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Original poster

Any recommendations for dark novels?

36 replies

OhMargaret · 20/10/2023 14:42

Just finished The Handmaid's tale and Platform by the French writer Michel Houellebecq - loved them both. They're both dark and a bit disturbing but seriously make you think.

Anyone got any recommendations for similar?

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SoundTheSirens · 04/11/2023 22:34

Bookist · 31/10/2023 20:53

Any novel by Mo Hayder. Truly sinister and they play on your mind long after you've read the last page.

This was my first thought when I saw the thread title.

Also echo recommendations of Perfume, and I'll add The Collector by John Fowles.

OakleyStreetisnotinChelsea · 01/11/2023 22:25

The Sentence by Christina Dalcher.
All of hers really but The Sentence is her latest. They are all fairly short and easy reads but also thought provoking.

MassiveWordSalad · 01/11/2023 22:17

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I second Perfume by Patrick Suskind. I agree Under the Skin is dark, in fact too dark for me, I found it utterly horrific. Maybe you'll like it 😬

Butterbeen · 31/10/2023 21:08

Perfume - Patrick Suskind I think?

Bookist · 31/10/2023 20:53

Any novel by Mo Hayder. Truly sinister and they play on your mind long after you've read the last page.

JaneyGee · 31/10/2023 19:20

Try M. R. James. I believe Stephen Fry has recorded some of them on audiobook.

Parts of Lord of the Rings are incredibly dark. The Shelob’s Lair chapter is horrific. The sense of darkness and evil is suffocating.

Isheabastard · 31/10/2023 14:50

If you want a combination of quality writing and dark subject matter I can really, really recommend The Enchanted by Rene Denfield.

I’d say it has the same qualities as The Handmaids Tale, but is darker.

its one of my favourite books, along with The Colour Purple (quite dark), Beloved (also dark), The Handmaids Tale and Precious Bane (my all time favourite).

Riverlee · 31/10/2023 14:38

Are you looked at the books on the ‘recommend me a dystopian book’ (may not be exact title) in the ‘what we are reading ‘ section?

Hohofortherobbers · 31/10/2023 14:37

Then she was gone is good too

Hohofortherobbers · 31/10/2023 14:36

Verity and The Push are both good dark stories in the same vein as The Housemaid's

sleepwhenidie · 31/10/2023 14:19

Mend the Living by Maylis de Kerangal

Bruisername · 24/10/2023 08:41

Just reading The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa. Dystopian and dark

StoatofDisarray · 23/10/2023 22:42

This reply has been deleted

This has been withdrawn at the poster's request

Morvern Callar is great! Good call.

catsnore · 23/10/2023 21:10

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Possibly the darkest novel ever.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Bleak!

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It's heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time.

musicalfrog · 23/10/2023 20:56

Laura Blundy

musicalfrog · 23/10/2023 20:52

The Secret River

Nitflux · 23/10/2023 20:49

Anything by Liz Nugent. Strange Sally Diamond is her most recent one and it was disturbing / unsettling. Loved it!

Original poster
OhMargaret · 23/10/2023 20:45

@MaudGone God, I remember reading this as a teenager - the original Scandi noir

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Mirabai · 23/10/2023 20:44

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Bronte
The Woman in White Wilkie Collins
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - John Berendt
Life and Fate - Vassily Grossman
Notes from Underground - Dostoyevsky
Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevsky
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Solzhenitsyn

indecisivewoman81 · 23/10/2023 20:41

Try;

Child A by Abigail Dean
The chalk man by c j Tudor
The last thing to burn by Will Dean

Original poster
OhMargaret · 23/10/2023 20:40

@Bruisername Hadn't heard of Kay Dick, sounds good - thank you

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Original poster
OhMargaret · 23/10/2023 20:38

@Meniscus @katycantrip I loved Under The Skin too, it reminded me of Tim Krabbe's The Vanishing but even weirder

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katycantrip · 20/10/2023 22:57

Meniscus · 20/10/2023 16:17

Michel Faber, Under the Skin? Sarah Hall’s The Carhullan Army?

I loved Under the skin. It's very different from the film.

Do88byisfree · 20/10/2023 20:25

The Four Winds by Krston Hannah is pretty depressing
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donahue is also very bleak

Bruisername · 20/10/2023 19:55

Out by Kirino
the sailor who fell from Grace by mishima
they by Kay Dick (definitely a thinker)
the unit by ninni holmqvist
it happened in Boston by rh greenan

second I who have never known men

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