20 Even Stranger and More Wonderful Books. The 10 Most Disturbing Books Of All Time. In my younger days if I heard a book or movie was disturbing or hard to handle I generally took that as a challenge.
Most books generally turned out to not be too bad, but occasionally I’d come across something that would leave me with a sick feeling in my stomach for weeks. I’ve largely outgrown this “genre” of late, but here are my picks for the ten most disturbing books of all time. Any one of these books is capable of leaving you feeling a little depressed at the least, and permanently scarred at the worst. I’d say enjoy, but that doesn’t really seem appropriate … 10.
Blindness is a book with a truly horrifying scenario at it’s heart: what if everyone in the world were to lose their sight to disease in a short period of time? 9. Anti drug crusaders should stop airing goofy commercials that nobody takes seriously and start pushing to have Requiem For A Dream made required reading for every high schooler in the country. 10 Novels That Will Disturb Even the Coldest of Hearts. [Editor's note: While your Flavorwire editors take a much-needed holiday break, we're revisiting some of our most popular features of the year.
This post was originally published May 18, 2011.] Jezebel-writer Anna North’s debut novel, America Pacifica, is out today. The story centers around an impoverished teenage girl who is struggling to survive on an increasingly toxic island in the Pacific Ocean after a future Ice Age sets in and freezes the mainland. Though the writing can be a little clunky — especially with respect to class issues — North provides good lens into the many ways an aggrieved soul can turn against the world, and how difficult it is to get back our dignity once we’ve lost it.
With this in mind, we decided to run a post on books that expose the darker side of humanity — a roundup of the most disturbing novels and short stories through time, if you will. Books that will induce a mindfuck. Here is the list of books that will officially induce mindfucks, sorted alphabetically by author.
Those authors in bold have been recommended by one or more people as being generally mindfucking - any books listed under their names are particularly odd. You're welcome to /msg me to make an addition to this list. And finally, although he's way down at the bottom, my personal recommendation is definitely Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, as it turns the ultimate mindfuck: inverting the world-view of our entire culture, and it is non-fiction. 10 Novels That Are Scarier Than Most Horror Movies. The 50 Scariest Books of All Time. The air is getting crisper, the nights are getting longer, and All Hallow’s Eve draws near.
You know what that means: it’s time to curl up with a book guaranteed to give you the shivers — or at least make you check the locks twice. Here, for your horrifying pleasure, are 50 of the scariest books ever written in the English language, whether horror, nonfiction, or speculative futures you never want to see. One caveat: the list is limited to one book per author, so Stephen King fans will have to expand their horizons a little bit. Check out 50 books that will keep you up all night after the jump, and add any other scary favorites to the list in the comments. IT, Stephen King All right, let’s get this out of the way up front: Stephen King is the you-know-what of horror, and if there wasn’t this pesky rule about keeping it to one book per author, this list could almost be wholly populated by his terrifying reads. 16 Best Dystopian Books. Best Dystopian Fiction of All Time (80 books) The 16 Best Dystopian Books Of All Time.
Dystopian novels—stories of the horrific future—are so common as to be almost forgettable.
Here is a compilation of what I believe are the 16 greatest of the genre. I could happily list twice as many that are amazing, but these are the best. From the post-apocalyptic wasteland to deadly viruses to social malaise, all possible bad futures end here. 16. That Hideous Strength by CS Lewis Best known for his Narnia novels, CS Lewis also wrote a trilogy dealing with visiting other planets—well the first two books did. 15. Wow, can you get more polar opposite of CS Lewis than Margaret Atwood?
14. While perhaps not as well known as some, John Christopher (the pen name of Samuel Youd) wrote a fantastic trilogy of young adult novels, set in a far future where the world has reverted to a feudal society after a global ecological disaster. 13. This novel, combined with Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide are all you need to face the inevitable zombie apocalypse. 12. 11. 10. 9. John Cartan - 20 Strange and Wonderful Books. 20.
The Tolkien Reader by J. R. R. Tolkien The works of J.R.R. As I grow older, it's his short stories I particularly value. Tolkien wrote this story to demonstrate his belief that fairy tales are for adults.