Gerald’s Game is a great book, but it also made me want to throw up.
1.One that really stuck with me was The Long Walk by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman.
2.Geralds Game is a great book, but it also made me want to throw up.
Maciej Ostrowski
4.I just finished a book called Indifferent Stars Above.
It was recommended on a podcast I listen to called Last Podcast On The Left.
Its about the Donner Party and their hardships around the Sierra Nevada during their journey to California.
Its a true story and involves a lot cannibalism.
Like straight up kids eating their parents kinda deal.
Its harrowing enough to make you never want to go out into the snow.
5.Two book series actually.
Both are from Quebec.
The first is called Cobayes which would translate to Guinea Pig.
Each book follows a different person in the same medical trial and how the injection affects each.
It ranks from becoming a religious fanatic to becoming a serial killer or cannibal.
Both are pretty dark.
The game inspired me to watch the movie, and the movie inspired me to read the book.
It left me emotionally and mentally drained.
The pervasive sense of fear and loneliness throughout the story eats at you and feeds on your paranoia.
7.Johnny Got His Gun.
He learns to communicate by bouncing his head off the pillow in Morse code.
Read it when I was 15.
Im 61, and still scarred.
8.Im going to go with the mostunexpectedlydark and nominate the late 90s kids series Animorphs.
I remember I couldnt put the book down at 12 years old.
It really got me interested in abductions and true crime in general.
10.Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.
Carny folks decide to create their own sideshow by using drugs to mutate their children.
One of the kids then starts his own religion.
Its the only thats ever given me nightmares and I refuse to re-read it.
11.Not a book but an entire series A Series Of Unfortunate Events.
One quote:
It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one.
Well all know that our time in this world is limited.
And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know.
Its a childrens book.
12.The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston.
Its a book detailing events and information about small pox.
Its the only book Ive read that has kept me awake at night.
13.Torture the Artist by Joey Goebel.
How do they do this?
By secretly turning their lives into a living hell of misery and suffering.
She spends the book deciding whether to wake up from the coma or die and be with her family.
It was a terribly depressing read.
Its all about the pain of time changing and old loss and things left unspoken.
Not as bad as the first book but still.
15.The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum.
I was off reading for a few weeks after I finished it.
Its about a group of boys trying to survive while stranded on a desert island.
17.The Stand is pretty intense.
Pretty depressing story, but a fun ride for sure.
The thing thats actually disturbed me, due to its context is The Boy with the Striped Pajamas.
Im not easily bothered, but just… damn.
20.There Will Come Soft Rains by Ray Bradbury.
However the residents were killed by nuclear weaponry.
The movie is awesome but barely scratches the surface of Patricks depravity.
22.Choke by CP was a pretty good one too.
The way the character was obsessed with… well I wont spoil it.
Especially after I realized theres no reason why it couldnt happen here.
Theres no guarantee humanity will prevail.
25.Dhalgren by Samuel R Delaney.
It has this unsettling nightmare feel to it that stuck with me for a month after finishing it.
26.High Life by Matthew Stokoe.
For non-fiction I would go with Deranged by Harold Schechter.
That one was about Albert Fish, and it was a gruesome read.
There is a twist right at the end of the book and it makes you question everything.
It left me emotionally drained for two weeks after reading it.
28.The Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes.
Totally dark…but absolutely captivating.
30.Notes from Underground, Dostoyevsky.
Its just a senior citizen living in a basement apartment, being stuck and bitter.
I read about ten pages, and lost three weeks to a depressive haze.
I couldnt even look at it straight.
Lost track of my copy.
31.The Glass Castle is a severely underrated book that has a hell of a lot of dark elements.
It also has a movie which I havent seen, but I recommend anyway.
32.Needful Things by Stephen King has every terrible thing in the world in it.
After I finished reading it, I didnt feel like I had gained anything except a sense of misery.
33.When Rabbit Howls, by the Troops for Truddi Chase, an autobiographical account.
One personality, Rabbit, does nothing but scream like a dying rabbit.
The ending is such a tragedy.
35.A Child Called It by David Peltzer.
His account of his abusive childhood.
There is a sequel as well.
I read it once when I was younger and it just stuck with me.
36.Intensity by Dean Koontz.
Crazy good book and that truly lives up to its name.
37.Flowers For Algernon it isnt necessarily dark, but the ideas and thought of the main character are.
38.John Steinbecks The Pearl.
Seriously, fuck that novel.
39.For non-fiction: Atrocities: the 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History.
Fiction: Heart of Darkness.
41.Identical by Ellen Hopkins.
First time I can remember that a book made me feel sick.
42.The True Story of Hansel and Gretel.
I read it as a kid familiar with the fairy tale and was… unprepared for all the raping.
43.Auschwitz by Miklos Nyiszli.
Then boy is this a book for you.
44.Mary Shellys Frankenstein is SUPER dark.
Its quite a shocking read if youre only familiar with the silly movies.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Seriously, nothing positive happens in that book until the very end.
46.Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk.
Loved every other book I read by him.
This one messed me up for a while.
47.Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. Just absolutely bleak at best and horrifying at worst.
Very interesting but also very, very dark and depressing.
The parents get divorced and his mom who is really his grandma ends up with the kid.
She resents him for breaking up her marriage so she pimps him out.
It just goes downhill from there.
Then the kid and his sister/mom get AIDS from the same guy.
SPOILERS
Its a product of the cold war era.
People start having death races, and the government hands out euthanasia injections for free.
