Disturbing books tier list - 77 of the most troubling books ever written ranked!

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Published 2024-07-14
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Books discussed:
120 Days of Sodom by The Marquis De Sade
1974 by David Peace
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts by Charles Birkin
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Birdman by Mo Hayder
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Blood on the Tracks by Shuzo Oshimi
By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy
Come Closer by Sara Gran
Confessions by Kanae Minato
Cows by Matthew Stokoe
Crash by JG Ballard
Dead City by Shane Stevens
Dead Inside by Chandler Morrison
Dearest by Peter Loughran
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z Brite
Firefly by Piers Anthony
Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn
Gone to See the River Man by Kristopher Triana
Haunted by Chuck Pahalaniuk
Hawk Mountain by Conner Habib
Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
Hogg by Samuel Delaney
House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski
I Was Dora Suarez by Derek Raymond
In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke
Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Let's Go Play at the Adams' by Mendal W Johnson
Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
Manhunt by Gretchen Felker Martin
My Absolute Darking by Gabriel Tallent
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
Naked Lunch by William Burroughs
Nocturne by Ed McBain
Notice by Heather Lewis
Only Child by Jack Ketchum
Out by Natsuo Kirino
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Poking Holes by Juan Valencia
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
Sick Bastards by Matt Shaw
Tampa by Alyssa Nutting
Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
The Collector by John Fowles
The End of Alice by AM Homes
The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
The King in Yellow by Robert W Chambers
The Laws of the Skies by Gregoire Courtois
The Melting by Lize Spit
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
The Resurrectionist by Wrath James White
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Room by Hubert Selby Jnr
The Second Suspect by Heather Lewis
The Slob by Aaron Beauregard
The Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille
The Summer I Died by Ryan C Thomas
The Third Beast by Peter Loughran
The Troop by Nick Cutter
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Woom by Duncan Ralston
Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates
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All Comments (21)
  • I also don't get why House of Leaves is considered disturbing. Like, it's weird and really cool but disturbing? IDK.
  • @M-J
    I’m proud that you finally made a tier! Well done, Olly. Saving for later in the week. 😎 - MJ
  • I so appreciate the amount of time and effort that went into compiling this list! And it helps me know which books that interest me may be ones that I can handle, based on the handful on the list that I’ve already read.
  • @PokhrajRoy.
    A Tier List on this channel? Goody goody 👏🏽
  • @JimJimson729
    This is a monumental achievement. Time to clear up my reading schedule for the S tier books
  • @Unpotted
    Brilliant list, and good work. I know you have spent a long time on this project. The rankings will be a helpful guide for those interested in such content. It’s not usually my favorite subject matter, but I found a few titles of interest. Thanks! 😺✌️
  • Such a wonderful and entertaining video! And, it will surely fill many TBR lists!!! Very Well Done!!!
  • @fiberartsyreads
    This was great! Thanks for taking the time for rank all these. Girl Next Door is definitely the most disturbing book I’ve read.
  • @cnsl6140
    This is very appreciated. Keep doing what you do!
  • @eriebeverly
    Way to speed run a tier list of a lot of books. Great mini-reviews
  • @ashbowden
    I absolutely adore the pillow man and have read it at least five times but I never see it anywhere! Great video :)
  • @niriop
    Excellent list Olly, very impressed with your tenacity in this project. If I had to add my own suggestion, I’d recommend The Fungus by Harry Adam Knight (joint pseudonym of John Brosnan and Leo Kettle), which at various points is disgusting enough to be genuinely disturbing, particularly near the beginning.
  • @ErynnWilson
    Hiya. Awesome tier list. My TBR is now bursting with new possibilities. Thnx! Have you read 'Under the Skin' by Michele Faber????
  • @Romvince666
    Excellent list! Some of these books I haven't heard of, so I'm thrilled that my TBR list is growing! <3
  • @Alexandra-ms9jj
    Hogg is admittedly the most vile and disturbing book I've ever read, but it's also become one of my favorite novels. Delany's messaging manages to be really in your face throughout (in my opinion), but it's so easy to miss because he just pulls zero punches in the graphic nature of the entire thing. It's definitely an S tier disturbing novel, that's for sure
  • @Momba_Jules
    Loved the ranking! The only book that I can think of that really disturbed me and stuck with me for a long time, that’s not already on this list, is A Child Called It.
  • @IngaNoniFayJeth
    Ooooh time to take notes! I have so many of these books already on my Kindle, yay! I absolutely adored Confessions! Flowers In the Attic is an interesting submission - I think what makes that one so disturbing is that so many of us read this book when we were probably too young to read it. 😂. I want to say I was maybe 11 or 12 when I started reading VC Andrews? I know everyone is different, but the only book that genuinely haunts me years and years after reading it is We Need To Talk About Kevin. That book kind of ruined me.
  • “The Road” and “Blood Meridian”, both written by Cormac McCarthy. Visceral and unforgiving.
  • @Jose-wq4zr
    I like how the fact that the Marquis de Sade was clearly and transparently a crazy person took some of the edge off of Saló
  • Great video! I agree with some, disagree on others. But I got some great recommendations I loook forward to reading. Thanks!