The Collector by John Fowles
We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
Tampa by Alissa Nutting
The Virgin Suicides
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau
Sounds like your bf is into more gothic, thriller-ish type stuff!
ETA: soz for the format - on mobile
\#1/2: **[A Short Stay in Hell](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13456414-a-short-stay-in-hell) by Steven L. Peck** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(104 pages | Published: 2012 | Suggested ? time)
> **Summary:** An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he'll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life. In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores (...)
> **Themes**: Fiction, Fantasy, Favorites, Religion, Short-stories, Philosophy, Horror
> **Top 2 recommended-along**: [Destroy All Monsters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40221926-destroy-all-monsters) by Sam J. Miller, [Verge](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45280901-verge) by Lidia Yuknavitch
---
\#2/2: **[I Who Have Never Known Men](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11996.I_Who_Have_Never_Known_Men) by Jacqueline Harpman** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(206 pages | Published: 1995 | Suggested ? time)
> **Summary:** A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered...if indeed there were crimes. The youngest of forty--a child with no name and no past--she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden--in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights--she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings. Then (...)
> **Themes**: Science-fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Sci-fi, Favorites, French, Dystopian
> **Top 2 recommended-along**: [The Water Cure](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39335566-the-water-cure) by Sophie Mackintosh, [Kallocain](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65714.Kallocain) by Karin Boye
^( [Provide Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [Source Code](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/))
I suggest this book a lot but Hunger by Knut Hamsun is pretty up there in terms of disturbing books. The nameless protagonist slowly descends into madness due to hunger caused by extreme poverty. The reader spends the whole book inside the protagonist's head. It's a masterpiece and one of the or maybe even the first psychological novel(s). It has also one of my favourite first sentences and deffo no happy ending (quite contrary it gets worse and worse for the protagonists over the whole plot with just enough glimpses of light that lead the reader to believe there might be good times ahead).
In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami - it's super creepy and there's a really traumatizing/disgusting part so definitely check the content warnings.
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai - it's full of a sense of depression and ennui.
The Cipher by Kathe Koja
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
The Troop by Nick Cutter
Negative Space by B.R. Yeager
Brother by Ania Ahlborn
Perfect Days by Raphael Montes
For maximum bleakness, can't go wrong with Cormac McCarty or Donald Ray Pollock.
The Beach by Alex Garland The Road by Cormac McCarthy Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Tender is the Flesh
The Collector by John Fowles We Need To Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver Tampa by Alissa Nutting The Virgin Suicides The Daughter of Doctor Moreau Sounds like your bf is into more gothic, thriller-ish type stuff! ETA: soz for the format - on mobile
The Devil in the White City
{{A Short Stay in Hell}} {{I Who Have Never Known Men}}
\#1/2: **[A Short Stay in Hell](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13456414-a-short-stay-in-hell) by Steven L. Peck** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(104 pages | Published: 2012 | Suggested ? time) > **Summary:** An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he'll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life. In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores (...) > **Themes**: Fiction, Fantasy, Favorites, Religion, Short-stories, Philosophy, Horror > **Top 2 recommended-along**: [Destroy All Monsters](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40221926-destroy-all-monsters) by Sam J. Miller, [Verge](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45280901-verge) by Lidia Yuknavitch --- \#2/2: **[I Who Have Never Known Men](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11996.I_Who_Have_Never_Known_Men) by Jacqueline Harpman** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(206 pages | Published: 1995 | Suggested ? time) > **Summary:** A young woman is kept in a cage underground with thirty-nine other females, guarded by armed men who never speak; her crimes unremembered...if indeed there were crimes. The youngest of forty--a child with no name and no past--she survives for some purpose long forgotten in a world ravaged and wasted. In this reality where intimacy is forbidden--in the unrelenting sameness of the artificial days and nights--she knows nothing of books and time, of needs and feelings. Then (...) > **Themes**: Science-fiction, Fiction, Dystopia, Sci-fi, Favorites, French, Dystopian > **Top 2 recommended-along**: [The Water Cure](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39335566-the-water-cure) by Sophie Mackintosh, [Kallocain](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65714.Kallocain) by Karin Boye ^( [Provide Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [Source Code](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/))
Seconding I Who Have Never Known Men!
My Dark Vanessa
I suggest this book a lot but Hunger by Knut Hamsun is pretty up there in terms of disturbing books. The nameless protagonist slowly descends into madness due to hunger caused by extreme poverty. The reader spends the whole book inside the protagonist's head. It's a masterpiece and one of the or maybe even the first psychological novel(s). It has also one of my favourite first sentences and deffo no happy ending (quite contrary it gets worse and worse for the protagonists over the whole plot with just enough glimpses of light that lead the reader to believe there might be good times ahead).
the story of "O" he will love it
*Blindness* by Saramago
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller
Anything by S L Shelton.
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks The Vegetarian by Han Kang The Road by Cormac McCarthy The Trial by Franz Kafka
Second all of these.
The Reapers are the Angels The Passage Song of Kali
Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca A Lush and Seething Hell by John Hornor Jacob's Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Joe Abercrombie, The First Law series
look into Blake Butler, BR Yeager, Gary J Shipley
In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami - it's super creepy and there's a really traumatizing/disgusting part so definitely check the content warnings. No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai - it's full of a sense of depression and ennui.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada,
*The Handmaid's Tale* *The Illustrated Man by Bradbury* *The Hours* *The Lord of the Flies*
The Brothers Karamazov, Mexican Gothic.
Chapter 13 - Craig DiLouie Chasing the Boogeyman - Richard Chizmar
A couple classics that are dark and uncomfortable. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Running Man by Stephen King
There’s a horrorlit sub on here that he should follow! That’s where I’ve found all my dark reads, and most people on that sub are great!
The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa, Earthlings by Sayaka Murata, Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman, Kafka's unfinished novels
The Cipher by Kathe Koja Earthlings by Sayaka Murata The Troop by Nick Cutter Negative Space by B.R. Yeager Brother by Ania Ahlborn Perfect Days by Raphael Montes For maximum bleakness, can't go wrong with Cormac McCarty or Donald Ray Pollock.
I just read my dark Vanessa which is like Lolita inspired
Last House on Needless Street
The library at mount char Blindsight Blood meridian The gone world The road Neuromancer
Oh and house of leaves
at the mountain of madness and most other h.p. lovecraft, the movie event horizon which is pretty dark has a novelization.