’re fucked should be absolutely terrifying, but none of those aspects of the relationship actually come into play. And the entire payoff of the setup to the story is a tapeworm.
“Portraying lesbians as abusive is negative towards the community!!! You can’t do that!!”
Lesbians who have escaped abusive and toxic relationships and who want support: 👁️👄👁️
One of my favorite books is Catcher in the Rye. I know it's the favorite book of serial killers and school shooters but it's a beautiful book about a teenage boy who is spiraling and desperately needs help after something traumatic happens in his life. It's a screwed up book. I sat there reading it as a teenager and realized that before I got on medication to help balance my pain which was making me depressed, I had Holden's thoughts. It was upsetting. But it felt like someone understood me and understood that like Holden, I needed help. Holden's narration is unreliable and I can't trust how he sees it but in his state of mind, that's his personal truth and how he sees it due to depression, anxiety, and various other problems he's suffering under.
That doesn't mean I'm going to go "ugh the world sucks" and do something violent. I do find that the world tends to hurt the most vulnerable first but we can also do things to help them when we pay attention and offer kindness.
Enjoying "dark" subjects isn't a horrible thing. When we decide to write/consume things irresponsibly and ignore there are very real people who have to endure these things and go through them, we're not being great people. We're trying to pretend that bad things are "imaginary" and they can't happen to us. It's like I try to remind people about "fairy tales". They have quite a lot of truth in them. Children won't magically come to life from bones in the fireplace but children were murdered for inheritance money or due to their families starving... and it's not make believe. Evil "step parents" were less step and more parent. Bad things exist and will find us the second we pretend we're safe. Don't pretend that depression can't get you; it will and it has you on speed dial. Don't pretend that these horrible things can't happen. They might be rare but your chances are never zero. And sometimes reading them is the way to cope. To have a fantasy is sometimes to indulge for a moment... Because again, rare does not mean impossible.
For those of us who have suffered terrible things, it becomes a disservice to those who do the "head in the ground" purity culture. What we went through was very real. I'd rather a writer get it right than insist it never happened. I am real. These subjects are real.
Rare... but not impossible.
Whoa.
"Don't pretend that depression can't get you; it will and it has you on speed dial." 🤯
Babe, you're so real for this and goddamn I'd love to put that line on a shitty mug. I'd cherish that mf 😂
THANK YOU it's so annoying when people just say a book is disturbing but don't explain how.
For anyone interested in stuff that talks more about media literacy, I highly recommend Lolita Podcast! It talks about Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita super comprehensively, including diving into why bad faith interpretations of it are so popular, the history of its many adaptations and how they relate to abuse prevalent in Hollywood and Broadway and news media, while still leaving space for understandable criticism of both the novel and its author. Lolita is one of my favorite novels and I think talking about it opens the door for frank and necessary conversations about abuse and the inherent value of children’s lives.
I didn’t listened to this podcast but I did watch an essay video by Final Girl Studios and it enlightened me of how misleading popular Lolita is. I forgot what version it is but the director of that movie had a relationship with the casted Lolita and that is actually what the book is trying to tell sadly.
I’m a crime scene and biohazard cleaner. I love my job intensely. My family thinks it’s the most disgusting, awful thing and never ever wanna hear about any of it. Other people wanna hear it all. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t LIKE the subject matter of sewerslide and moider and gore. I love the physical labor, the constant monitoring of my surroundings and emotions, being around hardcore situations, helping people through an awful time, and intensive white glove cleaning.
I love your description of being able to love a type of media and not enjoy the subject matter. I’ve never been able to describe why I like seeing and hearing about horrific stories, art, and media, but still being disgusted and needing to cover my eyes at times lol
Genuinely, thank you so much for your service. My partner had to clean his brother’s apartment HIMSELF after that brother had been dead for at least a week. The labor that you do helps to shield people who are already deep in their grief from some of the most visceral and distressing parts of life. Thank you so much for offering that comfort to grieving families.
im curious, is there something specific you have to study in order to do that job? im planning on studying mortuary sciences (specifically to be a mortician), so im very curious
i appreciate you picking relatively lesser known titles! i feel like most people go for the classics like the wasp factory, 120 days of sodom, etc... i'm excited to see what other Fricked Up books people suggest in the comments
Ngl I kinda enjoyed the wasp factory except the obvious animal stuff.
of course! I hope to bring attention to newer books & authors with this series. You really miss so many gems if you're not looking for them.
There's a book called The Radium Girls by Kate Moore. It's a work of nonfiction, but I think it could work for this series.
Omg thank you for this, I was very intrigued by the cover and title of _"Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke,"_ but couldn't actually learn anything from the reviews I read. And now I know that *drumroll* I'm probably not gonna read it because based off your review it might not be worth it. This is gonna be a deadly series!!!
As someone whose favourite play is Medea, I completely get how annoying it is for other people to think that liking a piece of media means you endorse the content. I don't think it's cool to murder your children :/
I personally do think it's cool to murder your own children, but I get where you're coming from.
@@julesdapper5584 you and medea would vibe so hard
Look if my husband cheated on me with a younger woman after forcing me to murder my brother and then also kill the children of his enemies??? i might have also gotten the zoomies
I love madea it’s very feminist
Word, killing kids is NOT cool man 😭🙏🚫❌🆒
Zoe's fantasy sounds a lot like me in my toxic phase as like 16 when my boyfriend called me "Daddy" in front of his parents 😭 it was awful for both of us we were toxic and I'm so glad I left him and found a therapist. But it seems like a story I can relate to.
One of my favorite books I read last year was Dennis Cooper's The Sluts (2004). Definitely disturbing, but a really beautifully written and fascinating rabbit hole into the world of sexual extremism, the power of anonymity, the problems of idolization, and an examination of the personas we form and the roles we perform both in real life and online.
I love this series of reading disturbing books! I can't wait to see more episodes and see what you find! You should definitely read a book called "Found." by Todd Rigney! It's only 136 pages, it's a very short but intriguing read that I highly recommend! It's a really interesting and disturbing book about a 10 year old protagonist who loves horror movies who finds out his older brother is a serial killer who keeps heads in his closet. The story has really good characters and development with an absolutely bat-shit ending! I think you might really like it!
new book reviews coming soon! I'll add "Found" to my list, thank you!
I have seen "Things Have Gotten Worse.." suggested occasionally on reddit and have been a bit curious about it. I appreciate you taking the time to actually review the book as opposed to just saying that it "was very jarring" and "greatly disturbed you".
I wish i had more friends like you. you're so well reflected and add interesting conversation to books/topics i love hearing about and getting your input. irl i don't share my hobbies anymore bc it's so taxing to deal with the dying art of media literacy and spoon feeding morality 101.
thank you for making these videos, they make me feel so much less alone.
Someone who thinks they’re smarter and better than everyone else around them is a red flag! Just fyi
I literally lost a friend because I said I thought it was okay to write or read about incest sometimes and stories that involve incest can be interesting. It’s so refreshing to find people who can understand that consuming media about dark topics doesn’t mean you condone that behavior or want to “normalize” the fucked up stuff you read about.
OK, so it's not as disturbing as the ones you talk about here, but I really highly recommend The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones. Holy shit Jules, it's brutal and beautiful-- there's an elk-headed woman and she is intent on revenge. Also Jones' book My Heart is a Chainsaw, which is about a slasher fanatic and her use of her incredible knowledge of horror film stories to navigate what seems to be a "slasher cycle" starting in her home town. She finds a final girl and tries to help build her up to beat the slasher, but she's still trying to figure out who or what the slasher will be while the supposed final girl sees her as a girl who needs to be rescued. I was just all over the place while reading it-- equal parts "I see myself here and I hate it" and "wait what the heck is this actually happening"
OK I love you bye bye
THANK YOU FOR HAVING THE SAME REACTION TO THIS BOOK AS ME. I was wtf-ing all over the place and it wasn't about the creepy stuff.
Major tw but a personal connection to Dead Inside;
As a victim of CSA with multiple offenders the dialogue often reminds me of the different kinds of offenders there are and their thoughts etc. I guess it makes sense since pedophilia and necrophilia are both paraphilias and seen in similar ways.
But I've met the ones who are determined that their desire to cause harm is 'just another sexuality there's so may of [them]' (gross). The ones who have decided to dedicate their entire lives to hiding that they're predators and this don't have families, high up careers, etc.
I've been around apologetic offenders who say they're sorry and they'll never do anything bad again. The ones who want to protect their jobs and families and cry and say they wish they could help me (but never did).
I've witnessed an argument about how it's 'too far' or how they 'may as well embrace who [they] are' and the similarities I've seen in the books dialogue has always been hair raising.
I really appreciated your bit on the liking books with "suspect" topics -- I cannot stand people who freak out or demonize someone who likes books that explore topics like that. Lolita is one of my favorite books and it does not mean that I condone what happens in it lol.
The protagonist of Dead Inside should have been a woman - that way the title could have been a terrible dad joke.
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter is a great collection of rewritten fairy tales with darker storylines, I recommend
Love seeing in depth horror reviews that go beyond "wow, that was weird". I would love to hear what you think about Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla, or even some of his other novellas from In a Glass Darkly. I particularly liked the writing and themes in Carmilla (and also lesbian vampires), and I would be interested to hear your thoughts.
i absolutely love disturbing books and i love seeing you talk about lesser known books! i'm excited to see more of this series
Yeah! I plan on making this series focused around smaller, lesser known titles rather than the famous disturbing ones (like American Psycho, Lolita etc). I'd love to work with some indie authors and give their work some support
I’m drunk and the Dr Seuss stuff took me out of commission for like 30 minutes
I have a recommendation! Penpal was pretty disturbing and distressing for me, of course not as much as these ones (I was able to read it with my mom relatively comfortably), but the build up still makes my stomach churn, and I’d still consider it very disturbing. I’d love to see you review it :]
I just had UA-cam recomend this video. I've seen countless videos about disturbing horror, including those two. But I'm honestly kind of glad to see someone actually talking about them. Like if anything this video could have been twice as long, and I feel like I would have loved it. Especially since, as you said, the majority of the videos just talk about it being disturbing. They just mention a few gory moments. For some, that's all it needs. Like Woom, while a great book, isn't exactly all that deep. It's just a lot of shock factor. But then I hear people actually discuss books like Dead Inside, and I think it's great. Also the brief rant about how liking these things in the books is different from liking them in real life.
Over all I'm sold and gonna watch more videos.
Also, I haven't read Dead Inside yet(I only really discovered extreme horror maybe a year ago), but agree with all the points on Things Have Only Gotten Worse. Over all great book. Loved everything about it. But it needed to be a bit longer and build up more. Some of the jumps were a bit of a hindrance to the shock value.
I’m gonna be honest I really loved the titular story in “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” because as someone who has been in controlling relationships like that the fear comes from how quickly they can convince you to do horrible things. To me it made sense that the second task was so huge especially since it ended up being something that made the MC “feel powerful” because that illusion of empowerment is such an important part of that control. I also understood the random rabbit story and shit cause it’s so reminiscent of a controlling person trying to bond through trauma and be like “I’m too fucked up you should leave me” every five seconds. But also I get how the author could have eased someone else who hadn’t experienced something like that into the narrative. I feel if he had spent more time establishing the MCs mindset before she started seeing the other person it would have made a lot more sense but the cat log email thing didn’t really allow for that. Kinda funny I just recommended this book to my sibling right before seeing that you’d made a video on it 😅
This was such a refreshing review on Things Have Gotten Worse. I read it myself and was so disappointed that other reviewers only wanted to focus on the taboo aspects of the story and how disturbing it was. I really respect and appreciate your voice on this. I love how you focus on actual literary elements relevant to the quality of the work. You are the reviewer I've been looking for! 🖤
Omg your plant(pothos?) has grown so beautifully!! What a good plant parent, damn
Loving this series already! And thank you so much for saying that just because you like something, doesn't mean that you condone the actions lol. It's such a basic thing but a lot of people don't get how someone can like something that has something in it that they disagree with. I love pretty much anything disturbing and it's sad that I can never talk about those things because it's seen as taboo. Looking forward to future videos!
I have so many recommendations omg. Cows by Matthew Stokoe, Off Season by Jack Ketchum, Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter and Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk are all magnificent!
I absolutely love your content and having someone as interested in these things as I am with actual intelligence who can break down topics like this! You’re awesome keep being you!
“I’m literate I swear” is basically how I go about my daily life at this point lol
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński is my vote/recommendation. When we had our holocaust units in 6th grade my dad gave me this book to read alongside of the required reading. He said something about "people focused on Hitler, but everybody was a monster waiting for an excuse." I'll just copy a summary/blurb: "1939, a six-year-old boy is sent-by his anti-Nazi parents to a remote village in Poland where they believe he will be safe. Things happen, however, and the boy is left to roam the Polish countryside, trying to stay alive, looking for food, shelter, and a principle of Justice to accomodate what he sees people do to each other and to him. To the blond, blue-eyed peasants in his part of the country, the swarthy, darkeyed boy who speaks the dialect of the educated class is either Jew, gypsy, vampire, or devil. They fear him and they fear what the Germans will do to them if he is found among them, So he must keep moving. In doing so over a period of years, he observes every Conceivable variation on the theme of horror, sadism, and bestiatity. A cockold miller gouges out the eyes of a ploughboy with the back of a spoon. He loses his voice in a pile of human excrement, almost freezes to death underneath-a frozen lake, and is 'hung by his Wrists atop a vicious dog..." " The novel proper, without tidying-up, is purely and simply a panoply of horror, expertly wrought and disgusting. There is no more parable or symbolism here than there was at Buchenwald. Jerzy is a brilliant writer, but let the reader beware. It's very hard to take."
I read this last night and felt very much the same way as you. I read it after Be My Friend by Mique Watson because it has a similar mixed media vibe, but way more disturbing
One classic book that is disturbing by design - to show you the horrors of racism and generational trauma as well as how it's dealt with I'm African American communities - is 'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison.
Warnings are; racism, dysfunctional families, abusive families (especially parents), bullying, physical assault, sexual assault and rape of both adult and child characters and miscarriage.
It's the story of three little girls, all black growing up in the 70s as well as their families. Pecola Breedlove, an 11 year old and her family's dysfunction is a huge plot point.
"You're never gonna see the final makeup look" - Top ten anime betrayals
I've been called transphobic for liking Silence of the Lambs. I am trans. I really appreciate you talking about how enjoying a certain type of media doesn't mean you support the subject matter. (Not to mention the text directly calls out people that hold transphobic views because of people like Buffalo Bill, but that's besides the point)
This Thing Between Us by Gus Moreno, on the shorter side, I don't think the official synopsis represents it super well. Just a relentless story about grief
I completely agree with your discussion on taboo subject matter. I personally have a limit to what I can really stand, but more power to the people who are willing to talk about the stuff people like to push to the side.
I really appreciate this series, as an enjoyer of disturbing fiction I rarely get to have discussions about what I read and this kinda fills that void. I just finished Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite and I really recommend it, whilst it is disturbing it's also very tender and sweet, it's also extremely gay, like it's more about being gay than it is about being a necrophiliac.
One of the best books ever written.
Ooh, any plans for anything by Thomas Ligotti in this series? The weird 'is he a real person or is this stephen king Doing a Bit Again' thing surrounding him is fun as heck and his actual work is some good creepy shit.
Lmao, I fully expected you to just end the video at "Umm, the answer is-" and just never answer
Your videos are so refreshing it’s amazing! Can't wait for more
10:20 pardon??!! that's the most unhinged plot I've ever heard of
Damn that chit chat with Auny Julia is really feeding the parasocial relationship
I’m so exhausted that I thought the lamp in the wall nook behind you looked like a face…
thank you for your review of dead inside !! so far it's the only of the books you've recommended that i have found in my library's e-book catalog. so i checked it out and finished it in the same evening! (it's actually the first book i've finished in Uhh A Long Time so thank you Double!)
[ spoilers for DEAD INSIDE below ]
i really enjoyed it!! i agree that the narrator's voice was gripping and often comedic just because of what a fuckin edgelord this guy is. some of my favorite moments were when he freaked out and got anxious about social interactions (specially him getting anxious standing in helen's house and thinking about being Perceived in the restaurant) because it enforces that he needs to perceive his strangeness as a strength because, in reality, it isn't. the single funniest line in the book for me was: "I have commenced small talk." just so indicative of his voice -- and the moments when he speaks to the audience, like, sir? To You, there is no audience. For You, no one is hearing or seeing or reading this. he's just.....like that, even (especially? only?) when there's no one there to observe him.
i agree that the "twist" was predictable; when helen said "my.....i got someone to fix [the car]" i was like Ah, she's married. so when the guy shows up at the bar, i agree it's super easy to put two and two together.
oh! i also really enjoyed the theme of addiction. you get to see how helen's addictions coalesce around and because of this one particular guy, culminating in the final scene of the book. there's this idea in the book that you should "die doing what you love," showcased primary through the girl the MC talks to as she's dying -- she seems, to the MC at least, at peace with, even happy with, her dying the way she did. but this is contrasted with helen, who, in my opinion, does not die doing what she loved, but because she needed to be loved and could not live with herself after what she knew "had" to be done. like she's high out of her mind, she's sobbing when she tells the narrator the baby is dead -- she doesn't even get the satisfaction of having sex with the MC while still alive. in a way, her death is death by overdose, like the "junkies" the paramedics talked about earlier on.
also!! if you're still reading the comments on this vid, i have a question for ya!! (or if anyone else would like to share their opinion go ahead !) :
do you think the narrator dies or goes to jail at the end of the book?
Do you have panel from Uzumaki where Azami gets engulfed by a spiral from her forehead in front of Kirie and other on your jumper/sweater thing?
0:01 is that shirt from that one book/serries where the guy starts seeing spirals everywhere and he goes insane and dies and the people turns to snails and ger cannibalized and the girl's face caves in?
it is! it’s from junji ito’s uzumaki, a great read and fantastic art!
I think it’s called “Uzumaki” but I’m not sure
@@TT-AC it is, I just couldn't remember the name at the time I commented that then I immediately remembered as soon as I hit the "comment button"
@@l1feisstressful-dp7ze oh lol
If you like manga you should read Feeding Lamb! It’s kinda like both books combined. A one sided gay relationship where one person takes advantage of the other and murders/cannibalizes people who get in the way.
I just started reading the haunting of hill house, appreciate u giving me recommendations for when im done with it :)
i feel like you'd absolutely LOVE the resurrectionist based on the books you read in this review + your previous content 👀👀
You are a breath of fresh air, keep up the book talk.
Pls pls review Mother Thing if you have the chance! Ik this video is old but I feel like you might possibly like the book- it’s not extremely disturbing? But the twist ending is really good in my opinion and idk I’ve just never read a book like it
Dead inside plagued my mind for weeks after I read it and I wouldn’t shut up about it. I still don’t tbh. 4/5 star lol
"oh hey I've never heard of that movie I wonder what scene got cut!"
I love problematique media, taboo can at times bring out strong emotions and if an author can bring strong ideas to the table alongside that, the impact can be quite profound. Some of my favorite works I have a weird “I hate the subject matter so much but I really enjoy how it was presented and I love the ideas it wants to play with.” love/hate relationship with some media. Especially things like horror and eroge (adult visual novels) sure, a lot of horror and ero is shock and shlock but sometimes they bury a nugget of something really intriguing in these things.
Anyways yea, thanks for giving these a fair shake, dead inside sounds interesting.
I have a copy of “Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke” that has two other short stories and the story after the story you’re talking about has the kid who murdered his little brother as one of the characters
Jules please review 'the tulip touch' by anne fine!! it's a british children/ya book that i read when i was around 10 and then again and again until now that chronicles the friendship of two young girls. it seriously is haunting and dark and it rocks
I really like this girl she seems like a person you could sit back and wach shocking movies with
I love books about taboo subject matter, it is interesting since I have been part of certain taboo cultures myself (no, nothing crazy like the characters in these books mentioned by Jules) but hint, I am an old school goth, as in real goth from the 80s not what millenials think is goth, that being said this review was dope and I plan to read both books. Great video, jules
The world needs a book about Daisy Brown, or any story from you. I’m begging you.
I was going to suggest a book, but theses are way more disturbing than the one I was thinking of
I still wanna hear it!
@@julesdapper5584 I was going to suggest Invisible by James Patterson and David Ellis, protagonist can be annoying but the real focal point of the book is the “villain” of the story. You get to know the villain through “Graham Sessions” which are small chapters that are like intermissions to the original story. A bit long and defininitly has its flaws but reading it until the end is definitely worth it.
14:09 as a consumer of disturbing media I couldn’t agree more. It’s something I’ve tried to explain to so many people and they just don’t seen to get it it normally unless they themselves also “enjoy” (use that word loosely lol) it.
I was talking to a few friends about how I think Lolita is a good book and one of them genuinely didn’t understand that you’re supposed to be disgusted by the narrative and that it’s is social criticism
I read Things Have Gotten Worse and while it was too much for me I 100% agree with your criticisms. The story went way too fast, it was far too short, we needed more time to watch Zoey manipulate Agnes into doing these horrible things, we needed more reason as to *why* Agnes was so willing. Yes Agnes is established as a lonely woman who's desperate for affection, and the money motive helps, but the fact Zoey is able to go from getting her to do this little harmless act of exhibitionism to killing a salamander is bizarre and unbelievable. Maybe if Agnes confided these gorey instances she mentions excite her or something later in the story or we saw Zoey lovebomb Agnes then withdraw until she agreed to do what she said, or some combination of both. A slow build would also lend far better to Zoey's retroactive horror at what she's made Agnes do. That she got so caught up in the amount of power Agnes has allowed her to have and was just searching for the next thrill without actually considering the consequences. Then we reach the climax where Agnes actually gives herself a tapeworm (or some other horrific thing if the tapeworm doesn't work for you) and is talking about the effects it's having on her. Zoey crashes from this high realizing what she's done and she's never gone this far or tried to make someone do this, even in her darkest fantasies. She begs Agnes to go to the doctor and get help, but it's far too late for that now because Agnes is too broken and Zoey has no one to blame but herself.
Side note: fuck people who dislike this book (or any book really) for having "problematic queer rep" or whatever, I'd argue the whole thesis of the story is "is your loneliness really worse than having someone with no regard for your wellbeing?" And that's just as common in queer relationships as it is in straight ones. One of my favourite queer books is Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Bright and tiktok would explode over the amount of murder, rape, cannibalism, and Problematic Queer Rep it contains.
Not really a disturbing book per se, but the novelization of the game Babysitter Bloodbath is a dumb fun edgy slasher romp that I highly recommend.
One of the funniest things about the book is that it takes place in 1982, but the intro takes place in 1960, and the killer is stated to be 38, meaning that in the intro he was 16 and had a wife, two children- one of which is like 6 or 7- and owned a home dkfbdkvbsmcbs
I wish I read the first book as a lonely gay teenager in like 2010 because it would have saved me the trouble of finding out that being gay does not make people inherently good lmao I ignored so many red flags and had a lot of Not Good things happen because I was desperate for a community, or even just one person, who understood me. Anyways I read The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones and The Troop by Nick Cutter recently and they're both bangers that you might like maybe
1:36 KITTTTYYYYYY!!!! they kinda look like the stray I and my family have been feeding/taking care of but she's really skinny, I actually saw her for the first time in days this morning
The Beauty - Aliya Whiteley
Apesh*t - Carlton Mellick III
Head Full of Ghosts - Paul Tremblay
The Black Farm books - Elias Witherow
The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine - Lindsey Fitzharris
I'd say anything by Edward Lee, but those have yet to cause any... lingering discomfort, dread, horror.
Crossed vol. 1 (Comic) - Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows. Never got around to reading the others, but I may hunt down the David Lapham volumes some day.
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk crosses many taboos, but it's more a collection of short stories with a frame than a novel. Setting aside that it was lost on some people that Fight Club was supposed to be satire and not a model to emulate. I think some of his other novels like Diary and Lullaby loosely qualify as horror and have some disturbing moments, but I don't think deeply disturbing like Haunted although I may be desensitized.
I was going to suggest Haunted as well.
thank you for making this video, it was really interesting (as always)
i found out about the first book through tiktok and the reviews were pretty much useless, and the ones that actually "talked" about the writting just said it was bad, no explanation no examples.
i'm looking forward to episode 2 :)
You might have rekindled my desire to read with this series, and if so, thank you :)
I used to read a lot of horror, moved to literature, then philosophy, then lost my love for it. Can't wait for a few recommendations!
Edit: Also, the rabbit joke was good. I snorted.
I know you were asking for scary books, but once you're in the mood to make another Dapper History, I suggest looking into the serial killer Leonarda Cianciulli. Very weird and disturbing story. (Also I feel like you could make a cooking princess joke out of it because you're a very talented writer.)
Many regards.
just read dead inside in one sitting, and i totally agree with the ending being so stupid. things started kinda falling off around 60% through the book and it's such a shame bc i really was enjoying it! glad i got to read it though.
Late af cause it’s an old but love how u and Anda Kent describe books as a whole, horror genre or not 🫡🫡🫡
I loved this! Would be interested in hearing more.
I have no mouth and I must scream is great, definitely a different type of horror than these 2 books being a scifi horror but Id still recommend checking it out if you havent already
That's one of my favorite short stories and video games! lmao
you and morpho are my favorite for these types of videos
I bet there are a bunch of Junji Ito shirts on red bubble, that’s right up their alley.
I know of some books that could work:
- dracula, prince of many faces (non fiction about vlad the impaler)
- we need to talk about Kevin
- The Trial by Franz Kafka
- Hell House
And Finally, The Southern Book club's guide to slaying vampires (warning: this book gets dark real fast)
Oh hell yeah I love this series already! I guess I would suggest Haunted or Wasp Factory.
I just started my horror reading journey and so far the two books that got to me the most have been "No one Rides for Free" by Judith Sonnet and then "Zola" by D.E. McCluskey. Both involve a lot of body horror which I don't particularly enjoy so it got to me. I didn't even make it past page 34 in Zola. It was just so foul, I rather stay ignorant to what else happens in that story.
The dead inside main character sounds like Dennis from it's always sunny 🧐
STOP
I have a masters in art therapy and one thing that I took away from my education was how much humans need a way to express or work through taboo things. There is even research about how kids throughout time and cultures will find a way to play guns. It makes adults super uncomfortable, but it actually helps kids work through their anxiety and fear about these horrible things we have present in our day and age.
i have never been more glad to have found a channel.
*sees intro* *immediately subscribes*
I feel like I did this book justice in my review. It is my first review. Zola is best read mostly blind which is why I didn't go into the EXTREME stuff. Would you read it based off of this?
I finished reading Zola today, and it was beautiful. The first half of this book prior to the first murder was solid asf. Actually felt pretty grounded in reality. Like some people actually do get stuck in horrible relationships like that. The whole cheese thing was weird, but nothing to outlandish. The second half is vile and HILARIOUS. It gets so ridiculous that you can't help but laugh. The book never has a dull moment, and although it is EXTREME, it kinda feels like a polished turd. Yes, it's absurd, but it's not annoying, and try hard. And yeah, this book will consume your life for the short time it's with you cause it's written to keep you glued to the pages, which is great
I loved your commentary over these books ^_^!! I'm currently reading Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica, and it would be cool to see your take on it!
you should definitely review yellow by the man himself beauragard, its one of his best books and the villains are so interesting. its my personal favorite book of his
Actually just found you through this video. Didn't realize you made daisy brown, great job with your series. Thanks for the review, cute hair!
the reason i couldn't stomach the concept of dead inside is because I read that there is a s*xual scene involving a dead baby?? is this not true ???
shockingly the one i want to read is the necrophile and cannibal one and not the lesbian chatroom one also Sofi Oksanen has some work that work
Things Have Gotten Worse seems like. Well. A good idea executed terribly. It wants so bad to be interesting but drops the ball huge
I agree with the conversations and thoughts being the best part of Dead Inside. I love when we get to see the insight behind these fucked-up individuals. Then the ending really disappointed me. I get it, but if he wanted to make ig bleak and hopeless, I feel like it could have been more believable