the most disturbing books i've ever read
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- Опубліковано 24 січ 2023
- ~ spooky ~
In this video...
Endgame tidd.ly/3KyZ3t8
The Iliac Crest tidd.ly/3zSsAct
Leave the World Behind tidd.ly/35rtmiQ
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead tidd.ly/3xWQ9As
Lolita tidd.ly/3kF7E67
The Blind Owl tidd.ly/3C7J5Ff
When We Were Orphans tidd.ly/3o3BsWP
Season of Migration to the North tidd.ly/3JgonTQ
House of Leaves tidd.ly/3LleDZE
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I recently picked up Lolita and I cannot read it without a constant expression of disgust :) The way it was misinterpreted as a love story is as horrifying as the book itself.
I feel the same. Lolita from Nabokov is the most disturbing book I’ve ever read.
Terrifying
It's so disturbing because it's shows how predators get excuses after excuses for their inappropriate behavior. Lolita is too real.
that book took me a while to finish it was very disturbing.. but the writing is so beautiful and it feels wrong to say i like it but vladimir is a great writer.
@@gotosleep2876 yea i agree. Although the topic is disturbing,the author is a great writer. I dont think you should feel wrong to say. You can praise the quality of a book/art without agreeing with the message.
Perfume by Patrick Süßkind. I admittedly read that waaay too young, but it's intensely disturbing even when you're not eleven and holed up in a dark attic bedroom
I read that one in 8th grade, definitely too young, I still have it and now in my 40’s it still is one of my favorite books,
YEAH THAT BOOK IS FUCKIN WEIRD
Kurt Cobain said that Perfume is is favorite book so I picked it up. Now I'm a bit scared 😶
One of the weirdest books I’ve ever read
Ffs you've made me buy it how dare you
Sharing my own list of "disturbing" reads:
1. The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński (novel);
2. Equus by Peter Shaffer (play);
3. The Trial of God by Ellie Wiesel (play);
4. Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann and Kerascoët (graphic novel);
5. Paying for It by Chester Brown (graphic novel);
6. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen (YA novel);
7. Cubao 1980 by Tony Perez (novel);
8. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima (novel);
9. Peace by Gene Wolfe (novel); and
10. Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor (novel).
Oh, Equus, I had forgot that one - or maybe repressed the memory of if is more accurate.
Annihilation is pretty fucked, it's a quick read but it sticks with you
Had to read equus in Ap lit this year and I’m changed forever after that 😭
I read #1 last year...truly dark and disturbing.
I was waiting for a comment mentioning painted bird…horrifying
The bluest eye is the only book I’ve read that really shook me to my core but I feel like sometimes books like that need to be read.
I totally agree with this! I had to read that book for a class & it was extremely difficult to get through but Toni Morrison’s writing is incredible regardless
Same
We had to read this in high school, and I remember being really annoyed because half the books we read included sexual assault, and also we had literally no sex education. Private boarding prep school.
❤
That book has given me nightmares but it is such a fantastic read
‘Horse Pie’ was the most disturbing book I read as a kid. It was about saving horses from being stolen and made into horse pies, it was a bit grim
that sounds like it would give me nightmares for life lol
Lmfaooo you definitely win. That sounds terrifying 😭
Don't even get me started on animal brutality, i can still read human violence to an extent but animal? Sorry no and one of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories 'The black cat' i was onboard to my uni and that shit gave me chills to my bones
That sentence feels like I'm supposed to laugh, but there's nothing funny about horse pies... I'm already disturbed👀
No offense but how is that, that different from hunting or regular farming?
Lolita is such a complicated book, and it upsets me to see so many people simplify it as a love story. I highly suggest you to read "Reading Lolita in Teheran" by Azar Nafisi, It is a wonderful book about Iran, literature and it offers a very interesting interpretation of Lolita. 💜 My most disturbing book was The Notebook Trilogy by Agata Kristof... that book was A LOT.
I seriously question anyone who can come away from reading Lolita and think it's a love story.
I've never seen anyone talk about the Notebook! I read it when I was a child and it left a deep impression on me.
I thought you were holding the Bible in the thumbnail and was going to be like, damn, same
😂
This comment wins
Yikes. Me too.
same 💀
lmaooooo
When I started "House of Leaves" I was like nahh, this isn't scary. And then I was halfway through and I was brushing my teeth in my quiet apartment and then it HIT. I've never felt dread like that since
I'm dead serious when I say Coraline is the scariest book I've ever read. You mentioned the whole betrayal of something or someone you thought you knew, and that's a huge part of what is so unsettling about it. But for me, it's the concept of everything being almost perfect and almost 1:1 to the real life, but there are subtle things (besides the button eyes lol) that are just...off. Coraline can't quite place them at first, but the tension grows as the book progresses, and the other mother grows impatient. One thing that sticks in my mind in that book is how, when the whole other world begins to unravel, the book describes the house as looking like a crude children's drawing. Wtf. Fourth grade me was SHOOK
hi, I'm Brazilian and I love your channel, I just want to say that you are my comfort person, whenever I'm anxious I watch your videos and I feel better
that makes me so happy - I hope you're doing okay beautiful
Love this for you ❤
Nice to see another brazilian here.
I'm Brazilian too
Nice to see another Brazilian here.
Me too! Her voice especially here is so comforting.
American Psycho was one of the only
Books I’ve read that I had to take a break from because I found it far too visceral. The chapters ‘Girls’, ‘Girl’ and ‘Killing Child at Zoo’ are the ones that stand out most to me when I think back on it.
I need to announce to everyone that a few minutes into this vid my cat walked on my keyboard and accidentally turned on captions for me
nothing like disturbing book recommendations to help me take my mind off my disturbing geometry homework :) thanks for the recommendations emma!
fr!
i’m doing the same with my History exam lolol
It's calculus for me 🦾
19:14
Hey Emma, My name is Nika, I’m Iranian and I believe you should read his other books and stories, (Hedayat’s) not that his other stories are this disturbing, no! in fact he has very different approaches in his different stories and I think that’s a good thing. All of them are good though. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them…
Also, I think you would enjoy reading سمفونی مردگان (in english: Symphony of the Dead) by “Abbas Maroufi”, also Iranian and very famous. His writing style is very rich (I hope you can find a good translation, I wish I could send them to you…) the story is engaging, ugh the characters, you will live with them and feel their pains! The atmosphere and everything is just exquisite… I’m sure you’ll love it. (Almost everything in this novel was new for me too since it takes place in a very different area of our country and I think one or two generations before mine)
I myself don’t read in Persian as much as I read in English and I’m an English literature major in Tehran! But these books, I chewed them and they kept living inside my heart for so so long; I remember reading one of Hedayat’s short stories in a riding motorcycle (yes! I couldn’t put it aside!) and started crying right there!
In conclusion, (since this has become an essay clearly 😂) I too think disturbing books are great recommendations, in fact, any book that has the power of disturbing and changing something inside of you is!
The camera quality is so good!!! I love seeing your channel progress and grow. Also, I love me some disturbing books, so thank you for this❤️
thank you so much lovely
"I'm Thinking of Ending Things" by Iain Reid is an amazingly disturbing book!
I GET SO EXCITED WHENEVER I SEE SOMEONE TALK ABOUT HOUSE OF LEAVES, BECAUSE I PICKED IT UP BY COMPLETE CHANCE AND IT TURNED OUT TO BECOME MY FAVOURITE BOOK EVER. IT ACTUALLY TERRIFIED TO ME AND I DIDNT EVEN KNOW BOOKS COULD DO THAT. i would legit be in a TRANCE for 5-10 minutes every time after putting the book down. i have no clue how a human being could have written this all by himself. mark z denielewski is an utter genius.
That book is genuinely so damn terrifying and I need to see more people talking about it
@@floppavevo5920 I just started the book and I'm intrigued, to say the least! Should be an interesting read!
not you and Carolyn uploading at the exact same time again - love it
Among the many disturbing books I have read, Blood Meridian and The Road by Cormac McCarthy were truly disturbing. The premise of both the novels were brutal and harrowing. Blood Meridian was even more disquieting than The Road. Such a horrendous depiction of human atrociousness is something that I have rarely come across
You are one of the few youtubers whom i can watch from beginning to end without skipping cause of how authentic you are .
Also, I wanted to tell you that, because of your recommendation, I read The Blind Owl in November and I loved loved loved it! Absolute disturbing perfection and it was in my top 3 of 2022 so thank you 🥰
Somehow I knew you were talking about Beckett even before you said it out loud...just the way you described the play made me think of him immediately. Chills...
I am not easily scared or disturbed by book but House of Leaves and Pet Semetary both really freaked me out
Recently, I finished reading “The Collector” by John Fowles. I would recommend reading it if anyone is looking for another disturbing book.
I loved the ending
Probably the weirdest and most disturbing book that I’ve ever read (that I also absolutely loved) is Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, she’s mexican and she’s amazing 🙌🏼
I am currently reading The Road and oh boy that is also pretty disturbing. Such a coincidence for you to upload this now.
P.S- I'd also recommend you A heart So white by Javier Marias I recently read it and I was blown away how good it was. The book is insanely layered and also very well written with a great plot twist I think you'd love it.
I would love to watch a video of you discussing House of Leaves, I loved it but theres a lot I probably missed that you wouldnt.
My bed is in the corner of my room against the wall so I can have space to use my VR set. When I read House of Leaves I remember the section where Johnny describes his panic attack where he feels absolutely certain that theres something in the room with him just out of his vision slowly approaching him from behind. I remember finding it pretty creepy but not too scary. I didnt think of it for the rest of the day and went to sleep without a problem then, I woke up at 5am with my back pressed flat against the wall, so I could face the rest of the room and nothing in the room could get behind me. I *always* sleep face down and wake up face down.
HoL scares you on a level so deep in your subconcious I didnt even know I was scared until I was dreaming.
Emma, please made a readalong for House of Leaves
I remember the first time you mentioned house of leaves on your channel saying it was the scariest book you've ever read. Without a second thought I immediately ordered it and it's been an all time fav for years now 💗
I recently read Once There Were Wolves and it absolutely destroyed me. It's a psychological literary mind-fuck that breaks down human nature, wolves as predators, humans as predators, death, the destruction of our planet, etc., all set in the Highlands. It's written beautifully and it's absolutely devastating. Highly recommend
Great list! I've been meaning to read some of them, actually, so perhaps now is the time :D If I were to pick a disturbing book, I'd go for Mona Awad's Bunny - some pretty crazy stuff happens there, dark academia vibes with a twist. I had a good time reading this :D
By the way, thank you, Emma, for all your videos, I've recently discovered your channel and I'm excited every time you upload! You made me fall in love with the classics again (which I had read quite a few studying languages at uni) and I'm forever grateful ❤️
I knew you would put The Blind Owl in this list. Many Iranians including myself love his books and yeah you probably guessed it right: ALL of his works are dark but exquisite. He saw in life things that are painful to think about and tried to kill himself a couple of times. Sadly, he succeeded at last.
When I saw the title of this video I immediately opened up my Storygraph so that I could just add all of the books on here (that I haven't read yet) to my TBR as you said them 🤣🤣🤣
I love this soft spoken vibe actually please keep doing that!!
Yessss I agree!
The most disturbing book I've ever read is The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld. It really did justice to its title... The writer is Dutch, so it can count towards your around the world challenge ;)
Thats the book I'm reading right now! I really like it :)
you and carolyn posting at the same ahhhhhh u guys be making our days!!
Jack Edwards also posted at the same time and I was just like 👁️👄👁️ lololol 😂
@@jasminesmith6361 ikrr💗
Fun fact about me, when I saw the Spiderwick movie for the first time, when he stabbed his “dad” I had a panic attack lol. It’s nice to know someone else was affected by that story in a similar way to me.
Your voice is so calming. I would adore listening to you if you narrated books.
I just finished Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice" yesterday and coincidentally that was a rather disturbing read as well
"When we were orphans" is a great book. For me it was very confusing but I just couldnt stop, you are right I also felt like I was suck into Ishiguro's narration. The ending...well that was a heck of an ending, was totally taken aback. Thank you so much, I really enjoy your videos.
Loved the video! Will defintely check out some of these books. I kinda like it when a story starts off normal and at some point makes a turn complete u turn and derails. Would also be interested in a video with the same vibe with 'the most absurd books' . :D
Loved this podcast vibe! I enjoyed the book list. Have you considered reading "Geek Love" by Katherine Dunn (first published in 1989)? I think you might enjoy it as it is slightly "disturbing" in a few ways but such an interesting circus setting. Thanks for the new video!!!
Books that disturbed me or stayed w me days after reading:
1. _The Stepford Wives_ by Ira Levin
2. _Rosemary's Baby_ by Ira Levin
3. _I Am The Cheese_ by Robert Cormier
4. _Rebecca_ by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca is so excellent, but the ending is really disappointing imo - book and (original) movie alike.
love this!!! currently entirely absorbed by house of leaves, its so deliciously weird. also my disturbing reads would probably be: Never Let Me Go by Ishiguro (couldnt finish it the first time, it freaked me out so much with the feeling that something is seriously wrong), and The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (the final chapter is set post-climate crisis but it feels devastatingly realistic, really gave me that gut-drop feeling like when you've just finished a serious nature documentary). thanks for the recommendations!
I have no mouth and I must scream, by Harlan Ellison is the most disturbing story I have ever read, I tried so hard to forget about it but at the same time I have the morbid desire to read it again 😳
Ps. I will start house of leaves today, wish me luck 😅
That's exactly how I feel about that story. Every now and then it just pops up in my head and I think 'wow, that was some crazy shit'!
To Build a Fire by (I believe) Jack London was pretty unsettling too.
Your distinction between "unsettling" and "horror" got me hooked from the start. I've read some books from the list (Beckett was a great inclusion, and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead is my favorite fiction I read in 2023) and plan to pick up the others -- specially intrigued by The Iliac Crest. Oh and since you've included a play, I highly recommended Conor McPherson's The Weir. Deeply moving and deeply unsettling. A follow-up to this list at some point would be fantastic. I love this!
'the troop' is a book that is suspense / survival , also a lot of body horror but the pyschological element really struck me to my core. it's been a long time since i've read this book and there are specific scenes that still come up in my thoughts at random , i highly recommend it
oh i loved that book
Yes, I've heard some other reviews of The Troop. There seems to be a consensus opinion that it is a powerful novel, and of course very disturbing too.
i read the Blind Owl a few weeks ago because you talked about it a while ago and it was SO GOOD. one of the most interesting books i’ve ever read
Last year's most disturbing book for me was The Wall by Austrian writer Marlen Haushofer (available in English). A woman who is in the mountains alone somehow gets separated from the world by an invisible wall, she has a few animals, and they try to survive as long as possible. It's bleak and hopeless and beautiful...
Oh! Emma with a big mic! It made me think of a podcast... Imagine if you did podcasts, it'd be so interesting... Now onto the video which I know I'll enjoy; thanks Emma for your videos.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata was a very unsettling recent read for me. More so for the psychological aspects vs. some of the trigger warnings people talk about with it.
Lolita has got to be one of the most beautifully written books ever. A dark subject, but not one smutty word. The guy becomes obsessed with the young girl because she reminds him of his childhood sweetheart who died of typhus. Nabokov called it an experiment with the American language. Beautiful.
Well, it's not 100% clear if he was truly obsessed with her or if he exaggerates his feelings to justify his homicidal impulses. Somehow readers are willing to look the other way when he drops a roofie into her orange juice (or cherry soda, whatever was the drink), and they seem simply to forget that he planned Charlotte's murder, and the hunted Quilty like a fox. The evil Lolita triggered existed within Humbert long before he left Europe.
First of all, love watching your videos! I read The Blind Owl, thanks to your recommendation. It's such a magnetic read yet it's hard to truly express what I feel about it. Lolita is also another great piece of literature, and so is House of Leaves. I'm thinking of rereading the latter. Looking forward to reading Season of Migration to the North and When We Were Orphans this year. Thank you again for such amazing content on UA-cam. :):)
The Bluest eye
The colour purple
Perfume
Lolita
Venus in Furs
Anything by the Marquis De Sade
American Psycho
Edit:
Personally, I don't know if people would find these disturbing but I did
Metamorphosis
Little Red Riding Hood (charles Perrault) and The Bloody Chamber
Wuthering Heights
One thing I've noticed is how these are also some of my favourite books 😅 talk about comforting the disturbed!
just finished reading the iliac crest and honestly it’s one of the best books i’ve ever read, this video made me want to pick it up and i could not be happier that i did. what an experience
House of Leaves was the only book that gave me nightmares until I read Annihilation. My first 5 star book of the year! Very atmospheric and gave me the same vibes as House of Leaves and Made in Abyss.
Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation ? I just started reading that after i've seen the movie about 5 times in 2 years.
Yes!! The movie and book have some pretty big differences, but I think you're in for a treat.
@@vfcoleman7 Awesome! Thank you for the reply. As a thanks, I will reccomend one that i recently read , Blood Meridian by Cormack McCarthy. It will make our body hair stand up.
I’m so excited to read House of Leaves. I’ve had it on my shelf for so long, picked it up and set it down in the past because I wasn’t in the mood for the denser writing style… but maybe it’s time 📖
Great video Emmie! As a new avid reader, you just introduced me to some great new titles! So thank you! 🙌
You have the most calming voices and the fact that you're talking about disturbing books makes me so confused
Excellent video as ever, loads of fascinating books to check out
As far as disturbing books.... Flowers in the attic series by VC Andrews. Idk who let me have that series when I was 12 but that's when I first read it and it literally took me a decade to return to if that's any indication on what's in store if you give it a go xD
Also: Obasan by Joy Kogawa. That one is nearly unexplainable to me cause of how it feels. I legit fell in love with the writing from the very first paragraph but the actual content of the story is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
honestly… 10/10 asmr, you’re already so relaxing to listen to
ur voice is soo soothing
Ooh a new video! Heck yeah let's go!
The ASMR in the beginning was very satisfying.
I need to get back to uploading on my asmr channel lol
@@emmiereads you have an ASMR channel? Since when lmao 😂🤣
Great video. One of your best. It is strange, I read Endgame, Season of Migration, the Illiac Crest, Solar Bones and Drive Your Plow, and all of them are great reads, I also would recommend each of them strongly, but they did not disturb me. Solar Bones however made we aware of the fact that we cannot take anything for granted and that you should much appreciate it, when things in the world work. Drive Your Plow we read in my reading group and it fired very lively discussions. By coincidence we had a guest in the group from India right at that time and she could make clear to us how the Indian people think very different of animals than we do. House of Leaves I have on my tbr for years and years now and always gave up after a couple of pages, it just didn't grap me. I'll give it more chances. You made me very interested in Leave the World Behind and When We Were Orphans; I will pick them up. - Now if you're looking for another disturbing book: Siri Husvedt's What I Loved. That one really disturbed me.
I think my most disturbing books were (but I still highly recommend Orwell)
1. Animal Farm by George Orwell. This book gets more and more upsetting as you fall in love with the animals and slowly see them worn down and/or die while going through a difficult life even when they see themselves as "free." It made me rethink my definition of freedom and what it means for America to be "the land of the free."
2. 1984 by George Orwell. The scene that sticks in my mind the most is when the main character wants to join the rebellion and is asked if he would kill a child if that was the way to win the war. The main character says, "yes," without hesitation. It made me think about how we define what's right and wrong, and can we truly justify our cause if we are willing to do horrific things to win? What are the true implications of the phrase "the ends justify the means?"
3. Lord of the Flies, because, seriously this is f-ed up. Why do we read this in school????
Yes, there were a few scenes in 1984 that were very disturbing: The rats, of course; the woman who was 'a meter wide at the hips'; and the chess game in the coffee shop, stand out in my memory.
Maybe because it's one of the most poignant warnings about human nature ever written?
1984 plugged me in a depressing mood for weeks, not even exaggerating. That ending is a bullet. It’s just the subtle terrors of it.
@@celine442 Altho it's not often written about the portrayal of Julia as a Modern woman also scary. She did what she needed to do in order to rise in the party, and then again did what she needed to do to survive.
Judging by some of these you should definitely check out some early Pinter! Later Pinter is very different but some of the early stuff - The Birthday Party, Dumb Waiter etc. - may be up your street. I don't think I've ever been particularly disturbed by anything I've read (weirdly because I do read a lot of dark stuff lmao), but In My Skin/Dans Ma Peau is one of my favourite horror films (certainly has my favourite scene from any horror). It permanently changed my understanding of how I think about the human body. It's a challenging film, very strange, not at all like mainstream English language horror, but there's something incredibly unsettling about its treatment of the body which is just so, so effective.
Your voice was so relaxing in this video, like an ASMR book review ❤
ive never been this early to an emma video!! im so excited to watch
everytime you upload a video i am reminded of my love for you😭💗
You should publish these types of videos on podcast form, i would totally listen to them while commuting
I’m so excited! I’ve been waiting for this video!!
Great video Emma! I have not read many books but I found The Windup Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami very distrubing
Great video but the only thing more disturbing than that book was how you talked into that Blue Yeti!! That's a side-address microphone!!
cursed bunny by bora chung is def one of my most disturbing reads. its a collection of short stories that incorporates magical realism beautifully imo.. very unsettling but i oddly like it. ngl the first short story got me creeped out for weeks 😅
The first story was definitely the best.
Unfortunately I didn't like it, it was poorly written and felt like amateur work imo. The only chapter that i thought was decent was the one in the desert with the flying ship.
When I was 15 or 16 I read The Tin Drum by Günter Grass and some scenes were so revolting and disturbing. Two in particular made me feel physically ill.
Hello there emmie,I would really like if you could please talk about planners,if they are hyped up etc,etc and everything related to it,and how do you manage and plan your stuff,also I have been watching your videos since 2019 and I ammm a fan like I was scrolling and searching for literature videos and what all do we have to study like tbh I wanted to know if my college people are biased when it comes to prescribing very hard to read books for the students or is that a global problem and then I started watching your videos and vlogss,I have learnt from your videos lately I have been a little off track so if you could talk about planning out a routine which helps the students,and if you could shed light on the topic:)Thankyou your videos are comforting and i feel at ease while watching them,XOXO:)
Great list, thanks so much Emma. I love your videos :)
Side note- your mic is incredible. If you are ok sharing the link (even an affiliate link), I’d love to know which one it is! I do a lot of work using microphones, including when I do voiceover instructions for my students and this one sounds so nice and clear. Thanks my dear!
~ Mariam 🇨🇦
'No Longer Human' shook me to my core. Literally could not stop thinking about it for weeks after I read it.
When I finished the book it was the first time I felt empty at the end of a book.
emma!! i want to read house of leaves and the blind owl! My favorite disturbing books are kafka and burroughs, both, respectively, sympathetic, introspective, and ontological. i don't normally read horror books, but you read so many! Wind up bird chronicle is the most surprising, tbh 😅, being about dissociation and the reasons for trauma, or horrible circumstances and becoming dissociated..and sad!. im read don quixote atm and it is hysterical! I- love you! 😅so weird, i love it ☺😭
Burroughs? Which one ,can recommend
Hello. First time commenter here - I usually just watch your videos. :)
Oh, a few of these books I wanted to read some day. (In case I'll finally be able to finish all the other things waiting on my shelves first...) A book that I really found to be disturbing was Cabal by Clive Barker. I still don't know if it was his writing that's just not for me...or the story in itself. Definately some weird scene in there as well though.
Passed by House of Leaves a few times in a bookstore but did not yet buy it. But I might finally get to it this year.
Sounds like some great and disturbing books. I'll have to check them out. For me one of the most disturbing books I've ever read is a book called It Can't Happen Here--a futuristic novel in which Fascism comes the US. Great video, Emma--enjoy your week!
Season of Migration to the North is so amazing that if I was on a plane hurtling towards the ground because the pilots had heart attacks, I would choose to read a few pages of this over "Landing a Plane for Dummies"
i think aside from a few of the ones you've already mentioned, the disturbing books i've read have been 'mary ventura and the ninth kingdom' by sylvia plath, 'the victorian chaise longue' by marghanita laski (i think her book tory heaven will be more disturbing considering the tory party absolutely decimating the uk rn (once again🤢), need to build the nerve to read it), 'the house in the dark of the woods' by laird hunt, 'warlow experiment' by alix nathan, 'ghost wall' by sarah moss, 'pew' by catherine lacey and 'i'm thinking of ending things' by iain reid. to me the majority of these are unsettling because i had no idea where the plot was going, which i do like in a book, i enjoy being unsettled! i think with warlow experiment and ghost wall there was more of an overhanging sense of dread of 'oh god please don't let what i think will happen actually happen'. also, the oneworld classics edition of 'the black spider' by jeremias gotthelf (transl h.m waidson) is THE most metal book i've ever read. half the bands i listen to wish they could do what gotthelf did, certain images will haunt me forever omg
Definitely read The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. This is a work of fiction but based on the true crime case of Sylvia Likens. This book follows a first person point of view of a neighborhood boy telling the story as an adult and is looking back on how messed up the situation was. Being in this boy's head and reading the things he witnessed is so horrifying and disturbing. The Girl Next Door has great character development and writing. The book is very psychological and emotional, and the actions of the single mom, her kids, and the neighborhood children get worse and worse as the book goes along.
One of the scariest stories I have ever read in my life, apart from Jonathan Livingstone Seagull is a little known short story I wrote, called The Last Tourists. Its a vampire story and the reason for why its so disturbing and unsettling is, because of what happens not just to the main characters, but to those who try to save them from trouble as they decide to go to Transylvania to photograph its architecture. To you this may seem silly. Vampires don´t exist right? What if your beliefs and the protagonists ´beliefs about police security go out of the windows and are shattered? It´s short, but after I read it just to chase spelling errors, grammar errors, etc. , then re - read it and edited it a few times, it left me mentally and emotionally scarred for life. Thanks for your video. Excellent and on to point narration. Great description of your selection. Kind regards from Ásgeir in Iceland.
Really interesting video! I hadn't heard of a lot of these books before.
I have a disturbing book recommendation bird box it was truly terrifying and it really examined how a space you live in can feel very different when it’s lacking the people who lived in it. I love your videos Emma you helped me out of my reading/writing slump
My first time in your channel, congratulations,you are the best !
I noticed you deal a lot with anxiety. If i may suggest something there - as i've gone through a serious head injury myself and dealt with anxiety aftewards just a few years ago...
I found myself drawn subconsciously (i guess) to "dark, disturbing" books and anime.i guess it simply matched my state of mind best then. However, symptomes only got better, after i cut out that part of my life and emerged in positiv literatur as well as yoga (as u do) and meditation. I firmly believe, that in order to heal, one needs to fill ones heart with the beauty of this world.
The most disturbing book I’ve read was probably Filth by Irvine Welsh (for uni)! But while it was disturbing, the book has a really unique format and I somehow still remember most of it really well like two years later.
Love Irvine welsh ❤
@@tcrijwanachoudhury Likewise. It's about time Wee Goagsie got his own standalone novel. And film. And movie franchise.
To me, it is definitely "blindness by jose saramago", the idea of a sudden loss of a sense made up all night, also the only book that disgusted me to my core.
and yet it is one of my all-time favourites
I read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote when I was 13 years old and it really scared me, especially because it's about the real life murder of an entire family. One of the chapters made me so afraid of home invasions. It's a great book but I was definitely too young for it lol
The most disturbing books I've read are histories (including historical fiction) and philosophies, maybe because they tell a story I'm in and from which I can't escape. Some highlights are the psychologies of Carl Jung and Maus by Art Spigalman, The latter of which gave me a mental breakdown. Although you can be skeptical of Carl Jung's theories of human nature, they can feel shockingly plausible and eerily nostalgic. Just the act of reading him exposes you to his piercing charisma and archetype resonance that is extremely confrontational and can make a self reflective person self paranoid; if you entertain what he says, the process inexplicably changes your consciousness and sense identity in a rather violent way. Other highlights are Emil Chioran and Simon Weil, who's collections of resonant and devastating insights make one feel warped, evil, or like they have some sort of spiritual PTSD.
Loved to hear your thoughts about Solar Bones! Thank you
ooo i thought "the blind owl" to myself when i saw the title. always nice to see it recommended it's so bizarre and good and confusing
i remember being assigned it for a global literature course. popped it open at like 11 one night to get a start on reading and ended up going cover to cover that night. it quite literally enthralled me and is a powerful read, especially the first time through imo.
a truly dark and confusing reflection on addiction and desire which i think the feverdream-esque tone conveys really well
If you want to read more Nabokov I would recommend Ada, or Ardor -- an incestuous family chronicle set over nearly a century, incorporating elements of magical realism, and heavily focusing on the nature of time and memory. So, a number of structural and thematic similarities to A Hundred Years of Solitude. Ada also features his densest, most elaborate prose, especially in the first few Chapters. Which I eventually enjoyed, though it was quite daunting at first.
or My dark vanessa
I read House of Leaves about 20 years ago and still think about it regularly. Really need to buy my own copy, I'd love to read it again! But I think the most disturbing book I have read was probably Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr, again this was probably 15+ years ago but it haunts me.
Great review of some new titles I am not familiar with - House of Leaves has been on my list to read for some time. A book that I really enjoyed and was disturbing is Requiem for a Dream, it's worth checking out about the different ways addictions harm us.
Emma, you may like These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant, in contrast to Leave the World Behind. In both, we see people getting along amidst the challenge of having less, but in Grant's book the positive side is emphasized. Her people choose to get away from the world, it's not taken from them.
recently read These Silent Woods and it got me emotional! I cried so much at the end. Loved it!! I hope Emma reads it too
My own suggestion for a disturbing, albeit non-fiction, book is "If This is a Man" by Primo Levi, the account of his time as a prisoner in Auschwitz. I think everyone on the planet should be mandated to read it.