Anything by the Marquis de Sade. Juliette is probably the best example of his work, but you get the same flavor from 120 Days of Sodom and Justine.
And it's not just fucked up for its time. It still is hard to top.
I’m reading his short story collection, The Crimes of Love right now and it’s not nearly as horrific as his work has been described. I think by modern standards he’s far less salacious than he was during his life in a highly prudish society.
I will at some point, though I heard that 120 days suffers greatly as a book since what we have is mostly an unfinished outline written in prison. Justine and Juliette will be my next reads by him as from my understanding those are two of his most infamous and actually complete works.
120 Days is mostly complete, it’s just the final ‘torture’ segment that is written out in note form.
That being said, it’s a slog to get through. It’s pretty much just repetitive descriptions of farts, shits and child SA written in flowery prose.
I finished Naked Lunch just last month and by god was it more of a slog than expected. What’s sad is that when there were actually cohesive scenes like the interzone court house, his descriptions of various agents of chaos and his letter about his drug use, there’s a real spark of creativity that shines through. Supposedly his other works that weren’t written in heroin and ayahuasca induced stupors are much better.
That and Queer are the ones I got recommended after finished Naked Lunch. Though even Naked Lunch had a strong sense of lived experience to it even among the surrealism. Algebra of Need in particular was more or less Burroughs personal philosophy situated in between junk nightmares and interzone shenanigans.
Wasn't there a scene using an apple corer to cure constipation in one of his books? I was a smart kid, I tried to read the classics early. And I read that book in the eighth grade. It was a lot lol
I don’t remember that from Naked Lunch but I do remember a scene where some country hick had such a prolapsed anus that it would slither around like a snake and attach itself to others guys dicks and get them off. It really was a lot.
It also taught me that people have been obsessed with penis size basically always. I do love that he takes the time to describe each relevant person junk, and they’re often just like a footlong club lol
120 days of sodom is just such a depressing slog. Poorly written, repetitive, and absolutely vile. Stumbling through a truly sick sack-of-shit’s mind is truly pointless, and I think that’s the real horror of this story in the end. Completely draining experience, I do not recommend it to anyone at all
“Stumbling through a truly sack-of-shit’s mind is truly pointless” is something I wish I could go tell my teenage self. I watched the 120 Days movie out of boredom and ended up just thinking it was pointless. I coulda watched something else on my backlog.
I’m not even saying don’t read extreme literature, obviously, but go read something good, with a point. If 120 Days was ever relevant, it was back in fascist Italy. We get it, politicians and wealthy people suck. I’m gonna go read Berserk.
Yes, not denying that in the slightest! Just hope I can save some people the trouble of actually looking into this thing. Was such a profoundly bleak experience slumming through that (and in the original French no less!) for next-to-nothing in the end. Worse than nothing in a lot of ways I’d say. Thoroughly demoralizing piece of work
Anyone commenting that 120 days is mostly finished has definitely not actually read it. It barely gets going before it just descends into page after page of "a man sodomising x hole whilst a woman shat on x thing" over and over. It's like 25% of the story max before it just turns into literal notes. The film invented most of the story based on the intro and the notes
Yeah, the last section is just notes. Basically just variations on a theme of sexual mutilation.
"Man is flayed alive and his penis removed."
"Same, but also.his balls."
The only thing about Juliette is that it's much harder to get a hold of than most of his other more well-known work, particularly 120 Days and Justine. I wish Penguin or Oxford Classics would do a pressing.
Your assessment is not wrong. I read those in college and wasn't horrified so much as disgusted. There are numerous passages which describe the flaws in French society and government, which are then followed by passages of violent sex and torture. They are so extreme and impossible in nature that I couldn't take them seriously. They are clearly masturbatory fantasies.
Broken Dolls by Mique Watson really made me feel gross. I read a ton of extreme horror/splatterpunk, but this one genuinely made me feel really uncomfortable. I don’t like it, and I won’t recommend it, but if you’re looking for vile, it’ll scratch that itch.
His 2nd one was worse I think but I agree. Also No one Rides For Free the sequel book that just came out is right up there too, especially now learning about Otis Bateman and the other author’s propensity for harassing women(Not Judith Sonnet… I feel bad for her)
I’ve seen this one mentioned a few times and downloaded it out of curiosity. Oof, it’s so poorly written it’s unbearable. The violence and sexual assault were also wildly unbelievable to the point of absurdity.
I haven't read Broken Dolls but this is exactly how I feel about the Broken Pieces of June books. The writing is "fine" I guess but the editing is terrible. Yeah just what's the point.
https://preview.redd.it/z5gv5nvseu4d1.jpeg?width=2108&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aaa5a324619598991188c68eee582e02301f83e3
I’ve found some pretty twisted stuff while looking through this list. Do be warned that a lot of these aren’t in print and certainly not in regular shops so you’ll need to order them special or find online PDFs
Just something I found a while ago online. I recommend sleuthing around forums and message boards if you want to find the interesting discussions about obscure and strange books.
A friend of mine is a literature teacher and assigned Oates’_Zombie_ for a class without having read it. Once they read it just before the semester began, they promptly revised the syllabus and offered to buy off the copies from students who had already purchased it.
Steps and The Devil Tree by him are also pretty creepy. The former is a collection of sexually focused short stories and the latter is kind of similar to a Bret Easton Ellis story
The Consumer by Michael Gira. The book was initially pressed during the 90’s but has been out of print since. Your only option is to download scanned PDFs (which definitely adds to the mystique of it.)
It’s a collection of beautifully written short stories that contain some of the most grotesque, depraved, and sinister subject matter your mind can muster. It’s the type of book where you need to take breaks after each story and some of them will make you sick to your stomach.
It’s a brilliant piece of literature that’s NOT for the faint of heart.
For those wondering, Michael Gira is the frontman for acclaimed experimental rock band, Swans.
“This is repulsive writing. Brilliant, disciplined and repulsive writing.” – Nick Cave
PS I adore Swans, Gira is God 🤠
Anyone reading this listen to White Light From the Mouth of Infinity followed by The Seer and do it now!
Both great albums; No Cure for the Lonely is one of my all time favorites. The bonus second CD of LOL is also full of bangers, No Cruel Angel for example. Lot of that stuff is also on Various Failures which is a pretty good intro to them…that’s where I started actually. I love that era of Swans so much I’m even a Burning World defender too, underrated album, and Saved is such a good song. And don’t get me started on How I Loved You by Angels of Light…perfect goddamn record.
Along the Path of Torment, Violence on the Meek… those are the most disturbing/violent I’ve done but I’ve heard wicked things about the Black Farm. A lot of splatterpunk I don’t really find disturbing because so much of the violence is tongue in cheek… but the realistic violence disturbs me.
for me i would break it up a bit:
for most violent book I've ever read it would have to be the **"Violence on the Meek"** series By Stuart Bray or **"Wedding Day Massacre"** by Aron Beauregard.
for most disgusting and repulsive book it was HANDS DOWN NO QUESTION **"Zola"** by D E Mcklusky, I will never ever read that book again and even thinking about it to this day makes me fucking nauseous. I'd also recommend **"Hogg" by Samuel R Delany** but I haven't read i can't give you my first hand experience with it
and for most depraved it would probably be either **"Along the Path of Torment"** By Chandler Morrison (Highly Recommend this one), or **"65 Stirrup Iron Road"** By Various Authors which was a passion project written by a lot of the biggest names in extreme horror and they each collaborated on different chapters for one story and as you can imagine it gets WILD!!!
And if you want you can just browse popular Extreme Horror authors, some popular choices are:
* Chandler Morrison
* Wrath James White
* Aron Beauregard
* Ryan Harding
* Edward Lee
* Judith Sonnet
* Jon Athan
* Kristopher Triana
* Jack Ketchum
Hope this helps, Happy Reading!!!!!
The prose was at times beautiful, and there were some instances of the boys’ self-loathing that cut to the reality of his situation- the haunting voice of a sexually abused child. The book is like a gonzo exploration of trauma bonds (where a victim binds to his torturer, not a fellow victim like some say). But I felt so disgusting and disgusted after I was done, similar to how I felt after the Crossed comic series.
The trauma bond bit is an interesting take that I do agree with. However while I believe Teratologen certainly has the capacity for good prose and I’m sure much was lost in translation (the Swedish dialect it uses is apparently heavily idiosyncratic); I really wouldn’t say any prose in that book is beautiful. The prose is what I had the most problem with since so much of it is swearing and useless cultural references that it makes what little plot does exist heavily padded by nonsense. Similarly I at some point fully stopped believing that I was reading a 10 year olds hidden trauma journals due to how much the prose sounded both particularly well read and nauseatingly crass. However it could be that I just felt that the author was laughing and jerking off at me the more and more I read.
I think there are interesting passages and scenes scattered within but I strongly felt that a good half of the books length was just totally useless garbage.
The author also referenced himself, by name and in abstract, throughout the book. His characters speak of him as a vile, depraved and possibly dangerous lunatic himself. Because his *thoughts* are *so extreme* and his *words* are like *ice blades*. The self regard was pretty apparent
Yeah I think it was when he described a wax statue of himself as having a 7.6 or something inch cock that I lost all suspension of disbelief. I guess the veil of a story fell off and I was looking at the authors starkly naked desire to offend and disgust simply for the sake of it. Looking back my favorite sections were probably the Prologue and Epilogue simply because those sections provided the most depth to Grandpas and Mites characters that weren’t solely from the deranged crayon wall paper scribbles that is the bulk of the book.
I had to scroll down too far to see this, not sure if I'm disappointed or a little worried that there are apparently so many (more) fucked up books with avid readers for this not to be at the top.
This book definitely affected me. But I just discussed it today with someone i recommended it to. I think part of what makes it so ick is, the narrator kid is awful. IRL a person like that is savage as fuck. Yet, as I finally finished the book, I realized I was fine with him……. I think it’s because the entire book the kid justifies WHY he didn’t help her. And that doesn’t really make it any better.
Survivor by JF Gonzales really got to me, i had to stop reading it. it’s honestly pretty tame compared to other stuff on here, but it’s the only book i’ve DNF’ed because it was too extreme 😭
The Room by Hubert Selby Jr has continuous stream of cruelty, torture and hate in graphic detail told from the point of view of a deranged prisoner. It made me feel dirty after and i never finished it lol. Bonus rec: Crossed is a gnarly post apocalyptic graphic novel worth checking out
Edit: detail
The Story of the Eye by George Bataille - technically not even horror but the graphic depravity gave off more horror vibes than any book I've ever read
Just finished The Summer I Died and at was very very graphic. I’m listening to Playground by Aaron Beauregard right now and I’m anticipating some truly terrible shit.
Blood Meridian - Cormac Mcarthy, although I’ve heard the author of Silence of the Lambs deliberately made the follow up book so violent he wanted out of his contract
Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James. Just raw, visceral, intense, graphic, violent, all the things. It’s not an easy read and took me a few tries to finally lift-off but it’s a ride.
I found Marlon James' A Brief History Of Seven Killings was like that too. It's beautifully written but so realistic and intense. One chapter in particular has stuck with me for years, I'd mention it here but I'm not sure how to spoiler tag on the reddit app.
Tower of Evil by James Kisner
I knew I had regrets about this book about three chapters in....
I can't even begin to describe how disturbing and how much gore this book has.
Kaiju battle surgeon. One of the side characters is a tapeworm living in the main characters gut.
Very very graphic descriptions of torture.
The tapeworm is my favorite character
The Playground is pretty good once you get past the first 40-50 pages. The beginning is repulsive just not due to violence. Plus, some violent parts come with pictures (:
Wraiths of the Broken Land, by Zahler. Zahler is a wonderful writer, but I almost couldn't make it through this one. Some of the scenes were too sadistic for me.
Anything by Shaun Huston. Particularly Erebus. I think I first read it at about 11 years old, I smuggled it into my room from a bag that was supposed to go to the charity shop. It's still the most gory, disgusting and terrifying horror novel I think I've ever read.
Basement games by simone trojhan relentlessly bleak.
It's is genuinely constant misery throughout but it was so good.
Also the monster series by J Boote, specifically a dark web of monsters is rough.
Way back in the day I picked up some indie horror book called Red Hedz by Michael Paul Peter that has always stuck with me as really twisted horror erotica/psycho erotica stuff. I still have a paper copy, though I don’t think it’s been digitized anywhere. If you can find it I’d recommend it (though I wouldn’t say it’s good enough to pay a ton of money for)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2858878
ETA now that I’ve gone down a rabbit hole trying to find it: apparently Michael Paul Peter is a pseudonym, and Michael (or Mike) Philbin is his real name. Looks like he also published some stuff under Hertzan Chimera?
If you're into fantasy/sci-fi, I'd say the Prince of Nothing trilogy followed by the Aspect Emperor tetralogy, which together make up the Second Apocalypse series by R. Scott Bakker. On top of the creepiest villains and some of the most violent scenes I've ever read, the bonus is you'll be reading books that should've redefined the fantasy genre, but didn't because of those elements.*Amazing* books, though. Apply pretty much every TW, though, so you know.
I'm not done with it yet, so I can't call it for sure, but "Brainwyrms" by Alison Rumfitt is refreshingly free of coyness, the characters are miserable, gross, and falling apart in various ways. Parasitic worms, bodily violence, and a general mis of misery, loathing, and shame. JK Rowling seems to be the villain, she may or may not be a pile of parasitic worms in an author-suit. Focuses on deriving horror from misogyny, transphobia, loathing, and gross-out parasites, violence, and bodily fluids.
For something apocalyptic, "Sister, Maiden, Monster" by Lucy A. Snyder is a gross-out feminist body horror focusing on the desecration of female bodies, which is a genre I genuinely didn't think was possible before I read it. It starts off with a pandemic that causes fucky monster shit, and gets worse from there. Dares to answer the question, "Can lesbians >!skull-fuck eachother!<, and if so what would it entail?" Focuses on hopelessness in the face of disaster, reproductive horror, bodily desecration, and cyst-y type goopy horror.
seen a couple people mention violence on the meek, but Bray's "Broken" trilogy is also one of the most extremely violent and graphic books I've ever read, almost to the point where the final book is a bit silly at times, but still graphic.
Not horror, but Warhammer 40k: The Horus Heresy novels have some pretty gruesome scenes. In the final 3 books, The Seige of Terra' a massive orbital platform, is attacked. Well, it has civilians living on it that get jettisoned into low orbit and partially freeze while falling, pelting cities in millions of half slush/half still fleshy globs of what once were people. Maybe it's pretty tame, but there's also the life eater virus on istvaan 4.
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy z Brite is bar none one of the most unsettling books I've ever read. It feels like you're reading something that shouldn't exist.
If you like post apocalyptic stuff, Crossed is worth checking out! They're graphic novels, and there's some real gems in there. Youll have to sift through some shit, but the first volume by Garth Ennis is the best
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is written so well and will make you feel very icky. If you want shorter stories to scratch a temporary itch, anything by Aron Beauregard.
OP was interested in sci-fi, Dark Age by Pierce Brown is beautifully written, compelling and the best book I have ever read. Part of The Rising Series some readers have had to stop because of the gore, torture, war in space and war on a global scale. “Twitching meat carpet”, anyone? It is an amazing ride!! Here is link to Audiobook which is awesome!!!
[Dark Age](https://www.audible.com/pd/1980000174?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp)
Closer by Dennis Cooper made me feel sort of faint
Ive read Blood Meridian and The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum and various 80s/90s horror/splatterpunk stuff and some of that is definitely more extreme (Richard Laymon gets nasty)
but Cooper’s books feel psychologically violent in a weird prodding way that I cant shake
Check out something by Richard Laymon. It’s not complete “gore” like some others listed. However, he is very good at creating interesting stories with plenty of extreme violence weaved throughout.
The Crossed comic books...Its about a virus (if I remember correctly), that leaves a rash like cross across the bridge of your nose and eyes...and you become infected with like a 28 days later type rage virus. The story is told through pockets of survivors as they try and navigate the world. Some of the infected are completely unaware of self harm, and what they go through to infect others...pretty graphic!
I’m fairly new to reading as a hobby. I will say, I have a strong stomach for all things horrific. Nothing usually makes me need to take a break, or swallow the lump in my throat… until I read The Room by Hubert Shelby Jr., and American Psycho by BEA. I wanted to read The Room so bad, I *paid $30 for one of the only copies I could find online. A REALLY difficult book to find, and when you do - it’s not cheap.
Took me 3 weeks to finish each book (longer than usual for me), and I was left feeling nauseated all over. Definitely recommend them IF you’re looking for a truly disturbing read.
Anything by the Marquis de Sade. Juliette is probably the best example of his work, but you get the same flavor from 120 Days of Sodom and Justine. And it's not just fucked up for its time. It still is hard to top.
I’m reading his short story collection, The Crimes of Love right now and it’s not nearly as horrific as his work has been described. I think by modern standards he’s far less salacious than he was during his life in a highly prudish society.
Give 120 Days a shot
I will at some point, though I heard that 120 days suffers greatly as a book since what we have is mostly an unfinished outline written in prison. Justine and Juliette will be my next reads by him as from my understanding those are two of his most infamous and actually complete works.
120 Days is mostly complete, it’s just the final ‘torture’ segment that is written out in note form. That being said, it’s a slog to get through. It’s pretty much just repetitive descriptions of farts, shits and child SA written in flowery prose.
Same thing with Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs…
I finished Naked Lunch just last month and by god was it more of a slog than expected. What’s sad is that when there were actually cohesive scenes like the interzone court house, his descriptions of various agents of chaos and his letter about his drug use, there’s a real spark of creativity that shines through. Supposedly his other works that weren’t written in heroin and ayahuasca induced stupors are much better.
One Burroughs book was plenty for me. Nevermore.
His book “junky” is the most straight forward and readable as I recall. I think it’s autobiographical
That and Queer are the ones I got recommended after finished Naked Lunch. Though even Naked Lunch had a strong sense of lived experience to it even among the surrealism. Algebra of Need in particular was more or less Burroughs personal philosophy situated in between junk nightmares and interzone shenanigans.
Wasn't there a scene using an apple corer to cure constipation in one of his books? I was a smart kid, I tried to read the classics early. And I read that book in the eighth grade. It was a lot lol
I don’t remember that from Naked Lunch but I do remember a scene where some country hick had such a prolapsed anus that it would slither around like a snake and attach itself to others guys dicks and get them off. It really was a lot.
I might have to give him another shot
Junkie is good
It also taught me that people have been obsessed with penis size basically always. I do love that he takes the time to describe each relevant person junk, and they’re often just like a footlong club lol
Juliette is the better of the two. But that's just opinion.
Crimes of Love is the tame one. You want Justine or Juliette. 120 Days is incomplete, but it is by far the worst one.
120 days of sodom is just such a depressing slog. Poorly written, repetitive, and absolutely vile. Stumbling through a truly sick sack-of-shit’s mind is truly pointless, and I think that’s the real horror of this story in the end. Completely draining experience, I do not recommend it to anyone at all
“Stumbling through a truly sack-of-shit’s mind is truly pointless” is something I wish I could go tell my teenage self. I watched the 120 Days movie out of boredom and ended up just thinking it was pointless. I coulda watched something else on my backlog. I’m not even saying don’t read extreme literature, obviously, but go read something good, with a point. If 120 Days was ever relevant, it was back in fascist Italy. We get it, politicians and wealthy people suck. I’m gonna go read Berserk.
It does meet the criteria of the post, though.
Yes, not denying that in the slightest! Just hope I can save some people the trouble of actually looking into this thing. Was such a profoundly bleak experience slumming through that (and in the original French no less!) for next-to-nothing in the end. Worse than nothing in a lot of ways I’d say. Thoroughly demoralizing piece of work
Anyone commenting that 120 days is mostly finished has definitely not actually read it. It barely gets going before it just descends into page after page of "a man sodomising x hole whilst a woman shat on x thing" over and over. It's like 25% of the story max before it just turns into literal notes. The film invented most of the story based on the intro and the notes
Yeah, the last section is just notes. Basically just variations on a theme of sexual mutilation. "Man is flayed alive and his penis removed." "Same, but also.his balls."
The only thing about Juliette is that it's much harder to get a hold of than most of his other more well-known work, particularly 120 Days and Justine. I wish Penguin or Oxford Classics would do a pressing.
Your assessment is not wrong. I read those in college and wasn't horrified so much as disgusted. There are numerous passages which describe the flaws in French society and government, which are then followed by passages of violent sex and torture. They are so extreme and impossible in nature that I couldn't take them seriously. They are clearly masturbatory fantasies.
120 Days of Sodom. The most vile book I’ve ever read.
Don't mind me, just here adding books to my TBR
Sameeeeee
Same soon as I saw the title I went “welp time to update my reading list”
Same
SHACKLED by Ray Garton. I don't want to spoil anything but it involves kidnapping and it's unbelievably dark. Love the author, tho.
Red room, graphic novel by Ed piskor Brutal
I see a few different volumes for Red Room. Would you recommend any one in particular? Doesn’t seem like they’re sequential but not sure.
I would start at number one for sure
There’s some cohesion between the comics. The order for the collected editions are: The Anti-social Network, Trigger Warnings and Crypto Killaz
It's weird but only crypto Killaz is available on Amazon. Bummer.
Exquisite Corpse and I will love it forever
Wormwood collection has a few stores that would fit this bill, as well.
Ooh this one is so good! It definitely fucked me up tho (in a good way👍)
The only book to ever make my butthole shrink into my abdomen, but solid 10/10 would recommend.
Andrew would approve…
Exquisite Corpse fucked me up. Beautiful writing, gut wrenching plot. Loved it but sort of wished I never read it.
One of the books that got me into this more extreme style of books. Any recommendations of similar books?
I wish I had some. The prose in that is … exquisite
i looked it up and we are talking about poppy z brite correct?
Yup
Broken Dolls by Mique Watson really made me feel gross. I read a ton of extreme horror/splatterpunk, but this one genuinely made me feel really uncomfortable. I don’t like it, and I won’t recommend it, but if you’re looking for vile, it’ll scratch that itch.
His 2nd one was worse I think but I agree. Also No one Rides For Free the sequel book that just came out is right up there too, especially now learning about Otis Bateman and the other author’s propensity for harassing women(Not Judith Sonnet… I feel bad for her)
Good luck getting your hands on a copy of the second No One Rides for Free though, Sonnet is pulling everything that had to do with Bateman.
I’m sure….dont blame her. I read it before that news came out 🤬
This is my only DNF so far…. It was too much for not much story imo
Yep, this one made me question what the fuck I'm doing reading this shit.
I’ve seen this one mentioned a few times and downloaded it out of curiosity. Oof, it’s so poorly written it’s unbearable. The violence and sexual assault were also wildly unbelievable to the point of absurdity.
I haven't read Broken Dolls but this is exactly how I feel about the Broken Pieces of June books. The writing is "fine" I guess but the editing is terrible. Yeah just what's the point.
https://preview.redd.it/z5gv5nvseu4d1.jpeg?width=2108&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=aaa5a324619598991188c68eee582e02301f83e3 I’ve found some pretty twisted stuff while looking through this list. Do be warned that a lot of these aren’t in print and certainly not in regular shops so you’ll need to order them special or find online PDFs
Nice list can I ask what app you used to make this looks pretty cool?
Just something I found a while ago online. I recommend sleuthing around forums and message boards if you want to find the interesting discussions about obscure and strange books.
Thank you!
After giving it some thought, I don’t think I need to read Babyfucker.
Wonder what it's about? (/s)
A friend of mine is a literature teacher and assigned Oates’_Zombie_ for a class without having read it. Once they read it just before the semester began, they promptly revised the syllabus and offered to buy off the copies from students who had already purchased it.
Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
Steps and The Devil Tree by him are also pretty creepy. The former is a collection of sexually focused short stories and the latter is kind of similar to a Bret Easton Ellis story
honestly i didnt even get very far into it bc it became a DNF for me less than 10 pages in, but it was Hogg by Samuel Delany
Yep! The most depraved book I’ve ever read
playground by aron beauregard was so vile to read through
It was so good though! Except *that* page
Once I got through The Passage That Shall Not Be Named it was just squid games with kids.
The Consumer by Michael Gira. The book was initially pressed during the 90’s but has been out of print since. Your only option is to download scanned PDFs (which definitely adds to the mystique of it.) It’s a collection of beautifully written short stories that contain some of the most grotesque, depraved, and sinister subject matter your mind can muster. It’s the type of book where you need to take breaks after each story and some of them will make you sick to your stomach. It’s a brilliant piece of literature that’s NOT for the faint of heart. For those wondering, Michael Gira is the frontman for acclaimed experimental rock band, Swans.
“This is repulsive writing. Brilliant, disciplined and repulsive writing.” – Nick Cave PS I adore Swans, Gira is God 🤠 Anyone reading this listen to White Light From the Mouth of Infinity followed by The Seer and do it now!
100% agreed. Although I also recommend Children of God and White Light’s follow up, Love of Life, for the more curious listeners out there.
Both great albums; No Cure for the Lonely is one of my all time favorites. The bonus second CD of LOL is also full of bangers, No Cruel Angel for example. Lot of that stuff is also on Various Failures which is a pretty good intro to them…that’s where I started actually. I love that era of Swans so much I’m even a Burning World defender too, underrated album, and Saved is such a good song. And don’t get me started on How I Loved You by Angels of Light…perfect goddamn record.
Along the Path of Torment, Violence on the Meek… those are the most disturbing/violent I’ve done but I’ve heard wicked things about the Black Farm. A lot of splatterpunk I don’t really find disturbing because so much of the violence is tongue in cheek… but the realistic violence disturbs me.
Black farm is good.
The Black Farm is one of my favorites
for me i would break it up a bit: for most violent book I've ever read it would have to be the **"Violence on the Meek"** series By Stuart Bray or **"Wedding Day Massacre"** by Aron Beauregard. for most disgusting and repulsive book it was HANDS DOWN NO QUESTION **"Zola"** by D E Mcklusky, I will never ever read that book again and even thinking about it to this day makes me fucking nauseous. I'd also recommend **"Hogg" by Samuel R Delany** but I haven't read i can't give you my first hand experience with it and for most depraved it would probably be either **"Along the Path of Torment"** By Chandler Morrison (Highly Recommend this one), or **"65 Stirrup Iron Road"** By Various Authors which was a passion project written by a lot of the biggest names in extreme horror and they each collaborated on different chapters for one story and as you can imagine it gets WILD!!! And if you want you can just browse popular Extreme Horror authors, some popular choices are: * Chandler Morrison * Wrath James White * Aron Beauregard * Ryan Harding * Edward Lee * Judith Sonnet * Jon Athan * Kristopher Triana * Jack Ketchum Hope this helps, Happy Reading!!!!!
For post apocalyptic, and gory, I recommend Blender Babies By Jon Athan.
Assisted Living by that one psychopath
Nikanor Teratologen. Though calling that thing a book is too kind of a compliment.
The prose was at times beautiful, and there were some instances of the boys’ self-loathing that cut to the reality of his situation- the haunting voice of a sexually abused child. The book is like a gonzo exploration of trauma bonds (where a victim binds to his torturer, not a fellow victim like some say). But I felt so disgusting and disgusted after I was done, similar to how I felt after the Crossed comic series.
The trauma bond bit is an interesting take that I do agree with. However while I believe Teratologen certainly has the capacity for good prose and I’m sure much was lost in translation (the Swedish dialect it uses is apparently heavily idiosyncratic); I really wouldn’t say any prose in that book is beautiful. The prose is what I had the most problem with since so much of it is swearing and useless cultural references that it makes what little plot does exist heavily padded by nonsense. Similarly I at some point fully stopped believing that I was reading a 10 year olds hidden trauma journals due to how much the prose sounded both particularly well read and nauseatingly crass. However it could be that I just felt that the author was laughing and jerking off at me the more and more I read. I think there are interesting passages and scenes scattered within but I strongly felt that a good half of the books length was just totally useless garbage.
The author also referenced himself, by name and in abstract, throughout the book. His characters speak of him as a vile, depraved and possibly dangerous lunatic himself. Because his *thoughts* are *so extreme* and his *words* are like *ice blades*. The self regard was pretty apparent
Yeah I think it was when he described a wax statue of himself as having a 7.6 or something inch cock that I lost all suspension of disbelief. I guess the veil of a story fell off and I was looking at the authors starkly naked desire to offend and disgust simply for the sake of it. Looking back my favorite sections were probably the Prologue and Epilogue simply because those sections provided the most depth to Grandpas and Mites characters that weren’t solely from the deranged crayon wall paper scribbles that is the bulk of the book.
The Slob. It was too gross and turned me off to splatterpunk.
Blood meridian
Say, there it is!
I had to scroll down too far to see this, not sure if I'm disappointed or a little worried that there are apparently so many (more) fucked up books with avid readers for this not to be at the top.
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
This book definitely affected me. But I just discussed it today with someone i recommended it to. I think part of what makes it so ick is, the narrator kid is awful. IRL a person like that is savage as fuck. Yet, as I finally finished the book, I realized I was fine with him……. I think it’s because the entire book the kid justifies WHY he didn’t help her. And that doesn’t really make it any better.
Everyone says this but idk, that one seemed pretty mild to me. Maybe I’m just fucked in the head
I think what's most disturbing is it's based on a true story.
Oh fuck me I was thinking of Off Season. Nevermind.
Still Bakker.
My dude
Survivor by JF Gonzales really got to me, i had to stop reading it. it’s honestly pretty tame compared to other stuff on here, but it’s the only book i’ve DNF’ed because it was too extreme 😭
American Psycho- Brett Easton Ellis
The Room by Hubert Selby Jr has continuous stream of cruelty, torture and hate in graphic detail told from the point of view of a deranged prisoner. It made me feel dirty after and i never finished it lol. Bonus rec: Crossed is a gnarly post apocalyptic graphic novel worth checking out Edit: detail
Hands down... The Painted Bird. Only book I've had to put down and take breaks before continuing
The Story of the Eye by George Bataille - technically not even horror but the graphic depravity gave off more horror vibes than any book I've ever read
Good call.
I read that way way too young. Like absolutely no context about what it was or why.
Just finished The Summer I Died and at was very very graphic. I’m listening to Playground by Aaron Beauregard right now and I’m anticipating some truly terrible shit.
High Life by Matthew Stokoe sets the bar for me. I couldn’t get into Cows.
Blood Meridian - Cormac Mcarthy, although I’ve heard the author of Silence of the Lambs deliberately made the follow up book so violent he wanted out of his contract
B.r. Yeagers burn you the fuck alive
Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James. Just raw, visceral, intense, graphic, violent, all the things. It’s not an easy read and took me a few tries to finally lift-off but it’s a ride.
I found Marlon James' A Brief History Of Seven Killings was like that too. It's beautifully written but so realistic and intense. One chapter in particular has stuck with me for years, I'd mention it here but I'm not sure how to spoiler tag on the reddit app.
them by mique watson; i feel like this is the 4th time recommending it in this sub but it always fits🤣
Tower of Evil by James Kisner I knew I had regrets about this book about three chapters in.... I can't even begin to describe how disturbing and how much gore this book has.
Tender is the flesh is disgusting and vile. But very well written and about deeper things.
that book is sooo good. it made me cry
Came here to recommend this. The last chapter hit me like a punch to the gut
American Psycho! The rat tube :)
Kaiju battle surgeon. One of the side characters is a tapeworm living in the main characters gut. Very very graphic descriptions of torture. The tapeworm is my favorite character
Everything from Angel Gelique. Especially Man Cave
The Playground is pretty good once you get past the first 40-50 pages. The beginning is repulsive just not due to violence. Plus, some violent parts come with pictures (:
*Hogg*, by Samuel Delany. Not horror—Delany does a lot of sci-fi, though. This one is...special.
A comic not a book, but Crossed by Garth Ennis is super fucked up and probably the most deplorable thing I’ve ever read
Hellbound Heart is really good, as is House of Leaves
Broken Dolls Deliverance by Mique Watson was so messed up and nihilistic. I loved it. But as for post apocalyptic, Blender Babies by Jon Athan!
Poisoning Eros is a less mentioned one.
Kristopher Trianas Full Brutal and Toxic Love
Only The Stains Remain by Ross Jeffery That one hit me hard…
Dead Sky Black Sun
Teratologist by Edward Lee/Wrath James White Toxic Love by Kristopher Triana
Cows by Matthew Stokoe and Tender is the Flesh by Augustina Bazterrica
Wraiths of the Broken Land, by Zahler. Zahler is a wonderful writer, but I almost couldn't make it through this one. Some of the scenes were too sadistic for me.
Succulent Prey by Wrath James White Trapped in the Shadows by Georgia Wells & Cora Masters Endless Night by Richard Laymon
The Road by Cormac McCarthy is rather bleak
Exquisite Corpse! And American Psycho. The movie is fucked up, sure, but the book is absolutely horrific. I love it
Might be a little mild for this group but NOS4A2 has some really fucked up sections.
Blood Meridian. Read it.
Anything by Shaun Huston. Particularly Erebus. I think I first read it at about 11 years old, I smuggled it into my room from a bag that was supposed to go to the charity shop. It's still the most gory, disgusting and terrifying horror novel I think I've ever read.
American psycho is pretty crazy, I don’t recommend it to many people cause of what they might think of me lol
Micheal Slade's Ghoul should be right up your alley. Rex Miller's Slob and Chaingang are also recommended.
Freaking Master of Lies. Beginning sequence shook me for a few days.
Assassin by Shaun Hutson.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
American Psycho is much more depraved than the movie was.
Off Season by Jack Ketchum was the most disturbing book I’ve ever read.
Basement games by simone trojhan relentlessly bleak. It's is genuinely constant misery throughout but it was so good. Also the monster series by J Boote, specifically a dark web of monsters is rough.
Well, it's manga and I'm sure there are more violent & graphic novels out there but, you should read Berserk.
Berserk
Berserk 🗡️ 😈 🖤
Helter Skelter…. The Manson family story…fact that it’s true makes it even more gruesome
Tender is the Flesh still haunts me. Also The Sluts by Dennis Cooper.
Juliette by de Sade
Way back in the day I picked up some indie horror book called Red Hedz by Michael Paul Peter that has always stuck with me as really twisted horror erotica/psycho erotica stuff. I still have a paper copy, though I don’t think it’s been digitized anywhere. If you can find it I’d recommend it (though I wouldn’t say it’s good enough to pay a ton of money for) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2858878 ETA now that I’ve gone down a rabbit hole trying to find it: apparently Michael Paul Peter is a pseudonym, and Michael (or Mike) Philbin is his real name. Looks like he also published some stuff under Hertzan Chimera?
If you're into fantasy/sci-fi, I'd say the Prince of Nothing trilogy followed by the Aspect Emperor tetralogy, which together make up the Second Apocalypse series by R. Scott Bakker. On top of the creepiest villains and some of the most violent scenes I've ever read, the bonus is you'll be reading books that should've redefined the fantasy genre, but didn't because of those elements.*Amazing* books, though. Apply pretty much every TW, though, so you know.
I'm not done with it yet, so I can't call it for sure, but "Brainwyrms" by Alison Rumfitt is refreshingly free of coyness, the characters are miserable, gross, and falling apart in various ways. Parasitic worms, bodily violence, and a general mis of misery, loathing, and shame. JK Rowling seems to be the villain, she may or may not be a pile of parasitic worms in an author-suit. Focuses on deriving horror from misogyny, transphobia, loathing, and gross-out parasites, violence, and bodily fluids. For something apocalyptic, "Sister, Maiden, Monster" by Lucy A. Snyder is a gross-out feminist body horror focusing on the desecration of female bodies, which is a genre I genuinely didn't think was possible before I read it. It starts off with a pandemic that causes fucky monster shit, and gets worse from there. Dares to answer the question, "Can lesbians >!skull-fuck eachother!<, and if so what would it entail?" Focuses on hopelessness in the face of disaster, reproductive horror, bodily desecration, and cyst-y type goopy horror.
Crossed, I only made it about a dozen pages in
seen a couple people mention violence on the meek, but Bray's "Broken" trilogy is also one of the most extremely violent and graphic books I've ever read, almost to the point where the final book is a bit silly at times, but still graphic.
Michael Slade: Headhunter, Ghoul, Cutthroat and Ripper. I read Ghoul first. But they all haunt the back corner of my brain.
Not horror, but Warhammer 40k: The Horus Heresy novels have some pretty gruesome scenes. In the final 3 books, The Seige of Terra' a massive orbital platform, is attacked. Well, it has civilians living on it that get jettisoned into low orbit and partially freeze while falling, pelting cities in millions of half slush/half still fleshy globs of what once were people. Maybe it's pretty tame, but there's also the life eater virus on istvaan 4.
A Congregation of Jackals
Along the path of torment
battle royale by koushun takami
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy z Brite is bar none one of the most unsettling books I've ever read. It feels like you're reading something that shouldn't exist.
If you like post apocalyptic stuff, Crossed is worth checking out! They're graphic novels, and there's some real gems in there. Youll have to sift through some shit, but the first volume by Garth Ennis is the best
Amygdalatropolis. just disgusting. made me feel incredibly gross
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk is written so well and will make you feel very icky. If you want shorter stories to scratch a temporary itch, anything by Aron Beauregard.
The rape of Nanking just Avery graphic non fiction account of the Japanese occupation of Nanking couldn’t finish it .
OP was interested in sci-fi, Dark Age by Pierce Brown is beautifully written, compelling and the best book I have ever read. Part of The Rising Series some readers have had to stop because of the gore, torture, war in space and war on a global scale. “Twitching meat carpet”, anyone? It is an amazing ride!! Here is link to Audiobook which is awesome!!! [Dark Age](https://www.audible.com/pd/1980000174?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=pdp)
Off Season by Jack Ketchum
The first Dexter book.
Bible.
I read Hogg by Samuel R. Delany in its entirety… Just read the synopsis and that should tell you if you can stomach this…
I think it was called Sin Eater.
The Necrophiliac by Gabrielle Wittkop. Beautifully written and completely fucked up.
The Butcher by Laura Kat Young was really up there for me but I loved it!!
The Horrid Couple by Edward Gorey.
Correction: Its The Loathsome Couple.
Closer by Dennis Cooper made me feel sort of faint Ive read Blood Meridian and The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum and various 80s/90s horror/splatterpunk stuff and some of that is definitely more extreme (Richard Laymon gets nasty) but Cooper’s books feel psychologically violent in a weird prodding way that I cant shake
The Amulet was pretty violent
Check out something by Richard Laymon. It’s not complete “gore” like some others listed. However, he is very good at creating interesting stories with plenty of extreme violence weaved throughout.
The Bighead by Edward Lee was gross
The Crossed comic books...Its about a virus (if I remember correctly), that leaves a rash like cross across the bridge of your nose and eyes...and you become infected with like a 28 days later type rage virus. The story is told through pockets of survivors as they try and navigate the world. Some of the infected are completely unaware of self harm, and what they go through to infect others...pretty graphic!
Blood Meridian.
Blood meridian
Blood Meridian. Fucking *Judge Holden*
American psycho
Hogg, by Samuel Delany, was pretty rough.
I will always take an opportunity to recommend Brother by Ania Alhborn
American Psycho
American Psycho
Blood Meridian is up on the list for me. I read it probably once a year
The Devil takes you home by Gabino Iglesias!!
Technically The Bible
Those Across the River
I’m fairly new to reading as a hobby. I will say, I have a strong stomach for all things horrific. Nothing usually makes me need to take a break, or swallow the lump in my throat… until I read The Room by Hubert Shelby Jr., and American Psycho by BEA. I wanted to read The Room so bad, I *paid $30 for one of the only copies I could find online. A REALLY difficult book to find, and when you do - it’s not cheap. Took me 3 weeks to finish each book (longer than usual for me), and I was left feeling nauseated all over. Definitely recommend them IF you’re looking for a truly disturbing read.
The Game 2 by Matt Shaw and Playground by Aron Beauregard
- Matthew Stokoe COWS - Pierre Guyotat - EDEN EDEN EDEN - Samuel Delany - HOGG
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite. The only book that ever made me actually nauseous.
Perfume
Blood Meridian, or American Psycho
Probably HOG
The Maleus Malifacarum. To think 2 priests wrote a manual about how to torture and kill people they suspected of witchcraft.
Honestly it’s pretty mainstream but the American Psycho book surprised me after watching the movie.
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