i read the 10 most disturbing books ever written.

By the end of the book, I was legitimately pissed. I didn't only feel emotionally manipulated, but I felt annoyed that all 800 pages of this book basically led up to Jude finally taking his life as an act of mercy.

One of my favorite books is a sweet coming of age novel called Blood Meridian. Blood Meridian is a truly up book about American imperialism and God and stuff, but to men in their 20s, it's basically Eat, Pray, Love.

I made a video a couple years ago about Butcher's Crossing, and I controversially said it was more disturbing than Blood Meridian. Well, to me it is. where Blood Meridian's violence is abstract and aestheticized, almost surreal, Butcher's Crossing very realistically describes the slaughter of hundreds of buffalo.

There are images in this, there are tastes and smells in this book I literally wish I could scrub from my brain. At the same time, it is incredibly stupid. The dialogue is awful.

A funny, startling, and quietly moving book about people who reject society and how far that can really go.

At its best, when it's describing the Navidson documentary, this is some of the best horror fiction you'll read. The problem is the other 500 pages.

It's an unforgettable book but incredibly bleak. The week I read this I had to read like a fun crime novel every night just to rinse my brain out. As for extreme disturbing literature, it's a great example of something with artistic merit.

I'm going to be honest with you guys, I struggled to get through this book. It's a slim volume, but every time I picked it up, I felt heavy and full of resentment. I'm saying that despite the extreme nature of Yozo's situation, there is a lot to relate to here.

It's not even disturbing. Most of it reads like bad porn.

This book is insane, but it's also really boring. You can only read endless graphic details before your mind just drifts.

It's incredible that Jack Ketchum pulled this off in my opinion without making a cheap exploitation horror novel. Not everyone agrees with me, but I found genuine emotional depth here. This is what good, dark, challenging writing can do.

Yes, the book is painful, but the darkness makes the light more powerful. You know, it's kind of a philosophical 180 flip from Yanagahara's pessimism. So, is it a great book? One of the best in the stack? Absolutely.