Here is an interesting list of unsettling short stories that people have read in textbooks for school. Lots of other commenters added more weird short stories. Prepare to be literary and disturbed:
(via: Vellum and Vinyl)
What are some of the unsettling short stories that you have read? Let us know in the comments below!
Leiningen VS The Ants by Carl Stephenson.
I would add Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl as well (not disturbing in the tradition sense, but interesting).
Also, I can’t remember who wrote them, but The Hitchhiker and The Alsatian are good short stories too.
Shoutout to O. Henry — one of his trademarks is that there’s always a twist ending. Sometimes it’s heart-warming (I thought Gift of the Magi was), sometimes it’s sad, sometimes it’s downright crazy, but there’s always a twist.
I would also like to expand this to poetry by mentioning Richard Cory. I don’t know that it messed with me, because I understood that the message was *SPOILER REDACTED*, but the end is a very sudden twist.