“What are the best books about Cannibals and Cannibalism?” We looked at 118 of the top Cannibal books (Fiction & Nonfiction), aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

Cannibalism is an interesting book subject because the tone varies so much by genre. If you are reading a horror book then it is used as something the big bad villain does, if you are reading survival story it is a necessary evil our protagonists have to do to endure to survive, and if you are reading a satire then it is a solution to your economic troubles.

The top 29 Cannibalism books, all appearing on two or more lists, are ranked by how many lists they appear on below with images, descriptions, and links. The remaining 75+ titles, as well as the lists we used, can be found in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

Top 29 Cannibalism Books

29 .) Hannibal by Thomas Harris

Lists It Appears On:

• Den of Geek
• Goodreads

“You remember Hannibal Lecter: gentleman, genius, cannibal. Seven years have passed since Dr. Lecter escaped from custody. And for seven years he’s been at large, free to savor the scents, the essences, of an unguarded world.

But intruders have entered Dr. Lecter’s world, piercing his new identity, sensing the evil that surrounds him. For the multimillionaire Hannibal left maimed, for a corrupt Italian policeman, and for FBI agent Clarice Starling, who once stood before Lecter and who has never been the same, the final hunt for Hannibal Lecter has begun. All of them, in their separate ways, want to find Dr. Lecter. And all three will get their wish. But only one will live long enough to savor the reward….”

Purchase / Learn More

28 .) Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris

Lists It Appears On:

• What Should I Read Next?
• Goodreads

“Hannibal Lecter emerges from the nightmare of the Eastern Front, a boy in the snow, mute, with a chain around his neck.

He seems utterly alone, but he has brought his demons with him.

Hannibal’s uncle, a noted painter, finds him in a Soviet orphanage and brings him to France, where Hannibal will live with his uncle and his uncle’s beautiful and exotic wife, Lady Murasaki.

Lady Murasaki helps Hannibal to heal. With her help he flourishes, becoming the youngest person ever admitted to medical school in France.

But Hannibal’s demons visit him and torment him. When he is old enough, he visits them in turn.

He discovers he has gifts beyond the academic, and in that epiphany, Hannibal Lecter becomes death’s prodigy.”

Purchase / Learn More

27 .) A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• The Guardian

“A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee, or a ragout.” Join us for a classic satirical essay, written by the author of “Gulliver’s Travels.” In this, Swift (who originally published it anonymously) suggests that Ireland could eliminate economic problems and starvation, by selling poor children to rich people for food. In short, he was mocking the heartless attitude that the wealthy elite seemed to have toward those who were less fortunate with an early example of straight-faced satire.

Purchase / Learn More

26 .) A Nameless Witch by A. Lee Martinez

Lists It Appears On:

• What Should I Read Next?
• Goodreads

“A tale of vengeance, true love, and cannibalism

Being born undead can have its disadvantages, such as eternal youth and flawless beauty —things most unsuitable for a witch. Hiding behind the guise of a grimy old crone, the witch is content living outside Fort Stalwart with her unlikely band of allies: a troll named Gwurm, an enchanted broom, and a demonic duck named Newt. She leads a simple life filled with spells, potions, and the occasional curse.

So when a White Knight arrives at Fort Stalwart, the witch knows her days of peace are at an end. The Knight is just days in front of a horde of ravenous goblings, and Fort Stalwart lies right in the horde’s path. But the goblings are just the first wave of danger, and soon the witch and the Knight must combine forces on a perilous quest to stop a mad sorcerer from destroying the world.”

Purchase / Learn More

25 .) American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

Lists It Appears On:

• Den of Geek
• The Guardian

In American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis imaginatively explores the incomprehensible depths of madness and captures the insanity of violence in our time or any other. Patrick Bateman moves among the young and trendy in 1980s Manhattan. Young, handsome, and well educated, Bateman earns his fortune on Wall Street by day while spending his nights in ways we cannot begin to fathom. Expressing his true self through torture and murder, Bateman prefigures an apocalyptic horror that no society could bear to confront.

Purchase / Learn More

24 .) Cannibal Fat Camp by Mark C. Scioneaux and David C. Hayes

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• Lit Reactor

Miles Landish can’t help himself. He eats and eats and eats and eats just to fill an empty, gaping, hole in his self esteem. Nothing ever seems to fill that hole, even the five star meals Miles’ wealthy parents make possible. So, as a last resort, Miles attends Camp Tum Tum, a weight control camp for spoiled teens. What happens there is only hinted at in high social circles, but the truth must be told. Facing starvation, the campers at Tum Tum make a decision that very few human beings have made. That decision turns Camp Tum Tum into… Cannibal Fat Camp!

Purchase / Learn More

23 .) Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History by Bill Schutt

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• Alibris

“For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism–the role it plays in evolution as well as human history–is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we’ve come to accept as fact.

In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History,zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism’s role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party–the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti).”

Purchase / Learn More

22 .) Flyboys: A True Story of Courage by James Bradley

Lists It Appears On:

• Histropedia
• Wikipedia

“This acclaimed bestseller brilliantly illuminates a hidden piece of World War II history as it tells the harrowing true story of nine American airmen shot down in the Pacific. One of them, George H. W. Bush, was miraculously rescued. What happened to the other eight remained a secret for almost 60 years.

After the war, the American and Japanese governments conspired to cover up the shocking truth, and not even the families of the airmen were informed of what happened to their sons. Their fate remained a mystery–until now.

FLYBOYS is a tale of courage and daring, of war and death, of men and hope. It will make you proud and it will break your heart.”

Purchase / Learn More

21 .) Man-Eater: The Life and Legend of an American Cannibal by Harold Schechter

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• Alibris

“In the winter of 1873, a small band of prospectors lost their way in the frozen wilderness of the Colorado Rockies. Months later, when the snow finally melted, only one of them emerged. His name was Alfred G. Packer, though he would soon become infamous throughout the country under a different name: “the Man-Eater.”

After the butchered remains of his five traveling companions were discovered in a secluded valley by the Gunnison River, Packer vanished for nine years, becoming the West’s most wanted man. What followed was a saga of evasion and retribution as the trial of the century worked to extricate fact from myth and Polly Pry, a once-famed pioneering journalist, took on the cause of Packer. Man-Eater is the definitive story of a legendary crime—a gripping tale of unspeakable suffering, the desperate struggle for survival, and the fight to uncover the truth.”

Purchase / Learn More

20 .) Offspring by Jack Ketchum

Lists It Appears On:

• Alibris
• Lit Reactor

The local sheriff of Dead River, Maine, thought he had killed them off ten years ago—a primitive, cave-dwelling tribe of cannibalistic savages. But somehow the clan survived. To breed. To hunt. To kill and eat. And now the peaceful residents of this isolated town are fighting for their lives…

Purchase / Learn More

19 .) Revenge and the Wild by Michelle Modesto

Lists It Appears On:

• Alibris
• Goodreads

“True Grit meets True Blood in this delightfully dark and fantastical Western perfect for fans of Gail Carriger, Cassandra Clare, and Holly Black. This thrilling novel is a remarkable tale of danger and discovery, from debut author Michelle Modesto.

The two-bit town of Rogue City is a lawless place, full of dark magic and saloon brawls, monsters and six-shooters. But it’s just perfect for seventeen-year-old Westie, the notorious adopted daughter of local inventor Nigel Butler.

Westie was only a child when she lost her arm and her family to cannibals on the wagon trail. Seven years later, Westie may seem fearsome with her foul-mouthed tough exterior and the powerful mechanical arm built for her by Nigel, but the memory of her past still haunts her. She’s determined to make the killers pay for their crimes—and there’s nothing to stop her except her own reckless ways.”

Purchase / Learn More

18 .) Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• The Guardian

Sometimes considered to be the first novel in English, this book is a fictional autobiography of a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela.

Purchase / Learn More

17 .) Succulent Prey by Wrath James White

Lists It Appears On:

• Lit Reactor
• Goodreads

Could serial killers be victims of a communicable disease? Fifteen years ago, Joseph Miles was attacked by a serial child murderer. He was the only one of the madman’s victims to survive. Now he himself is slowly turning into a killer. He can feel the urges, the burning needs, getting harder and harder to resist. Can anything stop him—or cure him—before he kills the only woman he’s ever loved? Or before he infects someone else?

Purchase / Learn More

16 .) The Man-Eating Myth by William Arens

Lists It Appears On:

• Histropedia
• Wikipedia

A fascinating and well-researched look into what we really know about cannibalism.

Purchase / Learn More

15 .) This Horrid Practice by Paul Moon

Lists It Appears On:

• Histropedia
• Wikipedia

Though stronger evidence of this horrid practice prevailing among the inhabitants of this coast will scarcely be required, we have still stronger to give.’ – Captain James Cook This Horrid Practice uncovers an unexplored taboo of New Zealand history – the widespread practice of cannibalism in pre-European Maori society. Until now, many historians have tried to avoid it and many Maori have considered it a subject best kept quiet about in public. Paul Moon brings together an impressive array of sources from a variety of disciplines to produce this frequently contentious but always stimulating exploration of how and why Maori ate other human beings, and why the practice shuddered to a halt just a few decades after the arrival of Europeans in New Zealand. The book includes a comprehensive survey of cannibalism practices among traditional Maori, carefully assessing the evidence and concluding it was widespread. Other chapters look at how explorers and missionaries saw the practice; the role of missionaries and Christianity in its end; and, in the final chapter, why there has been so much denial on the subject and why some academics still deny that it ever happened.

Purchase / Learn More

14 .) Titus Andronicus by William Shakespeare

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads
• The Guardian

Purchase / Learn More

13 .) Trapped by Jack Kilborn

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• Goodreads

“It was supposed to be a harmless camping trip. Six wayward teenagers who’d run into trouble with the law, and their court-appointed guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights on a small, deserted island off of Michigan’s upper peninsula. A time to bond, to learn, to heal.

Then Martin told a campfire story about the island’s history. Of the old civil war prison hidden in there, and the starving confederate soldiers who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Everyone thought it was funny. They even laughed when Martin pretended to be dragged off into the woods.

But Martin didn’t come back. And neither did Sara when she went in search of him.

Then the laughter stopped.”

Purchase / Learn More

12 .) Vacation by Matthew J. Costello

Lists It Appears On:

• Alibris
• Goodreads

“In the near future after a global crisis causes crops to fail and species to disappear . . . something even more deadly happens. Groups of humans around the world suddenly become predators, feeding off their own kind. These “”Can Heads”” grow to such a threat that fences, gated compounds, and SWAT–style police protection become absolutely necessary in order to live.

After one Can Head attack leaves NYPD cop Jack Murphy wounded, Jack takes his wife and kids on a much-needed vacation. Far up north, to a camp where families can still swim and take boats out on a lake, and pretend that the world isn’t going to hell.

But the Can Heads are never far away, and nothing is quite what it seems in Paterville. . .”

Purchase / Learn More

11 .) Cannibal: The True Story Behind the Maneater of Rotenburg by Lois Jones

Lists It Appears On:

• Alibris
• Bookish
• Goodreads

“German native Armin Meiwes placed this ad in an internet chatroom catering to cannibals. He received 430 responses. Among them was Bernd Juergen Brandes, who arrived at Meiwes’s isolated country home literally to be eaten alive. Escorted to the “slaughtering room”—equipped with meat hooks, a cage, and a butcher’s table—Meiwes assisted Bernd in a gourmet candlelight dinner of his own cooked flesh. Meiwes then stabbed his victim in the throat—bringing the ghastly videotaped ordeal to an end.

From a childhood perverted by unhealthy obsessions to his notorious trial that ended in a stunning verdict, Cannibal discloses for the first time the true story of a real-life Hannibal Lecter and his victim. And with details never before divulged to the public, it takes readers step-by-step through the unspeakable crime that fascinated and revolted the world.”

Purchase / Learn More

10 .) Chew by John Layman

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• Bookish
• Goodreads

Special Introductory Price! Tony Chu is a detective with a secret. A weird secret. Tony Chu is Cibopathic, which means he gets psychic impressions from whatever he eats. It also means he’s a hell of a detective, as long as he doesn’t mind nibbling on the corpse of a murder victim to figure out whodunit, and why. He’s been brought on by the Special Crimes Division of the FDA, the most powerful law enforcement agency on the planet, to investigate their strangest, sickest, and most bizarre cases.

Purchase / Learn More

9 .) In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick

Lists It Appears On:

• Histropedia
• Wikipedia
• Goodreads

In 1820, the whaleship Essex was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale, leaving the desperate crew to drift for more than ninety days in three tiny boats. Nathaniel Philbrick uses little-known documents and vivid details about the Nantucket whaling tradition to reveal the chilling facts of this infamous maritime disaster. In the Heart of the Sea, recently adapted into a major feature film starring Chris Hemsworth, is a book for the ages.

Purchase / Learn More

8 .) The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• Bookish
• Goodreads

“The searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other.”

Purchase / Learn More

7 .) Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado

Lists It Appears On:

• Histropedia
• Wikipedia
• What Should I Read Next?

“In the first hours there was nothing, no fear or sadness, just a black and perfect silence.

Nando Parrado was unconscious for three days before he woke to discover that the plane carrying his rugby team, as well as their family members and supporters, to an exhibition game in Chile had crashed somewhere deep in the Andes. He soon learned that many were dead or dying—among them his own mother and sister. Those who remained were stranded on a lifeless glacier at nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, with no supplies and no means of summoning help. They struggled to endure freezing temperatures, deadly avalanches, and then the devastating news that the search for them had been called off.

As time passed and Nando’s thoughts turned increasingly to his father, who he knew must be consumed with grief, Nando resolved that he must get home or die trying. He would challenge the Andes, even though he was certain the effort would kill him, telling himself that even if he failed he would die that much closer to his father. It was a desperate decision, but it was also his only chance. So Nando, an ordinary young man with no disposition for leadership or heroism, led an expedition up the treacherous slopes of a snow-capped mountain and across forty-five miles of frozen wilderness in an attempt to find help. “

Purchase / Learn More

6 .) The Cannibals of Candyland by Carlton Mellick III

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• Alibris
• Lit Reactor
• Goodreads

“There exists a race of cannibals who are made out of candy. They live in an underground world filled with lollipop forests and gumdrop goblins. During the day, while you are away at work, they come above ground and prowl our streets for food. Their prey: your children. They lure young boys and girls to them with their sweet scent and bright colorful candy coating, then rip them apart with razor sharp teeth and claws.

When he was a child, Franklin Pierce witnessed the death of his siblings at the hands of a candy woman with pink cotton candy hair. Since that day, the candy people have become his obsession. He has spent his entire life trying to prove that they exist. And after discovering the entrance to the underground world of the candy people, Franklin finds himself venturing into their sugary domain. His mission: capture one of them and bring it back, dead or alive. “

Purchase / Learn More

5 .) The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• Lit Reactor
• Bookish
• Goodreads

“As part of the search for a serial murderer nicknames “”Buffalo Bill,”” FBI trainee Clarice Starling is given an assignment. She must visit a man confined to a high-security facility for the criminally insane and interview him.

That man, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, is a former psychiatrist with unusual tastes and an intense curiosity about the darker corners of the mind. His intimate understanding of the killer and of Clarice herself form the core of Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs–an unforgettable classic of suspense fiction.”

Purchase / Learn More

4 .) The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 1 by Robert Kirkman, Charlie Adlard, Cliff Rathburn

Lists It Appears On:

• Alibris
• Den of Geek
• Goodreads
• What Should I Read Next?

Introducing the first eight volumes of the fan-favorite, New York Times Best Seller series collected into one massive paperback collection! Collects The Walking Dead #1-48. This is the perfect collection for any fan of the Emmy Award-winning television series on AMC: over one thousand pages chronicling the beginning of Robert Kirkman’s Eisner Award-winning continuing story of survival horror- from Rick Grimes’ waking up alone in a hospital, to him and his family seeking solace on Hershel’s farm, and the controversial introduction of Woodbury despot: The Governor. In a world ruled by the dead, we are finally forced to finally start living.

Purchase / Learn More

3 .) Off Season by Jack Ketchum

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• Den of Geek
• What Should I Read Next?
• Lit Reactor
• Goodreads

“September. A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Maine beach town of Dead River—off season—awaiting her sister and friends. Nearby, a savage human family with a taste for flesh lurks in the darkening woods, watching, waiting for the moon to rise and night to fall…

And before too many hours pass, five civilized, sophisticated people and one tired old country sheriff will learn just how primitive we all are beneath the surface…and that there are no limits at all to the will to survive.”

Purchase / Learn More

2 .) Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read

Lists It Appears On:

• Alibris
• Bookish
• Goodreads
• Histropedia
• What Should I Read Next?
• Wikipedia

“On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the forty-five original passengers and crew, only sixteen made it off the mountain alive. For ten excruciating weeks they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, they were forced to do what would have once been unthinkable …

This is their story — one of the most astonishing true adventures of the twentieth century.”

Purchase / Learn More

1 .) Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite

Lists It Appears On:

• Best Horror Novels
• Den of Geek
• Tor
• What Should I Read Next?
• Lit Reactor
• Bookish
• Goodreads

“To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, the most intimate art. After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his “art” to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires, and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his “art” to limits even Compton hadn’t previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim.

Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London’s Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, Poppy Z. Brite dissects the landscape of torture and invites us into the mind of a killer. Exquisite Corpse confirms Brite as a writer who defies categorization. It is a novel for those who dare trespass where the sacred and profane become one.”

Purchase / Learn More

The Additional Best Cannibal Books

12 Best Cannibalism Book Sources/Lists