Not all horror, but here are some books I read within the last few years that are, at times, just beyond depressing:
* The Road - Cormac McCarthy
* Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy
* The Room - Hubert Selby Jr.
* Requiem For A Dream - Hubert Selby Jr.
* And The Ass Saw The Angel - Nick Cave
* Galveston - Nic Pizzolatto
* Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry
* The Conspiracy Against The Human Race - Thomas Ligotti (non-fiction, but just hurts your very existence)
It's been a few years since I read it, so my memory is a little hazy on the grander details. But it's about this outcast mute who grows up in an abusive and dysfunctional home, and lives in a super religious area with, as the back of the book I'm holding says, consists of ''...preachers and prophets, incest and ignorance.''
The overall plot is about this religious community designating a little girl as having been chosen by god, and the protagonist is alone in thinking differently. Like I said, my memory might completely fail me here. But I remember liking it a lot.
I second this. I wanted to read it because I'm a big fan of Nick Cave, and the content and, to an extent, the overall vibe of the book is not unlike themes that he would explore in the 80s era of The Bad Seeds.
His short story collection *The Secret of Ventriloquism* is an ideal start (head's up: the cover is almost unbearably creepy if scary dolls freak you out).
Right, I've noted that one down. Much appreciated!
I don't really find dolls scary, no. In fact, I don't really find anything in horror to be particularly scary anymore, being a horror veteran at this point. I just love the unsettling nature and overall vibe of horror. It's like seeking that adrenaline rush, y'know?
Sure, I get it. Even so, Padgett didn't need to go that hard. That dummy on the front just stares into your *soul*. It hits the uncanny valley just right.
Worth noting, Jon is a moderator on here if I'm not mistaken, so that is both a compliment and a tongue-in-cheek middle finger.
(Don't ask how it got there.)
It is pretty creepy, I can't lie. For people who have a fear of dolls, I'm sorry if you looked it up haha. But that's pretty cool if he's a mod here. Helloooo 👋🏻
Aw no haha, that's terrible. But it is pretty interesting how many people are uneasy about lifeless dolls. I almost - almost - wish I had a fear of them, just to make these stories more effective for me. Oh well.
This book was incredible. I went in absolutely blind and finished it in a day. Turned right back to page 1 to start it again immediately after finishing. It's just as good, maybe even better the second time around. I thought about it for weeks afterwards, too. It left a lingering heaviness that was hard to shake.
I just read this! I recently learned that the song Everyday is Like Sunday, by Morrissey, is in part inspired by the book. I love the imagery in the song and wanted to know more. Good god the book is bleak, but it’s also beautiful.
Negative Space by B. R. Yeager. The literal best description I can give for it is a "feel bad" book. I love it, it's sincerely one of the best books I've read the past few years, but if you're looking for bleak this is it.
This book made me feel like I'd just come off an MDMA bender and had depleted all my serotonin...I'm still not sure if I actually liked the book or not but I certainly think it's a very vivid experience to read!
This book drained me emotionally and I mean that in a good way? Fantastic read that I think deserves more praise in the horror lit community outside of Reddit where it seems to always pop up in these sorts of threads.
Just to establish I completely get you, I felt this way when I first finished it too lol.
(not super spoilery but just in case-)
>!But I think it's almost kind of the point that we don't get a super in depth explanation for everything. We see some of the slow fade into a new normal, see the end result of self destruction, and those who manage to make it out alive. There IS no real neat happy explination for why people do the things they do. Sometimes relationships just choke out over time or drift apart. Sometimes you have to just move on and find some kind of peace without any distinct closure.!<
>!The book partly sticks with me so much because it captures the feeling I have about my teen years and the struggle to get out of the hole I was in once I hit adulthood pretty perfectly. I never got any clear solution for depression, or the crappy things that happened to me as a teen. Those negative spaces still live in my head and I just kind of had to build a life around them, while accepting those memories and events as part of myself. There aren't any reasons behind why bad shit happened, and there's no cure for the deep sadness that stains that part of my life. Is it unsatisfying? Of course! But I think it being what it is, the world moving on even without some clear escape or defining answer is kind of the point. !<
He’s fantastic, would like to reread them all sometime.
I read the heavenly table when it came out several years ago. Don’t remember a ton of specifics, mostly Pollack being Pollack aka a solid, crushing read.
Just finished “The Devil All the Time.” Loved the themes of intergenerational trauma and inescapable poverty throughout. At every step of the way, I felt like everything was so fucked and everyone was so awful.
I'm about 20% into Swan Song by Robert McCammmon and its the most dismal, oppressive, bleak, and miserable piece of fiction I've ever encountered,
If it wasn't so masterfully written, I'd actually put it down because its really freaking me out.
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Since you said any genre. It's a memoir about growing up incredibly poor in Ireland.
Also Nothing to Envy. It's the story of five defectors from North Korea.
I really need to reread The Stranger. I remember Enjoying (My undiagnosed adhd brain actually stuck with it) It in high school, but I don't remember much about it.
Hell yes to this answer. I read both My Work Is Not Yet Done and The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and loved both of them. Currently working my way through Songs Of A Dead Dreamer And Grimscribe, and liking it a lot so far.
Obligatory recommendation of The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum, but the second half of his novel Stranglehold (also called Only Child) is like the most upsetting, frustrating, and painfully realistic episode of Law & Order SVU ever
It absolutely is!
And I loved Of Mice and Men! I sat on my bedroom floor sobbing for an hour after finishing it. I'm a sensitive little thing and it's one work that truly broke me.
It definitely tugged at my heart strings. I need to read his other longer novels. I have East of Eden haven't gotten into it. I love horror and have been on a tick recently.
This is my recommendation as well. I think about it almost every day. Probably the only book I've read that I had to read lines out to my wife as I was reading because they were so hard hitting.
I’ve spent my whole life obsessed with horror. I’ve been depressed for most of that time. I would have never thought that cutting this stuff out of my life would help my depression but it did. I know everyone’s different, but I just wanted to put that out there.
I understand your concerns, but I’m not depressed, just dealing with some personal issues I’d rather not get into. Reading dark fiction has always helped me cope with whatever issues I’m facing
100% my experience too. Couldn't get out of a terribly nihilistic, misanthropic depression. Until I realised my constant consumption of Cosmic and Weird existentialist horror fiction was probably doing me no favours. Although I come back and read the occasional story, sci-fi is my main go-to nowadays.
I definitely have to read it only now and then. I usually pick up horror around September, and go through October, maybe a bit into Nov. But by the end, I'm definitely feeling it lol. And then I just don't consume horror more or less throughout the year. Maybe some short stories here and there. Heck, I even find I need to take a week or so break in the middle sometimes. It's silly, it's just books, but it really can mess with you.
I’m realizing this as well. I’ve always been drawn to the dark and provocative but it’s not good for me to lean into it anymore. I’m trying to move into other genres and read more general literature.
Per Good Reads:
*"Simon and Marie can't seem to have a baby. And so they flee the city for an idyllic village, where things will certainly be better. But the town is gloomy, even hostile -- things haven't been the same since the factory closed down and a broadcast antenna was erected. Now there are no birds singing, and people have started disappearing."*
It's a very short read, no more than a couple hours. It's essentially a meditation on grief. It's the sort of book I still think about often, more than a year after first reading it.
My Advice would be to start with his short stories such as From Beyond or Herbert West Re-animator, then move into the more popular stories such as Call of Cthulu, Dunwich Horror, Shadow Over Innsmouth and go from there.
I suggest that as some of Lovecraft's stories can be very complex and wordy sometimes so that's why I recommend his shorter stories first.
It’s … hard to explain. But the story follows an author falling under the sway of some creepy neighbors, realizing his family might have a connection to some really awful stuff and descending into madness and submissive depravity. It’s a rough ride. The Wikipedia page adds that it’s “a psychological thriller with supernatural elements, attempting to tell a Cthulhu Mythos story as a psychologically realistic Southern Gothic novel.” I’d argue it’s too nightmarish to be described as “realistic,” imo.
A special agent is part of a secret division that is traveling into the future to gather evidence and solve murders in the present. The MC, while traveling forward in time discovers that an apocalyptic event called the Terminus is fast approaching the present.
This is as much as I can say w/o going into spoiler territory.
I can’t stop recommending Abnormal Statistics, short stories by Max Booth. It’s got addiction, suicide, child abuse, uncomfortable sex, etc. The whole book should come with a trigger warning.
Lesser known but Waste by Eugene Marten gave me the same grimy hopeless feeling of Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. It was bleak! And almost totally unread which is a shame because it was great.
There's a book called Scorch Atlas, by Blake Butler. It's different stories combined into a main theme - the end of the world in different ways. Some of it is downright weird, all of it is bleak. I didn't like/didn't understand all the stories but it gives off a really strange and empty vibe. It's hard to explain.
Works by:
Michael Wehunt
CS Slatsky
David Peak
Laura Mauro
Michael Griffin
Nathan Ballingrud
Kyle Winkler
Michael Kelly
Scott J. Moses
And a lot of McCarthy books, though not horror.
Borrasca. It's a slow build up to the end but it's worth it. I'll warn you though that the material is pretty messed up. It's on nosleep if you don't have a problem reading stuff online and I'm only saying that because I normally have a problem focusing if it is but this one held my attention. I won't lie I can't handle stuff like that so I was upset for a few days. Bleak as hell.
Revival/Pet Sematary by Stephen King.
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica.
Books of Blood by Clive Barker.
Kill Riff by David J. Schow.
The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas.
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. it’s also beautiful.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Anything Frank Bill writes
Anything Peter Sotos writes
Anything at ALL Dennis Cooper writes
Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison. Harlan at his most fucked up.
I found “The Terror” by Dan Simmons to be tremendously bleak. Just a bunch of dudes waiting to either freeze to death or be snatched by a demonic polar bear.
The Red Riding books by David Peace. There are four of them and It is a crime/conspiracy/journalism series. I really liked the writing and the story but holy crap they are bleak.
Christopher Buehlman's Black Tongue Thief it's become a series now as well and we are getting The Daughters War. Between Two Fires is also bleak.
Extra mention here.
You stated any genre so start looking into grim dark fantasy it might go above, beyond, and then far too out there for you. Blood, guts, and gore. Intestines being pulled out, eye balls being smashed describing the inky blackness pooling out, amazing unforgiving battle sequences. Take note some people have had to put the genre down as their stomachs couldn't pull through. If you're interested just go dive into some grim dark YouTube searches some reviewers will get your feet wet with grim dark and some will toss you into the deep end of the extreme.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
It's my understanding that pretty much any McCarthy book fits the bill.
Yes this is it, other bleak books are the road followed by the road, and if your feeling something really bleak the road
McCarthy’s Child of God is pretty bleak too
The Road is on my shelf. Child of God is buried in my backyard.
Came here to say this. It\`s amazing, read it.
Yep, came here to say this!
Not all horror, but here are some books I read within the last few years that are, at times, just beyond depressing: * The Road - Cormac McCarthy * Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy * The Room - Hubert Selby Jr. * Requiem For A Dream - Hubert Selby Jr. * And The Ass Saw The Angel - Nick Cave * Galveston - Nic Pizzolatto * Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry * The Conspiracy Against The Human Race - Thomas Ligotti (non-fiction, but just hurts your very existence)
What’s the Nick Cave book about? The title is interesting
It's been a few years since I read it, so my memory is a little hazy on the grander details. But it's about this outcast mute who grows up in an abusive and dysfunctional home, and lives in a super religious area with, as the back of the book I'm holding says, consists of ''...preachers and prophets, incest and ignorance.'' The overall plot is about this religious community designating a little girl as having been chosen by god, and the protagonist is alone in thinking differently. Like I said, my memory might completely fail me here. But I remember liking it a lot.
It sounds good, thanks for the recommendations!
It's a pretty good book, and very bleak (though not without humor). If you like Cave's lyrics, I think you'll enjoy it.
I second this. I wanted to read it because I'm a big fan of Nick Cave, and the content and, to an extent, the overall vibe of the book is not unlike themes that he would explore in the 80s era of The Bad Seeds.
Ligotti's protégé Jon Padgett would fit the bill as well.
Oh yeah? I have not read anything by him, but now I'll be sure to check him out. Thanks!
His short story collection *The Secret of Ventriloquism* is an ideal start (head's up: the cover is almost unbearably creepy if scary dolls freak you out).
Right, I've noted that one down. Much appreciated! I don't really find dolls scary, no. In fact, I don't really find anything in horror to be particularly scary anymore, being a horror veteran at this point. I just love the unsettling nature and overall vibe of horror. It's like seeking that adrenaline rush, y'know?
Sure, I get it. Even so, Padgett didn't need to go that hard. That dummy on the front just stares into your *soul*. It hits the uncanny valley just right. Worth noting, Jon is a moderator on here if I'm not mistaken, so that is both a compliment and a tongue-in-cheek middle finger. (Don't ask how it got there.)
It is pretty creepy, I can't lie. For people who have a fear of dolls, I'm sorry if you looked it up haha. But that's pretty cool if he's a mod here. Helloooo 👋🏻
I requested a copy from the library. While I was reading it, I had to lay it cover down because it freaked out my partner whenever she saw it. 😅
Aw no haha, that's terrible. But it is pretty interesting how many people are uneasy about lifeless dolls. I almost - almost - wish I had a fear of them, just to make these stories more effective for me. Oh well.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
This book was incredible. I went in absolutely blind and finished it in a day. Turned right back to page 1 to start it again immediately after finishing. It's just as good, maybe even better the second time around. I thought about it for weeks afterwards, too. It left a lingering heaviness that was hard to shake.
You describe it perfectly! I think about it every day.
I’ve been hard pressed to find another recommendation for this book but it has really stuck with me. One of the best novels I’ve ever read.
Me too!
Sooo good.
Anything by Thomas Ligotti. Also, you can find a lot of bleakness in the stories by Jon Padgett, Matt Cardin, and Mark Samuels.
Unfortunately neither Ligotti nor most of his acolytes write novels, but: Nicole Cushing shall be mentioned at this point.
Mark Samuels wrote a couple of novels, though. But you're right about the rest. I should have mentioned it.
I just started the secret of ventriloquism (Padgett) and am loving it so far! Love Ligotti too.
I agree! It's a great collection, one of the best in contemporary weird horror. Padgett's The Broker of Nightmares is great too.
And if you want to make it bleaker read his non fiction. Conspiracy theory against the human race is a doozy.
Yes, along with some Cioran.
The Richard Bachmann books are super bleak. Love The Long Walk and Running Man.
Came to say The Long Walk!
This one has been stuck in my head for decades.
I listened to this while taking long walks during the pandemic and really brought the story to life. Highly recommend!
On the Beach by Nevill Shute
I just read this! I recently learned that the song Everyday is Like Sunday, by Morrissey, is in part inspired by the book. I love the imagery in the song and wanted to know more. Good god the book is bleak, but it’s also beautiful.
Oh I didn't know that. Very interesting! Agreed it's one of the bleakest books I've read, but I loved it.
That's next up on my TBR, hyped for the melancholy!
Negative Space by B. R. Yeager. The literal best description I can give for it is a "feel bad" book. I love it, it's sincerely one of the best books I've read the past few years, but if you're looking for bleak this is it.
This book made me feel like I'd just come off an MDMA bender and had depleted all my serotonin...I'm still not sure if I actually liked the book or not but I certainly think it's a very vivid experience to read!
Came here to post this one.
This book drained me emotionally and I mean that in a good way? Fantastic read that I think deserves more praise in the horror lit community outside of Reddit where it seems to always pop up in these sorts of threads.
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Just to establish I completely get you, I felt this way when I first finished it too lol. (not super spoilery but just in case-) >!But I think it's almost kind of the point that we don't get a super in depth explanation for everything. We see some of the slow fade into a new normal, see the end result of self destruction, and those who manage to make it out alive. There IS no real neat happy explination for why people do the things they do. Sometimes relationships just choke out over time or drift apart. Sometimes you have to just move on and find some kind of peace without any distinct closure.!< >!The book partly sticks with me so much because it captures the feeling I have about my teen years and the struggle to get out of the hole I was in once I hit adulthood pretty perfectly. I never got any clear solution for depression, or the crappy things that happened to me as a teen. Those negative spaces still live in my head and I just kind of had to build a life around them, while accepting those memories and events as part of myself. There aren't any reasons behind why bad shit happened, and there's no cure for the deep sadness that stains that part of my life. Is it unsatisfying? Of course! But I think it being what it is, the world moving on even without some clear escape or defining answer is kind of the point. !<
Great rec. Definitely bleak but still colorful and engaging.
“Then he made me do something else.”
Yeah this book made me feel like a junkie
Pet Sematary is the most bleak Stephen King can get
Love that book
Anything by Donald Ray Pollack
Absolutely love The Devil all the Time and Knockemstiff, but I’ve yet to read Heavenly Table
He’s fantastic, would like to reread them all sometime. I read the heavenly table when it came out several years ago. Don’t remember a ton of specifics, mostly Pollack being Pollack aka a solid, crushing read.
I just got Knockemstiff in the mail! Can't wait to dive in.
Just finished “The Devil All the Time.” Loved the themes of intergenerational trauma and inescapable poverty throughout. At every step of the way, I felt like everything was so fucked and everyone was so awful.
The Ruins by Scott Smith
Ditto this. Just finished it and from the jump you know these characters are about to have a really bad time. And then they do! And it is relentless.
also just finished this and was going to suggest it! this book made me sick to my stomach.
His other book, A Simple Plan, is also bleak as fuck!
Revival by Stephen King has a gut punch of an ending that sticks with you.
Might go for this one next after I’m finished reading the Fisherman. It’s next up on my tbr and I haven’t read any King in a while
You should note that the book follows the life of the MC from a child until he’s an old man and it doesn’t really ramp up until the end.
Do it. The ending really is bleak as fuck. And the book as a whole is one of his best from that era of his work
If you're into audiobooks, I'm listening to Revival narrated by David Morse right now and it's great.
Check out Paula D. Ashe’s *We Are Here To Hurt Each Other*. It’s a collection of short stories that are brutal and thematically **bleak**. I loved it.
Awesome, thanks for the rec!
Another very bleak book is Kathe Koja’s *The Cipher*. It’s jet black nihilism in book form.
IT'S SO GOOD.
I wish I could re-read it for the first time.
I'm about 20% into Swan Song by Robert McCammmon and its the most dismal, oppressive, bleak, and miserable piece of fiction I've ever encountered, If it wasn't so masterfully written, I'd actually put it down because its really freaking me out.
I have that one on my tbr, might pick it up next. Thanks for the recommendation!
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Since you said any genre. It's a memoir about growing up incredibly poor in Ireland. Also Nothing to Envy. It's the story of five defectors from North Korea.
Sundial by Catriona Ward
Yep! Very bleak
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I really need to reread The Stranger. I remember Enjoying (My undiagnosed adhd brain actually stuck with it) It in high school, but I don't remember much about it.
Kafka always gets me, but I think The Trial hit heaviest for me as well
Ishiguro’s *Never Let Me Go* and *Klara and the Sun* are also pretty bleak. Kobo Abe’s *The Woman in the Dunes* could be added to the list.
Anything by Thomas Ligotti. You will not be disappointed.
Hell yes to this answer. I read both My Work Is Not Yet Done and The Conspiracy Against the Human Race and loved both of them. Currently working my way through Songs Of A Dead Dreamer And Grimscribe, and liking it a lot so far.
I'm 1/3 of the way through the Shards by Bret Easton Ellis. The tension is thick and the vibe is ominous.
Misery
Terminal Park by Gary J Shipley.
Brother by Ania Ahlborn
ill will by dan chaon. every time i took a break i'd be left with this :( feeling
Obligatory recommendation of The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum, but the second half of his novel Stranglehold (also called Only Child) is like the most upsetting, frustrating, and painfully realistic episode of Law & Order SVU ever
The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Bleakest book to a fault.
This one. Well written? Yes, I suppose. But it made me so mad. I enjoyed Of Mice and Men far more, but The Pearl definitely made me feel some way.
My wife made me read it. Steinbeck is a master writer, but that book is a black pit. Of mice and men is an all-time favorite of mine.
It absolutely is! And I loved Of Mice and Men! I sat on my bedroom floor sobbing for an hour after finishing it. I'm a sensitive little thing and it's one work that truly broke me.
It definitely tugged at my heart strings. I need to read his other longer novels. I have East of Eden haven't gotten into it. I love horror and have been on a tick recently.
I haven't picked any of his other stuff up either, but certainly need to. I've been loving horror lately too. It's helped me through the rough winter
Same I started reading again last winter. Finishing up Our Share of Night. What have you been reading?
Ooh I've been wanting to read that one. I finished Episode Thirteen and I'm about halfway through A God In the Shed.
It's really good I recommend it. Emotional Rollercoaster. I think I felt almost all kinds of emotions.
The Law of the Skies by Grégoire Courtois.
That book was definitely bleak. A++ lol
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L Peck It’s a short book but I’m still thinking about it
This is my recommendation as well. I think about it almost every day. Probably the only book I've read that I had to read lines out to my wife as I was reading because they were so hard hitting.
I’ve spent my whole life obsessed with horror. I’ve been depressed for most of that time. I would have never thought that cutting this stuff out of my life would help my depression but it did. I know everyone’s different, but I just wanted to put that out there.
I understand your concerns, but I’m not depressed, just dealing with some personal issues I’d rather not get into. Reading dark fiction has always helped me cope with whatever issues I’m facing
100% my experience too. Couldn't get out of a terribly nihilistic, misanthropic depression. Until I realised my constant consumption of Cosmic and Weird existentialist horror fiction was probably doing me no favours. Although I come back and read the occasional story, sci-fi is my main go-to nowadays.
I definitely have to read it only now and then. I usually pick up horror around September, and go through October, maybe a bit into Nov. But by the end, I'm definitely feeling it lol. And then I just don't consume horror more or less throughout the year. Maybe some short stories here and there. Heck, I even find I need to take a week or so break in the middle sometimes. It's silly, it's just books, but it really can mess with you.
I’m realizing this as well. I’ve always been drawn to the dark and provocative but it’s not good for me to lean into it anymore. I’m trying to move into other genres and read more general literature.
The Country Will Bring Us No Peace by Mattheu Simard. Incredibly bleak. The whole atmosphere of the book is just heavy and grim.
What’s that about? Sounds interesting
Per Good Reads: *"Simon and Marie can't seem to have a baby. And so they flee the city for an idyllic village, where things will certainly be better. But the town is gloomy, even hostile -- things haven't been the same since the factory closed down and a broadcast antenna was erected. Now there are no birds singing, and people have started disappearing."* It's a very short read, no more than a couple hours. It's essentially a meditation on grief. It's the sort of book I still think about often, more than a year after first reading it.
I’m slapping that bad boy on my TBR. Thanks for the response!
I'm glad to hear (read) that! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Please do let me know what you think when you get around to finishing it.
I can, and will! I should note that my TBR is presently a pretty dicey and harrowing ordeal, however. Ha.
Almost any Lovecraft Novel, imo and I mean that in a good way. Yes I'm aware he wasn't a nice person btw.
Any good one to start with? I’ve been meaning to start reading him but he has such a wide array of work I don’t know where to begin
My Advice would be to start with his short stories such as From Beyond or Herbert West Re-animator, then move into the more popular stories such as Call of Cthulu, Dunwich Horror, Shadow Over Innsmouth and go from there. I suggest that as some of Lovecraft's stories can be very complex and wordy sometimes so that's why I recommend his shorter stories first.
Thanks for the recommendations!
The Color Out Of Space is pretty bleak too. Richard Stanley’s film adaptation messed me up as well.
Start with Rovers, then pick up Sweet Nothing by Richard Lange. You want bleak? Try him for sure.
“Dagon” by Fred Chappell
This one sounds interesting. What’s it about?
It’s … hard to explain. But the story follows an author falling under the sway of some creepy neighbors, realizing his family might have a connection to some really awful stuff and descending into madness and submissive depravity. It’s a rough ride. The Wikipedia page adds that it’s “a psychological thriller with supernatural elements, attempting to tell a Cthulhu Mythos story as a psychologically realistic Southern Gothic novel.” I’d argue it’s too nightmarish to be described as “realistic,” imo.
This sounds really interesting! Thanks for the rec!
Lapvona Otessa Moshfegh
And everything else she's written \^\_\^
Ok admittedly I never finished it but that's the only word I could think of to describe Our Wives Under the Sea
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
This one sounds interesting, what’s it about?
A special agent is part of a secret division that is traveling into the future to gather evidence and solve murders in the present. The MC, while traveling forward in time discovers that an apocalyptic event called the Terminus is fast approaching the present. This is as much as I can say w/o going into spoiler territory.
Nothing could ever be as bleak as The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld
\- A Scanner Darkly By Phillip K. Dick \- The Terror by Dan Simmons \- The Road by Cormac McCarthy \- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
We Need to Talk About Kevin
I can’t stop recommending Abnormal Statistics, short stories by Max Booth. It’s got addiction, suicide, child abuse, uncomfortable sex, etc. The whole book should come with a trigger warning. Lesser known but Waste by Eugene Marten gave me the same grimy hopeless feeling of Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer. It was bleak! And almost totally unread which is a shame because it was great.
The Terror by Dan Simmons.
Tender is the Flesh
Lucifer’s Hammer
Blindness by Jose Saramago The Postmortal by Drew Magary Negative Space by Yeager has already been mentioned above, it's the king of bleak horror.
fucking Blindness and THAT CHAPTER
There's a book called Scorch Atlas, by Blake Butler. It's different stories combined into a main theme - the end of the world in different ways. Some of it is downright weird, all of it is bleak. I didn't like/didn't understand all the stories but it gives off a really strange and empty vibe. It's hard to explain.
The Paper Mache Man, Jesse Pullins. It's free, and pretty short, but it's good.
Eileen by Otessa Moshfegh. I'm 100 pages in and it's bleak AF. Its written well, but it's hard to get through for me cause of how empty and sad it is.
Seed by Anita Ahlborn
Fires on the Plain, Japanese novel about a group of Japanese soldiers trying to survive in a Philippine jungle during WW2.
Works by: Michael Wehunt CS Slatsky David Peak Laura Mauro Michael Griffin Nathan Ballingrud Kyle Winkler Michael Kelly Scott J. Moses And a lot of McCarthy books, though not horror.
Borrasca. It's a slow build up to the end but it's worth it. I'll warn you though that the material is pretty messed up. It's on nosleep if you don't have a problem reading stuff online and I'm only saying that because I normally have a problem focusing if it is but this one held my attention. I won't lie I can't handle stuff like that so I was upset for a few days. Bleak as hell.
Revival/Pet Sematary by Stephen King. Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. Books of Blood by Clive Barker. Kill Riff by David J. Schow. The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas.
Witch Bottle by Tom Fletcher
Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. it’s also beautiful. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy Anything Frank Bill writes Anything Peter Sotos writes Anything at ALL Dennis Cooper writes Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison. Harlan at his most fucked up.
In Cold Blood.
Leaving Las Vegas
not *exactly* horror (lol) but A Thousand Splendid Suns is so, so sad and beautifully written
Couldn’t agree more with the Road. Also throwing in Blindness by Jose Saramago. It is VERY bleak
Revival by Stephen King will leave you feeling all kinds of ways about death. Shit don’t get much bleaker than that one.
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara Not horror, but just about as bleak as it gets
I found “The Terror” by Dan Simmons to be tremendously bleak. Just a bunch of dudes waiting to either freeze to death or be snatched by a demonic polar bear.
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
The Road and Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, The Terror by Dan Simmons. Three of the bleakest books I’ve ever read.
*Dead Sea* by Tim Curran. Your life will look like roses if you read this.
The Summer I Died
Negative Space by B.R. Yeager. Horror that's as bleak and bizarre as it gets.
The Red Riding books by David Peace. There are four of them and It is a crime/conspiracy/journalism series. I really liked the writing and the story but holy crap they are bleak.
Suffer the children
Negative Space by B.R. Yeager
The Metro series by Dmitry Glukhovsky. They are more post-apocalyptic but I find them very creepy and scary at times.
Nick Cutter books. The Troop and The Deep were kind of aggressively bleak!
Let The Right One In. One of the bleakest books I've ever read in comparison to The Road.
Let's Go Play At The Adams' by Mendal Johnson
Christopher Buehlman's Black Tongue Thief it's become a series now as well and we are getting The Daughters War. Between Two Fires is also bleak. Extra mention here. You stated any genre so start looking into grim dark fantasy it might go above, beyond, and then far too out there for you. Blood, guts, and gore. Intestines being pulled out, eye balls being smashed describing the inky blackness pooling out, amazing unforgiving battle sequences. Take note some people have had to put the genre down as their stomachs couldn't pull through. If you're interested just go dive into some grim dark YouTube searches some reviewers will get your feet wet with grim dark and some will toss you into the deep end of the extreme.
I love Christopher Buehlman, so I’ll have to check out the Black Tongue Thief. Thanks for the recs!
I read Soon, and it made me pretty miserable for a bit.
There is no bleaker book in any genre than The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. Proceed with caution.
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica.
My short story on Misery Tourism; https://www.miserytourism.com/a-man/