i wanted to recommend the book "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski bc you said that you enjoyed horror and especially psychological and abstract horror, which i feel that this book very much is. it’s been sort of a while since I’ve read this book but i remember enjoying it greatly.
its really complicated to explain but basically the book is a series of layered narratives. the first layer of the narrative is a documentary about a house that is bigger on the inside (i know this sounds...kinda silly but suffice it to say theres A LOT of horror elements in this book and the house being bigger on the inside is distinctly disturbing, even apart from all the stuff that they end up doing inside of the house). the second layer of the narrative is the book that an old man wrote ABOUT the documentary. the third layer of the narrative is about this guy Johnny, who found the old man's book about the documentary after the old man died. he also finds that there's no record of the old man, of a lot of the people who the old man references in the book (in fact the ones that do exist claim to never have met the old man) and that there's no record of the documentary having every have been made either. johnny's section is written entirely in footnotes that seem to go on for pages at a time and also give us a glimpse into his own life. (there's a further layer of narrative above that which is Another editor who shows up in the footnotes sometimes? but we dont really learn their story iirc). overall its such a good read. i read it many years ago and its stuck with me ever since
content you said you would like warned for: johnny’s mother was abusive as were his foster parents. there was also a child whose photograph one of the characters took and who ended up dying.
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski [book]
its really complicated to explain but basically the book is a series of layered narratives. the first layer of the narrative is a documentary about a house that is bigger on the inside (i know this sounds...kinda silly but suffice it to say theres A LOT of horror elements in this book and the house being bigger on the inside is distinctly disturbing, even apart from all the stuff that they end up doing inside of the house). the second layer of the narrative is the book that an old man wrote ABOUT the documentary. the third layer of the narrative is about this guy Johnny, who found the old man's book about the documentary after the old man died. he also finds that there's no record of the old man, of a lot of the people who the old man references in the book (in fact the ones that do exist claim to never have met the old man) and that there's no record of the documentary having every have been made either. johnny's section is written entirely in footnotes that seem to go on for pages at a time and also give us a glimpse into his own life. (there's a further layer of narrative above that which is Another editor who shows up in the footnotes sometimes? but we dont really learn their story iirc). overall its such a good read. i read it many years ago and its stuck with me ever since
content you said you would like warned for: johnny’s mother was abusive as were his foster parents. there was also a child whose photograph one of the characters took and who ended up dying.