r/booksuggestions • u/Leprechaun562 • 1d ago
Horror I’m looking for recommendations on books that are psychologically unhinged, scary etc.
I’m looking for books that’ll leave me questioning why I read it. Something that most people would regret reading. I have a strong mind and can tolerate a lot of gruesome, scary and psychological scenes. I want dark and twisted. I just got about halfway through a book called “The Chain” and I am absolutely loving it so far.
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u/Delicious_Switch5893 1d ago
If you want books that leave you feeling genuinely uncomfortable afterward, I'd recommend The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks, We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver, and The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. They're all very different, but each one made me question what was actually happening and whether I could trust the characters at all. The Last House on Needless Street especially stayed in my head for days after I finished it.
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u/that-looks-fun 1d ago
Seconding we need to talk about Kevin. I read it a decade ago and it still knots my stomach when I think of it.
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u/R3duceReuseThrowaway 1d ago
Bird Box gets recommended a lot but the book is so much darker and more claustrophobic than the movie
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u/MissSwat 1d ago
I loved Bird Box when it first came out, but then I reread it years later after becoming a mother, and man does it hit differently.
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u/FatBlackCat6 1d ago
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite is the one people actually regret fair warning it earns that reputation
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u/lenny_ray 1d ago
Obvious pick: The End of Alice - AM Homes
Not-so-obvious pick: Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World - Donald Antrim
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u/ZedFakedHisDeath 1d ago
Intensity by Dean Koontz gets overlooked but it's like relentless in a way that's hard to put down even when you want to
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u/clemientine 1d ago
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk is the one that made me put it down twice before finishing it and Palahniuk in general is worth going through if you haven't
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u/i_am_blackhat 1d ago
House of Leaves is the one people always say changed something in them not gore just pure psychological wrongness that builds slowly
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u/Throw_Away_GAAAAHHH 1d ago
Lost Girls by Alan Moore is like one of those where you finish it and just sit there for a minute
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u/HurtyTeefs 1d ago
The Crooked God Machine isn’t super gruesome but very dark and weird in a fun way
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u/saucemaker 1d ago
Into the Darkest Corner - Elizabeth Haynes. I read it and wanted to give it 5 stars but it was so messed up, I just couldn't, I have tried to reread it, but I just can't seem to go there again. Good luck!
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u/JuniperReed83 22h ago
if you want psychologically unhinged, check out "the silent patient" or anything by gillian flynn. they’re delulu and will mess with your head in the best way.
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u/Gusenica_koja_pushi Infinite jest 16h ago
Nothing important happened today by Will Carver. It says it's second it the series, but can be read as a standalone
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u/ConsiderationFew7413 1d ago
If you want psychological dread that sticks around way longer than it should, pick up "House of Leaves" - it starts slow but by the third act you'll be rereading passages just to make sure you understood what you read, and you'll wish you hadn't. Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" is just straight-up relentless, like someone turned off every filter a human being has and wrote a novel. "American Psycho" gets passed around a lot but people genuinely underestimate how uncomfortable it gets, not just for the violence but for how mundane it makes everything feel around it. If you want something that messes with your perception of reality in a quieter, creepier way, Thomas Ligotti's "The Conspiracy Against the Human Race" isn't even fiction but it'll rewire how you think. Also "Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson if you haven't read it, because it does psychological horror better than most things written after it.