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.
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.
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.
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.
So glad to see the love for Tell Me I'm Worthless! Have you read Brainwyrms? It's super gross but compelling. At one point, the author stops to give a content warning when things are about to get even grosser. I never thought about My Dark Vanessa being a response to Lolita, mostly because it's based on the author's own experiences and trauma. Lolita obviously hangs over the narrative, but being a response to it is an interesting point.
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.
Let's hope Matt Shaw doesn't come after you next... He has quite the reputation for being butthurt about people talking badly or being bored by his edgelord books lol
@@CriminOllyBlog not surprising at all, maybe he'll write another awful edgelord book with an AI generated cover slandering you next time! That would be quite the achievement
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
Excellent presentation. Funny how 'disturbing' is in the eye of the beholder. This is definitely a video to save. Perfect to refer to when trying to choose that next book to read. Thank you!
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.
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.
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.
This was a well presented and excellent survey. You missed, however, Finishing Touches by Thomas Tessier, which is masterfully written and one of the most disturbing books I have ever read. You also might want to check out the Radiant Dawn duology by Cody Goodfellow. I think the most disturbing part of this horror/political/ espionage story is how realistic it feels. Makes one wonder what is really going on in the world.
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!
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!
"The Girl Next Door" - Jack Ketchum nailed that book. Just amazing, and Dallas (the real Jack K) was a wonderful person. RIP - Thank you for your great videos and enthusiasm for reading good tales!
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.
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.
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.
I read A Little Life, Confessions and My Dark Vanessa and I found them all to be disturbing. The fact that all three of them are in your B CATEGORY is HILARIOUS! LMAO I dont think I ready for the A, let alone the S category! BUT I did see some others in the B category that I will be checking out so thank you for this video.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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.
@@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
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.
@@CriminOllyBlog A novel i read quite a while ago which i remember being distrubing is "Son Of The Endless Night". Might be worth checking out if you haven't read it. It is about demonic possession.
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.
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 👍🏾
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!
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.
Since you include non fiction..... I would add the r*pe of Nanking. The author sadly commited suc*de 10 or so years after writing it. This book broke me when listening to it. Pure horror at the cruelty of humanity.
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.
@alvarosalandy7969 Cows was SO funny!! The writing is so well done despite what goes on with the story. Read fairly quickly, and I still own the paperback!
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.
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.
@@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!
@@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.
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??
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 😞
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.
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 😅
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.
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.
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).
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!
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.
Surprised to find how few readings we have in common; I usually am attracted to disturbing books. I hope you have a list for further reading. No Stephen King?! Say it ain't so! Have you gotten too cozy with his writing? Naked Lunch and American Psycho are clearly satire, so they were harder to take as disturbing, though they were both un-filmable as written. There are so many disturbing books that don't show up on this list. Most notably, true crime books like the one you do mention, Helter Skelter. I guess your focus was on fiction. So here's some more fiction: The Fermata, by Nicholson Baker, which is a soft-core glorification of rape, and The Turner Diaries, by William Pierce, which is a hard-core glorification of American facism, very trendy nowadays. In the fiction category, there is Fear, by L. Ron Hubbard, written back in his pulp writing days before he invented Scientology. One of the creepiest books of all time, especially if you have ever messed around with the occult, crazy people, or psychoactive drugs.
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! 😺✌️
`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.
@ 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.
I’m proud that you finally made a tier! Well done, Olly. Saving for later in the week. 😎 - MJ
Thanks MJ!
@@CriminOllyBlog 🤗🤗
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.
A Tier List on this channel? Goody goody 👏🏽
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
This is a monumental achievement. Time to clear up my reading schedule for the S tier books
Thank you!
Way to speed run a tier list of a lot of books. Great mini-reviews
Thank you!
This was great! Thanks for taking the time for rank all these. Girl Next Door is definitely the most disturbing book I’ve read.
Thanks Crystal!
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.
@@reneeannreads yes it is based on a true case.
I absolutely adore the pillow man and have read it at least five times but I never see it anywhere! Great video :)
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.
I also don't get why House of Leaves is considered disturbing. Like, it's weird and really cool but disturbing? IDK.
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.
So glad to see the love for Tell Me I'm Worthless! Have you read Brainwyrms? It's super gross but compelling. At one point, the author stops to give a content warning when things are about to get even grosser.
I never thought about My Dark Vanessa being a response to Lolita, mostly because it's based on the author's own experiences and trauma. Lolita obviously hangs over the narrative, but being a response to it is an interesting point.
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.
Let's hope Matt Shaw doesn't come after you next... He has quite the reputation for being butthurt about people talking badly or being bored by his edgelord books lol
😂😂 one of his friends did turn up in the comments on another video of mine
@@CriminOllyBlog not surprising at all, maybe he'll write another awful edgelord book with an AI generated cover slandering you next time! That would be quite the achievement
@elenabarbieri1286 😂😂
Such a wonderful and entertaining video! And, it will surely fill many TBR lists!!! Very Well Done!!!
Thanks Rod!
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. 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽📚
Glad you enjoyed it!
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.
I’d say Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker. Seriously whacked book. It definitely stuck with me. Very weird.
I was gonna mention Clive Barker too. There’s at least a couple stories in his Book of Blood collection that I would include.
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.
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.
This is very appreciated. Keep doing what you do!
Thank you for this list! The Stephen King story, "Apt Pupil," was very disturbing to me, interested in what you would think of it!
That was a disturbing one! It's been years since I read it but do remember it being very dark
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.
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)
Excellent presentation. Funny how 'disturbing' is in the eye of the beholder. This is definitely a video to save. Perfect to refer to when trying to choose that next book to read. Thank you!
Thanks Lina - glad you enjoyed it!
Timestamps please! It's ahrd to read the tier list sometimes!
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.
“The Road” and “Blood Meridian”, both written by Cormac McCarthy. Visceral and unforgiving.
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.
Cool spoiler, now I don't have to bother reading it
@@sqlb3rn Cry
@@LSPig Do you think emotions are something to be ashamed of? That's healthy.
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.
This was a well presented and excellent survey. You missed, however, Finishing Touches by Thomas Tessier, which is masterfully written and one of the most disturbing books I have ever read.
You also might want to check out the Radiant Dawn duology by Cody Goodfellow. I think the most disturbing part of this horror/political/ espionage story is how realistic it feels. Makes one wonder what is really going on in the world.
Thanks, I haven't read either of those. Glad you enjoyed the video
Cody used to order fx masks from me in the early net days;
A Deep One, a Fishman, he used onstage playing in his band.
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!
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!
"The Girl Next Door" - Jack Ketchum nailed that book. Just amazing, and Dallas (the real Jack K) was a wonderful person. RIP - Thank you for your great videos and enthusiasm for reading good tales!
Did you know him? Thanks so much for your kind words!
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.
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.
Hiya. Awesome tier list. My TBR is now bursting with new possibilities. Thnx!
Have you read 'Under the Skin' by Michele Faber????
Its because of you Olly i read Pillow Man and The Melting, so thank you
Sorry about that 😂
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.
Gone To See The River Man was just so good. It stuck with me…. The Girl Next Door was definitely a powerful read.
BLOOD ON THE TRACKS MENTIONED 🗣🔥💯
I read A Little Life, Confessions and My Dark Vanessa and I found them all to be disturbing. The fact that all three of them are in your B CATEGORY is HILARIOUS! LMAO I dont think I ready for the A, let alone the S category! BUT I did see some others in the B category that I will be checking out so thank you for this video.
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.
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.
C
@@reginaldcampos5762 Thank you
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?
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
Read most of these, but got some new recommendations, thanks! Gillian Flynn's name is pronounced like "Jillian", btw :)
This tier was so good! I added a few new books to my tbr!
I feel like anything by Dennis Cooper should be on here
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
Excellent list! Some of these books I haven't heard of, so I'm thrilled that my TBR list is growing!
Delighted that I’m helping you find new things to read!
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.
Painted bird has the single saddest page I've ever read. The scene with the horse.if you know you know.
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.
I haven't heard of that one, thanks for the recommendation!
I’m surprised Off Season didn’t make it on this list. Definitely worthy of the A tier.
@@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
@@chrisallenmax by Jack Ketchum?
@@littlemiss131 yes! It was sooo good!
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.
Surprised no Edward Lee or Richard Laymon on the list.
I’ve read a tonne of Laymon and he’s too bad a writer to be disturbing really. Lee is a gap though, I need to read The Bighead I think
@@CriminOllyBlog A novel i read quite a while ago which i remember being distrubing is "Son Of The Endless Night". Might be worth checking out if you haven't read it. It is about demonic possession.
I got a whole lot of books to read after this one 😂 great video and excellent series!
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.
lol I know a lot of people appreciate his work but I just don’t get it.
@@CriminOllyBlog same, same. And then everything that happened… ah, no, never reading his books.
Interesting fact he's been hired to write a book adoption of a movie. Be interesting to see which one.
I studied The Pillowman all the way back in uni. I think it traumatised me 😂 but my god is it good
I've been dying to get my hands on The Melting! I don't think it's out in the US yet.
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 👍🏾
Thanks for the recommendations!
I've read 19 on this list and got some good TBR recs, so thank you.
Can t believe i watched the ENTIRE video!
Exellent video idea!!!😊
I admire your stamina!
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!
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.
Great video! I agree with some, disagree on others. But I got some great recommendations I loook forward to reading. Thanks!
Since you include non fiction.....
I would add the r*pe of Nanking.
The author sadly commited suc*de 10 or so years after writing it. This book broke me when listening to it. Pure horror at the cruelty of humanity.
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 😊
new Ollie upload= weekend happiness
Thank you! 🙏🏻
Is that a gshock DW-5610Y9 on your wrist in the thumbnail? You have great taste in watches too
I forget the model number, but yes it’s a square yellow G - classic design
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.
Out is a HEAVY book
@alvarosalandy7969 Cows was SO funny!! The writing is so well done despite what goes on with the story. Read fairly quickly, and I still own the paperback!
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.
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.
@@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!
@@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.
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??
The laws of the skies is such a favorite of mine, quick nice read !
Great job! I wonder, if you couldrank same books by quality, and not by disturbiness?
Possible- they'll all be listed on my GoodReads account as well, so you could get star ratings there
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 😞
Oh no! Sorry!
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...
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.
I can’t think of any King that really disturbed me
@@CriminOllyBlog Fair enough :)
Read The Dwarf. An excellent study of a twisted mind during the Medieval days.
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 😅
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.
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 🎉
30:19 Did that book become the movie 8MM?
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.
@@Rubysoho346 agree!
Where do you buy your books? Are these considered "horror" genre
Most of these came from eBay I think. Some of them are horror, but not all by any means
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).
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!
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'.
I read Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr as a teen and it messed me up, still think of the trash heap scene and shudder it's so disturbing.
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.
I think probably about 50/50 - a lot of them are horror or crime, but many are general fiction
@@CriminOllyBlog thank you
Surprised to find how few readings we have in common; I usually am attracted to disturbing books. I hope you have a list for further reading. No Stephen King?! Say it ain't so! Have you gotten too cozy with his writing? Naked Lunch and American Psycho are clearly satire, so they were harder to take as disturbing, though they were both un-filmable as written.
There are so many disturbing books that don't show up on this list. Most notably, true crime books like the one you do mention, Helter Skelter. I guess your focus was on fiction. So here's some more fiction: The Fermata, by Nicholson Baker, which is a soft-core glorification of rape, and The Turner Diaries, by William Pierce, which is a hard-core glorification of American facism, very trendy nowadays.
In the fiction category, there is Fear, by L. Ron Hubbard, written back in his pulp writing days before he invented Scientology. One of the creepiest books of all time, especially if you have ever messed around with the occult, crazy people, or psychoactive drugs.
Comanche Moon by Larry McMurtry is one you should put on your radar. It’s pretty violent.
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!
😺✌️
Lol. The Terrifier 2 metaphor worked so well for me. I knew EXACTLY what you meant. 😂🤣
The Bel Jar was an experience.
I may have missed it but did you mention American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.
I did!
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.
`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.
@ 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.
I reviewed and "House of Leaves" was present, so it checks out. Another very disturbing Samuel Delaney novel is "Dhalgren".
I need to try that one
The summer I died bothered me for a while after I read it, I could not put that one down.
It definitely had its moments