Disturbing books tier list - 77 of the most troubling books ever written ranked!

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  • Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
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    Books discussed:
    120 Days of Sodom by The Marquis De Sade
    1974 by David Peace
    A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
    A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts by Charles Birkin
    American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
    Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
    Birdman by Mo Hayder
    Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
    Blood on the Tracks by Shuzo Oshimi
    By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens
    Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
    Come Closer by Sara Gran
    Confessions by Kanae Minato
    Cows by Matthew Stokoe
    Crash by JG Ballard
    Dead City by Shane Stevens
    Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison
    Dearest by Peter Loughran
    Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite
    Firefly by Piers Anthony
    Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews
    Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
    Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana
    Haunted by Chuck Pahalaniuk
    Hawk Mountain by Conner Habib
    Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
    Hogg by Samuel Delaney
    House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski
    I Was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond
    In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami
    Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
    Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke
    Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
    Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
    Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal W Johnson
    Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
    Manhunt by Gretchen Felker Martin
    My Absolute Darking by Gabriel Tallent
    My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
    Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
    Nocturne by Ed McBain
    Notice by Heather Lewis
    Only Child by Jack Ketchum
    Out by Natsuo Kirino
    Perfume by Patrick Suskind
    Poking Holes by Juan Valencia
    Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
    Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
    Sick Bastards by Matt Shaw
    Tampa by Alyssa Nutting
    Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
    Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
    The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
    The Collector by John Fowles
    The End of Alice by AM Homes
    The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
    The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
    The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers
    The Laws of the Skies by Gregoire Courtois
    The Melting by Lize Spit
    The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
    The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
    The Resurrectionist by Wrath James White
    The Road by Cormac McCarthy
    The Room by Hubert Selby Jnr
    The Second Suspect by Heather Lewis
    The Slob by Aaron Beauregard
    The Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille
    The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas
    The Third Beast by Peter Loughran
    The Troop by Nick Cutter
    The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
    The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
    Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
    We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
    Woom by Duncan Ralston
    Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 214

  • @kayleighbrown459
    @kayleighbrown459 Місяць тому +20

    I also don't get why House of Leaves is considered disturbing. Like, it's weird and really cool but disturbing? IDK.

  • @M-J
    @M-J Місяць тому +29

    I’m proud that you finally made a tier! Well done, Olly. Saving for later in the week. 😎 - MJ

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  Місяць тому +2

      Thanks MJ!

    • @M-J
      @M-J Місяць тому

      @@CriminOllyBlog 🤗🤗

  • @JimJimson729
    @JimJimson729 Місяць тому +22

    This is a monumental achievement. Time to clear up my reading schedule for the S tier books

  • @WishAtElevenEleven
    @WishAtElevenEleven Місяць тому +8

    I so appreciate the amount of time and effort that went into compiling this list! And it helps me know which books that interest me may be ones that I can handle, based on the handful on the list that I’ve already read.

  • @PokhrajRoy.
    @PokhrajRoy. Місяць тому +31

    A Tier List on this channel? Goody goody 👏🏽

  • @eriebeverly
    @eriebeverly Місяць тому +12

    Way to speed run a tier list of a lot of books. Great mini-reviews

  • @fiberartsyreads
    @fiberartsyreads Місяць тому +7

    This was great! Thanks for taking the time for rank all these. Girl Next Door is definitely the most disturbing book I’ve read.

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  Місяць тому

      Thanks Crystal!

    • @reneeannreads
      @reneeannreads 20 днів тому

      Is it based on the actual true crime murder case? If so, that case disturbed me so bad probably one of the worst torture and murder cases I’ve ever heard of.

    • @fiberartsyreads
      @fiberartsyreads 20 днів тому

      @@reneeannreads yes it is based on a true case.

  • @pedterson
    @pedterson Місяць тому +5

    Probably the most disturbing book I've read was Yukio Mishima's The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea. In part because of the author's biography, but also because the most disturbing part of the story is told only through a substitute, so your mind has to do the gruesome work of imagining alone.
    I agree about Blood Meridian. Incredibly grim, but the language is so beautiful and sculpted, and the narration so matter-of-fact and uncaring, that the violence doesn't seem to hit you with immediacy. It is one of the books I've thought about the longest after I've read it, but not so much for the violence.

  • @Jose-wq4zr
    @Jose-wq4zr 15 днів тому +2

    I like how the fact that the Marquis de Sade was clearly and transparently a crazy person took some of the edge off of Saló

  • @IngaNoniFayJeth
    @IngaNoniFayJeth Місяць тому +4

    Ooooh time to take notes! I have so many of these books already on my Kindle, yay! I absolutely adored Confessions! Flowers In the Attic is an interesting submission - I think what makes that one so disturbing is that so many of us read this book when we were probably too young to read it. 😂. I want to say I was maybe 11 or 12 when I started reading VC Andrews? I know everyone is different, but the only book that genuinely haunts me years and years after reading it is We Need To Talk About Kevin. That book kind of ruined me.

  • @charlesbradley5757
    @charlesbradley5757 Місяць тому +2

    “The Road” and “Blood Meridian”, both written by Cormac McCarthy. Visceral and unforgiving.

  • @afeeser
    @afeeser Місяць тому +4

    I've read a few of these books. I don't usually pick disturbing books. For me, The Dark Half by Stephen King was the most disturbing. I get more disturbed by psychological horror.

  • @Unpotted
    @Unpotted Місяць тому +1

    Brilliant list, and good work. I know you have spent a long time on this project.
    The rankings will be a helpful guide for those interested in such content. It’s not usually my favorite subject matter, but I found a few titles of interest.
    Thanks!
    😺✌️

  • @ashbowden
    @ashbowden Місяць тому +1

    I absolutely adore the pillow man and have read it at least five times but I never see it anywhere! Great video :)

  • @mishababernathy7165
    @mishababernathy7165 Місяць тому +2

    I also have some recommendations: Crash and The atrocity exhibition by JG Ballard, the George Miles Cycle (5 books: Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide and Period) by Dennis Cooper, The dice man by Luke Rhinehart, Sarah and The heart is deceitful above all things by JT Leroy.

  • @LSPig
    @LSPig 6 днів тому

    The Girl Next Door is easily the most disturbing book I've ever read. The fact that she could have escaped near the end but went back for her sister added a whole mount of tragedy to it.

  • @JC-ry5sz
    @JC-ry5sz Місяць тому +2

    Excellent list, really comprehensive. The Collector really hit me hard, felt very upset after finishing it in a way I hadn't expected, having read a fair few other disturbing books. Same with the Girl Next Door, though that was expected. Another book which disturbed and caused a real visceral reaction in me was Wild Swans, which is a memoir about the communist revolution in China. That book made me feel so much rage throughout at the awful things that humans can do to each other.

  • @pazuzu126
    @pazuzu126 Місяць тому +2

    Have you heard of Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott? It is the story of a girl who was kidnapped by a sexual predator and has been held hostage by him for the past five years. It is unrelentingly unsettling and it is actually written for young adults!

  • @ErynnWilson
    @ErynnWilson Місяць тому +2

    Hiya. Awesome tier list. My TBR is now bursting with new possibilities. Thnx!
    Have you read 'Under the Skin' by Michele Faber????

  • @jimsbooksreadingandstuff
    @jimsbooksreadingandstuff Місяць тому +2

    That is a lot of disturbing books!. Most of the ones I've read from the listing would be in the B tier... like Sharp Objects, The Collector, My Dark Vanessa... I've read a couple in the A tier (We need to talk about Kevin, American Psycho and Poking Holes) but nothing from the S List tier. I can see why these tier list ranking videos are so popular, great work sorting through so many disturbing titles. Poking Holes by Juan Valencia is the most disturbing book I have read, I was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond was the most disturbing book I'd read pre-Booktube.

  • @niriop
    @niriop Місяць тому +1

    Excellent list Olly, very impressed with your tenacity in this project.
    If I had to add my own suggestion, I’d recommend The Fungus by Harry Adam Knight (joint pseudonym of John Brosnan and Leo Kettle), which at various points is disgusting enough to be genuinely disturbing, particularly near the beginning.

  • @sethball2475
    @sethball2475 Місяць тому +2

    What a great roster of books - some of which I read, some of which I find tempting, some I don’t think I could stomach. I’ve recently read The Laws of the Skies, and can even say that it wasn’t too long ago I read Haunted. Haunted, I think, was effective for me overall, but yes, the first story was sickening, and didn’t really get topped but anything else in the book. I really liked The Laws of the Skies, though there was a sort of senselessness to it that left me thinking “disturbing….but it just sort of trundled along in exactly the way I thought it was going to.”. I also thought I had gone through something similar, and better, in the graphic novel Beautiful Darkness, by Vehlmann and Kerascoet.
    Books you mentioned that I loved: The Painted Bird, Johnny Got His Gun, The Wasp Factory.
    I’ll mention some of the most disturbing books I have read that you did not include:
    Billy, by Whitley Strieber (Horror)
    Under the Skin, by Michel Faber (Horror, SF)
    Compulsion, by Shaun Hutson (Crime, Horror)
    Wisteria Cottage, by Robert M. Coates (Crime, Horror)
    Wieland, by Charles Brockden Brown (18th Century, Crime, Horror)
    Somebody’s Voice, by Ramsey Campbell (Horror)
    A Killing Winter, by Tom Callaghan (Crime)
    Suffer the Flesh, by Monica J. O’Rourke (Extreme Horror, and a book I’m mentioning even though I did not like it)
    Off Season, by Jack Ketchum (Horror)
    The Kill Riff, by David J. Schow (Horror)
    Nightmare, by Lynn Brock (Crime)
    Panther, by Brecht Evens (Graphic Novel, Horror)

  • @Jessie-yn2ci
    @Jessie-yn2ci 11 днів тому

    Well done! 👍🏽 Am going to pick up more than a few books you talked about. This was a lot of fun to watch/listen to. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽📚

  • @rodgilley-writer
    @rodgilley-writer Місяць тому +1

    Such a wonderful and entertaining video! And, it will surely fill many TBR lists!!! Very Well Done!!!

  • @lissavanhouten6628
    @lissavanhouten6628 Місяць тому +2

    I think I hate horror and really disturbing, disgusting books. But this was a really interesting list. I was curious. I thought Lord of the Flies, 1984, and Handmaid's Tale were disturbing for what horrors are visited on humans by other humans. The only books I read on this list were Helter Skelter, Flowers in the Attic and Perfume, probably the more "popular" books.

  • @snoopjonson9504
    @snoopjonson9504 Місяць тому +3

    BLOOD ON THE TRACKS MENTIONED 🗣🔥💯

  • @squashchefan
    @squashchefan Місяць тому +5

    Its because of you Olly i read Pillow Man and The Melting, so thank you

  • @anotherbibliophilereads
    @anotherbibliophilereads Місяць тому +13

    I’m surprised Off Season didn’t make it on this list. Definitely worthy of the A tier.

    • @chrisallenmax
      @chrisallenmax Місяць тому

      @@anotherbibliophilereads oh my goodness the first time I read ‘off season’ I stayed up all night shocked and turning and reading pages as fast as I could

    • @littlemiss131
      @littlemiss131 Місяць тому +1

      @@chrisallenmax by Jack Ketchum?

    • @chrisallenmax
      @chrisallenmax Місяць тому +1

      @@littlemiss131 yes! It was sooo good!

  • @cadcar13
    @cadcar13 Місяць тому +2

    I’d say Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker. Seriously whacked book. It definitely stuck with me. Very weird.

    • @SirMasterRattington
      @SirMasterRattington 15 днів тому

      I was gonna mention Clive Barker too. There’s at least a couple stories in his Book of Blood collection that I would include.

  • @Anthingll
    @Anthingll Місяць тому +2

    The most disturbing book I’ve ever read is Happy Like Murderers by Gordon Burn. It’s about Fred and Rosemary West, but it’s written in a very different style to the normal true crime book.

  • @cnsl6140
    @cnsl6140 Місяць тому

    This is very appreciated. Keep doing what you do!

  • @misomiso8228
    @misomiso8228 Місяць тому +4

    Timestamps please! It's ahrd to read the tier list sometimes!

  • @watercolor.wyloeck
    @watercolor.wyloeck Місяць тому +2

    Belgium represent on the S tier! The Melting by Lize Spit is just phenomenal! 🙂

  • @henrytjernlund
    @henrytjernlund Місяць тому +1

    Glad to see Let's Go Play... make the top tier. I might have put it in "A" myself but unsure. I still have a love/hate feeling about that book. It still haunts me after 2 years. I keep saying that what the kids do is half the horror, why they do it is the other half.

  • @authenticpoppy
    @authenticpoppy Місяць тому +1

    I was so happy when I finished reading all the Red Riding Quartet. They are bleak and unrelentingly dark. I'm glad I read them, but it was difficult. Great list!

  • @Kobsidian
    @Kobsidian Місяць тому +1

    A very interesting list, though I don't gravitate to books because of the "Disturbance Factor". The one title I EXPECTED to see, but didn't, is William Golding's LORD OF THE FLIES.

  • @atari947
    @atari947 Місяць тому +4

    I feel like anything by Dennis Cooper should be on here

    • @jackiemoffitt6780
      @jackiemoffitt6780 Місяць тому +1

      Yeah he's the author who disturbs me the most for sure. Feels like I'm looking at something I really shouldn't know about

  • @shioramenrabbit
    @shioramenrabbit Місяць тому +1

    Stumbled onto this channel by accident! I'm not a great reader of disturbing things, but I thought I'd mention one because it wasn't on the list (I don't know if true disturbing book readers would find it as creepy as I do). Shin Sekai Yori (From the New World). I watched the anime and then later read the novel. It lives more or less rent-free in my head simply because it is so understandable how the society and the rules they enforce could come to be as they are, even if they are pretty horrifying.

  • @markalexander3659
    @markalexander3659 Місяць тому +1

    Read most of these, but got some new recommendations, thanks! Gillian Flynn's name is pronounced like "Jillian", btw :)

  • @danleach8266
    @danleach8266 28 днів тому +1

    I'm in the middle of work right now "House of leaves", I'm trying to find the book cover at the end but I'm not immediately recognizing it. Where did it rank?
    Thank you.

  • @Momba_Jules
    @Momba_Jules Місяць тому

    Loved the ranking! The only book that I can think of that really disturbed me and stuck with me for a long time, that’s not already on this list, is A Child Called It.

  • @markalexander3659
    @markalexander3659 Місяць тому +1

    Let's Go Play at the Adams has nothing to do with the Sylvia Likens case (the one that inspired The Girl Next Door), it just happens to have a vaguely similar theme.

  • @GlitterEnby
    @GlitterEnby Місяць тому

    Oh my goodness, you are so much braver than I am. If I tried to read these books, I'd never sleep again. When I watch or read disturbing stuff, my system forgets the difference between fiction and non-fiction (even though my brain knows), and I freak out. It might be the PTSD doing that, though.

  • @NicolesBookishNook
    @NicolesBookishNook Місяць тому +2

    Loved this! And the Matt Shaw book bit was 😂😂😂😂 Let’s hope he remains chill and doesn’t come after you. But I think you’d be able to handle it with elegance.

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  Місяць тому +2

      lol I know a lot of people appreciate his work but I just don’t get it.

    • @NicolesBookishNook
      @NicolesBookishNook Місяць тому +1

      @@CriminOllyBlog same, same. And then everything that happened… ah, no, never reading his books.

    • @mzcyberbat
      @mzcyberbat 17 днів тому

      Interesting fact he's been hired to write a book adoption of a movie. Be interesting to see which one.

  • @dreamtonites
    @dreamtonites 10 днів тому

    I’ve not seen many people talk about it but Sam Byer’s ‘Come Join our Disease’ absolutely wins it for me. I really struggled to decide my stance on it, at times the prose was super effective and other times it felt like it was stuck in a philosophical deathloop. Either way, I still retch when I think about the bread scene.

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  9 днів тому +1

      I haven't heard of that one, thanks for the recommendation!

  • @shakenbake3249
    @shakenbake3249 Місяць тому +1

    I got a whole lot of books to read after this one 😂 great video and excellent series!

  • @Romvince666
    @Romvince666 Місяць тому

    Excellent list! Some of these books I haven't heard of, so I'm thrilled that my TBR list is growing!

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  Місяць тому +1

      Delighted that I’m helping you find new things to read!

  • @pattayaesl7128
    @pattayaesl7128 Місяць тому +2

    new Ollie upload= weekend happiness

  • @thetriumphofthethrill2457
    @thetriumphofthethrill2457 15 годин тому

    Good video and good reference, thanks for sharing.
    Some I'd like to suggest:
    "The Decadent Reader" edited by Asti Hustvedt
    "Dangerous Liaisons" by Choderlos de Laclos
    "Maldoror" by Comte de Lautréamont
    "The Bad Seed" by William March
    "Eden Eden Eden" by Pierre Guyotat
    "The Basketball Diaries" by Jim Carroll
    Happy Reading. :-)

  • @Michael_Wertenberg
    @Michael_Wertenberg Місяць тому

    Great video! I agree with some, disagree on others. But I got some great recommendations I loook forward to reading. Thanks!

  • @Bertha-Mason
    @Bertha-Mason Місяць тому +1

    War memoirs, honest ones, are all disturbing I think - but I still consider With the Old Breed by EB Sledge to be one of the most disturbing books I’ve read. Although Sledge was undoubtedly patriotic and proudly served - and those feelings run through the entirety of the book - his depictions of combat and the casual cruelty of teenagers drafted to fight… its really intense and I vividly remember a lot of those scenes even 30 years later. The maggots and the mud too.
    The guy I bought it from as a teenager told me it was anti-war propaganda dressed up as a memoir and he was right.

    • @MementoMori395
      @MementoMori395 Місяць тому +1

      I was about to start reading With the Old Breed, I have it tucked in my backpack right now, so it's ready to go to work with me tonight. (I am trying to finish reading Shogun first, and that book takes awhile) A relative of mine gave it to me as a gift. I so excited.

    • @Bertha-Mason
      @Bertha-Mason Місяць тому +1

      ⁠@@MementoMori395 Oh I love to hear you’re reading this! It’s an incredible book - the detail of combat conditions and the inhumanity suffered by all participants are so vivid, but Sledge somehow remains completely human through it all.
      Good luck with Shogun!

    • @MementoMori395
      @MementoMori395 Місяць тому +1

      @@Bertha-Mason Thanks! When it comes to WW2, I am mostly familiar with the western front stuff. I haven't really read or studied anything with the pacific fighting. So this will be the first.

  • @Rubysoho346
    @Rubysoho346 Місяць тому +2

    I really, really enjoyed this. But it would be great if you could post the list in the description or pinned it in the comments because you kinda zoom through this and it's hard to understand you at times.

  • @superblomper
    @superblomper Місяць тому

    I've been dying to get my hands on The Melting! I don't think it's out in the US yet.

  • @alvarosalandy7969
    @alvarosalandy7969 Місяць тому +1

    I've read some of this because of your reviews, even when you express not liking the book. I've enjoyed some of them, for example Cows (I had a chuckle with it).
    I've got some that interest me and others outright don't.
    I remember reading Out by Natsuo Kirino when I was far to young to.

  • @ck2352
    @ck2352 Місяць тому

    Gone To See The River Man was just so good. It stuck with me…. The Girl Next Door was definitely a powerful read.

  • @Billie_Cook
    @Billie_Cook Місяць тому

    This list is perfect for someone like me getting back into reading. I loved Confessions both the book and movie. Great list, I know now what books to read for Spooky Season 👍🏾

  • @tiffanyclark-grove1989
    @tiffanyclark-grove1989 Місяць тому +1

    I think you actually love disturbing books. May not be the best for an individual psyche.

  • @Alexandra-ms9jj
    @Alexandra-ms9jj Місяць тому +5

    Hogg is admittedly the most vile and disturbing book I've ever read, but it's also become one of my favorite novels. Delany's messaging manages to be really in your face throughout (in my opinion), but it's so easy to miss because he just pulls zero punches in the graphic nature of the entire thing. It's definitely an S tier disturbing novel, that's for sure

    • @6moonsofsaturn
      @6moonsofsaturn Місяць тому +2

      @@Alexandra-ms9jj what do you feel his message was? Definitely agree that it is the most vile!

    • @Alexandra-ms9jj
      @Alexandra-ms9jj Місяць тому +2

      @6moonsofsaturn There's a couple of things I think Delany was primarily addressing: a) SA is willfully ignored by society and that, in part, perpetuates SA and b) homosexuality was, at the time, viewed as immoral because people were unwilling to confront true sexual immortality. There's a lot more I feel Delany comments on, but those two themes really stood out to me.

    • @xWingzTV
      @xWingzTV День тому

      hogg is literal auto-erotic smut written by a pedophile sympathizer with absolutely no literary redeeming qualities… it’s only survived so long because it’s managed to gaslight the horror-lit demographic and so the self-perpetuated hype continues…

  • @Karalolcowlaw
    @Karalolcowlaw 19 днів тому

    I may have missed it but did you mention American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

  • @Disturbingoverwriter
    @Disturbingoverwriter Місяць тому

    Nice categorization. May I know this website? I wanna do one for myself too!

  • @KodaMeansFriend
    @KodaMeansFriend 16 днів тому

    Lol. The Terrifier 2 metaphor worked so well for me. I knew EXACTLY what you meant. 😂🤣

  • @MementoMori395
    @MementoMori395 Місяць тому +1

    I don't read a lot of disturbing books, so at first I thought I wouldn't have read any of these books. Hahaha, I read 3. American Psyco, We Need to Talk About Kevin and Perfume.
    I think Stephen King's Rage should be on the list. But perhaps you haven't read it??

  • @ulyssesgonzalez2068
    @ulyssesgonzalez2068 11 днів тому

    Would I find any of these books at my local bookstore in the Novel section or Horror section? I'm interested in reading some of these and would like to save some money by buying used copies.

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  11 днів тому

      I think probably about 50/50 - a lot of them are horror or crime, but many are general fiction

    • @ulyssesgonzalez2068
      @ulyssesgonzalez2068 11 днів тому

      @@CriminOllyBlog thank you

  • @ginabeena6757
    @ginabeena6757 Місяць тому +1

    Oh Olly, why oh why did you have to put Firefly on here? The only Piers Anthony books I've ever read we're the Xanth series. I naively thought that someone with such a great imagination and sense of humor must be a good person. 30 minutes on Goodreads learning about this book and I'm crushed! Ugh, I'll never be the same again 😞

  • @nicholasjones3207
    @nicholasjones3207 Місяць тому +1

    You should maybe try some of wrath James white’s later books. The writing gets better. I found succulent prey more disturbing than the book you tiered here. Also his book with Edward lee, the teratologist is pretty disturbing and gross.

  • @nicholasjones3207
    @nicholasjones3207 Місяць тому

    The slob - I’ve not read anything that had an impact like when the slob uses the vacuum but after action transplanted to the barn I thought the book was silly and rushed. I really wanted it to live up to the hype but it didn’t.

  • @MiLoAnne666
    @MiLoAnne666 24 дні тому +1

    Wish you gave a short description of what the book is even about...

  • @drstrangefreak
    @drstrangefreak Місяць тому

    I've read 19 on this list and got some good TBR recs, so thank you.

  • @megudo
    @megudo Місяць тому

    The laws of the skies is such a favorite of mine, quick nice read !

  • @capricous
    @capricous Місяць тому

    Portrait of a Nuclear Family by J.P. Behrens is a great story about just how far a woman will go to protect her family's image.

  • @damenwalker5260
    @damenwalker5260 Місяць тому

    Was so excited to see exquisite corpse on your list, one of my favourite books of all time, and i agree 100% with your placement 😊

  • @rahabintemotiul7418
    @rahabintemotiul7418 Місяць тому

    Thanks for the recommendations!

  • @littlemiss131
    @littlemiss131 Місяць тому

    Can t believe i watched the ENTIRE video!
    Exellent video idea!!!😊

  • @johnscott6481
    @johnscott6481 16 днів тому

    Painted bird has the single saddest page I've ever read. The scene with the horse.if you know you know.

  • @IsraelShekelberg
    @IsraelShekelberg 14 днів тому

    Torture Garden? The Turner Diaries? The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing was unsettling. I am not sure the confessions of Carl Panzram counts as a 'book'.

  • @elliyo4286
    @elliyo4286 Місяць тому

    `A Little Life´ the one book I will never shut up about. ^^ I lost sight of how many of these you read, that´s really impressive!! I read about half of this in one year, but even if you do read a lot more you can be really proud of yourself for going through all of them. Phew!
    ´My Dark Vanessa´ I personally really liked; I appreciated the story of a ´not so perfect´ victim.
    I guess I just like books that make me cry, and feel something (which is not simply disgust)
    but there are a lot of books on my tbr from this list; I want to tackle Lolita this summer.
    I think the most disturbing book I have read (and there aren´t that many) was ´Gone to See the Riverman´ which I hated. Which I´ve also gone on a rant about what all the things I didn´t like were, but there is one ´aspect´ in particular that made me frigging hate this book.
    ´Eric the pie´ was also really disturbing to me personally; I´m sensitive with animal cruelty. I had to skip a lot of pages, so I guess it´s one I couldn´t get through at all. Really horrific! But didn´t hate it like I did the Riverman book.

  • @laurakuhlmann1626
    @laurakuhlmann1626 29 днів тому +6

    I hated my dark Vanessa especially because it kept trying to parallel itself with Lolita and proving that the author didn't understand the book. Lolita is not a love story or sympathetic to the abuser; Nanokov himself was abused as a child (see his memoir "Speak Memory") and many of his books are written from the perspective of terrible people, but he's usually more clear that he dislikes the MC. In Lolita Nabokkv didn't hold the readers hand, and as a result some readers interpret it as justifying abuse. It does not. So I don't understand what Vanessa was trying to do, because Nabokov was already critical of the abuser.

    • @themelonsoup
      @themelonsoup 16 днів тому

      There's a similar book that's actually a memoir called Becoming Lolita. The MC is groomed by a teacher who utilities the book Lolita to do so and eventually the MC figures out that it's not a love story. I'm describing it poorly lol.

  • @leonoldfield9765
    @leonoldfield9765 Місяць тому

    Wow, What a list! The most disturbing book I have ever read is The Vanishing by Tim Krabbé. Still lingers with me years later. Honourable mention to The Collector by John Fowles. Very disturbing!

  • @oliverbehegan
    @oliverbehegan Місяць тому

    Interesting list, some I've read, some are on my to-read list, and some I need to add. The Matt Shaw knocking was fairly predictable, though...

  • @johnyarrow6100
    @johnyarrow6100 Місяць тому

    Have you ever read What Happens Now by Jeremy Dyson? I thought that was pretty messed up

  • @bigaldoesbooktube1097
    @bigaldoesbooktube1097 Місяць тому +1

    It disturbing just listening to you rank these 🫤

  • @xSmythosx
    @xSmythosx 12 днів тому

    yeah house of leaves is maybe my all time favorite book and i definitely wouldn’t call it disturbing. more tragic and vaguely uncomfortable than anything

  • @ritas140
    @ritas140 Місяць тому

    This Little Family still haunts me and I’ve a high threshold!

  • @lyndaslittlelibrary
    @lyndaslittlelibrary Місяць тому

    Of the 22 of these I've started, The Girl Next Door and Let's Go Play at the Adams' are the only 2 I couldn't finish. I got The Melting for my birthday so seeing it sitting in the S tier with those other 2 is making me nervous 😅

  • @sundaymorning9699
    @sundaymorning9699 Місяць тому

    great video to see right before heading to powells!! picked up copies of sharp objects and i was dora suarez while i was there because of this 🎉

  • @34tgroan
    @34tgroan Місяць тому

    Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry is one you should put on your radar. It’s pretty violent.

  • @Marylily2
    @Marylily2 Місяць тому

    16:46 Reagarding Notice by Heather Lewis, do you think that there could be any truth to this novel? After I read it, I was just left feeling like this had to have come from somewhere. That no one’s mind could be that dark without there having been something. As I was reading it, the vivid depictions of certain events really stood out, and I just couldn’t imagine how she could write like that without having had these horrific experiences. What do you think?

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  Місяць тому +1

      I know that she was a victim of abuse. Whilst I don’t necessarily think the specific events of the book are factual, I definitely think the MC’s self destructive psychology is autobiographical

  • @abject_ladder
    @abject_ladder 14 днів тому

    I studied The Pillowman all the way back in uni. I think it traumatised me 😂 but my god is it good

  • @yelisieimurai
    @yelisieimurai Місяць тому

    Thank you very much for this interesting video! I enjoyed it. I read now Winnie-the-Pooh but after I finish it I will definitely read something more disturbing! It shall be “let’s go play…” (interesting to compare it with “The girl next door” which I read year ago).

  • @gerarddonaghy2720
    @gerarddonaghy2720 Місяць тому

    In some ways it depends on what's disturbing, I think torture porn, perversions of nature, even some types of body horror, are not necessarily that disturbing, at least not in terms of the simply descriptive, though I think you make that point well enough in the rankings too. Another sci fi masterworks series book Random Acts of Senseless Violence is good and kind of disturbing too in its depiction of a kind of individual and social breakdown into disorder. This book plays a sort of a trick but its also meant to be a meditation on how deterministic, or not, the world is, or so I thought, which is kind of disturbing some how too. Its part of a series but I never read any of the other books in the series. It was kind of stand alone jarring and I liked it for that.

  • @gerarddonaghy2720
    @gerarddonaghy2720 Місяць тому

    One I seldom see mentioned is Arslan, in part as its sci fi masterworks series, it contains some pretty shocking sexual violence and also a plot which may or may not have to do with the freudian death wish/drive, I wouldnt read this again and I think the author totally nailed the necrophilious vs biophilious idea, let down by its finish but shocking at times and will remain with me anyway. The Wasp Factory I think deserves a mention, some of the understated savagery in that book is unforgetable.

  • @TractorCountdown
    @TractorCountdown 24 дні тому +1

    I'm curious as to why Stephen King isn't in your list. I'm not suggesting he should be, but am genuinely curious. I don't tend to get disturbed by books, but one scene in 'Blood Meridian' still turns my stomach when I think of it.

  • @kreggie891
    @kreggie891 Місяць тому

    Hmm..there’s only been 2 books that have really bothered me they were both in the true crime genre. The Last Victim and Slow Death both disturbing in subject and facts of the cases. The Last Victim isn’t very long of a book but is very sad at the end. Slow death is just horrific in the details of what happened. It’s well researched and written but so horrific, I can’t even come up with another word.

  • @waltera13
    @waltera13 Місяць тому

    I know it's a traditional gesture, but I looked at the thumbnail and all I could see was Bill Hader's "Stefon" from Saturday Night Live.
    *SOmeone* had to tell you.
    Sorry if the comment is lame. .. it's like Spinach in your teeth though.
    As always you are the master of booktube.

  • @Marylily2
    @Marylily2 Місяць тому

    19:15 Whenever you say that a particular scene really stuck with you in a book, it really makes me twitch and I’ll go off and spend ages trying to Google the spoilers (because I’m a bit wimpy for ultra disturbing content). Would you ever consider making some kind of video where you talk about the most disturbing scenes from books? Obviously with a big spoiler warning!

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  Місяць тому +1

      I’m not sure I could, for two reasons. One is that just saying this stuff out loud is horrible, the other is that taken out of context and just coldly described I think the scenes loose a lot of their power.

  • @get2thechawpa
    @get2thechawpa 28 днів тому +4

    Where is blood meridian

    • @Noja2
      @Noja2 26 днів тому +1

      not that bad

  • @larryyonce
    @larryyonce Місяць тому

    @ 40:58 😐🧐🚘 . What the hell (?) Kind of a wacky premise. People getting aroused by car crashes? I suppose they are staging them, but even if not , yeah, weird and disturbing. I may have to read that one just for the novelty of it. Is it written as sort of a black comedy, or did the author play it straight? Great video; gave me some possibilities for my next disturbing read.

  • @OwenL2020
    @OwenL2020 Місяць тому

    I can't believe you ran through all of those and their plots in one go.

    • @CriminOllyBlog
      @CriminOllyBlog  Місяць тому

      I was completely exhausted at the end 😂

  • @AntheanCeilliers
    @AntheanCeilliers 29 днів тому

    Damn I just spent my fiction book budget and now there are so many things I want!

  • @BohdanKozachenko
    @BohdanKozachenko Місяць тому +5

    you should really do more of this type of content its popular