2026 Reading Challenge

Listopia > Insanity Book Lists

The Shining by Stephen KingIt by Stephen KingPet Sematary by Stephen King’Salem’s Lot by Stephen KingThe Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
Scariest books of all time
639 books — 732 voters
Brain on Fire by Susannah CahalanWithout MAlice by Amesbury ClarkeEverything Here Is Beautiful by Mira T. LeeFight Club by Chuck PalahniukThe Day the Music Died by Blair Evans
Madness Real and Imagined
64 books — 110 voters

The Addiction Manifesto by Jerry WeaverRaising the Bottom by Lisa BoucherThe Bench by Joel ElstonOpiate Addiction - The Painkiller Addiction Epidemic, Heroin ... by Taite AdamsThe Joey Song by Sandra Swenson
Books On Recovery From Addiction
53 books — 87 voters
Fingersmith by Sarah WatersThe Woman in White by Wilkie CollinsDracula by Bram StokerAlias Grace by Margaret AtwoodThe Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Victorian Asylums
59 books — 75 voters

Still Alice by Lisa GenovaA Quiet Contagion by Jane JesmondOne Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest by Dale WassermanCutting for Stone by Abraham VergheseThe Woman From Death Row by Peter Hogenkamp
Best Medical Fiction Novels
48 books — 71 voters
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken KeseyThe End of Miracles by Monica StarkmanDoctors in Hell by Janet E. MorrisThe Secret Scripture by Sebastian BarryA Masque of Infamy by Kelly Dessaint
Literary fiction and mysteries involving mental illness, psychiatrists and mental hospitals
57 books — 70 voters

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon1984 by George OrwellA Clockwork Orange by Anthony BurgessThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeWuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Best books about Messed Up People
230 books — 55 voters
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar WildeThe Shining by Stephen KingThe Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan PoeCrime and Punishment by Fyodor DostoevskyFahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
"Slow Descent into Madness"
63 books — 33 voters

Tainted Shadows by Kendrick SimsGone Girl by Gillian FlynnThe Deep Lake by Vitor M.C. RodriguesSharp Objects by Gillian FlynnThe Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Some Good Psychological Thrillers
31 books — 32 voters
The Night She Said Hatchet by B.P. KelsoEVO by Diane MayAnd Then There Were None by Agatha ChristieThe Silence of the Lambs by Thomas HarrisThe Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen
Creative serial killers
28 books — 23 voters

My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa MoshfeghWe Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley JacksonThe New Me by Halle ButlerThe Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins GilmanEileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
lonely women anthem
33 books — 16 voters
Skinhead... The Life I Chose by Spike PittNight by Elie WieselThe Stranger Beside Me by Ann RuleCapital Punishment by Dougie BrimsonThe Jigsaw Man by Paul Britton
Disturbing Non-Fiction
55 books — 15 voters

The Shining by Stephen KingNew Moon by Stephenie MeyerSeparate Things by Ashley Marie BerryAnxiety by Danny WinterAlice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
Best Books About Falling Apart
55 books — 13 voters
The Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathGirl, Interrupted by Susanna KaysenSeparate Things by Ashley Marie BerryNever Go With Your Gut by Gleb TsipurskyThe Snake Pit by Mary Jane Ward
Best Asylum and Mental Health Books
26 books — 11 voters

An Anonymous Girl by Greer HendricksMy Eyes Are Black Holes by Logan Ryan SmithThe Dice Man by Luke RhinehartY is for Fidelity by Logan Ryan SmithThe Dumb House by John Burnside
Dark Psychological Fiction
18 books — 10 voters
Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëThe Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathHamlet by William ShakespeareDon Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes SaavedraThe Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Mental Illness in Fiction - Before the 21st Century
38 books — 9 voters

Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de LautréamontDiableries by Brian MayThe City of Dreadful Night by James ThomsonFantazius Mallare by Ben HechtMalformed by Adam Voorhes
•The Ultra-Black Grave of Eternity
132 books — 9 voters
The Bell Jar by Sylvia PlathBunny by Mona AwadMy Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth RussellMy Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa MoshfeghThe Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
lonely female hearts
28 books — 9 voters

Anxiety by Danny WinterThirteen Years a Lunatic by Asa B. WilsonMental Illnesses in Symbolism by Rosina NeginskyRhymes of a Raver- Tribute to a Castle of Salvaged Souls by Richard David ComstockThe Neighborhood Vigilante Redemption Committee by C.R. Baker
Inverted Lungs d'Appled With Fluttering Tongues
100 books — 5 voters
The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror by H.P. LovecraftThe Cats of Ulthar by H.P. LovecraftAt the Mountains of Madness by H.P. LovecraftMemory by H.P. LovecraftHP Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu for Beginning Readers by R.J. Ivankovic
Cthulhu Mythos Horror From Lovecraft And Beyond
101 books — 5 voters

The Sad Case of Mrs. Kate Southern! The Beautiful, Virtuous G... by AnonymousMadness and Modernism by Louis A. SassAm I Insane by Dan AshwanderInsane by Alisa RothHeart's Insanity by Ellie Masters
"Insane"
90 books — 5 voters
Shuggie Bain by Douglas StuartBright Burning Things by Lisa HardingWuthering Heights by Emily BrontëThe Alcoholic by Jonathan AmesThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alcoholics
22 books — 5 voters

Cognitive Confusions by Ita MacCarthySynthetic Mania by H.G. WoodleyLife Writing and Schizophrenia by Mary Elene WoodFrom Under the Cloud; or, Personal Reminiscences of Insanity by Anna AgnewThe Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg
Crazy Tan
107 books — 4 voters
Play the Piano Drunk Like a Percussion Instrument Until the F... by Charles BukowskiNaked Lunch by William S. BurroughsThe Cat Inside by William S. BurroughsA Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence FerlinghettiOn the Road by Jack Kerouac
Best Books by Bukowski and the Beats
104 books — 4 voters

Cabbie with a Dangerous Mind by Karl WigginsSynthetic Mania by H.G. Woodley666 and His Project 666 by Miguel Angel Sosa VasquezAdolf Wölfli by Manuel AnceauTRANCE-formation of America by Cathy O'Brien
Trade Your Dimes For Nickels & Call Watermelons Pickles
100 books — 3 voters
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley JacksonWe Used to Live Here by Marcus KliewerPiranesi by Susanna ClarkeHouse of Leaves by Mark Z. DanielewskiThe Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
architecture & insanity
5 books — 3 voters

Cutting My Own Thyroid Out A Schizophrenia Hallucination by Travis E. Breeding'Puss' in 'Pye' Corner by Exact ThinkerViolations of the Child Marilyn Monroe by Her Psychiatrist FriendMasters of Stupidity by Maxwell LandonThe New York Times and the Supreme Court are murdering mankin... by David Andrew Christenson
•Paranoid Tracts
108 books — 2 voters
Issues With Authority by Nadia BulkinThe King in Yellow by I.N.J. CulbardThe Aleph and Other Stories by Jorge Luis BorgesCell by Stephen KingBird Box by Josh Malerman
Paracontagions, BLITs, Brown Notes and Thought Viruses in Fiction
33 books — 1 voter

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