50 Dark, Disturbing Stories To Add To Your 2019 Reading List

By Thought Catalog Updated January 12, 2024

18. The Perks Of Being A Wallflower is surprisingly dark when compared to its movie counterpart, but it is also one of my favorite books!

19. I’ve read plenty of horror books but I like horror related content so although some of them are probably darker, they haven’t stayed with me like this has. The thing that’s actually disturbed me, due to it’s context is The Boy with the Striped Pajamas. I’m not easily bothered, but just… damn.

20. “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury. It’s a short story about an automated house going about its business: making breakfast, waking up its residents, etc. However the residents were killed by nuclear weaponry.

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Trace the scars life has left you. It will remind you that at one point, you fought for something. You believed.

“You are the only person who gets to decide if you are happy or not—do not put your happiness into the hands of other people. Do not make it contingent on their acceptance of you or their feelings for you. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if someone dislikes you or if someone doesn’t want to be with you. All that matters is that you are happy with the person you are becoming. All that matters is that you like yourself, that you are proud of what you are putting out into the world. You are in charge of your joy, of your worth. You get to be your own validation. Please don’t ever forget that.” — Bianca Sparacino

Excerpted from The Strength In Our Scars by Bianca Sparacino.