The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas. Hardcore splatterpunk. Very, very unsettling.
acerquitella on
victorian psycho
cecidelillo on
If You Tell by Gregg Olsen. I caught myself sometimes criticising the author for exaggerating way too much in some parts, just to remember that it’s based on a true story. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Inevitable_Ad574 on
Night by Wiesel.
Crazy-Strength-7458 on
*S. A novel about the Balkans* by Slavenka Drakulic. It’s disturbing in that it affects you very deeply from how realistic the novel is.
Successful-Try-8506 on
The Rapist by Les Edgerton
Far-Molasses2974 on
Geek Love
OkapiAlloy on
_A Scanner Darkly_ comes to mind, for its utterly harrowing and deeply real depiction of drug addiction. More effective than any PSA, and largely informed by the author’s own experiences.
At 100 pages, though, you’re probably looking for a short story or novella. In those categories, you might try _I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream_ or _The Screwfly Solution._
You might also like _Dangerous Visions._ It’s a collection of sci-fi short stories that were all deemed unpublishable anywhere else — some because they’re so dark, some because they touch on controversial topics, some because they’re just really strange. Not all of them are great, but quite a few are deeply disturbing, and each one is a short read.
MyPartsareLoud on
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Constantlearner01 on
It’s an older true crime book, 1974, but it’s the Hi Fi Murders. Chilling story that is hard to get out of your head.
NotBorn2Fade on
Put down Tiktok and train yourself to read longer books. Unimaginable horrors will be available to you once you get used to stuff longer than a chapter book. With that said, *Those who walk away from Omelas* is heavy stuff.
Suspicious-Floor7934 on
American psycho
improper84 on
It’s not the most disturbing book I’ve read, but at around 100 pages my options are limited so I’ll go with A Short Stay in Hell. It’s more a novel of existential dread, but there are some really disturbing segments as well.
chugopunk on
Tender is the Flesh
Hatherence on
Here are some that I think are most disturbing, but they’re kind of long:
* The Wasp Factory by Iain M. Banks. Having read a lot of other books by this author, and read an interview where the author talked about his goals in writing this, it totally flew over my head.
* A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. A classic, and there’s two versions: one, published in the UK, and one published in the US with the final chapter removed.
* Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder. Contains explicit gore and sex. Feminist Lovecraftian horror.
* The Rifters series by Peter Watts. Available as free ebooks [on the author’s website](https://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm). The third book contains scenes of sexual violence. The rest of the series contains discussion of and occasional depiction of abuse and large-scale disasters.
Here are some that are short but not the *most* disturbing.
* Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler. The [titular short story can be read on the publisher’s website for free](https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625791191/9781625791191___1.htm), but the anthology has a good mix of disturbing and thought-provoking stories in it.
* And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin
* Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
Direct-Tank387 on
Bubblegum by Adam Levin. 800 page darkly “funny” novel about a world where in the internet was never invented. Instead “Curios” were invented, little very cute flesh, bone and blood robots that only want to please people with their little dances. People get orgasmic rushes by smashing/ killing a Curio.
It was hard to read.
kateamandabe on
Hooked 🫣 It was a DNF for me
iluvdilfs22 on
the flowers in the attic series are really good
iiiamash01i0 on
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. It’s not 100 pages, but it’s a bunch of short stories.
bunrakoo on
We Need to Talk about Kevin
Ok_Wing1834 on
I have not read it yet but playground by Aron Beaurugard it has 376ish pages tho but it is so disturbing
Mysterious_Sky_85 on
The Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille. 103 pages.
>”Bataille has been called a ‘metaphysician of evil,’ specializing in blasphemy, profanation, and horror…both disgusting and fascinating, and packed with seemingly endless violations.”
beargirlreads on
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It’s a nonfiction book about hemorrhagic fevers, particularly Ebola and it is absolutely horrifying. HORRIFYING, I tell you.
hypercell57 on
The most disturbing book I ever read was The Last Jew of Treblinka by Chil Rajchman. Was even more disturbing because it’s non-fiction.
Fantastic-Shoe-4996 on
Lolita
okayladyiloveubyebye on
Tara and Ben. DO NOT look it up
Buttheadz25 on
Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account by Dr Miklós Nyiszli.
I think I sat motionless and disturbed staring at the wall for a week after that one. It’s a real account of the Jewish doctors time at the concentration camp, forced to work under Josef Mengele
KickInternational144 on
Intensity – Dean Koontz
hiphoptomato on
Cows
R1chh4rd on
The Dark Forest. It changed the way i look at the stars at night from awe to something scary different
LifeTop6016 on
Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik. That’s where I learned the term “de-gloved”. And also.. prolapsed rectums. It’s a good book though I swear 🙈
Edit: Haunted
voyeurs_view on
Of Mice And Men
Stplz123 on
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy is pretty disturbing and short.
LankySasquatchma on
The seducer’s diary is what I’m reading right now; it’s written by Johannes the Seducer, and edited by Victor Eremita, both of which are pseudonyms of Søren Kierkegaard, the masterful modern existentialist whose moral courage was great, seeing as he published The Seducer’s Diary.
It’s morbid. It’s deep. When you’re confused, you’re doing it right, but don’t worry: it IS understandable, most of all because the psychology of the narrator is so obviously twisted that you’ll *feel* it.
It’s an ultimate manipulation of a young woman, (17yrs), in the 1840’s. It’s hilarious due to its twistedness; yet it’ll make you doubt your own righteousness because it’s so hard to react appropriately to.
Have fun
FirmDingo8 on
Primo Levi…..chilling stuff
mpanag on
Johnnny’s Got His Gun was pretty unsettling
jandj2021 on
Dead inside by Chandler Morrison. Necrophilia and pedophilia mixed. Really lovely imagery
m_nels on
Evil Harvest-nonfiction about a cult in Rulo, NE. Some EXTREMELY disturbing, graphic parts in that book.
xvblue on
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
xmaspruden on
Probably My Dark Vanessa. It was disturbing while still being compelling to read.
Pingu_priest on
Blindness by Jose Saramago is pretty up there on my list
IceTiger19 on
There are some good options mentioned, and I’m in agreement with everyone who says “100 pages is not a book.”
44 Comments
It’s hard to say. Maybe The Rape of Nanking?
The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas. Hardcore splatterpunk. Very, very unsettling.
victorian psycho
If You Tell by Gregg Olsen. I caught myself sometimes criticising the author for exaggerating way too much in some parts, just to remember that it’s based on a true story. Absolutely heartbreaking.
Night by Wiesel.
*S. A novel about the Balkans* by Slavenka Drakulic. It’s disturbing in that it affects you very deeply from how realistic the novel is.
The Rapist by Les Edgerton
Geek Love
_A Scanner Darkly_ comes to mind, for its utterly harrowing and deeply real depiction of drug addiction. More effective than any PSA, and largely informed by the author’s own experiences.
At 100 pages, though, you’re probably looking for a short story or novella. In those categories, you might try _I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream_ or _The Screwfly Solution._
You might also like _Dangerous Visions._ It’s a collection of sci-fi short stories that were all deemed unpublishable anywhere else — some because they’re so dark, some because they touch on controversial topics, some because they’re just really strange. Not all of them are great, but quite a few are deeply disturbing, and each one is a short read.
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
It’s an older true crime book, 1974, but it’s the Hi Fi Murders. Chilling story that is hard to get out of your head.
Put down Tiktok and train yourself to read longer books. Unimaginable horrors will be available to you once you get used to stuff longer than a chapter book. With that said, *Those who walk away from Omelas* is heavy stuff.
American psycho
It’s not the most disturbing book I’ve read, but at around 100 pages my options are limited so I’ll go with A Short Stay in Hell. It’s more a novel of existential dread, but there are some really disturbing segments as well.
Tender is the Flesh
Here are some that I think are most disturbing, but they’re kind of long:
* The Wasp Factory by Iain M. Banks. Having read a lot of other books by this author, and read an interview where the author talked about his goals in writing this, it totally flew over my head.
* A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. A classic, and there’s two versions: one, published in the UK, and one published in the US with the final chapter removed.
* Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin. Contains explicit gore, sex, transphobia, and sexual violence. References the older short story [The Screwfly Solution](https://pseudopod.org/2014/08/22/pseudopod-400-the-screwfly-solution/) by James Tiptree Jr.
* Sister, Maiden, Monster by Lucy A. Snyder. Contains explicit gore and sex. Feminist Lovecraftian horror.
* The Rifters series by Peter Watts. Available as free ebooks [on the author’s website](https://rifters.com/real/shorts.htm). The third book contains scenes of sexual violence. The rest of the series contains discussion of and occasional depiction of abuse and large-scale disasters.
Here are some that are short but not the *most* disturbing.
* Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia E. Butler. The [titular short story can be read on the publisher’s website for free](https://www.baen.com/Chapters/9781625791191/9781625791191___1.htm), but the anthology has a good mix of disturbing and thought-provoking stories in it.
* And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin
* Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente
Bubblegum by Adam Levin. 800 page darkly “funny” novel about a world where in the internet was never invented. Instead “Curios” were invented, little very cute flesh, bone and blood robots that only want to please people with their little dances. People get orgasmic rushes by smashing/ killing a Curio.
It was hard to read.
Hooked 🫣 It was a DNF for me
the flowers in the attic series are really good
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk. It’s not 100 pages, but it’s a bunch of short stories.
We Need to Talk about Kevin
I have not read it yet but playground by Aron Beaurugard it has 376ish pages tho but it is so disturbing
The Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille. 103 pages.
>”Bataille has been called a ‘metaphysician of evil,’ specializing in blasphemy, profanation, and horror…both disgusting and fascinating, and packed with seemingly endless violations.”
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. It’s a nonfiction book about hemorrhagic fevers, particularly Ebola and it is absolutely horrifying. HORRIFYING, I tell you.
The most disturbing book I ever read was The Last Jew of Treblinka by Chil Rajchman. Was even more disturbing because it’s non-fiction.
Lolita
Tara and Ben. DO NOT look it up
Auschwitz: A Doctor’s Eyewitness Account by Dr Miklós Nyiszli.
I think I sat motionless and disturbed staring at the wall for a week after that one. It’s a real account of the Jewish doctors time at the concentration camp, forced to work under Josef Mengele
Intensity – Dean Koontz
Cows
The Dark Forest. It changed the way i look at the stars at night from awe to something scary different
Haunted by Chuck Palahnuik. That’s where I learned the term “de-gloved”. And also.. prolapsed rectums. It’s a good book though I swear 🙈
Edit: Haunted
Of Mice And Men
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy is pretty disturbing and short.
The seducer’s diary is what I’m reading right now; it’s written by Johannes the Seducer, and edited by Victor Eremita, both of which are pseudonyms of Søren Kierkegaard, the masterful modern existentialist whose moral courage was great, seeing as he published The Seducer’s Diary.
It’s morbid. It’s deep. When you’re confused, you’re doing it right, but don’t worry: it IS understandable, most of all because the psychology of the narrator is so obviously twisted that you’ll *feel* it.
It’s an ultimate manipulation of a young woman, (17yrs), in the 1840’s. It’s hilarious due to its twistedness; yet it’ll make you doubt your own righteousness because it’s so hard to react appropriately to.
Have fun
Primo Levi…..chilling stuff
Johnnny’s Got His Gun was pretty unsettling
Dead inside by Chandler Morrison. Necrophilia and pedophilia mixed. Really lovely imagery
Evil Harvest-nonfiction about a cult in Rulo, NE. Some EXTREMELY disturbing, graphic parts in that book.
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things
Probably My Dark Vanessa. It was disturbing while still being compelling to read.
Blindness by Jose Saramago is pretty up there on my list
There are some good options mentioned, and I’m in agreement with everyone who says “100 pages is not a book.”
American Psycho