8 of the Most Polarizing Horror Novels Ever Written

This story of a human meat processing factory in a world where animal meat is no longer viable pushes the limits of some readers’ stomachs with its level of brutality and violence.

While some find the story beautiful, nausea and all, others find it too disgusting to tolerate.

A group of twentysomethings spend the night in a reportedly haunted mansion for a wedding with a thrill when things quickly go downhill. Some readers liked the concept and the lyrical prose, but others couldn’t get past the petty arguing and personality clashes of the main characters as they navigated their horrifying experience.

After nightmares spur Yeong-hye to become a vegetarian, she clashes with her family and society around her. The readers who like this one praise its prose and the odd tragedy that makes you think. The ones on the other side, though, find it too strange and too open-ended, with too many questions left at the end of the book to make it a satisfying read.

To secure a financial windfall, Corrine locks her four children away in an attic until she can get it sorted. The temporary stay, though, soon turns into years of the four kids, growing older, still trapped. It’s no secret that this book depicts incest and child abuse, and many readers are disturbed by the way the topics are handled in the book. Others, though, feel a sense of nostalgia for the book after they or their parents read it as teenagers themselves.

After escaping a masked serial killer, she knows the fight isn’t over. Homecoming court must be refilled, the show must go on. With this one, the structure of the novel is what has readers up in arms. Some like the way it’s written like a movie script, while others find it too jarring and difficult to get into.

A group of 23 people answer an ad that ends with them trapped in an old theater, separated from the rest of society with a diminishing supply to keep them alive. Palahniuk often gets a polarized reaction, and this one is no different. In one camp, readers say it’s too gross and vile to stomach. In the other, readers revel in the blood and guts. Either way, both sides are quick to repeat the stories of readers fainting at readings of the novel’s first story.

Evil kids can be extremely polarizing. This story follows Hanna, a little girl so obsessed with her father that she’ll do anything to get her own mother out of the picture. It’s absolutely a love-it-or-hate-it kind of book. The love-it side finds the book’s darkness and shock value engaging and delightful, while the hate-it side finds Hanna too creepy and the story too one-note.

Horror comes to the suburbs in this story of two girls held captive in the basement of a picture-perfect house. Many readers dub this extreme horror for its depiction of abuse and the ugly side of humanity. Both the ones who love it and hate it say it’ll turn your stomach and leave you infuriated. Which side you fall on lies in whether you like that kind of thing.