Disturbing Books

[Deleted]

Has anyone mentioned Guts* by Chuck Palahniuk yet?

*Warning: not for the faint of heart. Seriously, if you have never read this before, eat your lunch first.

[Deleted]

Oh BagOfBones, I'd almost forgotten Guts. I got three quarters of the way through the story thinking 'this isn't so bad'. Then I read further, and it really is that bad.

[Mutagen]

bonsai said:

Mutagen -- What am I forgetting about the ending of A Wrinkle in Time? Didn't they all get safely home again? (I never read A Ring of Endless Light.)

Yeah, they did, but it was that giant brain-thing (IT) at the end that just made me sick. Maybe (probably) it was just the age I read the book.

[Deleted]

Oh, Guts. Ohhh, Guts. I remember reading that, and then making some of my friends read it too just to watch their reactions.

Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr was pretty disturbing to me; in particular, the part where Harry (I think that was his name) was beat up and impaled by a pole, I believe, for molesting the little boy. Of course, I read it when I was maybe 13, so there you go.

Also disturbing, and by the same author: Requiem for a Dream. I honestly can think of no other word to describe it besides, like, amazing. I don't know why the book struck such a particular cord with me; I live in Hicksville, Saskatchewan, the 'hardest' drug I've ever been exposed to is weed, and as far as I know, I don't know any raging drug addicts or lonely widows addicted to diet pills. Still, I'm gonna keep on saying it's amazing. You guys, you should all read it, like for serious and stuff. IT'S SO GOOD.

Nurse Noir, re: Perfume: That book was recommended to me, and while I found it interesting/disturbing, I just couldn't get into it and gave up halfway through. I should give it another go sometime, though..

Ernestine: Dammit, you've got me all intrigued about The Girl Next Door. I read reviews on amazon.com and they've got me even more intrigued. But I'm not good with disturbing books! Somebody stop me before I go too far!

Ahh, and another one, before I forget: She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. I just hated this book as I read it, because of the lingering feeling of unpleasantness it left me with, and the fact that I couldn't stand the main character. I read it as fast as I could, just to get the damn book OVER with (why, you ask, would I continue to read a book that I hated? It was gripping, okay!? Hooray for little depressive funks as a result!)

[Deleted]

Shirley Jackson, anyone?

Her books/stories per say aren't exactly "disturbing" in the way many books mentioned in this thread are, but I certainly found her supposedly humerous books of essays on raising her kids ("Life Among the Savages") just a bit creepy. Why? Background knowledge: I'd remembered reading a whimsical/light, funny essay she'd written called "Charles" based on her son Laurie's experiences in kindergarten. So I was looking forward to more of the same when I got hold of a copy of this book. And certainly, if you take her stories at face value, they are funny in an Erma Bombeckesque type of way (though far superior, literary-wise).
However, right before reading it, I read a biography of her life ("Private Demons" by Judy Oppenheimer, really excellent as biographies go) and discovered that she didn't really lead the life of a 1950's homemaker (albeit with a career); her kids didn't have the idyllic childhood like she made it sound. So instead of making me smile, her essays made me a little sad. I could read between the lines to see how many embellishments she put in these stories to make them sound funny and sweet and endearing.

"The Children's Blizzard"-- an excellent accounting of a terrible blizzard that took place in the midwest in 1881--called by this name because so many children died in it, was depressing and disturbing, because the author described pretty graphically in medical terms what the victims would've gone through as they froze to death.

[emersende]

stargirl, I had a similar experience with Louisa May Alcott. I read an biography called Louisa May that focused on her mental health problems and rather messed-up family life, and since then I've been unable to finish Little Women (I started before I read the biography) or to read anything she's written besides the dark melodramas that were published under an assumed name. The biography wasn't too scarring itself, but it sure made most of her work depressing.

I remember reading a children's book about Hiroshima, and at the end of the book there was a picture of survivors right after the blast. Both unexpected, and scary as hell.

[bastinado]

Emmeline by Judith Rossner
I was a teenager expecting woman's literature with a romantic slant. Instead, I got Oedipal tale based on a true story. Gross. And depressing.

I have read Flowers in the Attic much later in life but i knew what it was about so it was just gross but not disturbing. The writing is utter crap too.

I have read The Story of O which is disturbing since I know nothing of S&M but I thought the writing was excellent. Very clean and precise. It was pretty much a work of literature.

[BinkyBetsy]

evilminion said:

Oh BagOfBones, I'd almost forgotten Guts. I got three quarters of the way through the story thinking 'this isn't so bad'. Then I read further, and it really is that bad.

Just bear in mind that none of it is physically possible.

I read a book about the Civil Rights movement once, and while I don't wish to put it down, it was very disturbing. First, there was what happened to Emmett Till. Bad enough in itself, but it didn't help that in the photo they had of him, he looked like a guy in my class. Secondly, there was the first day the Little Rock Nine attended school. After school let out, the kids' lives were in grave danger from the crowd that had gathered outside, and there was a discussion in the principal's office about how to get them out and away safely. Someone suggested releasing one kid as a sacrifice to be hanged by the mob; the others might be able to get away while that was going on. Needless to say, it didn't happen, but god-damn. As someone said, "How are you going to choose? Let them draw straws?"

Also, to pick a nit, River's Edge was based on something that happened in California, not on the Gary Lauers case.

[marywebgirl]

I'm sort of over it now, but Reviving Ophelia really freaked me out when I first read it. It made me wonder how I got through my own teen years without killing myself, and added another item to my list of reasons why I don't want kids (could have a girl, and she'll go insane when she turns 11).

[susannahdean]

Do audiobooks count? I recently listened to an audiobook by Chuck Pahliniuk called Haunted. It was disturbing to say the least. It was about a group of would-be writers kidnapped and held in an abandoned theater. In the three months they are there, they resort to all sort of atrocities, including canabalism, and in between, they tell some stories that near about made me want to throw up. Intriguing story, but, yeah, disturbing.