Disturbing Books

[dnt]

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

You know, I saw your post last week and I was looking online to see where I got the idea that it was based on the Gary Lauwers case because I'm sure I read that somewhere. The closest thing I found was a review of River's Edge that said it was based on a number of cases at the time, but the details of the CA case you must be referring to are much closer to the storyline of River's Edge and that makes much more sense.

[sleepy]

Has In Cold Blood been mentioned? Because that? Shivers. I made the wise decision to read the whole thing one night when I was 15 and was alone in the house for the weekend. Smaaaaart. All these years later, and I haven't gotten over it.

[Deleted]

The Yellow Wallpaper has stuck w/ me for a long time as being a disturbing story. The story itself is freaky, but the reason the story was written is ghastly. How low women were thought of back in the 1800's.

[Deleted]

Two years ago, I went on a big Stephen King binge. The book that ended that for me was The Long Walk. It's the only book I can remember that actually gave me nightmares. This was also the summer I kept getting leg cramps in my sleep.

Lois Duncan's Down a Dark Hall scared me so much when I was ten that, after I read it, I hid it in a kitchen drawer until my mother found it and donated it to Goodwill.

[sleepy]

What I find disturbing about the Lois Duncan books are not actually the books themselves. It's her reason for writing them. Her daughter was killed, and then she starts writing books about teenagers being scared, kidnapped, killed, etc. I know everyone copes with loss in their own way, but I still find that creepy.

[Deleted]

Just want to add a few disturbing reads:

The Painted Bird

The Conguerer Worms

Velocity and Intensity by Dean Koontz had me biting nails, and the killers are disturbing.

[kanding]

sleepy said:

What I find disturbing about the Lois Duncan books are not actually the books themselves. It's her reason for writing them. Her daughter was killed, and then she starts writing books about teenagers being scared, kidnapped, killed, etc. I know everyone copes with loss in their own way, but I still find that creepy.

On a similar note, it's disturbing that the popular historical mystery writer, Anne Perry, committed murder when she was a teenager.

[Smilla]

Do audiobooks count? I recently listened to an audiobook by Chuck Pahliniuk called Haunted. It was disturbing to say the least.

'Kay, I realize that I'm yanking this post from the Dark Ages of this thread, but--Haunted is not just disturbing, (I made it past like, eight chapters and then went, "No") it's one of the worst books I've ever read. Chuck needs a break.

[Deleted]

Chuckie boy needed to take a break several books ago. (Most likely after Survivor and definitely after Choke.)

[Deleted]

BagofBones, I followed your hyperlink and read the story. Disturbing indeed! I like the fact that the author made mention of recently having a child. A modern reader and armchair psychologist could diagnose her as having post-partum, but since that was dismissed in the 19th century as women merely being hysterical, you could guess it wouldn't be treated. It really is a heart breaking story and so well written.

For my money the most disturbing read was "Jude the Obscure" by Thomas Hardy. There was such a public outcry after that book was published that Hardy never wrote another novel. It really is wonderful (in a f*cked up way).