I am a lover of dark horror, the more bizarre and disturbing the better.  I would love to get some recommendations and insight into what you horror fans consider to be your most disturbing horror novel experiences.

I generally consider torture to be disturbing, especially if it involves defenseless creatures like children or animals. A couple of books in that vein are: Survivor by J. F. Gonzalez, Prodigal Blues by Gary Braunbeck. Stories that are creep-me-out disturbing include: The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty, most of Stephen King's early work. Short-story collections which contain a significant amount of disturbing creepiness include a few of my favorite volumes: Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi by Brian Lumley and The Best of Cemetery Dance Volume 1.

I've recently discovered Mo Hayder, and even though I've only read one of her books so far, The Devil of Nanking, I thought it was terrifically disturbing in a real-life way.Then there's all the Lovecraftian stuff, which I think is the most disturbing, and there are oodles of weird fiction out there with a Lovecraftian bent. A good one to try would be Children of Cthulhu or Cthulhu 2000.

But off the top of my head, the most disturbing fiction I've read is probably the story The Emperor's Old Bones by Gemma Files. I still can't get that out of my head.

Maya,

Is The Emperor's Old Bones a book title or short story? I couldn't get anything to come up as a book title? I'm just curious, I love reading stuff other's recommend. Thanks

Melissa

It's a short story, in either Kissing Carrion or The Worm in Every Heart; not sure which one, but both are wishlisted here.

I would recommend Clive Barker, especially The Hellbound Heart (where Hellraiser originated), The Books of Blood, Coldheart Canyon and Sacrament. He has the incredible ability to meld sexuality and horror, his books can be disturbing and alluring at the same time. I am not into a whole lot of gore and found my favorite scares to come from classic horror writers, Shirley Jackson and Richard Matheson are two of my favorites. Although I will say that Bentley Little can be very disturbing at times and don't forget American Psycho.