I'm so glad I came across your channel when I wasn't even actively looking for anything related to books. I love the vibe you give off, so down to earth. Love the way you speak. It especially comes off as you having a one on one convo with someone. I'm loving it
I also am always on the hunt for horror movies that will scare me. For some reason I find it very difficult to actually be scared. But I LOVE it when something actually does it.
I dont read a lot of horror but youtube decided that this video was for me and i'm very glad it did. The amount of small booktube channels of such great quality is crazy, subbed
Woom is the only book I gave 5 stars for, THE writing, story telling and how smooth it flows is top notch 🤩 Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry was disturbing, but not in a way you’d think, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then there’s Off Season by Jack Ketchum. Kudos to you for actually finishing Tampa, I read 2 chapters before I gave up not because of the content but the writing, it’s like it mimics a male teacher preying on female students, the book or the main character had no personality.
Off season is on my list for sure ! It sounds right up my alley 😂 I did like saving Noah, it was so sad and upsetting and same, it stuck with me for a bit after I finished it
I've read Come Closer & Tender is the Flesh and liked both. I don't think I've heard of your other recommendations. Nice list! I now have some new additions to my TBR list! Thanks! 😀
Thank you for the recommendations, had not heard about most of these. I am more the Shirley Jackson psychological horror type of reader. Have ordered Naomi’s Room and Come Closer; wanted to start with something “milder” before going to extremes. Highly agree that any type of animal abuse is a big trigger, and no, after seeing your charming miniature Doxie, I can’t blame you for feeling that way.
I came across this video by chance and I really enjoyed it. So many 'most disturbing books' videos are the same books over and over, which I understand, but they're not offering anything new to add to my tbr list. There were some different ones here that I'm so excited to read, so thank you for that! Throw a cute dachshund into the mix and you got a new sub from me, lol.
such a refreshing video from my usual book bubble! and about the books I wouldn't normally read but now I want to!🥰 the extra appeal is the little fluffy dog nose at the bottom of the screen haha
Happy to see a horror/disturbing books video! 😈 it's not the most disturbing book I've ever read but based on some content you mentioned here, I think you could really love Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid. The most disturbing book I've ever read was probably Zola by D.E. McLusky, very much intentional gross out splatterpunk/extreme horror. Not a great book by any means but very effective in what it set out to do, so props to it for that.
I LOVED Juniper and Thorn, probably one of my favorites I've read so far this year! I have not read Zola yet! ill add it to the list - I've seen the cheese cover lol
Locate a copy of “I have no mouth and must scream”. SF short story from ? 1970s? Harlen Ellison. Ellison was once mad at his publisher and sent him a dead animal like 3rd class mail which sat in mailroom.
PS I have wanted to read Naomi's Room for so long! I have read one book by Aycliff and it was The Lost, it was so good, one of the creepiest books I've ever read!
Earthlings is unironically one of my favourite books of all time. Id higely recommend life ceremonies by sayaka murata too!!! Im obsessed with her writing style
Fun Fact: there's a documentary called Earthlings that is downright unwatchable at times. It goes into detail on why most people decide to stop eating meat if that tells you anything ❤ Cows is the scariest or most disturbing book I've read. Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis is a close second.
@@bookinhand_ it's so gross dude. Like I know sometimes it's the icky stuff that peaks my interest but that book....the violence in it is just unnecessary at times. In fact, the story is pretty good, all things considered, but some pages I could barely get through.
This video was my sign to finally read Penpal! I got Exquisite Corpse a few weeks ago, and only made it about 10 pages in. I've never been so revolted by a book before and I've just full stopped.
@@bookinhand_Hi there! I literally JUST discovered your channel by accident, I have no idea how this video ended up in my "recommended for you" queue but when the words "most disturbing books" caught my eye, I HAD to check it out because I'm a lifelong bookworm! Anyway, as far as "The Girl Next Door" by Jack Ketchum is concerned, I strongly recommend watching that movie in somewhat small and adequately spaced out increments and when you're done, you might want to seriously consider watching SpongeBob(or anything fun, light hearted, and silly)for about, say, 5 consecutive hours. One of the most upsetting and deeply troubling aspects of Sylvia Likens' murder(the real life inspiration for "The Girl Next Door") was not just the simple fact that all of Gertrude Baniszewski's children, as well as several other children from the neighbourhood, subjected Sylvia Likens to such unfathomable horrors, it was also the fact that they committed those acts with a ghastly sense of enthusiasm because, and I quote, "an adult said it was ok". *shudders*
Tender: Loved it. Earthlings: not so much. Still Missing: at the library. Bloom: very good. A Botanical Daughter: up next. Hawk Mountain (Conner Habib): most disturbing book I've read. Great content.
Agree with everything you said about Naomi's Room. Read that book back in the late 90s when i was about 11 or 12, & so far no other book has ever managed to leave me feeling as terrified as that book did. I've also read Jonathan Aycliff's other books The Matrix & The Vanishment, & they were both really unsettling as well.
I just read this from this specific video (Earthlings) and MY BRAIN IS LEAKING OUT OF MY EARS. Where did that ending come from!?!? 10/10, buying a physical ASAP so I can re-read and annotate.
i don't know if you like mangas but Blood on the Tracks/Trail of Blood (same manga, just different titles) by Shuzo Oshimi is really great if you'd like to read something that has to do with the overprotectiveness/gaslighting/manipulation of a parent towards their kids. it's a heavy one for sure but worth to read it until the end.
I will be adding most of these to my TBR, except I refuse to read Tampa. I loved the writing in Come Closer and Woom was the first truly disturbing book that I read. I recently read The Woods are Dark by Richard Laymon and even though there were so many dusturbing things in that book, I could not stop reading and finished it in one day.
I LOVE Things have gotten worst since we last spoke and Tender is the Flesh!! You have to read The Girl next Door by Jack Ketchum if you haven’t already - it’s based on a true story
I keep coming back to the fact that Nutting (Tampa) just wrote child abuse fantasy porn. I don’t know why it was ever given so much attention, it seems to be clearly written for, uh, pleasure, and I really don’t understand why it’s being sold so openly. I don’t know anything about Nutting, but I do hope she’s been investigated. This is legal only by a loophole and may not be a happy story, but seems primarily designed for the enjoyment of those with abusive preferences. Also the cover art is revolting, we all know what it is supposed to imply, and it glorifies abuse.
Confessions by Kanae Minato was pretty twisted. I also loved Convenience Store Woman and loved it so I'll be picking up Earthlings (I know the two aren't similar but I love her writing). (I just realized this was a like a 3 month old video. But hey, Ive subd! :) )
Girl, your makeup is gorgeous and, don’t take this the wrong way, you are beautiful. Just saying, us woman need to support each other and appreciate another woman’s beauty.
I read "Earthlings" and it was odd. Yuu's capitulation was unexpected but he was helping move the story forward to the vomit ending. The tension was good, but at no point did I think planet ooh poo pa doo was real. I'll gladly check out more of your recommendations if/when the price goes down, (retired and broke, gotta do kindle to boost up the font size.) Kind regards.
Hi Peyton , i highly recommend " Flowers in the attic" by V.C Andrews. It tells the story of four children being locked up in theyr grandparents attic for many years and theyr fight to survive. Maybe not in the extreme horror genre , but a book you will never forget.
When I think disturbing books, these two come to mind: Hell by Judith Sonnet and Nipples That Spit by Malika Micucci. I shudder just thinking about those two. Thanks for the list!
Chevy Stevens is one of my favorite authors!! I have read every book she has written and Still Missing was the first book that introduced me to Chevy Stevens. I recommend Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens.
there is a French author, Romain Sardou, who's written one of my favorite books but now that I've tried to find the English translation - there is none... it is called No One Will Get Away, and if you ever come across it I think you'll enjoy it! It's a detective story but I was impressed with the level of detail and knowledge that's been put into the plot I also tried to read another book of his several years ago, Forgive Us Our Sins, but I couldn't pass a couple of chapters - it was too disturbing!
Image of The Beast / Blown by Philip Jose Farmer. This is more like modern classic detective/horror, with a unique explanation of vampires, werewolves and many other mythological creatures from around the world. I've read this at least 3 times in the last 40 years. But now I find that not a single library in Ohio has a copy. So... very hard to find.
One book that stands out in memory is "The Kind Worth Killing" by Peter Swanson. My complete Amazon review read as follows: "Two sociopaths and a psychopath. Their paths converge. What could go wrong? LOL Soooo good."
Wonderful, Wonderful Times by Elfriede Jelinek. Her work is amazing, difficult to read and stomach for many, but she has an interesting way of FORCING Austria to be accountable for its part in WWII. She also wrote The Piano Teacher, and funnily enough, she worked as a piano teacher after the same conservatory, whilst living with her mother.
I don’t know if you’ve got it already (hi, new subscriber here) but I want to recommend Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. I loved it but it’s so weird/disturbing/horrifying I am scared of recommending to people normally as I’d worry what they think of me.
This video deserves a thumbs up for the dog alone! 😍 If I can give some criticism (which is meant as a hopefully constructive one): I didn't appreciate the spoilery nature. When you opened the presentation of the first book with saying "none of them make it out alive" basically in the first sentence, I got nervous. I've read Woom so I knew what it was about and after listening to that segment I basically skipped through the video just to see the authors and titles. 😕
Sorry about that! But, I will say that the synopsis contains that exact phrase, you know going in that it turns out that way. I'll try to call out any spoilerly nature in the future 👍🏼
@@bookinhand_ Yes, blurbs can be quite spoilery, too! I usually don't read those because of that reason! 😅 Or what I do is that I might read a little of the blurb and put it on my list of interest but if I end up buying the book, I won't read the blurb anymore and by the time I pick up the book I might have forgotten it. Anyway, it was just a suggestion. I'm quite allergic to spoilers so other people might mind less. And I'm aware that it can be very difficult to decide what to say and not say in a book review. I _did_ put this one on my list after all. 😉
@@bookinhand_ So, I just looked up the product page for the book at the publisher Coach House Books, and I saw that they seem to market the book based on that one. They only use a few sentences to describe the book and the two sentences that give specifics about the plot are: "Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones head into the woods on a camping trip. None of them make it out alive." So please let me apologize. The blame clearly lies with the publisher's marketing, not you!
@@jensraab2902 i think you should assume if someone is doing a review of something that there will be spoilers unless they say there won't be, so look for spoiler free reviews instead of criticizing people who are doing something completely normal and expected lol
@@y7awsbe2000 Look, I gave an honest feedback to Book in Hand in what I believe was a polite fashion. I am aware that not everybody thinks like that. What Book in Hand makes out of that is up to her. What you say does not match with my experience. Many reviewers (I'm talking about UA-cam reviewers) will announce that they're going to drop spoilers as a warning for those who do care. Not all do, and not all have the same understanding than I what constitutes a spoiler but many do. So, no, I do not assume that if someone is doing a review of something that there will be spoilers. But I _do_ look for spoiler free reviews. And it is these UA-camrs where I feel most comfortable with to have the same idea of what are spoilers that I will listen to. That's the very reason I gave that feedback: Book in Hand will lose an audience like me if she drops spoilers without warning about them. If she cares about that share of the audience, she will want to amend her reviews accordingly. If she doesn't mind losing that audience, she will not give heads-ups. The decision is entirely up to her. Like I've said before, I meant to give constructive feedback rather than leaving without saying a peep. And in case you haven't read both of my replies, I actually did seek out the publisher's sales pitch and upon realizing that they give away what I think is a spoiler, I apologized to Book in Hand and fully blamed the publisher. I still think it's a spoiler but I now understand better why Book in Hand dropped it.
lol I can so relate re eating while cannibalism is going on. I have never understood why emergency cannibalism of already-dead people is so scandalous, but I had to skip even your warning about puppies.
Tender is the Flesh is such a fantastic commentary on race, class, and the dehumanization and commodification of people under capitalism. To me, it is so much more than "meat industry bad"
"The Summer I Died" from Ryan C. Thomas is my most brutal, graphic and disturbing book i've ever read.Absolutely shocking. Otherwise books from Edward Lee, Wrath James White, Tim Miller, Kristopher Triana, Jon Athan, but maybe that's too much for a lot of peaople.
@@bookinhand_ Just be prepared. It's a phantastic book in my opinion, but you're really falling down the rabbit hole. I guess i'll NEVER forget this book. Jesus christ...
Come Closer is my favorite horror novel! I wish I could read it for the first time again. I haven't read A Mouthful of Air but I saw the movie with Amanda Seyfried and Finn Wittrock and was equally gut punched. I had never heard of it, I was just flipping channels and it was on HBO so I watched it a year or two ago. I thought about it for weeks. I think I'm the only person who didn't enjoy Penpal.
At the risk of sounding like a really old fart, there’s a lot of great ghost story writers BUT not so much in the 20th century (unless you subscribe to the theory that Shirley Jackson is writing about ghosts in several works like Hangsaman, which is her fictional version of what happened to that Vermont girl in the 60s who disappeared into the AT). “Turn of the Screw” is no good as a movie but oooof Mr James (Henry? Or William?) can write! Also, “cosmic horror” is mostly ghost stories, but ya gotta ignore Lovecraft in the genre. He can’t write very well. You want to read LeFanu, Machen, some Bierce (read all the Bierce, but some is satire, plus his actual bio is wild), and maybe deMaupassant but he’s mostly just depressing. The ghosts of Machen are fleeting glimpses beyond the veil - not big bulky things like cthulu but wispy snippets and it’s 95% vibes. If you don’t mind slowing down, plot is not always the strength here, sometimes just a tiny tiny bit more than nothing happens. I am a fast reader, my love of Machen hurts me a bit. You have to read and reread but to this day, the opening images, so richly detailed in a way that usually drives me bonkers, of The Great God Pan are seared in my mind. Machen is my fave, once properly digested, which for me has meant re-reading thru my life, 10+ times over, lives in one’s mind forever. There’s something about cosmic horror ghosts that is 100x as terrifying as sad drowned historical figure ghosts, like we are getting snippets of truth from a universe we cannot understand literally. We aren’t, it’s important to underscore that none of this is true lol, but the writing gives it life in a way that no other genre does. I personally can’t stand the classics like Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush’s version is perfection itself tho, the plot requires less than 5 mins), but some people love a ghost on the moors… (England is so small yet was chock full of lonely windswept moors in 1885)
I tried to read The Abuse of Ashley Collins by Jon Athan but it was too much. It needed to be a lot less. Like so much less. Way too disturbing. I was like nope. I cannot finish this. Books by the writer of Fight Club are full of bodily fluids. Too many. One has to read then wearing gloves. It's not a disturbing book, just this scene in Women of Brewster Place involving a man's head and a brick and just the description of it. Eeeeek Also your dog is cute and i love him and his cute nose
You should check out Brainwyrms by Allison Rumfitt! It's the absolute grossest, funniest, and erotic critique of British transphobia you will ever read. 10/10 recommend.
I dunno if this counts as horror but one of the most disturbing books I ever read was The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder. I was listening to the audiobook and reading it and by the end I had to shut off the audiobook just so I could read it as quickly as possible to finish it. 😅
I read Tender is the Flesh in its original Spanish and I was pissed throughout the whole thing. The ending kinda surprised me but not really because the whole book is, in my opinion and among other things, an allegory to Argentinian’s obsession with carnism (?) so I was y expecting a happy ending. Edit: I also read it around the time I watch this masterful video essay ua-cam.com/video/roRD4F9pg5s/v-deo.htmlsi=LltB1IBt930oiZkn and I just gotta recommend it because boy it helped me process the grieving from that book lmao
@@jeffjohnston1961 thank you for the suggestions, but no, not sure I can be shocked, I've read very extreme books and just feel nothing, just want something that makes me think, wow that's disgusting, maybe one day lol
@@jeffjohnston1961 annoyingly no, even Hogg just bored me, I find books can contain the most controversial subjects, but still do not cross whatever line is in my head
For me its got to be the short story by the late Howard Waldrop. "Horror, we got". It perfectly illustrated why pc and cencorship...usual do the opposite of what they are intending to do.
Loved "Still Missing", but I read another book by that author, "Those Girls" and it was nothing but repetitive torture/rape porn, and it was just awful. Repetitive as you can take a fistful of pages and turn, and you won't miss anything.
The law of the skies was legitimately the worst book I’ve ever read solely because no child thinks the way the kids did in that book. Idk if it’s because of the translation or if young French children are all secretly mentally 12+ lol but the further along I got the more pissed I got because even the most messed up violent 6 year old does not have the capacity to think about things the way the antagonist Enzo did. Genuinely could have enjoyed it if they made the kids even as young as 10 but there is nothing anyone could say to make me think any 6 year olds process things the way a number of these fictional children did.
Bret? oh he's still writing disturbing books LOL I JUST read his newer release, The Shards, that will def be on the next round of disturbing books list- made me so nauseous
Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker and The Oath by Frank Peretti. Eyes Wide Open is about a sane main protagonist that gets stuck in a mental ward where everyone gaslights her into thinking she is crazy. (It will make you start to wonder if you are loosing it too while reading.) It is a THICK book. The Oath is a creature story set in this weird, cultish rural town. It gets disturbing the more the main character finds out what is actually going on. Both are christian books, BUT VERY good horror stories. I recommend it if you want to stay up all night.
Dekker and Peretti are christian authors who camouflage their work as "genre" but write nothing but christian dramas. I don't read them (read one of each years ago and that was more than enough). In my experience, horror that depends on a christian angle is not scary because without the faith/delusion element, an apparently nightmarish scenario crumbles into inanity. I remember reading The Exorcist and then watching the movie: meh times two. When you don't believe in god or pazuzu, there's very little left to scare you in that universe, except for the pea soup
@@sid1gen If you read my comment before, that is why I mentioned the books were both christian... I said that for a reason... I am just saying out of all the christian genre, these stories are still disturbing because one will literally make you think you are going insane, and the other book the cult-like people themselves are very messed up. Yes, there is a christian message, but it is still something that disturbed me when I read them. Horror depends on the person and what truly gets under your skin. For example, possession films are overdone and boring to me. How common is it to see someone get possessed? Not very. You can easily detach from the story being told. Eyes Wide Open has two sane people get stuck in a mental asylum, and are constantly being diagnosed as crazy or insane. I felt like I was in there right there with the main characters. There is constant gaslighting that I literally had to take breaks from the book because it got in my head a LOT. (worst feeling) The theme of psychologists verses the individual is realistic. There are several real stories of psychologists only caring for money, and not the actual mental health of the patient. Some could very well diagnose you with a mental disorder you don't actually have for an easy paycheck. This can happen, and it is terrifying when it does. The story shoves that reality in your face. Like I said earlier, there are different types of horror for everyone. If this isn't your type of tea, don't drink it.
@@dr.crowsworld I've read one book by Dekker, _Three._ It's a thriller with a twist or two that 'm not going to give away but the premise is that the main character is threatened by a psychopath. The problem is that Dekker's faith apparently prevents him from using proper swears so his psychopath killer uses cuss words like an 8-year-old. Now, I don't need my books to be filled with dirty language but I also don't have a problem with that, especially if it fits in the narrative. Here, the narrative demanded dirty language which was substituted by "clean" language to not damage the frail psyches of Christian readers, it seems. If your readers aren't mature enough to handle swear words, fine, but then write another story, or write it in a different way. But don't put in these ridiculous kindergarten swears in it.
I appreciate so much the fact that you weed out violence against animals and women ❤
No kidding! I dont like r-pe or animal abuse so she is on-point for me!
That ending to Tender is the Flesh SHOCKED me. The part that shocked me the most was when Marcos was taking an investor on a tour of the plant.
I'm so glad I came across your channel when I wasn't even actively looking for anything related to books. I love the vibe you give off, so down to earth. Love the way you speak. It especially comes off as you having a one on one convo with someone. I'm loving it
@@thatmumof385 thank you 🥹❤️
I really liked Come Closer. Also your lipstick is fire.
Thank you!! NARS Star woman 💫
i absolutely loved come closer!! such a great creepy read.
I also am always on the hunt for horror movies that will scare me. For some reason I find it very difficult to actually be scared. But I LOVE it when something actually does it.
@@morganj3970 yes! Exactly!
Great list! A bunch of lists like this tend to repeat the same set of books, but you add a bunch I haven't heard of which is cool, thanks!
I dont read a lot of horror but youtube decided that this video was for me and i'm very glad it did. The amount of small booktube channels of such great quality is crazy, subbed
Thank you! I appreciate it ! 🤗
I've been trying to get into more horror and this was suggested to me so I'm very happy
Woom was my first extreme horror read & I absolutely adored it!
Woom is the only book I gave 5 stars for, THE writing, story telling and how smooth it flows is top notch 🤩
Saving Noah by Lucinda Berry was disturbing, but not in a way you’d think, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. And then there’s Off Season by Jack Ketchum.
Kudos to you for actually finishing Tampa, I read 2 chapters before I gave up not because of the content but the writing, it’s like it mimics a male teacher preying on female students, the book or the main character had no personality.
Off season is on my list for sure ! It sounds right up my alley 😂 I did like saving Noah, it was so sad and upsetting and same, it stuck with me for a bit after I finished it
No other book, ever, has affected me the way Saving Noah did.
I've read Come Closer & Tender is the Flesh and liked both.
I don't think I've heard of your other recommendations.
Nice list! I now have some new additions to my TBR list! Thanks! 😀
Thank you for the recommendations, had not heard about most of these. I am more the Shirley Jackson psychological horror type of reader. Have ordered Naomi’s Room and Come Closer; wanted to start with something “milder” before going to extremes. Highly agree that any type of animal abuse is a big trigger, and no, after seeing your charming miniature Doxie, I can’t blame you for feeling that way.
Thank you! ❤️🐶
Naomi's room began reaaaally good. Then, it just turnerd dark and nasty. I felt the nastiness was very gratuitous.
I read Still Missing based on this video and I loved it. Excellent recommendation!
I came across this video by chance and I really enjoyed it. So many 'most disturbing books' videos are the same books over and over, which I understand, but they're not offering anything new to add to my tbr list. There were some different ones here that I'm so excited to read, so thank you for that! Throw a cute dachshund into the mix and you got a new sub from me, lol.
Same, I’ve read only 2 from the list, so I have a new tbr I am starting asap, idk what but something about disturbing books gets me reading them asap.
Thank you so much! I really appreciate it :)
That bit in Earthlings when she goes to the teacher's house.. Very disturbing
such a refreshing video from my usual book bubble! and about the books I wouldn't normally read but now I want to!🥰
the extra appeal is the little fluffy dog nose at the bottom of the screen haha
Yes! She is the sweetest ❤️🤗
Happy to see a horror/disturbing books video! 😈 it's not the most disturbing book I've ever read but based on some content you mentioned here, I think you could really love Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid. The most disturbing book I've ever read was probably Zola by D.E. McLusky, very much intentional gross out splatterpunk/extreme horror. Not a great book by any means but very effective in what it set out to do, so props to it for that.
I LOVED Juniper and Thorn, probably one of my favorites I've read so far this year! I have not read Zola yet! ill add it to the list - I've seen the cheese cover lol
Zola is........awful. It's gross for gross sake, which is fine I guess but it's just terribly written on top of that.
I loved Penpal too! It gets mixed reviews, but I found it to be really scary. The ending😳
Locate a copy of “I have no mouth and must scream”. SF short story from ? 1970s? Harlen Ellison. Ellison was once mad at his publisher and sent him a dead animal like 3rd class mail which sat in mailroom.
Oh damn 😶 that is on my list for sure !
Totally off topic but your wedding ring is stunning! Is the stone a tanzanite? Love your book content too, i subbed!📚
PS I have wanted to read Naomi's Room for so long! I have read one book by Aycliff and it was The Lost, it was so good, one of the creepiest books I've ever read!
Thank you so much! It's a sapphire :)
That was the first one I read too!! Sooo good and creepy !
Being a mom, babies/children messes with my head - and of course the first one has 12 six-year old children wanting their mamas. 😅😭
Earthlings is unironically one of my favourite books of all time. Id higely recommend life ceremonies by sayaka murata too!!! Im obsessed with her writing style
Hey I like your presentation so I subscribed. I’m def going to pick up some of these recommendations
@@BeginnerMindset thank you! Hope you enjoy ? 🥴
I loved Still Missing and you're the first person I've seen talk about it.
It was so good!! So underrated. I liked it so much more than Pretty Girls
11:24 omg I really enjoyed Tender is the Flesh too, but totally skipped the puppy chapter, I couldn't do it.
Fun Fact: there's a documentary called Earthlings that is downright unwatchable at times. It goes into detail on why most people decide to stop eating meat if that tells you anything ❤ Cows is the scariest or most disturbing book I've read. Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis is a close second.
I think I'm way too intimidated to read Cows 🫣
@@bookinhand_ it's so gross dude. Like I know sometimes it's the icky stuff that peaks my interest but that book....the violence in it is just unnecessary at times. In fact, the story is pretty good, all things considered, but some pages I could barely get through.
This video was my sign to finally read Penpal! I got Exquisite Corpse a few weeks ago, and only made it about 10 pages in. I've never been so revolted by a book before and I've just full stopped.
I have exquisite corpse on my kindle- maybe I'll read that during that extreme horror vlog lol I hope you like penpal!!
Penpal's amazing
I enjoyed your reviews. I’ve subscribed! Thank you!
@@johnscardina6718 thank YOU! 🫶🏻
The Girl Nextdoor by Jack Ketchum got under my skin. It did exactly what it set out to do and I'm never reading it again.
I'm so scared of that one 🫣 the true crime case is brutal enough
@@bookinhand_Hi there! I literally JUST discovered your channel by accident, I have no idea how this video ended up in my "recommended for you" queue but when the words "most disturbing books" caught my eye, I HAD to check it out because I'm a lifelong bookworm! Anyway, as far as "The Girl Next Door" by Jack Ketchum is concerned, I strongly recommend watching that movie in somewhat small and adequately spaced out increments and when you're done, you might want to seriously consider watching SpongeBob(or anything fun, light hearted, and silly)for about, say, 5 consecutive hours. One of the most upsetting and deeply troubling aspects of Sylvia Likens' murder(the real life inspiration for "The Girl Next Door") was not just the simple fact that all of Gertrude Baniszewski's children, as well as several other children from the neighbourhood, subjected Sylvia Likens to such unfathomable horrors, it was also the fact that they committed those acts with a ghastly sense of enthusiasm because, and I quote, "an adult said it was ok". *shudders*
@@MissBaudelaire-z5f yeah I have avoided that one, I don't think I could do it
Tender: Loved it. Earthlings: not so much. Still Missing: at the library. Bloom: very good. A Botanical Daughter: up next.
Hawk Mountain (Conner Habib): most disturbing book I've read.
Great content.
Thank you! I appreciate it! I've been eyeing Hawk Mountain and Bloom!
"The Wasp Factory" by Iain Banks isn't as hardcore disturbing as some of these, but it's definitely messed up and incredibly well written.
Just finished it... very good book.
Agree with everything you said about Naomi's Room. Read that book back in the late 90s when i was about 11 or 12, & so far no other book has ever managed to leave me feeling as terrified as that book did. I've also read Jonathan Aycliff's other books The Matrix & The Vanishment, & they were both really unsettling as well.
The other book I've read by him was The Lost 😳 I read that around 11 or 12 too and I was so scared ! I need to check out more of his work!
@@bookinhand_ -He certainly knew how to scare the reader. Hope you enjoy the rest of his work.
I’m not a horror movie person. But I love horror books! 📚 ❤
Tampa is easily the most disturbing book I have ever read. I have never physically cringed so hard in my life.
Earthlings threw me for a lopp lol. Tender is the Flesh was one of my favorites last year. Tampa made my physically ill and I couldn’t finish it.
I just read this from this specific video (Earthlings) and MY BRAIN IS LEAKING OUT OF MY EARS. Where did that ending come from!?!?
10/10, buying a physical ASAP so I can re-read and annotate.
Come Closer pops into my head when I'm falling asleep some nights. Loved it but I'm not sure I will ever read it again.
i don't know if you like mangas but Blood on the Tracks/Trail of Blood (same manga, just different titles) by Shuzo Oshimi is really great if you'd like to read something that has to do with the overprotectiveness/gaslighting/manipulation of a parent towards their kids. it's a heavy one for sure but worth to read it until the end.
I will be adding most of these to my TBR, except I refuse to read Tampa. I loved the writing in Come Closer and Woom was the first truly disturbing book that I read. I recently read The Woods are Dark by Richard Laymon and even though there were so many dusturbing things in that book, I could not stop reading and finished it in one day.
@@meganclemons9604 Laymon is intimidating to me! Maybe I'll try again one day !
laws of the skies sounds like the troop by nick cutter.
The Troop freaked me out
So glad Earthlings was in this roundup :')
So good !
My favorite book and the most disturbing I've ever read was A Little Life by Hannya... I forget her last name, but I'm sure it is easy to find.
Yes, very upsetting 😭
I LOVE Things have gotten worst since we last spoke and Tender is the Flesh!! You have to read The Girl next Door by Jack Ketchum if you haven’t already - it’s based on a true story
@@mekiiiiiiiiii it's been the most asked about book in the comments LOL I think I'm too scared of it bc I know the real case 🥴 maybe one day !
I keep coming back to the fact that Nutting (Tampa) just wrote child abuse fantasy porn. I don’t know why it was ever given so much attention, it seems to be clearly written for, uh, pleasure, and I really don’t understand why it’s being sold so openly. I don’t know anything about Nutting, but I do hope she’s been investigated. This is legal only by a loophole and may not be a happy story, but seems primarily designed for the enjoyment of those with abusive preferences. Also the cover art is revolting, we all know what it is supposed to imply, and it glorifies abuse.
I agree 100000% I know she has more novels out too 😳
none of the horror I've picked up lately has actually been scary so I'm very interested to check these out :) thank u!!!
I hope you get scared by at least one ! 👹❤️🤘🏼
Confessions by Kanae Minato was pretty twisted. I also loved Convenience Store Woman and loved it so I'll be picking up Earthlings (I know the two aren't similar but I love her writing). (I just realized this was a like a 3 month old video. But hey, Ive subd! :) )
Girl, your makeup is gorgeous and, don’t take this the wrong way, you are beautiful. Just saying, us woman need to support each other and appreciate another woman’s beauty.
Awww thank you so much !! I appreciate it 🥲❤️
I fully agree with everything in that comment 🤩
I read "Earthlings" and it was odd. Yuu's capitulation was unexpected but he was helping move the story forward to the vomit ending. The tension was good, but at no point did I think planet ooh poo pa doo was real. I'll gladly check out more of your recommendations if/when the price goes down, (retired and broke, gotta do kindle to boost up the font size.) Kind regards.
I love your videos!!🤗🤗
@@kristianascharrenberg9958 thank you!! I appreciate it 🥰🥹❤️
I'm an extreme horror author....and friends with Duncan Ralston. I sent him this video. He loves when reviewers don't totally sh*t on Woom. Lol
@@shaunhupp1836 omg ! Yes! I loved it so much ! I can't wait to read more of his work!
Naomis Room is one of my favourite books of all time. I've read it so many times
It's soooo good!!
Hi Peyton , i highly recommend " Flowers in the attic" by V.C Andrews. It tells the story of four children being locked up in theyr grandparents attic for many years and theyr fight to survive. Maybe not in the extreme horror genre , but a book you will never forget.
I read it when I was wayyyy too young lol I would like to revisit.. I think? 🥴
The second one was awful.
@@bookinhand_I read that in Jr. High I think
When I think disturbing books, these two come to mind: Hell by Judith Sonnet and Nipples That Spit by Malika Micucci. I shudder just thinking about those two. Thanks for the list!
Adding to this list! I tried No one rides for free by Judith sonnet and made it 20 pages in before tapping out 😂🫣
First Day of Spring!! One of my top books ever.
oh yay! I never see anyone talk about it and its a solid horrific read LOL
Chevy Stevens is one of my favorite authors!! I have read every book she has written and Still Missing was the first book that introduced me to Chevy Stevens. I recommend Never Knowing by Chevy Stevens.
Yay!! I definitely want to read more from her !
there is a French author, Romain Sardou, who's written one of my favorite books but now that I've tried to find the English translation - there is none... it is called No One Will Get Away, and if you ever come across it I think you'll enjoy it! It's a detective story but I was impressed with the level of detail and knowledge that's been put into the plot
I also tried to read another book of his several years ago, Forgive Us Our Sins, but I couldn't pass a couple of chapters - it was too disturbing!
Oooo I'm intrigued 👀👀
Oh I got some great recs from this. 😈 Earthlings had me mouth open gaping at the ending haha.
same, I was so shocked, I read it over Christmas and felt like it was all I could think about haha
Just finished Depraved by Bryan Smith. Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Wrong Turn. Really liked it.
Image of The Beast / Blown by Philip Jose Farmer. This is more like modern classic detective/horror, with a unique explanation of vampires, werewolves and many other mythological creatures from around the world. I've read this at least 3 times in the last 40 years. But now I find that not a single library in Ohio has a copy. So... very hard to find.
One book that stands out in memory is "The Kind Worth Killing" by Peter Swanson. My complete Amazon review read as follows: "Two sociopaths and a psychopath. Their paths converge. What could go wrong? LOL Soooo good."
@@karinscott4455 I'll add it to my list! Thank you !! 😈
Wonderful, Wonderful Times by Elfriede Jelinek. Her work is amazing, difficult to read and stomach for many, but she has an interesting way of FORCING Austria to be accountable for its part in WWII. She also wrote The Piano Teacher, and funnily enough, she worked as a piano teacher after the same conservatory, whilst living with her mother.
I've seen the movie! I had no idea it was a book or the authors similarities 😳😳
Oh dear I hope she didn't sleep in the same bed as her. That movie was disturbing
I don’t know if you’ve got it already (hi, new subscriber here) but I want to recommend Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. I loved it but it’s so weird/disturbing/horrifying I am scared of recommending to people normally as I’d worry what they think of me.
@@antiagarcia7495 now I'm intrigued 😂👀
i knew i recognized penpal, it’s a story on reddit that a narrator i listen to voiced, yes it’s really interesting!!
If you enjoyed Penpal, you should read (if you haven't already!) Borrasca and Feed The Pig
I haven't 👀👀 adding to the list !
This video deserves a thumbs up for the dog alone! 😍
If I can give some criticism (which is meant as a hopefully constructive one): I didn't appreciate the spoilery nature. When you opened the presentation of the first book with saying "none of them make it out alive" basically in the first sentence, I got nervous. I've read Woom so I knew what it was about and after listening to that segment I basically skipped through the video just to see the authors and titles. 😕
Sorry about that! But, I will say that the synopsis contains that exact phrase, you know going in that it turns out that way. I'll try to call out any spoilerly nature in the future 👍🏼
@@bookinhand_ Yes, blurbs can be quite spoilery, too! I usually don't read those because of that reason! 😅
Or what I do is that I might read a little of the blurb and put it on my list of interest but if I end up buying the book, I won't read the blurb anymore and by the time I pick up the book I might have forgotten it.
Anyway, it was just a suggestion. I'm quite allergic to spoilers so other people might mind less. And I'm aware that it can be very difficult to decide what to say and not say in a book review.
I _did_ put this one on my list after all. 😉
@@bookinhand_ So, I just looked up the product page for the book at the publisher Coach House Books, and I saw that they seem to market the book based on that one. They only use a few sentences to describe the book and the two sentences that give specifics about the plot are: "Twelve six-year-olds and their three adult chaperones head into the woods on a camping trip. None of them make it out alive."
So please let me apologize. The blame clearly lies with the publisher's marketing, not you!
@@jensraab2902 i think you should assume if someone is doing a review of something that there will be spoilers unless they say there won't be, so look for spoiler free reviews instead of criticizing people who are doing something completely normal and expected lol
@@y7awsbe2000 Look, I gave an honest feedback to Book in Hand in what I believe was a polite fashion.
I am aware that not everybody thinks like that.
What Book in Hand makes out of that is up to her.
What you say does not match with my experience. Many reviewers (I'm talking about UA-cam reviewers) will announce that they're going to drop spoilers as a warning for those who do care. Not all do, and not all have the same understanding than I what constitutes a spoiler but many do.
So, no, I do not assume that if someone is doing a review of something that there will be spoilers.
But I _do_ look for spoiler free reviews. And it is these UA-camrs where I feel most comfortable with to have the same idea of what are spoilers that I will listen to.
That's the very reason I gave that feedback: Book in Hand will lose an audience like me if she drops spoilers without warning about them.
If she cares about that share of the audience, she will want to amend her reviews accordingly. If she doesn't mind losing that audience, she will not give heads-ups.
The decision is entirely up to her.
Like I've said before, I meant to give constructive feedback rather than leaving without saying a peep.
And in case you haven't read both of my replies, I actually did seek out the publisher's sales pitch and upon realizing that they give away what I think is a spoiler, I apologized to Book in Hand and fully blamed the publisher.
I still think it's a spoiler but I now understand better why Book in Hand dropped it.
I can recommend Notice by Heather Lewis. Just recently republished. Not for the faint of heart. Great stream!
Yes! That is on my list- nervous but intrigued to read it 😅
Great reviews! 👍 😈
Thank you! 😈🤘🏼
Matt Shaw has some great extreme horror
Earthlingsssss one of my favourite reads of this year thus far and it was so f***d up but I liked it a lot 🤣
Same!! I couldn't stop thinking about it!
Could you please tell me where to get those fantastic earrings? Thank you for all the disturbing recommendations.
Amazon - triple hoop earrings, they come in different sizes- thank you! ❤️
Just in case you’re still wondering if anything can be fun anymore? May I say You Are. Had to sub up, you’re delightful.
That first book is the one that stressed my wife big time
Ive read a lot of things… Tampa is one I could NOT stomach and get through…. I made it like 3/4 chapters in and thats enough
I wish I would have throw it away after that much into it
lol I can so relate re eating while cannibalism is going on. I have never understood why emergency cannibalism of already-dead people is so scandalous, but I had to skip even your warning about puppies.
I understand!! ❤️❤️❤️
Tender is the Flesh is such a fantastic commentary on race, class, and the dehumanization and commodification of people under capitalism. To me, it is so much more than "meat industry bad"
Currently reading Death Obsessed by Robert Essig.
"The Summer I Died" from Ryan C. Thomas is my most brutal, graphic and disturbing book i've ever read.Absolutely shocking. Otherwise books from Edward Lee, Wrath James White, Tim Miller, Kristopher Triana, Jon Athan, but maybe that's too much for a lot of peaople.
the summer I died is on my list! I really like Triana, il have to check out the others! thanks!
@@bookinhand_ Just be prepared. It's a phantastic book in my opinion, but you're really falling down the rabbit hole. I guess i'll NEVER forget this book. Jesus christ...
@@ytriDlO 😭😂
Great list. I would not have included Penpal on it though.
@@shocker147 disturbing to me ! 🤗
Come Closer is my favorite horror novel! I wish I could read it for the first time again. I haven't read A Mouthful of Air but I saw the movie with Amanda Seyfried and Finn Wittrock and was equally gut punched. I had never heard of it, I was just flipping channels and it was on HBO so I watched it a year or two ago. I thought about it for weeks.
I think I'm the only person who didn't enjoy Penpal.
I'm finding out it's a very divided book lol ! I am too scared to watch the movie of mouthful of air 🫣
@bookinhand_ Amanda is wonderful in it but the end 😭
I did not expect it!
At the risk of sounding like a really old fart, there’s a lot of great ghost story writers BUT not so much in the 20th century (unless you subscribe to the theory that Shirley Jackson is writing about ghosts in several works like Hangsaman, which is her fictional version of what happened to that Vermont girl in the 60s who disappeared into the AT). “Turn of the Screw” is no good as a movie but oooof Mr James (Henry? Or William?) can write! Also, “cosmic horror” is mostly ghost stories, but ya gotta ignore Lovecraft in the genre. He can’t write very well. You want to read LeFanu, Machen, some Bierce (read all the Bierce, but some is satire, plus his actual bio is wild), and maybe deMaupassant but he’s mostly just depressing. The ghosts of Machen are fleeting glimpses beyond the veil - not big bulky things like cthulu but wispy snippets and it’s 95% vibes. If you don’t mind slowing down, plot is not always the strength here, sometimes just a tiny tiny bit more than nothing happens. I am a fast reader, my love of Machen hurts me a bit. You have to read and reread but to this day, the opening images, so richly detailed in a way that usually drives me bonkers, of The Great God Pan are seared in my mind. Machen is my fave, once properly digested, which for me has meant re-reading thru my life, 10+ times over, lives in one’s mind forever. There’s something about cosmic horror ghosts that is 100x as terrifying as sad drowned historical figure ghosts, like we are getting snippets of truth from a universe we cannot understand literally. We aren’t, it’s important to underscore that none of this is true lol, but the writing gives it life in a way that no other genre does. I personally can’t stand the classics like Wuthering Heights (Kate Bush’s version is perfection itself tho, the plot requires less than 5 mins), but some people love a ghost on the moors… (England is so small yet was chock full of lonely windswept moors in 1885)
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter shocked me
@@emilyjones648 definitely!
You mentions a book, Pretty Girls. Is the author Karin Slaughter?
@@annefaithful9891 yes!
@@bookinhand_ Thank you for the reply! Just found you today. Already subscribed.
😈 I recently listened to This Little Family by Inès Bayard. Ooph, that one was dark😳 Great list 👍
Added to the list! 🤘🏼
I have not read any of these books, I don't think I will. thanks for the warning! 🤢
I tried to read The Abuse of Ashley Collins by Jon Athan but it was too much. It needed to be a lot less. Like so much less. Way too disturbing. I was like nope. I cannot finish this. Books by the writer of Fight Club are full of bodily fluids. Too many. One has to read then wearing gloves.
It's not a disturbing book, just this scene in Women of Brewster Place involving a man's head and a brick and just the description of it. Eeeeek
Also your dog is cute and i love him and his cute nose
You should check out Brainwyrms by Allison Rumfitt! It's the absolute grossest, funniest, and erotic critique of British transphobia you will ever read. 10/10 recommend.
Oh hell yeah! Say no more ! Added to the TBR !
If my book is successful I want my readers to be boosted and uplifted.
Not gut punched
I dunno if this counts as horror but one of the most disturbing books I ever read was The Devil of Nanking by Mo Hayder. I was listening to the audiobook and reading it and by the end I had to shut off the audiobook just so I could read it as quickly as possible to finish it. 😅
@@SWEETUMS101 that's on my list!!
@ I’m so glad I found your channel! (Subbed!) I’ve added so many things to MY list now! 😆
@ that you so much! I really appreciate it !!🥰🥰
I read Tender is the Flesh in its original Spanish and I was pissed throughout the whole thing. The ending kinda surprised me but not really because the whole book is, in my opinion and among other things, an allegory to Argentinian’s obsession with carnism (?) so I was y expecting a happy ending.
Edit: I also read it around the time I watch this masterful video essay ua-cam.com/video/roRD4F9pg5s/v-deo.htmlsi=LltB1IBt930oiZkn and I just gotta recommend it because boy it helped me process the grieving from that book lmao
Oh cool! Thank you for sending my way!
The Road.
Blood Meridian
i may have suggested this one before now: ghoul by michael slade,.
sounds like First Day of Spring was inspired by the life of Mary Bell
Yes! Thought the same thing 🫣😳🥴
I wanna find a book that shocks me, still not found one yet, maybe one day
Blood Meridian?
Naked lunch?
@@jeffjohnston1961 thank you for the suggestions, but no, not sure I can be shocked, I've read very extreme books and just feel nothing, just want something that makes me think, wow that's disgusting, maybe one day lol
@@ChWh-c1o have any come close?
@@jeffjohnston1961 annoyingly no, even Hogg just bored me, I find books can contain the most controversial subjects, but still do not cross whatever line is in my head
@@ChWh-c1oHaha
Hope you find it one day!
American psycho was disturbing imo. The girl next door also disturbing.
I agree on American psycho! I think I'm way too intimidated to read the girl next door, the true crime case is enough for me.
The black farm 😶
The troop 😮
@@KaizenGraves I had to put the troop down, can't do it !! 🐢
@@bookinhand_ I LOVED it, it was so dang creepy and nasty, right up my alley, had be audibly saying eww over and over
@@KaizenGraves 😂😂
For me its got to be the short story by the late Howard Waldrop. "Horror, we got". It perfectly illustrated why pc and cencorship...usual do the opposite of what they are intending to do.
Loved "Still Missing", but I read another book by that author, "Those Girls" and it was nothing but repetitive torture/rape porn, and it was just awful. Repetitive as you can take a fistful of pages and turn, and you won't miss anything.
The law of the skies was legitimately the worst book I’ve ever read solely because no child thinks the way the kids did in that book. Idk if it’s because of the translation or if young French children are all secretly mentally 12+ lol but the further along I got the more pissed I got because even the most messed up violent 6 year old does not have the capacity to think about things the way the antagonist Enzo did. Genuinely could have enjoyed it if they made the kids even as young as 10 but there is nothing anyone could say to make me think any 6 year olds process things the way a number of these fictional children did.
Totally agree! The way the prose would flip to them waxing poetic from the pov of the 6 yr olds- I died 😂
Your next book is "Ill Will" by Dan Chaon. Run out and get now. You will love it and do a video. It's the ultimate mindf××÷ ever..
I really enjoyed woom
I just hope the person who wrote American Psycho is ok. I- I really do.
Bret? oh he's still writing disturbing books LOL I JUST read his newer release, The Shards, that will def be on the next round of disturbing books list- made me so nauseous
Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker and The Oath by Frank Peretti. Eyes Wide Open is about a sane main protagonist that gets stuck in a mental ward where everyone gaslights her into thinking she is crazy. (It will make you start to wonder if you are loosing it too while reading.) It is a THICK book. The Oath is a creature story set in this weird, cultish rural town. It gets disturbing the more the main character finds out what is actually going on. Both are christian books, BUT VERY good horror stories. I recommend it if you want to stay up all night.
Oh damn- thank you! I'll have to check out !
Dekker and Peretti are christian authors who camouflage their work as "genre" but write nothing but christian dramas. I don't read them (read one of each years ago and that was more than enough). In my experience, horror that depends on a christian angle is not scary because without the faith/delusion element, an apparently nightmarish scenario crumbles into inanity. I remember reading The Exorcist and then watching the movie: meh times two. When you don't believe in god or pazuzu, there's very little left to scare you in that universe, except for the pea soup
@@sid1gen If you read my comment before, that is why I mentioned the books were both christian... I said that for a reason... I am just saying out of all the christian genre, these stories are still disturbing because one will literally make you think you are going insane, and the other book the cult-like people themselves are very messed up. Yes, there is a christian message, but it is still something that disturbed me when I read them. Horror depends on the person and what truly gets under your skin. For example, possession films are overdone and boring to me. How common is it to see someone get possessed? Not very. You can easily detach from the story being told. Eyes Wide Open has two sane people get stuck in a mental asylum, and are constantly being diagnosed as crazy or insane. I felt like I was in there right there with the main characters. There is constant gaslighting that I literally had to take breaks from the book because it got in my head a LOT. (worst feeling) The theme of psychologists verses the individual is realistic. There are several real stories of psychologists only caring for money, and not the actual mental health of the patient. Some could very well diagnose you with a mental disorder you don't actually have for an easy paycheck. This can happen, and it is terrifying when it does. The story shoves that reality in your face. Like I said earlier, there are different types of horror for everyone. If this isn't your type of tea, don't drink it.
@@dr.crowsworld I've read one book by Dekker, _Three._
It's a thriller with a twist or two that 'm not going to give away but the premise is that the main character is threatened by a psychopath. The problem is that Dekker's faith apparently prevents him from using proper swears so his psychopath killer uses cuss words like an 8-year-old. Now, I don't need my books to be filled with dirty language but I also don't have a problem with that, especially if it fits in the narrative. Here, the narrative demanded dirty language which was substituted by "clean" language to not damage the frail psyches of Christian readers, it seems.
If your readers aren't mature enough to handle swear words, fine, but then write another story, or write it in a different way. But don't put in these ridiculous kindergarten swears in it.