Disgusting Books You Can't Read More Than Once

These books push the boundaries of discomfort, horror, and taboo, leaving readers disturbed, haunted, and emotionally drained. 

1

The Trial – Franz Kafka 

Kafka traps readers in a suffocating maze of paranoia, injustice, and existential dread—anxiety-inducing from start to finish. 

2

The Girl Next Door – Jack Ketchum 

Inspired by real-life horror, this book’s relentless brutality and psychological torment will leave you shaken and emotionally wrecked. 

3

The 120 Days of Sodom – Marquis de Sade 

Banned in multiple countries, de Sade’s grotesque novel is the peak of depravity, filled with shocking violence. 

4

The Road – Cormac McCarthy 

A father and son’s survival tale so bleak, every page feels like a punch to the soul. 

5

The Cement Garden – Ian McEwan 

Siblings trapped in isolation spiral into eerie, unnatural relationships—disturbing, psychological horror at its most unsettling. 

6

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream – Harlan Ellison 

A supercomputer torments the last humans alive in a never-ending cycle of suffering and dehumanization. 

7

Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov 

Nabokov’s lyrical prose makes this story even more disturbing—manipulation, obsession, and abuse disguised as love. 

8

The Wasp Factory – Iain Bank

A twisted boy’s violent rituals and psychological horrors make this a book you’ll wish you never read.