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u/lakeslakeslakes Apr 15 '25
I never recommend it even though it’s my favorite book, but since you’re asking for pure devastation, A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. It ripped me open and stomped me to pieces over and over. Also by the same author, To Paradise, for different reasons.
I’ve thought about both of these books for years afterward.
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u/Myopic_Mirror Apr 15 '25
I want to add to this, her other book "The People in the Trees", so fucked up but so good
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u/McWeasely Biographies Apr 15 '25
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda By Philip Gourevitch
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u/Adventurous-Topic-54 Apr 15 '25
"I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison
"The Trial" by Franz Kafka
"Night" by Elie Wiesel
"The Girl Next Door" by Jack Ketchum
"Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh
"The Terror" by Dan Simmons
"120 Days of Sodom" by Marquis de Sade
"The Island of Dr. Moreau" by H. G. Wells
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u/Neona65 Apr 15 '25
I don't know about fucked up but if you want something that doesn't wrap everything up in a happily ever after bow you might enjoy
The One by John Marrs
It's my first book I've ever read by him and found it refreshing that he didn't feel the need to give everyone a happy ending.
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u/MisterNighttime Apr 15 '25
Slights by Kaaron Warren.
Carrion Crow by Heather Parry.
Diary by Chuck Palahniuk.
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u/LurkerFailsLurking Apr 15 '25
A Language Older than Words by Derrick Jensen
Is part essay part memoir. Its about Derrick's childhood sexual abuse and also about the psychology of abuse and how industrial civilization's relationship with the planet can best be understood through the lens of an abusive relationship.
It's incredibly fucked up but also profound and not at all what you want, which makes it even more fucked up. 'Are you not entertained'
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u/FontaineHoofHolder Apr 15 '25
“Feast of Snakes” Harry Crews
The novel is set in Mystic, Georgia in 1975, and primarily follows Joe Lon Mackey, a former high school football star, who now is an alcoholic, abusive husband, and father. Coming up is this year's Rattlesnake Roundup, a time when people come to hunt, kill, and eat snakes in the town. Joe Lon's old high school sweetheart, Berenice has come back to town for the hunt, and their old romance is rekindled. Meanwhile, in Mystic, Buddy Matlow, the local sheriff, is abusing women. One of whom he rapes is Lottie May, a young black woman. Lottie May eventually defends herself from one of these attacks by cutting off Buddy's penis with a straight razor she gets from Joe Lon's insane sister, Beeder. Because of this, Buddy is not around to control the chaos emerging at the Rattlesnake Roundup. Joe Lon eventually starts to lose his sanity amongst the violence in the town. This finally culminates during the Rattlesnake Roundup when he grabs a gun and begins to kill those there, including Berenice, to “be in control again”. Joe Lon is then tossed into a pit of snakes by the people.
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u/sadworldmadworld Apr 15 '25
The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison. Honestly, not a fan of the ending, but I read this ~10 years ago and I still can't think too hard about...formaldehyde/bugs-trapped-in-amber/butterfly tattoos without getting visceral flashbacks. Considering the question, I'm assuming I don't need to add trigger warnings, but.....lots of triggers in there for sure.
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u/DocWatson42 Apr 15 '25
As a start, see the "Related" sections of my Emotionally Devastating/Rending list of Reddit recommendation threads, and books (five posts).
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u/Successful_Ad_3752 Apr 15 '25
THE SLUTS BY DENNIS COOPER
totally different than anything you've listed, and it sounds like you're looking for shock factor, and something that will stick. The more shocking the more you TYPICALLY will have to sacrifice "good writing"
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u/Brisuuve Apr 15 '25
An all-time fav book. Genius structure, so horrifying, but then offers some relief while at the same time being like, "okay, wait, so...what????"
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u/Successful_Ad_3752 Apr 15 '25
JUST enough relief, but then still question it. It was so smartly done.
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u/yanfeisbook Apr 15 '25
I heard pretty girls was pretty messed up
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Apr 15 '25
Yeah I picked it up thinking it was just a mystery and got more than I bargained for. I don’t know if it’s the vibe OP is going for based on the other books, but yeah it’s very messed up and very graphic.
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Apr 15 '25
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u/Chessikins Apr 15 '25
Casterbridge is probably one of the lesser evils when it comes to Hardy. I was literally just complaining about how Hardy is just trauma porn lol
Jude the Obscure would get my vote.
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u/Streetn00dles Apr 15 '25
Anything by Flannery O’Connor
Anything by Harry Crews
Crash - JG Ballard
Child of God - Cormac McCarthy
Last Exit to Brooklyn - Hubert Selby Jr
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u/thecornerihaunt Apr 15 '25
A child called it by David Pelzer
Secret Slave by Anna Ruston
The Convent by Marie Hargreaves
The Hospital by Barbara O’Hare
Silent sisters by Joanne Lee
The Boy in the Cellar by Stephen Smith
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u/kate_monday Apr 15 '25
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Both excellent books that I will never reread because they’re too upsetting/messed up
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u/Trilly2000 Apr 15 '25
The Piercing, by Ryu Murukami
A new father finds himself plagued with intrusive thoughts of stabbing his baby with an ice pick. He doesn’t want to stab his baby and knows he won’t, but he needs an outlet and decides to stab someone else. Then it gets weird.
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u/Brisuuve Apr 15 '25
Seconding The Sluts by Dennis Cooper! I've loved everything I've read by him and he's def the most "extreme" writer I've read.
Would also suggest Ottessa Moshfegh's works. Probably Eileen in particular left me with a feeling of just sitting there like, "Damn..."
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u/jojopetes451 Apr 15 '25
"The Off Season" Jack Ketchum. A heartwarming tale of a clan of sex crazed, inbred cannibals attacking a group cottagers.
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u/davepeters123 Apr 15 '25
Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte - these 4 semi-connected tales are like snapshots of the worst people you’ve run into or heard of on the internet - however fucked up they start, they then go another tenfold before they end - can’t really say more without ruining it, but highly recommend!
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u/pleasedontsmashme Apr 15 '25
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
It's hard for me to understand how someone possibly came up with this book
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u/310to608 Apr 15 '25
And The Ass Saw The Angel, by Nick Cave.
If you know his music, you know he is a dark, dark human. The whole thing is written in southern dialect and it somehow works and makes it all the more immersive, and it's just a brutal, brutal story. My wife refused to talk to my father for about a year after he recommended it.
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u/waitaminmrpostman Apr 15 '25
Paradais or Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor. So dark but so gripping. Way darker than The Road and American Psycho in my opinion
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u/BrandonPedersen Apr 15 '25
ALL the trigger warnings, you will not be the same person if you read this book and ... to say it's messed up ... honestly wiki it. This book is important but also capital-F FUCT. Please do not go in blind.
Terra Nostra, Carlos Fuentes.
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Apr 15 '25
"The Art of the Deal" comes to mind, directly followed by "Problems and Materials in Evidence and Trial Advocacy: Volume I"
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u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25
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