The Most Disturbing Books I've Read

Recently I read a very unsettling novel and it made me think about the most disturbing books I've ever read. Click ‘Show More’ for info & links.

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Books discussed & purchase links:

Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

Harvest by Jim Crace

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

Vista Chinesa by Tatiana Salem Levy

Bolla by Pajtim Statovci

The Parcel by Anosh Irani

My full reviews of some of these books:

Butcher by Joyce Carol Oates

Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh

Harvest by Jim Crace

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

Vista Chinesa by Tatiana Salem Levy

Bolla by Pajtim Statovci

The Parcel by Anosh Irani

Chapters:
0:00 Intro
1:30 Butcher
7:04 The Road
9:28 Lapvona
11:36 Harvest
13:03 Earthlings
15:00 Vista Chinesa
18:05 Bolla
20:47 The Parcel
23:20 Conclusion

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Get in touch

[joannelalli]

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN is the most disturbing for me.

[MountainShadow]

When I think of dark and disturbing, Cormac McCarthy immediately comes to mind. That said, he fits my description of some of the authors I consider great authors. They "make me" read something I don't really want to read. The writing is so well done and beautiful that I have to read it. The Road is a perfect example of this and one of my very favorite books.

[wendycayless]

The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan is the one that I found most disturbing

[TheEmzies]

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata 😬 Also, Empire of Pain about the Sackler Family / Purdue Pharma - their interest in protecting their name over concern about the harm being done by OxyContin was disturbing.

[janeglew]

I think I would have to say that ‘ A Little Life ‘ was the most disturbing book I’ve read . It was very graphic and detailed, tho the story was intriguing and so I had to get to the end . It just made me uncomfortable at times .

[martinezgerard]

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is one of the most disturbing and haunting books I have ever read.

[gpeaches]

I love Lapvona! Most disturbing scene to me is the grape scene with Elspeth! Or coughing up a pinky toe with the nail still Uhmmmm. Love the video, Eric. I really enjoy disturbing books and most of these are on my TBR but thanks for the new additions <3 Be well

[GarySwafford-pf]

Butcher is brilliant and very disturbing, indeed. Eric, will you be interviewing Oates about this new novel of hers? I hope so.

[bobbykeniston]

I recently read "Butcher" and the misogyny and just dismissal of a human being's agency was indeed disturbing and upsetting. "Zombie", also by JCO, is also a disturbing book. I loved "Lapvona" even though it troubled me, and I thought "Earthlings" was brilliant, but can't imagine people who thought they might be getting something more like "Convenience Store Woman" reacted... For me, hands down, the most disturbing book I have ever read is "The Girl Next Door" by Jack Ketchum. It genuinely, tangibly made me ill and angry, and it is a book I almost stopped reading, but couldn't--- I had to see if the truly awful people would get some kind of comeuppance, needed to see if there would be some kind of hope. It is things like this, where violence perpetrated against children, that upset me. There is a wonderful anthology collection of "dark tales" by Native American authors called "Never Whistle at Night, " and there is a story called "Quantum" by Nick Medina that was so hard to read for similar reasons, and I was glad it was a short story (though it stuck with me like a novel might).

[chriswalker]

I found Disgrace by Coetzee quite disturbing

[susiesky]

Thanks for another very interesting vid, Eric. As I was watching & thinking of what disturbing books I’ve read, you got to The Road & I thought “oh of course!!” It’s one of my fav books. The scene you talk about of course is rather terrifying but most of the book for me was disturbingly tense, even the second time I read it. Another book with a similar tense atmosphere that builds is His Bloody Project: Documents Relating to the Case of Roderick Macrae by Graeme Macrae Burnet, an historical novel that takes place in western Scotland during the 1840s (I think) about a young man that murders some of his neighbors. A doctor interviews him about why he’s done what he’s done & the reader doesn’t really know more than the doctor does. But it’s about more than just the murders. There’s a lot about the injustice of the socioeconomic system in Scot. at the time. And then there’s the short story The Mud Below by Annie Proulx in which a rape occurs that really shocked & disturbed me. And In the Ravine by Anton Chekhov that includes a very disturbing murder, something out of the norm for Chekhov, despite the generally melancholic atmosphere of his stories. Stark realism, as in these last two, is what disturbs me the most. Thanks again!! 😊

[alisonjordan]

Hello Eric 🙋‍♀️ Thank you for another interesting video 📹 I have not read any of the novels 📚 on your list, but I have read a number of books 📚 over the years, which I have found disturbing: “The Quickening Maze” by Adam Foulds. “The Service of Clouds” by Susan Hill (which is a shame as I really like her novels), “The Innocent” by Ian McEwan, and “Jude the Obscure” by Thomas Hardy... Continue to make fascinating videos 📹about the latest books 📚 Happy 📖 Reading...

[julieaulava]

My first disrurbing read was the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson shocked me in high school and has stayed with me for all these many years. I wonder if it would hit me the same way now or if part of the impact was my age when I read it.

[kirstyfairly]

Hi Eric, great video. I agree with you on The Road, that book is definitely one of the most disturbing books i've read. Other books that have really disturbed me are the Joyce Carol Oates novel Zombie, The Devil Of Nanking, Sharp Objects, & the true crime book House Of Evil about the Sylvia Likens case.

[travelers]

For me, Golding' Lord of the flies

[stevenpace]

I read Dalton Trumbo's How Johnny Got His Gun sometime during the sixties. It gave me nightmares for years. Today, as I look back, that novel changed my life forever. Make love, not war.

[ΛΕΜΟΝΙΑΤΑΣΟΥΛΑ]

I dont remember the title right now but the most disturbing book i have ever read eas written by a French writer and it was about a nazzi soldier who was in love with his twin sister. I remember that what struck me the most was how indifferent the protagonist was to all the human pain surrounding him, how remorseless he stayed during all the time that the war lasted. In the circumstances it seemed that the only human aspect about him was his love for his sister, however sick that love was. I wasn't able to finish the book and i remember thinking that the death of the central hero would be a kind of catharsis but that didn't happen. He survived the war and prospered after it.

[barbaravoss]

Some of the ones I found deeply disturbing: Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, The Trial by Kafka, Lolita by Nabokov, Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin and most recently Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck

[Japoleczka]

Probably the most disturbing book I've ever read was 'Janko Muzykant, ' a 19th century novella that used to be a mandatory read when I was in primary school. In this, a Polish peasant child, gifted and passionate about violin is being punished and in consequence dies because he had a cheek to watch noble people through the window. Whoever grew up in Poland these days knows poor Janek's devastating fate. The author is a Nobel prize winning Henryk Sienkiewicz ('Quo vadis?). From more recent I would definitely also include 'The Road.' Then 'The King Rat' by James Clavell, read ages ago but still vivid in some aspects - II WW, a japanese camp for soldiers and hunger that drives everybody to madness. Emma O'Donoghue and her 'Room' - claustrophobic, heavy with fear and emotions, I was biting my nails reading it. There is a kidnapped girl and a brilliantly created plot, characters, language. Definitely the best one by this author. 'The Mischling' by Affinity Konar - Auschwitz experiments on twins, Mengele and his evil colleagues, absolutely shocking but also in some ways heart warming (still extremaly disturbing!). 'How We Disappeared' by Jing Jing Lee, 'Sing, Unburied Sing' by Jesmyn Ward and plenty of others. And Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood and all tales in their original version send shiver down the spine.

[christophercobb]

Also, I don't remember if the story's title is the same as the book's title but there is a story in the book "Say You're One of Them" that shows the Rwandan genocide through a child's eyes. It's extremely disturbing with the visceral realism and child's view of horror.